You have that burning, bitterly foul taste in your mouth again. You feel cramped, bloated and feel as if you swallowed a bottle of Tabasco sauce. You wonder if inserting the garden hose into your mouth and turning it on might – JUST might – put out the burn inside. If this only happens a few times a year, you have regular heart burn. If this happens more than three times a week for two weeks, you may have chronic heart burn, called Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD).

Other Symptoms

Not everyone gets the same symptoms of chronic heart burn. Here are a few more warning flags that indicate you have chronic heart burn:

- Feeling as if something is always stuck in your throat when you absolutely know there isn’t
- Being woken up in the night with a burning sensation in the back of your throat or with a persistent cough
- Pain in the chest (always a sign to call the doctor)
- Persistent bad breath no matter what you do
- A sudden chronic cough

When You Really Need To See The Doctor

With the cost of healthcare these days, no one wants to visit the doctor even for check-ups. But chronic heart burn can’t be ignored and successfully home-treated. It usually gets worse over time, and may give you ulcers. Now ulcers are expensive to treat. But chronic indigestion is a lot cheaper to successfully treat in comparison.

There are many excellent prescription drugs on the market for chronic heart burn. To help them work their best, though, you need to make a few lifestyle changes.

Don’t Panic

Most likely, you have chronic heart burn because of several ways you are mismanaging your life. You are not a bad person for having chronic heart burn. Think of chronic heart burn as a warning flag to help you get into healthier habits, rather than as a punishment for “bad” habits. Habits you can get into that will relieve your chronic heart burn are:

- Wear looser clothing around your waist
- Sit up for at least an hour after you eat or drink before going to bed
- Exercise regularly, whether it’s walking, yoga or doing more household cleaning chores. You can get a lot done and help your chronic heartburn.
- Eat smaller meals, and eat more frequently when possible instead of just tucking into three heaping platefuls per day.
- Avoid or reduce your intake of caffeinated and/or alcoholic beverages. Caffeine and alcohol, alone or together, will trigger your stomach to make pints of stomach acid it can’t control.