You can treat GERD with H2 antagonists, proton pump inhibitors, and antacids. Another contributing factor for heartburn is Hiatal Hernia. This can also cause you to experience persistent heartburn or pyrosis and if it is already affecting your quality of life, surgical intervention may be needed to treat the problem. Eat vegetables that are alkaline in nature, such as green cabbage, carrots, broccoli, and sprouts. Not only that they will help you with your heartburn problem, but these vegetables will be beneficial for your overall health. You should also increase your daily water intake. This will help dilute the acid in your stomach, which will make it less potent. For starters, heartburn happens when the stomach acid refluxes or backs up in to the esophagus. This can happen because of several reasons. The first reason is that the lower esophageal sphincter or LES is weakened or relaxed and doesn t do its job properly. Basically, the LES is the valve that keeps the stomach acid in the stomach. The pain can last for many hours and this condition will make you feel as if food is stuck on your chest or your throat. If not treated, heartburn can result to a more serious condition, such as scarring of the esophagus and on rare cases, it can even cause cancer of the esophagus. So, what causes you to experience heartburn? The first way to get rid of heartburn is to lose weight if you are overweight. Too much fat on the midsection will mean too much pressure in the stomach. When there is too much pressure on the stomach, it will force stomach acid to go up. This is why you have to lose weight. The second way is to avoid having large meals. Most drugs of this type may be purchased over the counter and what it does is that it decreases the amount of acid that your stomach produces. Usually, they are taken twice a day and they provide relief from heartburn within 30 minutes of taking it. You have to remember that although it can be purchased over the counter, you still need a doctor s prescription for higher doses.