How to Cure Indigestion

Video Transcript

"Indigestion is when the acid secretions from you stomach which are your digestive juices, actually get up into the esophagus. There is a muscular valve on the lower esophageal sphincter between the esophagus which brings food from the back of your mouth down to your stomach. And the stomach, it is a barrier of muscle that opens and closes as you swallow objects. The cells above this sphincter in the esophagus are designed differently and are not designed to handle acid contained in liquids. Which the cells lining the stomach are designed to be able to handle the acid environment inside the stomach to break down and digest that food stuff. So indigestion, or some people refer to it a heartburn, is actually when the acid secretions in the stomach, the digestive juices get up inside the esophagus through that sphincter and actually burn the lining of the esophagus. That's why you use anti acids to treat indigestion and heartburn because it's usually a basic solution or a base material versus the acid material and it neutralizes the acid to prevent the burning. The things you do to eliminate symptoms or try to remedy symptoms are use of antacids, use of medicines that block the secretion of acid by the glands in the stomach that do so, and to not eat late at night, because when you lie down there's more chance that the acid secretions could flow up in to the esophagus when you're in a horizontal position. So you want to not eat or drink anything after dinner time if you have problems with this. And to sleep sometimes with an elevated head or elevate your bed or extra pillows so that your body's not in a flat position but your upper body is upright slightly, so that gravity can help keep acid secretions in to the stomach and not allow them to drain up in to the esophagus."