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Heartburn
acid reflux / heartburn exercises
Body Part:
Chest
Equipment:
Osteopressure Tool
Level:
Beginner
Heartburn: Definition, Causes, Symptoms
Heartburn. That after-dinner agony that feels like a volcano in your chest. If a painful burning sensation in your chest and throat follows your meals, our 2-step 5-minute routine may be able to help relieve heartburn. All you need is the spherical handle with the soft pointed attachment from our Osteopressure tool set. If you don’t have our tool, try using a cork that’s similar in shape. Jump to our routine to extinguish the fire, or keep reading to learn more about heartburn.
What is Heartburn?
Heartburn is a burning pain in the middle of your chest, behind your breastbone (sternum) and in your throat. Although you feel the pain in your chest, it’s actually occurring in your esophagus.
What Causes Heartburn?
Heartburn is caused by stomach acid traveling back into the esophagus.
After we swallow a mouthful of food or a sip of a beverage, the digestive journey begins. The substance moves into our esophagus (also known as the food pipe), a muscular tube that transports foods and liquids to our stomach. Whatever we’ve just swallowed travels down our esophagus thanks to gravity and muscle contractions. The esophagus has two ring-shaped muscles called sphincters. The muscles relax to open so substances can pass through, then tense to close. The upper esophageal sphincter (UES) is located where your throat meets the esophagus, and the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is where your esophagus meets the stomach.
Your lower esophageal sphincter protects your esophagus from gastric fluid flowing backwards. 1) If the LES is weak or not working correctly, gastric fluid that’s supposed to stay in the stomach can flow backflow into the esophagus. This is called acid reflux, and it causes heartburn.
How Long Does Heartburn Last?
Heartburn can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. It depends on what and how much you’ve eaten. Large or fatty meals that take longer to digest can prolong heartburn. Heartburn usually goes away when you’ve finished digesting.
If you experience heartburn twice a week or more, you may have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Are there Foods or Drinks I Should Avoid?
Yes. Stay away from the following heartburn trigger foods and drinks:
- high-fat, fried, tomato-based, or spicy foods
- garlic and onions
- peppermint
- foods and drinks containing citrus
- alcoholic, caffeinated, or carbonated beverages
Caffeine makes many of us think of coffee and soft drinks. If you’re suffering from heartburn, it’s important to remember that chocolate, some chocolate-flavoured foods, green teas, and many energy drinks also contain caffeine.
What Are the Heartburn Symptoms?
Heartburn commonly occurs after eating a big meal, overeating, or eating late at night. Symptoms are:
- burning pain in the middle of your chest or your throat that gets worse after a meal, at night, or if you lay down or bend over
- belching
- an acidic or sour taste in your mouth
- feeling nauseous
- difficulty swallowing
- regurgitating food
Who’s At Risk of Heartburn?
You may be at risk of heartburn if:
- You are obese 2) or overweight. Extra belly fat puts pressure on your stomach, which forces gastric fluid back into the esophagus.
- You are pregnant. 3) The changes in hormones and body shape that happen during pregnancy can cause heartburn.
- You smoke or are frequently around secondhand smoke. Nicotine, a key ingredient of cigarettes, may relax the LES. Smokers produce less saliva which helps neutralize stomach acid.
- You are stressed or not getting enough sleep. Stress and sleep deprivation may cause your stomach to overproduce stomach acid.
Get Your Osteopressure Tool Set
Visit our online shop to buy the Osteopressure tool set. While you’re there, take a look around. We’ve got lots of pain-relieving tools and products waiting to be added to your cart.
Sounds great! Take me to the shop.Acid Reflux / Heartburn Exercises: A 5-Minute Routine
To maximize the benefits of our heartburn routine, exercise intensely and intelligently. Challenge yourself to perform our Osteopressure at a high intensity that may produce an uncomfortable sensation. (This is a sign that the exercise is working.) However, do not press to the point that your breaths become short and shallow or you find that you’re holding your breath or clenching your teeth.
Exercise 1: Breathing
- Sit at the edge of a chair with your back straight and your knees spread.
- Inhale through your nose, filling your lungs.
- Exhale completely through your mouth.
- Drop forward between your knees, letting your upper body hang and push out any remaining air through your mouth.
- Close your mouth, pinch your nostrils closed, and come back to an upright position.
- Create suction by inhaling against your closed mouth and nostrils. Do not open your mouth or nose.
- Continue until you have to take in air.
- Finish.
Exercise 2: Osteopressure for the Xiphoid Process
For this exercise, you’ll need the spherical handle with the soft pointed attachment from our Osteopressure tool set. If you don’t have our tool, use a whittled cork.
- Press with your fingers around the bottom of your breastbone (a.k.a. sternum) between where your lower ribs are attached.
- You’ll feel a small bone called the xiphoid process.
- Press the spherical handle into the fleshy area between your xiphoid process and your lower right ribs.
- Apply pressure until you feel a powerful sensation.
- Hold for about 2 minutes.
- Finish.
- Repeat between your lower left ribs and the xiphoid process.
Burn Heartburn to the Ground
Do our heartburn exercises once in the morning and once in the evening.
You can help reduce your risk of heartburn by maintaining healthy body weight, avoiding overeating, and eating late at night or before bed.
Please see your doctor if you experience frequent heartburn (more than twice a week) or if your heartburn doesn’t improve. This may be a sign of a more serious underlying condition.
Sources & Studies
- ↑1 Rosen, R. D., & Winters, R. (2022). Physiology, Lower Esophageal Sphincter. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
- ↑2 Chang, P., & Friedenberg, F. (2014). Obesity and GERD. Gastroenterology clinics of North America, 43(1), 161–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gtc.2013.11.009.
- ↑3 Vazquez J. C. (2008). Constipation, haemorrhoids, and heartburn in pregnancy. BMJ clinical evidence, 2008, 1411.
The Best Exercises and Tips Against Heartburn
Download our FREE PDF guide and discover more pain-relieving exercises for heartburn.
All gain. No pain.
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