Why Acid Reflux Causes a Burning Throat and How to Treat It
Acid reflux occurs when stomach acid and contents flow back up towards your throat, irritating your oesophagus (also called a food pipe or gullet).
The stomach fluid that comes back up has many substances that can irritate the lining of your oesophagus, including gastric acid, digestive enzymes, and bile salts. These all can cause a burning sensation in the middle of your chest, called heartburn.
Heartburn can travel up and down your oesophagus, causing a burning throat and an acid taste in your mouth.
Is It Acid Reflux or GERD?
If acid reflux persists for 3 times a week or more, or it disrupts your daily activities, this may be a sign of a chronic condition called GERD. In GERD, the oesophagus can become inflamed, leading to more symptoms, some of which can be severe. These symptoms include:
- A sore throat
- A hoarse voice
- A cough that won’t go away
- Respiratory problems
- Difficulty swallowing
Other people with GERD can also experience:
- Tummy pain
- Nausea
- Indigestion
- Burping
- Bloating and feeling full
Having some of these symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean you have GERD. GERD is a complex condition that should be diagnosed by a doctor.
Acid Reflux Treatments
There are many treatment options for acid reflux and GERD, including:
- Lifestyle and diet changes; for example, avoid trigger foods, lose weight if you’re overweight, quit smoking, avoid late-night eating, and sleep in a raised position to relieve your symptoms
- Over-the-counter medication, such as antacids or alginates, proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) or H2 receptor blockers
- In more extreme cases, surgical procedures that can help tighten a muscular ring inside your tummy so that acid no longer escapes your stomach
Home Remedies for Throat Burning Caused by Acid Reflux
Several home remedies can help alleviate a burning or sore throat due to acid reflux. These include:
- Eating ginger, either raw, cooked, or as a ginger tea. Ginger has many soothing properties and is anti-inflammatory.
- Chamomile tea is also soothing for your gastrointestinal tract and can reduce inflammation.
- Some evidence suggests manuka honey may help relieve GERD symptoms, including throat pain and oesophagus pain.
To discover more ways to get quick relief for acid reflux, read our articles, Remedies for acid reflux, and What medication can I take for GERD?
Duration of Throat Burning from Acid Reflux
Everyone gets heartburn and acid reflux from time to time. But for most people, symptoms are brief and not troublesome.
However, in the case of GERD or chronic acid reflux, symptoms can be bothersome and interfere with your quality of life. Episodes can last anywhere between several minutes to hours on end. Usually, people with GERD experience acid reflux more than half the time.
Some experts divide GERD into three stages of severity based on the frequency of acid reflux episodes:
- Stage 1 (3 episodes a week or less)
- Stage 2 (more than 3 times a week)
- Stage 3 (daily symptoms)
See a healthcare professional if you experience acid reflux on most days or if they haven’t gone away with simple lifestyle modifications or over-the-counter medication.
Causes of Throat Burning Sensation Due to Acid Reflux
Acid reflux and heartburn can be caused by many things, including:
- Too much pressure from the stomach after you’ve eaten (either because of eating too much, or because the stomach doesn’t empty as it should)
- Problems with the normal wave-like muscle movement that helps food along your gastrointestinal tract after you’ve eaten
- A heightened sensitivity to the refluxed acid in the oesophagus, or issues with the lining of the oesophagus that typically protects against stomach acid
A very common cause of GERD is that the muscular ring inside your tummy called the lower oesophageal sphincter (LOS) isn’t as tight as it should be, letting stomach acid and other food contents escape from the stomach and up into the oesophagus. Several things can cause this muscle to loosen excessively, including:
- Certain foods and drinks, like spicy or fatty foods, peppermint, chocolate, alcohol, or caffeine
- Eating large meals, being overweight, or being pregnant — all three can increase pressure on the abdomen and cause the LOS to relax too much
- Eating late at night, which increases stomach acid
Other risk factors for GERD include smoking, obesity, and having a family history of the condition.
Identifying Acid Reflux as the Cause of Throat Burning
The main symptoms of acid reflux are heartburn (the burning, painful feeling in the middle of your chest, which can travel up your throat) and regurgitation (stomach contents and acid flowing back up, causing a bitter, acid taste in the mouth).
However, in many cases, GERD and acid reflux can have other symptoms, as we’ve seen above, and many of these symptoms can overlap with other conditions. For example, the chest pain from GERD can be hard to distinguish from a heart condition. Other symptoms, like bloating and nausea, can overlap with those of indigestion. And finally, a chronic cough can be due to a lung condition.
To best distinguish between acid reflux/GERD and other conditions, your physician may do the following tests:
- They may prescribe you an anti-reflux treatment called proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) for a few weeks to see if the drugs make you feel better.
- They may monitor the acid levels in your oesophagus through a procedure called pH monitoring.
- They may recommend an endoscopy, where a thin device with a small camera is inserted down your oesophagus and into your stomach, allowing the doctor to look around for lesions or inflammation.
Consequences of Untreated Acid Reflux
Having acid reflux constantly can seriously interfere with one’s quality of life. In the long run, it can lead to complications if it’s not treated.
Over time, your oesophagus can become inflamed if it is repeatedly exposed to acid. This can lead to inflammation, damage its lining, and even change the structure of its cells.
This can lead to scar tissue, narrowing of the oesophagus, difficulty swallowing, or, in some cases, a condition called Barrett’s oesophagus.
In Barrett’s oesophagus, the type of cells that line the food pipe transform to resemble a different kind of cell — the cells that normally line your intestines. This can raise the risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus.
Other potential complications include:
- Lung conditions, like asthma or trouble breathing
- Inflammation of the vocal cords
- Problems with your teeth and gums, which can both get damaged from the refluxed acid
With timely treatment, you can prevent these complications. Learning the signs of GERD and receiving a diagnosis and treatment early are key.
Conclusion
Acid reflux can cause a burning throat or chest because when the stomach acid travels back up, it irritates the lining inside your oesophagus. In some cases, stomach acid can reflux all the way into the mouth, which can damage your teeth and gums and cause a bitter, acid taste in the mouth.
There are plenty of over-the-counter treatments and home remedies for a burning throat and a sore throat from acid reflux. Explore our range of Gaviscon alginates and antacids here and our Guardium PPIs here.
If you keep getting acid reflux or your symptoms don’t respond to over-the-counter medication and simple lifestyle changes, see your doctor. Recurring acid reflux may be a sign of GERD.
