A color drawing of a man in profile, showing his head and shoulders.
A slice of pizza appears before the man. The man smiles.
Eating spicy foods, such as pizza, may cause a person to feel heartburn.
A black and white cross-section of the human skeleton, from the waist up,
with the mouth,
esophagus, heart, and stomach in color.
Although the name may imply the heart,
heartburn has nothing to do with the heart itself.
The image pans down the throat and the esophagus glows.
Heartburn is pain felt in the chest
by a burning sensation in the esophagus.
The image pans upward to the mouth, which is eating the slice of pizza.
The chewed pizza descends from the mouth to the esophagus
and to a cross-section of the stomach.
Here, you can see the pizza passing from
the mouth to the esophagus
and on to the stomach.
Zoom in on pieces of chewed pizza
descending and collecting inside a cross-section of the stomach
At the junction between the stomach
and esophagus is the lower esophageal sphincter.
This muscular sphincter acts as a valve that normally
keeps food and stomach acid in the stomach, and prevents
the stomach’s contents from regurgitating back into the esophagus.
The top of the esophageal sphincter contracts.
However, certain foods may affect the lower esophageal sphincter,
making it less effective. That’s how heartburn begins.
Acid, depicted as a bright yellow color,
appears in the stomach near the esophageal sphincter.
The stomach produces hydrochloric acid to digest food.
All the organs except the stomach and esophagus fade out,
while the image zooms in on the stomach, lined with a whitish border,
contracting and expanding, and containing the acid.
The stomach has a mucous lining that protects
it from hydrochloric acid, but the esophagus does not.
The acid and food
is propelled up the contracting and expanding stomach to the esophagus,
which does not have a whitish lining.
So, when food and stomach acid regurgitate
back into the esophagus,
a burning feeling is felt near the heart.
This feeling is known as heartburn.
Some of the acid in the stomach flows upward
past the esophageal sphincter into the esophagus.
The esophagus turns bright red.
Antacids may be used to relieve heartburn
by making stomach juices less acidic,
thereby reducing the burning feeling felt in the esophagus.
If heartburn becomes frequent or prolonged,
medical intervention may be necessary to correct the problem.
A pill bottle pouring out tablets appears. Fade to black.