Heartburn Symptoms
Heartburn Terms
To best understand heartburn symptoms, it’s good to start with a solid grasp of heartburn-related terms. Here’s a quick breakdown:
Heartburn is the burning pain you feel in your chest. It happens when excess acids in your stomach flow up, or reflux, into your esophagus.
Acid Reflux is the actual flow of stomach acid into your esophagus. It generally happens when your lower esophageal sphincter relaxes and allows acid to flow upward. The action of acid reflux is what causes heartburn.
Frequent Heartburn is when you experience heartburn two or more days a week. Prilosec OTC is formulated specifically to treat frequent heartburn.
How Heartburn Feels
When you have heartburn symptoms, you are feeling excess acid in the stomach refluxing, or flowing up, into your esophagus. Heartburn symptoms usually occur up to a few hours after eating, and often include:
- A burning sensation or sharp pain in the chest just behind the breastbone
- Burning in the throat
- An acidic taste in the back of the throat
- Difficulty swallowing
- The feeling of food “sticking” in your chest or throat
