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Chronic heartburn affects more people than we realise. In the USA, the statistics suggest somewhere between one in seven to ten people will suffer from chronic heartburn.

The alarming rate of people who simply try to live with it is also a little alarming. Chronic heartburn means a person is experiencing two or more episodes a week.

Simply dismissing it as your lot in life and trying to mask it with ineffective over the counter products just won't cut it. Remember, frequent heartburn attacks several times a week means you could quite possibly have acid refux disease.

Chronic heartburn could be the signal that a more serious problem could be at play so getting proper medical advice is just common sense.

Chronic Heartburn Treatment

Treatment methods will usually be a combination of prescription medications and all important changes in lifestyle. There are drugs such as Prilosec and Prevacid that help, even as other medications fail and, are known as proton pump inhibitors that shut off the “pump” that secretes acid into the stomach.

Other medications may only switch off certain receptors within the stomach to reduce acid production and, are known as histamine blockers.

With an estimated 30 to 40 million Americans suffering from heartburn at least once a month, it's not a condition which should be taken lightly. Chronic heartburn may be the result of weakening of the muscles operating a valve or hiatal hernia or bulge in the diaphragm.

Left untreated, chronic heartburn would end up as an ulceration of the esophagus as well as cause other respiratory problems and, also may result in esophageal cancer.

Chronic Heartburn Symptoms

The following symptoms are associated with chronic heartburn:

- chest burning sensation
- throat burning sensation
- problems swallowing
- food returning to your mouth after swallowing
- problems laying down
- sour and bitter taste in the mouth
- vomiting and belching

More Treatment Methods

In serious cases of chronic heartburn, treatments such as minimally-invasive videoscopic surgery that uses a few small incisions as well as produces less scarring, shorter hospital stays are now being favored over more traditional surgical methods.

Another treatment which can be effective in allowing patients to cut down or dispense with medications is the use of a small endoscopic device that permits the physician to place sutures in the muscles that control the stomach valve and tighten as well as improve stomach valve functioning.

So remember, it's time to take the all important step of visiting your doctor when you suffer from heartburn two or more times a week, you've been experiencing these symptoms over a period of time, getting very little relief from medicines and the symptoms are a constant disruption to your normal daily activities.

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