Some people who have never had really bad indigestion may wonder “what does heartburn feel like?” If you do not know, you must be one of the lucky ones in the world who has never experienced the chest burning, stomach gnawing pain that a lot of people go through almost daily. Of course, as with any condition, heartburn can feel different from one person to another.
It is 9pm and you are a little hungry. You knew you ate dinner a bit too early today, but you thought you ate enough. However, you are now starving and you don’t think that you can sleep while you are this hungry. So, you rummage through the refrigerator and the pantry, and decide to have a leftover piece of pizza. You figure that’s not so bad, and you scarf it down as quickly as you can. Now you can sleep, so you head off to dream land. Well, it is not that easy after all. You wake up a couple of hours later with a burning, bloated stomach. You feel, in a word, miserable. It is at these moments that you are wondering how to get rid of heartburn.
It wasn’t your fault. Those burritos were calling your name all the way from the Mexican restaurant, weren’t they? And that margarita was yelling the loudest. Sure, you should have had some water and less salsa on your chips, but it was a fun Friday night. At 3am, you feel a searing, burning pain in the center of your chest that wakes you from a dead sleep. You sit up and begin to panic. You wake your spouse who says she thinks you should go to the emergency room so you load up and head to the local hospital. Later, you are embarrassed to learn that it was simply a case of heartburn. It sure did not feel like heartburn to you, but apparently chest pain is one of the common symptoms of heartburn.
There is no other word to describe the pain of heartburn except for “Ouch”. Most people have experienced heartburn at least once in their lives because we all make food and lifestyle choices that cause it from time to time. Think of those wild nights in college where you had one too many drinks at a nightclub. Or maybe you decided that a late-night portion of brownies and pizza sound like a great combination. Our stomachs can only deal with a certain amount of trauma, and before long we have a lovely case of indigestion.
