I am 19 years old and have heartburn. Is it possible to cure heartburn by changing your diet without overusing medications?

Given your age, of course, you can start treatment with proper nutrition. Regular meals in small portions up to 4-5 times a day, without long meal breaks. Dinner no later than 3-4 hours before bedtime. Exclude carbonated drinks, spicy foods, and heavily fried foods from the diet. If following the diet does not relieve heartburn, you need to see a doctor and undergo the necessary examinations.

The most important treatment for heartburn and any other gastrointestinal diseases is diet. So, as a rule, nutritional disorders become the cause of many diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Heartburn is not necessarily acidity, but a mandatory violation of the sphincter, the valve that stands between the stomach and esophagus. Normally, it should only open in one direction - from the esophagus to the stomach. If there is heartburn, it means that its work is impaired and this provokes the reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus, which gives an unpleasant sensation of heartburn.

The activity of this valve is regulated, first of all, by the motor complex (smooth muscle contractions of the gastrointestinal tract, moving food through the gastrointestinal tract), as well as good digestion of the stomach, bile and pancreas. The work of the motor complex depends on the state of the vegetative-vascular system (especially the parasympathetic), and the health of this system completely depends on our calmness and reactions to stressful situations in life, as it is regulated by cortisol and other "emotional" hormones. Therefore, reflux is a disease more from the nerves, and calmness is one of the methods of its treatment.

The quality of digestion is also completely dependent on nutrition, it is necessary to avoid spasms, which also provoke reflux, try to eat warm food, it is good chew, eat light food for the stomach - porridge, soups, steamed cutlets, chicken or fish, and add a little oil or other fat for good work of bile. I wrote an entire article about heartburn nutrition HERE.