The fastest way to get rid of indigestion is to neutralize stomach acid with an over-the-counter antacid or a half teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in cold water. But several other techniques, from body positioning to breathing exercises, can bring relief within minutes without reaching for anything in your medicine cabinet.
Neutralize the Acid Directly
Over-the-counter antacids work within minutes by chemically neutralizing stomach acid. If you don’t have any on hand, plain baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) does the same thing. The recommended dose for adults is half a teaspoon stirred into a full glass of cold water, taken every two hours as needed. Don’t exceed five teaspoons in a single day, and don’t rely on it for more than two weeks. If your indigestion keeps returning, that’s a sign something else is going on.
Baking soda works because it’s a base that reacts with hydrochloric acid in your stomach, producing water, salt, and carbon dioxide. You’ll likely burp after drinking it. That’s normal and part of how it relieves the pressure.
Change Your Position
If indigestion hits while you’re sitting or lying down, stand up and go for a gentle walk. Gravity helps keep stomach acid where it belongs. Avoid bending over or lying flat, both of which push acid upward toward your throat.
If you need to lie down, choose your left side. In that position, your esophagus sits higher than your stomach, so acid drains away from the opening rather than pooling near it. Lying on your right side or your back does the opposite, making symptoms worse. Propping the head of your bed up by six inches (using blocks under the legs, not just extra pillows) achieves a similar effect.
Try Slow Diaphragmatic Breathing
This one sounds too simple to work, but it has solid physiology behind it. Deep belly breathing strengthens the pressure around the muscular valve between your stomach and esophagus. In one study, the pressure at that valve nearly doubled during diaphragmatic breathing (jumping from about 23 to 42 mmHg), and reflux events after meals dropped from an average of 2.6 to just 0.36.
Here’s how to do it: sit upright or stand. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. Breathe in slowly through your nose for four seconds, letting your belly push out while your chest stays still. Exhale slowly through pursed lips for six seconds. Repeat for five to ten minutes. This is especially useful when indigestion strikes after a meal and you don’t have antacids nearby.
Chew Gum
Chewing gum stimulates saliva production, and saliva is naturally alkaline. The increased flow helps wash acid back down from the esophagus into the stomach and dilutes whatever acid is causing the burning. Ten minutes of chewing is enough to significantly raise salivary pH. Choose sugar-free gum, and avoid peppermint or spearmint flavors if your main symptom is heartburn (more on that below).
Loosen Tight Clothing
A tight belt, waistband, or shapewear compresses your abdomen and pushes stomach contents upward. If indigestion hits after a meal, unbuttoning your pants or loosening your belt by a notch can provide surprisingly quick relief. This is one of the simplest fixes, and people overlook it constantly.
Sip the Right Warm Drink
Chamomile tea has mild anti-inflammatory properties that can soothe an irritated stomach lining. Steep a tea bag or about 3 grams of dried chamomile in hot water for 10 minutes, then sip it slowly. Avoid adding milk, which can stimulate more acid production in some people.
Peppermint oil capsules work as an antispasmodic, relaxing the muscles in your digestive tract to relieve cramping, bloating, and gas. However, there’s an important catch: peppermint also relaxes the valve at the top of your stomach. If your main symptom is a burning feeling in your chest or throat (acid reflux), peppermint can make it worse by letting acid escape upward. Use it for bloating and stomach cramps, not for heartburn.
Skip the Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar is one of the most commonly recommended home remedies for indigestion online, but there is zero published clinical evidence that it works. Harvard Health Publishing reviewed the claim and found no research in medical journals supporting its use for heartburn. Adding an acidic liquid to an already acidic stomach is more likely to aggravate your symptoms than relieve them.
Identify What Triggered It
Once you’ve dealt with the immediate discomfort, it helps to figure out what caused it so you can avoid a repeat. The most common triggers share a specific mechanism: they relax the muscular valve between your stomach and esophagus, letting acid splash upward.
- Coffee and caffeinated drinks relax this valve whether they’re caffeinated or decaf.
- Chocolate contains methylxanthine, a compound from the cocoa plant that acts similarly to caffeine on this same valve.
- Fatty and fried foods slow stomach emptying, keeping acid around longer.
- Alcohol, tomatoes, and spicy foods are direct irritants to the stomach lining.
- Garlic and onions also relax the valve and are frequent culprits people don’t suspect.
Eating too fast, eating too much in one sitting, and eating within two to three hours of lying down are behavioral triggers that matter just as much as food choices. Smaller, slower meals give your stomach less to deal with at once.
When Indigestion Isn’t Indigestion
Most indigestion is harmless and passes on its own. But the symptoms overlap with heart attack more than most people realize. Nausea, indigestion, and abdominal pain are all listed among typical heart attack symptoms by the Mayo Clinic.
Call emergency services if your “indigestion” comes with any of these: pressure or squeezing pain in your chest or arms that spreads to your neck, jaw, or back. Shortness of breath. Cold sweat. Sudden dizziness or lightheadedness. Unusual fatigue. Women are more likely than men to experience the less obvious signs like jaw pain, back pain, and nausea without classic chest crushing. If the sensation feels different from your usual indigestion, or if it came on during physical exertion, treat it as an emergency.