Heartburn: When You Should Seek Medical Help Millions of people today experiences heartburn. And, although it is an uncomfortable and painful condition, most people consider it is a nuisance rather than a condition. Besides, most people only experiences heartburn once or twice every month and it s really nothing serious. This kind of damage to the esophagus can increase your risk in developing cancer of the esophagus, which is very hard to detect and very hard to treat. If you experience moderate to severe heartburn, you may want to keep these heartburn management tips in mind. Doing so will enable you to lessen the frequency of heartburn and also provide you with partial or temporary relief. 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. If you still continue to experience heartburn, the doctor may recommend adding a drug, such as metoclopramide. You need intervention from a medical professional to get chronic heartburn treated. They may recommend drugs containing histamine 2 blockers, proton pump inhibitors, ranitidine, and even metoclopramide. In some cases, more than one of these drugs are prescribed in order to cure or treat a case of chronic heartburn. These bad habits include smoking and drinking too much alcohol. Eating fried and fatty foods can also cause heartburn. You have to remember that cigarettes contain nicotine, which adds to the production of acids in your stomach. It also irritates your esophagus and will loosen the sphincter, which is primarily responsible for keeping stomach acid in the stomach and prevent it from coming in contact with the esophagus. So, what causes stomach acid to flow up to the esophagus? There are several explanations on why this happens but one of the main reasons is the food we eat. You need to know that certain foods increase the likelihood of us experiencing heartburn. So, by changing our diet, you will be able to find relief from heartburn and even decrease its frequency.