Every once in a blue moon I’ll get heartburn. Tonight was one of those times. Every time I’ve had it, I find antacids do next to nothing, be it chewy ones, pills, liquid, whatever. But I do find that drinking a cup of ordinary, orange pekoe tea seems to bring about immediate and lasting relief. I’ve tried drinking other things; water (nothing), pop (bad idea), and milk (blurrgh). But tea always works. What could this tea have in it that relieves heartburn?
Tea should not help heartburn- the tannins irritate the stomach, so it shouldn’t make thingss better!
Well, everytime I’ve had some while experiencing heartburn, it’s definitely calmed the acids down. So there must be something in it that has a neutralizing effect.
I wonder if the problem feels like heartburn but is actually a* lack* of acid-- a “base” problem, in other words. Drinking the tea would then balance out the acid/base content.
I don’t know. Can lack of acid cause similar symptoms to heartburn (pain and burning sensation in the upper chest region)? I would maybe consider this being the case since antacids don’t seem to work on it, but now that I think about it I don’t think that would be the problem. Last night I was having a little bit of discomfort and thought I was just hungry, so I ate an orange and that made the problem 10X worse.
Oh, and I do add milk to the tea, but I don’t think the milk is what’s helping, since drinking milk on its own just made me feel oogier. Perhaps the combination of the milk and tea has something to it?
Could it be that the experience of drinking the tea is relaxing you?
I am prone to hearburn and acid reflux. Years ago I was having some chest pains and the cardiologist said it was not cardiac, but an esphogeal spasm. It was caused primarily by stress. So maybe, just maybe, sitting down with a nice cup of tea gets you relaxed enough that a muscle cramp eases and things can start going in the right direction, digestively speaking?
Obviously, IANAD and this is just a WAG.