According to the charity Guts UK, as many as one in four adults has experienced the fiery heat and chest-stabbing pain of heartburn. It’s caused by acidic stomach juices washing back up the oesophagus towards the throat — or acid reflux — and, as anyone who has had it will tell you, it’s deeply unpleasant. It’s worse after eating and aggravated by bending or lying down.
“Reflux is not caused by too much acid in the body, but by the valve called the lower oesophageal sphincter, at the bottom of the food pipe, not working properly,” says Nicholas Boyle, gastro-intestinal surgeon at the Lister Hospital in Chelsea, west London. “It means that acids head in the wrong direction and back up towards the throat.”
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