"Painful Tummy Acid"

When you eat, food passes from your mouth down the esophagus. To enter the stomach, the food must pass through a valve, which acts like a gate to allow food to pass into the stomach. The valve closes as soon as food passes through. If it doesn't close, acid in the stomach backs up through the opening, up the esophagus, and even up to the throat and mouth. This is called reflux. The stomach acid can irritate the esophagus and cause heartburn... Occasionally, when there is a weakness in the diaphragm part of the stomach is pushed up through the diaphragm and into the chest resulting in a condition called hiatal hernia. Sometimes too this causes heartburn...........