Acidity and indigestion: symptoms, relief and warning signs

Eat slowly, choose smaller meals and notice whether rich, spicy or late meals trigger discomfort. A pharmacist can help select a suitable short-term product after checking your other medicines and health conditions.

People often use “acidity” for burning caused by stomach contents moving towards the food pipe. Indigestion, also called dyspepsia, may feel like upper-abdominal discomfort, early fullness, bloating, burping or nausea around meals.

Acid reflux commonly presents with heartburn or a sour taste, while gastritis and peptic ulcer can present with upper-abdominal burning or indigestion. Gallstones can present with stronger pain in the upper abdomen, particularly after food. The symptom pattern and examination help distinguish these conditions; symptoms alone do not confirm a cause.

Keep meals modest, avoid lying down soon after eating and reduce foods or drinks that reliably bring on symptoms. A brief food-and-symptom note can reveal a personal pattern without forcing you to remove many foods unnecessarily.

Antacids neutralise acid for brief relief, alginates form a barrier above stomach contents, and acid-suppressing medicines reduce acid production. Follow the label and pharmacist’s advice because timing, interactions and suitability differ. Do not continue repeated self-treatment when symptoms keep returning, and do not stop a prescribed medicine without advice.

Arrange a medical review if indigestion is frequent, worsening, wakes you repeatedly, or comes with difficulty swallowing, repeated vomiting, unexplained weight loss, reduced appetite or persistent upper-abdominal pain. Review is also sensible when pharmacy treatment does not help or symptoms return after it ends.

Seek urgent care for vomit containing blood or resembling coffee grounds, black sticky stools, sudden severe abdominal pain, fainting, marked weakness, or chest pressure with breathlessness, sweating, dizziness, or pain spreading to the arm, jaw or back. Chest symptoms should not be assumed to be indigestion.

Ask whether your symptom pattern suggests reflux, stomach irritation or another cause; whether any current medicine could be contributing; how long to try the proposed treatment; and what change should prompt reassessment. Mention swallowing problems, altered stools, vomiting, weight change and any regular anti-inflammatory painkillers.