The muscle that normally keeps the stomach closed relaxes, causing regurgitation of the stomach acid into the food pipe. This causes an unpleasant burning discomfort behind your sternum. You may also feel nauseous and find you are burping a lot.

Heartburn can be made worse by:

• stress
• worry
• certain foods

So what can you do to help with the symptoms?

1. Try to reduce your intake of coffee
2. Stop smoking or at least try cut down the amount of cigarettes you smoke
3. Have small frequent meals instead of large ones
4. Try to sit upright and sleep with extra pillows so that you are sleeping more upright .This will help to prevent regurgitation
5. A glass of milk may give some relief
6. Antacids will help but ask for magnesium or aluminium based solutions as sodium based antacids will cause water retention