Sleep Aid Supplement Shown to Relieve Heartburn

What can you do if that evening meal has left you with painful heartburn?  Researchers in Brazil believe they have found a sleep aid that may bring more relief than your usual remedy. Susan Bowerman reported on the study in an article entitled “The Hows of Heartburn” that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in October 2007.

For millions of Americans, the satisfaction of a good meal is all too often followed by acid indigestion or heartburn. An estimated 30 percent of adults experience heartburn at least once a month.   When the condition occurs repeatedly, it’s known as gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD. Standard treatment for the relief of heartburn includes dietary changes and medication.  

Heartburn develops when the muscular opening from the esophagus into the stomach doesn’t work properly.  This set of muscles opens to allow food into the stomach, but then closes to keep stomach acids from washing back up into the esophagus.  When it doesn’t close completely the result is heartburn.  

Your diet and lifestyle can play a role in contributing to heartburn.  Eating hurriedly, not chewing food thoroughly, eating too much at one meal, smoking, and drinking alcohol can all cause heartburn.

Specific foods that are known to cause heartburn include:

• Chocolate, fried foods, saturated fats, sugar, peppermint
• Onions and Spices
• Foods with a high acid content like coffee, orange juice, and tomato products, which irritate the esophagus

If you suffer from frequent heartburn, try to eat meals and snacks when you are relaxed instead of when you are pushed for time.  It’s also a good idea to add more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to your diet.
 
Obesity increases your risk of getting heartburn.  A study of obese women, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003, found that “the odds of experiencing reflux symptoms increase with weight gain and that the relationship is stronger in women than men.” Also, symptoms were more frequent in women before menopause.  In postmenopausal women, those on estrogen replacement therapy experienced symptoms more frequently than those not being given estrogen. The researchers theorized that the estrogen increased the production of nitric oxide which, in turn, caused heartburn.  

New help for the relief of heartburn was recently discovered when a group of researchers in Brazil studied 351 people who suffered with moderate to severe heartburn or regurgitation.  Half of the group was given a commonly prescribed acid-suppressing medication, and the other half was given the hormone supplement melatonin.  Melatonin supplement is often sold as a sleep aid.  After seven days, all those given the melatonin supplement reported a marked improvement in their symptoms; however, even after nine days, only 66% of the people given the acid-suppressing medication, which was omeprazole, noted any relief of symptoms.