Our stomachs secrete acids for digestion. When this acid is secreted in excess it leads to acidity or “heartburn” as we more commonly refer to it. The effects of acidity could range from mild discomfort to an extreme burning sensation that renders a person inactive for its duration. You don’t have to live with acidity, just know about its causes and eliminate them from your lifestyle. Furthermore, you can follow some simple remedies to effectively and quickly curb acidity and its ill effects.
Reasons for Acidity
Acidity occurs for various reasons. Here’s a list of reasons that could lead to acidity. Read on and try to figure out which of these reasons apply to you. Only when you know the root cause, can you completely uproot the condition.
Acidity occurs for the following reasons:
- Skipping meals or having meals at irregular periods
- Eating overly spicy or rich food
- Gobbling up the food without chewing it properly
- Eating too much food, making it difficult for your intestine to digest it
- Smoking too much or consuming too much alcohol
- Eating too much fast food
- Painkillers, muscle relaxants, and blood pressure medications could also cause acidity
- Being overweight puts extra pressure on the digestive tract, thus leading to acidity. Similarly, being pregnant could also cause acidity since, as the baby grows, the digestive tract is under additional pressure from the uterus
Five Simple Home Remedies to Treat Acidity
1. Cold Milk for Acidity
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2. Mint for Acidity
Have some fresh mint juice. For best results, have the juice after your meals. Mint helps reduce the acid in the stomach and at the same time cools the stomach and aids with digestion. You can also chew on a couple of mint leaves for quick relief.
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3. Clove and Ginger for Acidity
Suck on a clove to feel quick relief from acidity. You can make this a habit as cloves are also very good for oral hygiene. Its pungent taste helps secrete saliva which in turn cools down the stomach. Clove has been used to cure acidity for ages now. Our ancestors rightly realized that cloves provide an almost immediate relief from acidity, and so rightly used it as a treatment.
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Ginger promotes the secretion of mucous that lines the stomach, thereby reducing the burning sensation. Mix a teaspoon of ginger powder in warm water and drink it. Ginger aids digestion as well. Anything that helps with digestion is a catalyst to cure acidity.
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4. Fennel Seeds for Acidity
Fennel is a truly versatile ingredient to have in your kitchen. It is not only a mouth freshener but helps with digestion, relieves constipation, and helps cool the stomach as well. So make this a staple in your kitchen cabinet. Boil two teaspoon of fennels in a litre of water. Let it simmer for ten minutes. Bottle this and sip it through the day for best results.
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5. Banana for Acidity
Bananas promote the secretion of mucous by the stomach lining. They are also the perfect antidote for acidity as they have high pH value, which helps lower the acidity. They are also extremely useful in speeding up digestion, thus drastically reducing the risk of future acidity problems.
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As with any other health concern, acidity can be kept under control by making some wise food choices. Limit your intake of caffeine and aerated drinks. Also avoid overly spicy food. Know your spice level; each person’s body has a threshold for the level of spice it can handle. Find out yours and make sure you only have foods that are within your spice level. If you are more prone to acidity, make it a point to have a lot of food with cooling properties such as cucumber and water melon.
Our kitchens are the best healers when it comes to acidity. We have so many wondrous ingredients in our kitchen to help with acidity. So make use of them and steer clear of all the over-the-counter medications being sold in the market for acidity. You just need to understand how your body reacts to any food that you decide to put into it. If your body is not comfortable with the food, it will indicate its displeasure by way of acidity and indigestion. So it all comes down to knowing your body and its preferences and limitations.
Hope you found this post on reasons for acidity and five simple ways to treat acidity helpful.
