Your chest feels like it s on fire and the pain is radiating from your diaphragm to your throat. The pain is accompanied by a bitter or sour taste and you feel as if food is reentering your mouth. What you just experienced is a severe case of heartburn. Although the name suggests that it may be related to the heart, you have to remember that heartburn has nothing to do with the heart. When it is relaxed or is weakened, stomach acid can get through the sphincter and eventually irritate it and cause heartburn. So, just what causes the sphincter to weaken or relax? There are certain foods that can weaken the sphincter. Foods such as chocolates, coffee, alcohol, peppermint, fried and fatty food, as well as soda and citric fruits like oranges and pineapple. When this happens, the acid will irritate the esophagus, causing you to feel a burning sensation that starts on your diaphragm and makes its way up to your chest. It is also accompanied by a bitter or sour taste in your mouth, which is basically the stomach acid your body regurgitated. This is what you will feel when you experience heartburn. When these methods stop working and heartburn continues to bother you despite the fact that you are doing everything you can to manage it, this is the time when you have to seek medical help. You have to call your doctor immediately after you experience heartburn more than 3 times a week for over 2 weeks as this is a sign of a chronic case of heartburn. This is because chalk contains calcium carbonate, which is a very effective acid neutralizer. Antacid tablets may be effective but they are slow to act. When compared to liquid antacids, antacids in tablet form are less powerful in neutralizing stomach acid. If you constantly experience heartburn, antacids will be very useful to you because they offer instant relief from heartburn especially if it is caused by foods or certain activities. The Causes of Heartburn and Why You Should Take It Seriously Have you ever experienced feeling a burning sensation that starts in your upper abdomen and builds up just behind your breastbone and that the pain and burning sensation is often accompanied by a sour taste in your mouth? If you have, then you are suffering from a condition called heartburn.