Heartburn: where it comes from and what you can do yourself

General information, not medical advice. If your stools are black and sticky, you vomit blood or you have chest pain, call your GP or 112 straight away.

After a festive meal or a late dinner, you feel a burning behind your breastbone. Heartburn is common and usually harmless, but it is unpleasant. This article explains where it comes from and which habits help, according to GPs.

What heartburn feels like

Thuisarts, the patient website of the Dutch College of General Practitioners (NHG), describes heartburn as pain or a burning feeling behind your breastbone. Sometimes sour food or drink also comes back up from your stomach into your throat or mouth. You notice it mostly when you bend over or lie down after eating. You may also feel bloated, feel sick or get full quickly.

The British NHS explains what happens: stomach acid travels up towards your throat. This is called acid reflux. A cough or hiccups that keep coming back, a hoarse voice and bad breath can also be part of it. If it keeps happening, doctors call it gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.

Where the burning comes from

According to the NHS, lots of people get it from time to time and there is often no obvious reason. Some things do make it more likely. Thuisarts mentions smoking, alcohol and fizzy drinks. Fatty or spicy food can make it worse, as can onion, chocolate, peppermint or sour fruit such as oranges. The NHS adds coffee and tomatoes to that list.

Pressure on your belly also plays a part, because food then comes back up more easily. That happens with being overweight, coughing or pregnancy. Many medicines can also irritate your stomach, such as anti-inflammatory painkillers like ibuprofen or naproxen. Thuisarts also mentions a slightly weaker muscle between the stomach and the food pipe, or a hiatus hernia, where part of the stomach pushes up above the diaphragm.

According to Thuisarts, stress does not cause stomach problems itself, but you can be more bothered by them when you feel tense or low. Whatever helps you relax, such as calm breathing when you feel tense, may therefore also do your stomach good.

How to get less heartburn

Thuisarts and the NHS give similar advice that you can try yourself first:

• If you notice that certain food or drink triggers symptoms, leave it out for a while. Thuisarts advises against cutting out everything at once, or you will not know what helps.
• According to the NHS, eat smaller meals, a little more often, and do not eat within 3 or 4 hours before bed.
• Do not wear clothes that are tight around your waist.
• Do not drink fizzy drinks and see whether it helps to drink no alcohol.
• If you are overweight, try to lose some weight.

If you smoke, Thuisarts says you usually have fewer stomach problems once you have stopped. The help available for that in Belgium is described in the article on quitting smoking.

Raising the head of your bed

If your symptoms are mainly at night, it helps to have your head higher. Thuisarts suggests putting an extra pillow under your head, neck and shoulders or raising the head of your bed a little. The NHS prefers the latter: raise the head of your bed by around 10 to 20 cm with wood, bricks or books, so your chest and head are above your waist. According to the NHS, extra pillows can actually increase pressure on your belly.

When to see your GP

If the advice does not help enough, you can ask your pharmacist about an antacid. This medicine neutralises stomach acid. Use it for as short a time as possible. Try the advice for 3 weeks and make an appointment with your GP if it does not help, if your symptoms change or if they keep coming back. The NHS also recommends this if food gets stuck in your throat, you are often sick or you lose weight for no reason.

Call your GP or the out-of-hours service straight away if your stools are black and sticky, you vomit blood, you keep vomiting or the pain does not go away. Thuisarts also warns that pain that seems to come from your stomach sometimes comes from your heart.

Sources

• Thuisarts, Nederlands Huisartsen Genootschap (NHG). Ik heb last van mijn maag. 2026 (last updated 8 July 2026), in Dutch.
• NHS (United Kingdom). Heartburn and acid reflux. 2023 (page last reviewed 20 November 2023).