Introduction: Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, commonly known as GERD, is a chronic illness that leads to frequent acid backwash of the stomach to pour into the esophagus. Backwash creates unwanted symptoms such as heartburn, chest pain, and sour belches. Although normal acid reflux is usual, GERD appears when it presents itself regularly and begins to interfere with your life.
Worldwide, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease affects roughly 1 in 5 adults and is definitely on the increase with the lifestyle change, poor diet, and stress. As prevalent as it is, GERD is still underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed until it becomes very difficult to treat.
Early treatment and diagnosis prevent complications such as narrowing of the esophagus, inflammation, or other complications such as precancerous Barrett’s esophagus in the instance of esophageal cancer. In this article, below we will provide you with everything that you would like to know about GERD—how it occurs, what to look out for, and how to control and treat it safely.
What is GERD?
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease is a stomach illness where your stomach acid flows back up into your esophagus—the tube that connects your stomach and mouth. Backflow damages the lining of your esophagus, and symptoms are therefore:
- Chronic heartburn
- Chest pain
- Sour taste in the mouth
- Trouble swallowing
In between all of this is a muscle, the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), a valve muscle. It must open and let food in and close and keep it from coming out. If weakened or opens too often, the acid from the stomach pours in and creates reflux.
When heartburn happens more than twice a week and interferes with sleep or daily activities, it can be GERD.
GERD Symptoms: More Than Heartburn
The most common symptom of GERD is heartburn, but others exist. Most people have a mixture of symptoms easily mistaken for other disease processes:
Classic Symptoms:
- Burn in the chest after meals or lying down
- Mouthful of sour- or bitter-tasting acid that travels up into the throat
- Lump in the throat
Other Possible Symptoms:
- Severe night-time coughing
- Sore throat or hoarseness
- Swallowing difficulty (dysphagia)
- Horrible morning breath
- Chest pain (has a habit of accusing the heart)
- Sleep disturbance during the night due to reflux
If you catch yourself experiencing these symptoms regularly, then you’ll need to go in and get yourself checked out by a physician to see if it’s just plain ol’ acid reflux or if perhaps something like GERD may be going on.
What Causes GERD?
There are several causes of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. They are physical (inside) and lifestyle (outside) causes:
Physical or Medical Causes:
- Weak LES: The faulty valve lets the stomach acid move into the esophagus.
- Hiatal Hernia: Bulging up into the chest of stomach contents weakens the LES.
- Delayed stomach emptying: If your stomach is unable to empty, it squeezes and refluxes.
Lifestyle Causes
- Obesity: Midlife weight pressing against the stomach.
- Smoking: Altered function of LES and increased acid output hypersecretion.
- Diet: Fatty, fried, hot, caffeine, alcohol, and carbonated drinks all produce reflux.
- Pregnancy: Hormonal shift and additional stress on the stomach also may play a part in reflux.
- Certain drugs: Painkiller, asthma drug, and some drugs taken for high blood pressure will produce symptoms of GERD.
How GERD is Treated?
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease is treated on the basis of disease severity and the degree to which disease can be influenced by medication or lifestyle modification. Overall long-term management is further divided into three general groups:
1. Continuous Modification
These are usually first-line therapy and function work fantastically well:
- Eat more but less frequently
- Reduce causative foods (fatty, hot, acidic)
- Recline less after eating
- Sleep in head-up position
- Utilize healthy weight
- Quit smoking and limit alcohol use
2. Medications
- Antacids
- Neutralize stomach acid quickly (e.g., Tums, Gelusil).
- Good for symptomatic relief only and not prolonged.
H2 Blockers
- Slow to make more stomach acid (e.g., ranitidine, famotidine)
- Give a little more relief than antacids over longer periods.
Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs)
- Potent acid reducers which also cure esophageal ulcers (e.g., omeprazole, pantoprazole).
- Ideal for GERD with medium or severe attacks.
Prokinetics
To accelerate gastric emptying and in tighter LOS closure, but with greater side effects.
Warning: PPI or H2 blocker long-term therapy must always be under medical care due to side effects like vitamin deficiency and infection.
3. Surgery
If medication and diet do not work or a patient does not wish to stay on long-term medication, surgery may be an option:
Fundoplication
Procedure is made easier by encircling the end of the stomach to wrap over the top. Done most often with minimally invasive methods.
LINX Device
Ring of magnetic beads encircles the LES to close its door but permit passage of food. Less traumatic, more recent procedure.
Who Are The Physicians Diagnosing and Treating GERD?
Depending upon symptom and severity, most of the following doctors are able to diagnose and treat GERD
- Gastroenterologist: First physician to consult in case of stomach or intestine illness, such as GERD.
- ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat specialist): When GERD leads to chronic sore throat, hoarseness, or laryngitis.
- Pulmonologist: If GERD results in respiratory discomfort like chronic cough or asthmatic-type symptom.
When to See a Specialist?
You might need to see a specialist if:
- Your symptoms last for more than two times a week
- Over-the-counter medications are not easing
- You are unable to swallow
- You mysteriously lose weight or vomit
- You have chronic cough or throat pain
Diagnosis: What to Expect
Your doctor might have the following tests performed:
- Endoscopy: To examine inside your esophagus and see if it’s damaged.
- pH Monitoring: Attempt to monitor acid in your esophagus for 24 hours.
- Manometry: Tests the function of your esophagus muscles.
- Biopsy or Imaging: To rule out other disease or complication.
Sum up,
GERD is common, but don’t let it get the upper hand. Treat it nicely at first and it will never be such a troublemaker to fix. Learn a lesson on how it occurs and how you can make it stick around in your life—diet, drugs, or blade—you can quiet your symptoms and have your long-term digestive tract in one piece.
If you think you have GERD, don’t hesitate—get on over to your physician and begin the journey to reflux-free living.
