Heartburn is a feeling of burning pain or discomfort in the chest, usually after eating. Most of us know the unpleasant feeling of indigestion. I feel it most acutely on Christmas Day every year when, after an enormous lunch, I achieve the impossible and eat three slices of pavlova, despite insisting I will stop at two. Indigestion usually happens because we’ve eaten too much, or too quickly. Sometimes it can be triggered by spicy food, excessive coffee or alcohol, or doing physical activity too soon after eating. While occasional indigestion can be relieved with over-the-counter medicines, around one in five Australians experience reflux and heartburn regularly. In many cases, acid-lowering medications called proton pump inhibitors — or PPIs — are prescribed by doctors who believe the symptoms are caused by a condition called gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD). But new research published in the New England Journal of Medicine has […]