It may be easy to pop a pill for heartburn for the convenience of not having to stop eating spicy and acidic foods, but this convenience may come at the price of good health.

Treating gastric reflux with over-the-counter (OTC) medication might not bring relief, even though the medications might be similar to the prescription brands.

Overweight and obese patients are at risk for a number of health conditions, including​ heartburn and two kinds of acid reflux. Could their weight affect how well their medications treat those conditions?

When you have heartburn, you might turn to common medications like Nexium , Prevacid , or Prilosec . But if you're an older woman, who smoked, these drugs may have the dangerous side effect of hip fractures.

In many cases, there is more than one way to fight a health problem. Some may work better than others. But when dealing with acid reflux (the condition that causes heartburn), both drugs and surgery helped patients.