Hiatal Hernia

This site was created by hiatal hernia sufferer for other hiatal hernia sufferers. Even though hiatal hernia doesn’t cause any symptoms in lots of people who have it there is another group of people which gets symptoms like acid reflux, indigestion, excessive belching and burping, nighttime heartburn and many more.

On this website you can learn what hiatal hernia is and why it causes heartburn. You’ll also find some advice on how to change your lifestyle to minimize hernia’s impact on your life.

Before I go into more details please let me first give you a very important advice. If you have any of the symptoms above talk to your doctor. There is a variety of conditions which could cause these symptoms and hiatal hernia condition is just one of them. That’s why talking to your doctor would be a great start.

What is hiatal hernia

Let me first describe how normal stomach and esophagus function without hiatal hernia. At the lower end of the esophagus (where it connects to the stomach) there is a tight valve which prevents stomach acid and digested food from getting back to esophagus. This valve works with help of a diaphragm (a wall which separates lungs and heart from stomach and other organs). Please take a look of the picture to better understand it.

Hiatal hernia is a condition when part of the stomach protrudes through the opening in the diaphragm. Because of this valve which before was right at the diaphragm opening is located higher and is not capable of preventing acid from getting back into esophagus.

This could happen because of many different reasons and in most people valve is strong enough to hold acid even without diaphragm help. But in folks like me it is failing and that’s why we get heartburn.

How to fix it

There is no easy fix for it, period. There are surgeries which can make it better or even fix it but they are quite complex and unless you have very bad symptoms they are not recommended.

How to live with it.

That is another question. It is possible to mitigate most of the symptoms that it causes using simple lifestyle changes.

Please visit other pages of this site to learn more about it.