Heartburn and headaches affect all people at one point or another, but when headaches are a frequent problem, heartburn can be close behind due to some of the methods we use to treat headaches. This is especially true in people who suffer from an acid reflux problem known as GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) or peptic ulcers.

To understand how headaches can lead to heartburn, we must first understand acid reflux. Acid reflux is a process in which gastric acids in the stomach rise up into the esophagus, causing irritation and pain (heartburn). Acid reflux, or GERD when it becomes chronic, is usually related to food, pressure, or gastric swelling caused by the H pylori bacterium.

Additionally, peptic ulcers (small holes in the lining of the stomach or duodenum) can develop as stomach acid washes over the lining of the stomach. Peptic ulcers are usually related to a bacterial infection from H pylori bacteria in the stomach.

Now that we know what commonly causes heartburn, we can explore how heartburn and headaches may be related.

Heartburn and Headache Medications

Over-the-counter medications and prescriptions for chronic headaches including ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen, and many migraine medications are “NSAIDs”. NSAID stands for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. As the name implies, these types of medications are great at relieving headaches by reducing the amount of swelling around blood vessels that cause us to fee a headache.

Unfortunately, these drugs are also great at eating small holes into the lining of the stomach and causing peptic ulcers. (H pylori bacteria are not always a component in this type of ulcer development, though the bacteria may be present as well.) Peptic ulcers can promote acid reflux and cause heartburn.

Medications for headaches and heartburn are dual symptoms that typically develop over a longer period of time. The risk of developing ulcers and heartburn increases when NSAIDs are used for an extended period of time.

Heartburn and Headache Home Therapies are Conflicting

If you have a hangover headache (from a night of drinking too much alcohol, perhaps) it is common practice to drink plenty of water since the cause of the headache might be dehydration.

Unfortunately, alcohol relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) and this is the muscle that keeps acid reflux from entering the esophagus and causing heartburn. When you drink water, you dilute the acids but make them rise closer to the esophagus.

Many people with other conditions that weaken the LES report heartburn from drinking water without alcohol consumption, too. Since the LES is relaxed, there is nothing stopping the acids form entering the tube. The best way to avoid this problem is simple: eat something first. The general rule is to “give stomach acid something to do”, so eating crackers or a heartburn friendly food before drinking water can help.

If you have ever had a big headache and no medicine on hand, someone may have suggested that you consume a caffeinate beverage, such as coffee, to increase blood flow and minimize swelling. Caffeine is another agent that relaxes the LES. Most caffeinated beverages are carbonated, too. Carbonation is another trigger for heartburn.

Headache and Heartburn Share Common Food Triggers

Heartburn is commonly triggered by an offending food or as part of a medical condition in which certain foods aren’t tolerated by the body or immune system. Headaches can also be triggered by these foods.

For example, MSG (monosodium glutamate) is a very common seasoning in prepackaged foods that causes people to experience headaches. Spicy foods cause heartburn, too, and people who are intolerant to glutens also experience heartburn. Glutens in general can cause headaches in people who are sensitive to the substance.

There is one more note-worthy common link between heartburn and headaches: lack of food. Skipping a meal causes some people to get a headache; it also causes heartburn and acid reflux. In others, headache and heartburn will happen within just a couple of hours on an empty stomach. The solutions here are our heartburn remedies and to eat smaller, more frequent meals.

Oats were once thought to contain gluten. There is no evidence that they do, but oats are commonly processed on the same equipment used to process other grains and can therefore become contaminate.

The most common effect of celiac disease is painful reactions to gluten and heartburn is one of the less-common side effects, but it does occur. People who suffer from celiac disease are encouraged to avoid certain foods, much like those who suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease. However, celiac disease sufferers often find that avoiding gluten and heartburn as a side-effect is much more difficult. Gluten is present in most of the foods we eat and can be a hidden ingredient in many processed foods.

Avoiding Gluten and Celiac Heartburn

If a person suffers celiac disease, it is very important to avoid gluten. Not only will this reduce the frequency of heartburn, but it will help to avoid the other, more common symptoms of the disease. This condition causes significant abdominal pain, constipation that can be painful, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and bloody stool. (Many of these symptoms are common to acid reflux, as well.)

To avoid celiac heartburn and gluten intolerance symptoms, a strict alteration to a person’s diet is usually among the very first recommendations by a medical expert. However, these foods contain other nutrients required for healthy living. Therefore, it becomes important to replace these nutrients somehow.

There are two ways for a celiac disease victim to ensure these nutrients are replenished when avoiding gluten and celiac heartburn: eat foods that contain the nutrients lost when avoiding gluten (or a vitamin supplement) or discover the same foods that are made without gluten at all.

Remembering that gluten is present in many grains we eat, it is best to avoid certain food ingredients entirely. Wheat, rye, and barley contain gluten and are in everything from bread to cakes. Flour and whole grains are ingredients in more products than most people realize.

Wheat flour is often used as a thickening agent in sauces, is the primary ingredient in almost all baked goods and is present in the majority of snack foods we love to eat. An alternative to wheat flour is flour from rice, corn, potato, or soy.

To avoid celiac heartburn and gluten, one must pay very close attention to food labels and recognizing less obvious ingredients that often contain gluten.

Avoid foods that contain flour and cereal unless the flour is made from one of the alternatives listed above. Also avoid vegetable proteins and malts that are not derived from corn or soybeans, as well as vegetable gum not made of carob or locust beans, cellulose, gum Arabic or aracia, or vegetable starch, to name a few.

Modified starches usually contain gluten-laden grains that lead to celiac heartburn, so seek out starches made of potato, corn (including maize), tapioca, or arrowroot. These will be difficult to find, so an organic food store may be the best place to look.

Finally, soy sauces almost always contain wheat, so avoid them unless the label expressly says that it is a gluten-free food.

Beware of foods that use gluten in processing, as they can result in heartburn and other symptoms. These include labels that list starch, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and flavoring. Anything hydrolyzed or made with a plant protein will usually contain gluten as well.

A Great Debate about Heartburn and Gluten

Celiac disease and a gastroesophageal reflux disease, known as GERD, share similar symptoms in some individuals; the most common of which is heartburn. Celiac disease and GERD are opposites in the world of gastric medicine. Celiac disease affects the lower digestive system (intestines) while GERD affects the upper digestive system. There is still some debate in the medical community about whether gluten intolerance predisposes a person to developing GERD.

Some foods that are high in gluten certainly trigger heartburn in people with celiac disease, but there is not much evidence to prove that gluten intolerance leads to GERD. Supporters of this theory suggest that people with GERD that promotes heartburn can simply try a gluten-free diet for a period of six weeks to see if their heartburn symptoms subside in the absence of gluten. You can also use all of our heartburn remedies which are gluten-free solutions to acid reflux.

Heartburn and jaw pain that happen suddenly or which are accompanied by chest pain that radiates into the arms, neck, or jaw can be a sign of heart attack and is cause for alarm.

Heartburn and jaw pain can also indicate a myocardial ischemia. A myocardial ischemia is also a medical emergency and happens when an artery feeding blood to the heart becomes blocked.

Another condition that can cause this type of pain that can occur with people who suffer from chronic acid reflux and similar conditions exists, but until cardiac arrest and myocardial ischemia are ruled out, it is best to seek immediate medical attention.

Heartburn and Jaw Pain with a Heart Attack

Jaw pain and heartburn-like pain can be precursors to cardiac arrest or occur at the beginning of a heart attack. Those who suffer from GERD, a chronic acid reflux condition, can usually tell the difference between heartburn related to acid reflux and the pain experienced at the onset of a heart attack.

Sudden, sharp burning in the chest that feels like heartburn may occur just below the breastbone when a person is entering cardiac arrest. Generally, the person will also feel a pain or pressure in the chest that spreads to an arm, the neck, and jaw. Without this particular symptom, sudden heartburn is less likely caused by a heart condition, though it is still possible that a heart attack is underway.

Dizziness, shortness of breath, sudden pain and pressure, and cold sweat are common symptoms of a heart attack. If you are experiencing heartburn and jaw pain with these symptoms, you should consider it a medical emergency.

Heartburn and Jaw Pain with a Myocardial Ischemia

A myocardial ischemia is a condition in which the blood is prevented or slowed from flowing to the heart and may cause heartburn and jaw pain symptoms. Ultimately, blocked arteries can result in cardiac arrest and should be treated as a medical emergency, as well.

It is important to relieve the blockage as soon as possible. Do not sit around messing with heartburn remedies when you have jaw and chest pain. A sudden blockage is also possible, which will lead to the symptoms of a heart attack as described earlier, to include heartburn and jaw pain.

Heartburn and Jaw Pain with Esophageal Spasm

A less common affliction in people who suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is known as an esophageal spasm. This is a condition in which the muscles that normally contract within the esophagus to force food down to the stomach begin to spasm uncontrollably in the absence of food.

Heartburn and jaw pain are possible symptoms of this condition because it is thought to be caused by chronic acid reflux. There are two kinds of esophageal spasms: diffuse esophageal spasms and nutcracker esophageal spasms.

Diffuse spasms occur when the muscles in the esophagus contract randomly (as opposed to an orderly fashion that is followed when swallowing). Nutcracker spasms occur when the muscles in the esophagus are coordinated as normal, but the contractions are much more significant and may occur when there is no food to be swallowed.

Heartburn, jaw pain, chest pain, painful swallowing, and the inability to swallow are common symptoms of esophageal spasm conditions. Esophageal spasms can occur with GERD, a nervous system problem known as achalasia that prevents the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) from opening, and as a symptom of a panic attack.

People with heartburn are told to avoid acidic foods, especially fruits. So what makes raisins so different? It depends on the person. In people who aren’t prone to frequent heartburn because of an acid problem, raisins might cause a slight increase in good acids that help digest foods. Raisins are also very high in fiber, which helps with digestion when foods get past the stomach and into the intestines.

Raisins are also good a producing saliva. As a short term solution to the onset of heartburn, holding raisins in the mouth for a minute or two can help produce enough saliva and induces swallowing so that stomach acids are pushed back down into the stomach where they below. (The same effect can be achieved by chewing a stick of gum.)

The Long-Term Benefits for Heartburn and Raisins

Raisins are acidic in composition, but they rarely cause enough acid production to harm a person who experiences occasional heartburn. They are certainly less offensive to the body than some prescription and over the counter treatments for heartburn. While they may not work in every case, heartburn and raisins can enjoy a symbiotic relationship if given enough time.

Heartburn is often cause by food that is slow to digest in the stomach. Foods that are oily or high in fat sit in the stomach much longer than low-fat foods. While these foods remain in the stomach, acids are constantly produced and pumped into the stomach to aid in digestion. As fatty foods are digested, gas is released. This gas causes pressure and promoted heartburn by forcing all of those acids into the esophagus.

Enter raisins. Raisins are acidic have an interesting affect on the stomach: when foods enter the stomach and digestion slows, raisins can help create an environment that helps the food to digest and pass through the stomach quickly. This makes them one of the possible heartburn remedies that you can eat with your food. Instead of aggravating the stomach and causing the over-production of stomach acids, raisins pitch in to help the stomach digest foods with less acid production. Less time in the stomach also means less pressure from gas.

By eating raisins on a regular basis, a person can actually experience less heartburn from consuming fatty foods. While the stomach is hard at work producing acids to digest these foods, the raising are in the mix and releasing extra acids to also digest the food.

When Heartburn and Raisins Collide

Raisins are an acidic food – a type of food that helps to restore the natural acids in the stomach. However, people who have chronic acid problems have plenty of these acids and should avoid acidic fruits in most cases. Citrus fruits are also acidic and rank pretty high on the “do not eat” list for people with chronic acid reflux.

Raisins on an empty stomach might cause heartburn or nausea in some people, too. This is because raisins are acidic and stomach acids always have some kind of reaction to other acids that are consumed. This is why raising bread and raisin oatmeal are better ways to eat raising if you have an acid reflux condition.

It is important to recognize which foods seem to result in heartburn for each person, because triggers are different for everyone. Even so, there are many categories of food that almost all heartburn sufferers share. Foods that are not heartburn friendly are either high in fat, high in acid, contain a lot of spices, or a combination of these three. Beverages that are carbonated or contain a lot of caffeine can also cause heartburn.

Heartburn Friendly Foods based on Ingredients

As mentioned above, heartburn friendly foods avoid things that we know are commonly the triggers of heartburn. Some of the most commonly offensive foods include citrus fruits, including juices; raw onions; fatty meats, such as ground beef and marbled cuts of meat; dairy products, including whole milk and most yogurts; and oily or fatty foods, such as salad dressing, mayonnaise, and potato chips.

Heartburn friendly foods are those that either avoid the trigger ingredients for an individual or at least limit the amount of trigger ingredients used in the preparation of meals. There are quite a few heartburn friendly foods and ingredients that can replace offending food in an individual’s diet.

Dairy is a trigger food in most people because of fat content, but low-fat and no-fat varieties of cream cheese, goat cheese, sour cream, and raw yogurt are more heartburn friendly foods.

Fruits that are generally safe for heartburn sufferers include apples and bananas. Raw apples are also beneficial in treating heartburn symptoms for some people.

Vegetables are generally heartburn friendly foods, provided that they are prepared without oil and too many spices. Consider incorporating more vegetable into your diet through potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, beans, and peas.

Meats that are heartburn friendly are difficult to find in some regions, but it is worth the extra effort if this is one of your heartburn triggers. Lean ground beef and cuts of beef, fish, and skinless poultry are usually non-offensive.

Grains are heartburn friendly foods as long as they are less processed and you do not have an intolerance to gluten. Bleached white flour can cause heartburn in some people, but whole grain breads, pasta, and cereals are generally safe. White or brown rice and oatmeal are generally regarded as heartburn friendly as well.

Other foods that fall into categories such as condiments, dressings, or sauces should follow the general rules of trigger foods. For example, low-fat salad dressing, low-fat mayonnaise, and low-fat cheese sauces are more heartburn friendly (in moderation) than regular oil-based or milk-based salad dressings that are high in fat and red tomato sauces that are high in acid.

Heartburn Friendly Foods based on Cooking Method

Even if you choose all of the right ingredients of heartburn friendly food, heartburn can still happen if the food is not prepared thoughtfully. For example, a breaded chicken breast contains very little ingredients that are known to trigger heartburn. (Bleached flour can cause heartburn in some individuals.) However, the cooking method matters. If the chicken is baked, it is less likely to cause heartburn. If it is fried in grease, it suddenly becomes a “fatty food” and is widely known to cause heartburn in some people.

Heartburn friendly foods are best cooked according to one of the following methods, to avoid the unintentional addition of a heartburn triggering element to your diet.

Broiling – Broiling is a great way to cook fish and some vegetables. The food is cooked quickly and to a crisp, if desired.

Baking – Baking is a great way to achieve tender, juicy heartburn friendly foods. Baking meat slowly and with a lid can result in a tender cut that is comparable to deep-fried meats. Baking vegetables with non-offending flavors and moderate spices can add depth to a dish without compromising its heartburn friendly status.

Steaming – Steamed vegetables are the most nutritionally complete according to most health experts. The flavors of vegetables are retained well and a larger portion of the heartburn friendly food’s vitamins and minerals remain intact. This isn’t true of extended cooking methods such as baking and boiling.

Pan Frying – Pan frying heartburn friendly foods without using oil can help to eliminate some of the fats in meats. Lean ground beef still contains some elements of fat, so pan frying will allow you to cook most of it out of the meat and drain it away. (Think hamburgers!)

Boiling – Boiling might seem like a bland way to cook foods, but when you incorporate the right blend of heartburn friendly foods it can be tasty. Soups are generally safe as long as the ingredients are, so instead of thinking about how bland boiled potatoes are, consider how tasty potatoes boiled in a low-fat chicken stock will taste. (White rice in chicken stock is also a tasty side dish.)

Eating heartburn friendly foods doesn’t have to mean eating boring food. There are plenty of recipe resources that can be found on the web and in book stores for using any of these cooking methods to prepare foods that are far less likely to trigger symptoms of acid reflux. Be open to trying new heartburn remedies and ways of preparing your favorite foods and you might find that some heartburn friendly food recipes will be among your favorites.

Just like a hangover headache, a heartburn hangover is an unfortunate effect of drinking too much alcohol. This is actually the result of a few different mechanisms at work and the ingredients in most alcoholic beverages.

Heartburn, and heartburn hangover, is the result of acid reflux. Acid reflux is a condition in which the natural acids in the stomach rise up into the esophagus causing the irritation. Most people will experience acid reflux and heartburn a few times through their life.

Heartburn after drinking alcohol happens because of alcohols effect on the body’s physical functions, as well as the chemical reactions that happen in the stomach. These reactions can be a result of the alcohol itself or something the alcohol has been mixed with, as we will explore below.

How Alcohol Affects the Digestive System

Normally, a round muscle known as the LES (lower esophageal sphincter) is closed and the acid is prevented from entering the base of the wind pipe. When we drink alcohol, the lower esophageal sphincter relaxes and allows that acid to enter the tube. Once the LES is open, we are vulnerable to a number of the other effects of these beverages.

Not only does alcohol cause the LES barrier to malfunction, it is a depressant and makes most of us want to go to sleep when we reach a certain threshold of intoxication. Add to this that we often drink alcohol in the evening and go to sleep with alcohol still in the stomach, and we have another recipe for heartburn.

Laying down can cause stomach acids to move toward the esophagus and if we lie down shortly after drinking alcohol, there might be a large amount of liquid ready to flow into it. Additionally, laying down causes the organs in the body cavity to shift slight, this increases gastric pressure. Gastric pressure can force liquids from the stomach into the esophagus. Many people with chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) experience heartburn in the middle of the night for this reason.

The Role of Alcohol Mixers in a Heartburn Hangover

To gain an understanding of how a heartburn hangover can be made worse, we need to first take a look at what types of liquids are most likely to cause heartburn in general. Acidic fruits, caffeine, and carbonated beverages are all commonly offending foods for people who suffer frequent heartburn. They react with stomach acids and cause acid reflux to occur more often.

Now let’s look at the most popular alcoholic drink mixers. Fruit juices including grapefruit juice, orange juice, lemon juice, and lime juice are present in traditional mixed cocktails. “Screwdrivers” are a mixture of vodka and orange juice. “Greyhounds” are a mixture of grapefruit juice and gin or vodka. Lemon and lime juices, along with tequila, are used when concocting a margarita.

Carbonated sodas are another popular mixer for alcohol-based beverages. The classic “Jack and Coke” or “Seven and Seven” contain liquor and carbonated soda. Finally, caffeine is becoming a popular additive in alcoholic beverages for its properties of keeping us alert and awake. Energy drinks mixed with alcohol not only entice us to drink more by making us feel more alert and therefore sober, they can cause severe heartburn hangover because they contain caffeine, fruit juice, carbonation, and alcohol.

If you are suffering from a heartburn hangover, check out our top heartburn remedies that are featured on our homepage.

The result of heartburn that keeps me up at night became a problem in my daily life, too. I was tired all of the time, had a hard time focusing on even the simplest things, and worse yet – I looked like I hadn’t slept in days. And most of the time, that was true.

Although I have GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), a condition that keeps my stomach on edge with stomach acids, I knew I couldn’t continue to lose sleep. Since I was already taking a proton-pump inhibitor to prevent acids from being pushed into my stomach and an H2 blocker to lessen the amount of acid being produced there, I had to look outside of the box for answers.

I thought “If heartburn keeps me up at night, then my days will continue to be as fuzzy as those long hours just wishing I could sleep.” I had to go through a trial and error process to find the right combination that worked for me, so you may have to do the same. Here is what I found out about how to prevent heartburn from keeping me up at night.

Heartburn Keeps Me Up At night if I Eat Too Soon Before Bed

Heartburn is much more likely if I lay down, I knew this just from what I had been going through. However, heartburn is worse if I eat within a few hours of bedtime.

When there is food left in the stomach and the acids are still “at work”, heartburn is more likely to happen by lying down and putting all my stomach contents near my esophagus. (Lying down also increases gastric pressure, which pushes the food into my esophagus easier, too.)

Heartburn Keeps Me Up At Night if I Drink Carbonated Beverages

As a GERD sufferer, I know that acidic things were definitely off-limits. But I never had a problem with carbonated beverages. (I often used them to alleviate gastric pressure because they can help me to burp.) However, as a drink right before bed they just make matter worse because of the increase in gastric pressure (from not burping) and cause the acids in my stomach to go crazy.

Heartburn Keeps Me Up At Night if I Take Sleeping Medications

I found out that certain medicines I used to help me sleep were causing nighttime heartburn as a side-effect. Through reading some of the information available out there, I found out that anti-anxiety medicines like Valium, Xanax, and other types of benzodiazepines commonly cause night time heartburn.

Many Medical Conditions can Cause Heartburn that keeps me Up at Night

While I’m fairly healthy (except for some gastric problems), I was interest to find out that there are many health conditions that cause nighttime heartburn. As it turns out, obesity, asthma, and high blood pressure can all cause heartburn.

What to Do About Heartburn that keeps you up at Night

For me, eliminating carbonation before bedtime and making sure I stuck to my rule about not eating a few hours before bed did the trick. (Along with my prescriptions, of course.) It may not be that simple for others, so here is a list of tricks that just might be your ticket to a good night’s sleep.

Check out these heartburn remedies.

Avoid alcoholic beverages that relax the lower esophageal sphincter

Do not eat a big meal before bed and no late night snacking.

Avoid carbonation before bed.

Avoid common trigger foods: Avoid Spicy Foods, fatty foods, and acidic foods.

Sleep on your side or with your head up (so acids stay in the stomach).

Eat slowly when you do eat the last meal of the day.

Reduce stress by exercising (but not right before bed).

Chew gum before bed to help calm the acids with saliva.

Stay hydrated throughout the day.

Don’t smoke.

The reason for this double relation lies in the way stomach acids and the digestive system normally work together in a healthy manner. Obesity affects a few parts of the digestive process in ways that set the scene for chronic or sever heartburn.

How Heartburn Happens

Heartburn is a symptom that most people experience at least once. A symptom is something that we feel because of another condition or illness.

The condition that most often causes heartburn is acid reflux. Acid reflux is a term that described the process in which acids from the stomach get into the esophagus, irritating the throat and causing the burning sensation that we call heartburn.

Normally, a muscle at the base of the esophagus where it meets the stomach closes to prevent acid from entering this area. This muscle, known as the LES or lower esophageal sphincter, is a round muscle that constricts tightly, barricading the throat from stomach contents.

When we experience heartburn, this muscle isn’t working to keep the passageway sealed. This is known as a “relaxed LES”. The LES relaxes several times a day on its own, which is why some people will occasionally feel heartburn. Other triggers can help to relax the LES, too, such as alcohol, chocolate, and a few medical conditions.

In some people, acid reflux is a chronic problem that happens several times a week or more. In their case, they have a condition known as gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Most people will experience acid reflux in their lifetime. It can happen during times of extreme stress when our daily routine is interrupted, it can happen after eating certain foods, and heartburn can strike by just eating a large meal and getting “too full”.

How Heartburn and Being Overweight are Directly Related

Most of us know that over eating for any person can lead them to be overweight in time. Overeating can also cause heartburn. So if a person habitually overeats and becomes overweight, heartburn will often occur in the process as well.

Other conditions can cause obesity too, making it much more difficult to lose weight and relieve some of the symptoms of acid reflux, such as heartburn. Other conditions can also cause heartburn through medication side effects. Some people who are overweight because of glandular and joint problems may be prescribed diuretics that cause dehydration – another cause for heartburn in some people.

More commonly, however, heartburn and being overweight are related due to the physiology of the body (how things move in relation to each other). When the body is larger than it should be, fatty deposits also accumulate inside the walls of structures and in between organs.

This pushes the organs apart (or together) and increases gastric pressure in the body. Increased gastric pressure leads to heartburn in many people. Shifted organs may also stretch the LES and prevent it from closing properly.

Another common condition is a hiatal hernia where the stomach gets pushed into the esophagus a little. This weakens the LES and allows the flow of acids into the esophagus.

Medical experts aren’t positive about all of the ways that heartburn and being overweight are directly linked. But statistics do show that there is a much greater chance for heartburn in obese patients and that overweight individuals are more likely to develop GERD. Consider losing weight in addition to our heartburn remedies if you suffer from heartburn.

Other medical terms associated with heartburn are used in the medical field so that doctors and specialists can convey a person’s exact condition or symptom in a concise manner.

Other Medical Terms that Are Related to Heartburn (Pyrosis)

Attempting to decode some medical terms can feel like you’re trying to read Greek with no previous experience in the language. In many cases, the words really are Greek or at least a Latin variation based on a Greek word. Medical experts use these terms for simplicity in their own reporting and when we take a closer look at many of them, the language begins to make sense.

Esophagus – The esophagus is the tube that we use to get food from our mouth to our stomach. It begins at the top of the throat (just behind the back of the mouth) and ends at the very top of the stomach. This is the organ that becomes irritated and burns when it comes into contact with stomach acids.

Gastric – Gastric is a medical term that refers to something related to the stomach. A related word, “gastro”, is a prefix that comes at the beginning of many medical terms that refer to an area of the gastric system.

Reflux – Reflux is a medical term that refers to what happens when heartburn is felt. It refers to the process by which stomach acids have entered into the esophagus.

Gastroesophageal Reflux – If we put all of the terms above together we get a variation and a medical term that means “acids have entered into the esophagus from the stomach”. Gastroesophageal reflux is a medical term that combines the word “gastric” and “esophageal” and “reflux” to indicate a relation between the digestive system as a whole and the esophagus by itself.

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease – Also known as GERD, this is a condition in which the acids in the stomach frequently enter the esophagus. GERD is the most common reason for chronic heartburn (pyrosis) and often requires changes in diet and lifestyle, along with special medications.

Dyspepsia – Dyspepsia is a medical term that refers to upset stomach or general nausea. Upset stomach is a symptom of GERD and often occurs along with heartburn in people who experience occasional acid reflux, as well.

Eructation – Eructation is a medical term referring to another common symptom that can come with heartburn: belching. In literal terms, belching is the act of expelling gasses from the stomach but passing them from the stomach, up the esophagus, and out of the mouth.

Gastric Distention – Gastric Distention is a medical term that means bloating in the stomach. In GERD and acid reflux cases, this is usually caused by gastric pressure or gasses that have accumulated in the stomach. Eructating, belching, these gasses usually helps with bloating.

One of the more direct links is found in the medications that are used to treat heartburn; they can cause joint pain. Likewise, medications used to treat arthritis can cause heartburn. Finally, there is a very common condition that has the potential to cause joint pain and heartburn.

Common Medications that Link Heartburn and Joint Pain

Some medications that are used to treat heartburn cause joint pain. Joint pain as a result of heartburn treatment is a likely cause for those experiencing heartburn and joint pain, especially after starting a new medication.

Omeprazole (Prilosec) is a very common, over-the-counter remedy for heartburn and acid reflux. It is a proton-pump inhibitor that works on heartburn by preventing the ducts that pump acids into the stomach from working properly. (It also can cause the frequent urge to urinate, which can lead to dehydration that increases the severity of heartburn and joint pain.)

Famotidine is another popular heartburn medication that causes joint pain as a side effect, along with muscle cramps and headache. It too can lead to dehydration that aggravates heartburn and joint pain through side effects like vomiting and diarrhea. This medication is an H2 Blocker that lessens the amount of acid produced by the stomach.

Medications for treating joint pain can cause heartburn, too. Celebrex is used for osteoporosis and arthritis. One of the side-effects of Celebrex is upper gastrointestinal reactions, including gastroesophageal reflux, also known as heartburn.

A Very Common Condition Linking Heartburn and Joint Pain

One of the most common human ailments the world over, dehydration, can cause both heartburn and joint pain – especially if the condition persists for an extended period of time.

Dehydration is a lack of fluid (water) in the body and if it becomes severe enough, it causes death. It is uncommon for an individual to die of dehydration in this day and age, but it is not uncommon for a person to be dehydrated without realizing it.

Dehydration occurs when we spend too much of the fluid in our body and fail to replenish it. This can happen by sweating too much, during a sporting event or at the gym for example. It can also happen to people with diabetes and those who use diuretics because of excessive urination.

Fevers, vomiting, and diarrhea can also lead to dehydration. People who are sick with a common cold or flu become dehydrated for these reasons, in addition to avoiding liquids because of nausea or lack of appetite.

While heartburn and joint pain are not common symptoms of short-term dehydration, they can become a problem for those who are dehydrated much of the time. (Such as with diabetes when the patient does nothing to rehydrate the body.)

Joint pain can occur when the body uses liquids between the joints after all of the other reserves in the body are depleted. (Headaches and muscle pain will be common, as well.) Heartburn can be severe when no fluid is retained in the stomach because the stomach acids become heavily concentrated.

More common symptoms of dehydration are dry, sticky mouth and feeling tired most of the time.