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How is heartburn treated?
Can I treat heartburn myself?
Is medication ever needed to treat heartburn?
What are proton-pump inhibitors?
What are prokinetic drugs?
Can surgery help heartburn?
How is heartburn treated?
Generally antacids are recommended. These are drugs, which neutralise the hydrochloric acid secreted in the digestive juices in the stomach. If symptoms persist, prescription medication may be necessary to reduce the amount of acid formed within the stomach.
Can I treat heartburn myself?
You can change any part of your lifestyle that is making your heartburn worse.
If you smoke, make up your mind to stop.
If you are overweight, lose weight.
Keep your alcohol intake to a minimum or cut it out altogether.
Reduce caffeine and other trigger foods in your diet.
Avoid large, fatty meals before bedtime.
Avoid eating and drinking at the same meals as the larger the stomach’s volume of contents the more likely there will be splashing of acid into the oesophagus.
Is medication ever needed to treat heartburn?
It takes a very powerful drug to reduce the amount of acid your stomach produces and they are usually only available on prescription from your doctor.
Some acid-suppressing drugs, are known as H2-receptor antagonists. Examples include cimetidine (Geramet and Tagamet), famotidine (Pepcid), ranitidine (Zantac, Pylorid and Gertac).
If these don’t work your doctor may need to prescribe more powerful drugs that fall into two categories:
Proton pump inhibitors
Prokinetic drugs.
What are proton-pump inhibitors?
Proton-pump inhibitors are very powerful acid-suppressing drugs like lansoprazole (Zoton) or omeprazole (Losec or Ulcid). They suppress stomach acid only while you are taking them, so your heartburn will come back if you stop. This means you may have to take them long term.
What are prokinetic drugs?
These drugs:
Help the muscles of the stomach wall to work better
Encourage the stomach to empty more efficiently
Tighten up the valve at the top of the stomach to prevent reflux.
Examples of these drugs include metoclopramide (Gastrobid Continus and Maxolon) and domperidone (Motilium).
Can surgery help heartburn?
Surgery is sometimes performed when people do not respond to, or cannot take, medical treatment. The surgeon:
Makes the hole in the diaphragm smaller with some stitches
Tightens the lower oesophageal sphincter using part of the stomach wrapped around itself as a belt.
For many people who have heartburn it is a temporary problem that only needs a short course of treatment.
Others have symptoms from time to time and require treatment every so often. Only a small minority have persistent heartburn and oesophagitis, which may require continuous long-term drug treatment.
Rarely, severe inflammation may cause scarring in the gullet wall which may interfere with swallowing.
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