Acid reflux/GERD is a real pain in the neck. Literally.
5036
Disease & Illness > Acid Reflux
Mar 1, 2007
Tyler J Stevenson
Acid reflux/GERD is a real pain in the neck. Literally.
Acid reflux/GERD is a real pain in the neck. Literally. Well, more often than not it’s a pain in the chest, but in really bad cases like mine that burning sensation it can travel right up to the back of my throat. My wife has an even more severe acid reflux disease than me, sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night choking on the acids that have backed up his esophagus.
It’s a pretty scary and painful condition at times, but acid reflux/GERD it is not normally life threatening. However, the damage it can cause to your esophagus does increase your chances of esophageal cancer, so it is important to treat it. So what causes it, and what can you do to get rid of it?
Acid reflux and GERD are used interchangeably in describing the same condition. The GERD stands for gastroesophogeal reflux disorder. It sounds complicated, but is quite simply a condition in which the acids from the stomach are irritating or damaging the esophagus. The sphincter muscle that contains stomach acid to the stomach doesn’t always work perfectly. Minor imperfections present at birth, damage due to a hernia or excessive vomiting, or even just the eroding effects of age can all reduce the effectiveness of the muscle to the point where it regularly lets stomach acid escape.
Unfortunately, if you are having heartburn frequently enough to qualify as acid reflux GERD, you can’t do anything to ‘cure’ it completely. You are always going to have to take measures to keep your symptoms under control. The good news is there are a lot of things to treat the symptoms.
Here is some non-medication oriented tips to help you reduce your acid reflux/GERD symptoms. Firstly, don’t overeat, and avoid very greasy foods. Overeating puts excessive pressure on your sphincter muscle, making it more likely to fail. Also, greases are better at getting past the muscle. Even worse than overeating is laying down or sleeping right after eating. This will also put a lot of pressure on your poor abused sphincter. It’s generally agreed that you should wait at least three hours after eating before laying down. This is good advice whether you have acid reflux disease or not, as you can actually develop the condition by sleeping too soon after eating too often.
One final tip in helping to reduce the symptoms of acid reflux/GERD is to raise your bed at least eight inches. This will further reduce the pressure on your sphincter while you are sleeping. It will look like a lot of height when you first do it, but you’ll be surprise how soon you get used to it, and how helpful it is in reducing your symptoms.
Of course, the most important thing you need to do if you think you have acid reflux/GERD is see a doctor. All these tips aside, you’ll probably also need to take some form of medication, many of which are available only by seeing a doctor.
It’s a pretty scary and painful condition at times, but acid reflux/GERD it is not normally life threatening. However, the damage it can cause to your esophagus does increase your chances of esophageal cancer, so it is important to treat it. So what causes it, and what can you do to get rid of it?
Acid reflux and GERD are used interchangeably in describing the same condition. The GERD stands for gastroesophogeal reflux disorder. It sounds complicated, but is quite simply a condition in which the acids from the stomach are irritating or damaging the esophagus. The sphincter muscle that contains stomach acid to the stomach doesn’t always work perfectly. Minor imperfections present at birth, damage due to a hernia or excessive vomiting, or even just the eroding effects of age can all reduce the effectiveness of the muscle to the point where it regularly lets stomach acid escape.
Unfortunately, if you are having heartburn frequently enough to qualify as acid reflux GERD, you can’t do anything to ‘cure’ it completely. You are always going to have to take measures to keep your symptoms under control. The good news is there are a lot of things to treat the symptoms.
Here is some non-medication oriented tips to help you reduce your acid reflux/GERD symptoms. Firstly, don’t overeat, and avoid very greasy foods. Overeating puts excessive pressure on your sphincter muscle, making it more likely to fail. Also, greases are better at getting past the muscle. Even worse than overeating is laying down or sleeping right after eating. This will also put a lot of pressure on your poor abused sphincter. It’s generally agreed that you should wait at least three hours after eating before laying down. This is good advice whether you have acid reflux disease or not, as you can actually develop the condition by sleeping too soon after eating too often.
One final tip in helping to reduce the symptoms of acid reflux/GERD is to raise your bed at least eight inches. This will further reduce the pressure on your sphincter while you are sleeping. It will look like a lot of height when you first do it, but you’ll be surprise how soon you get used to it, and how helpful it is in reducing your symptoms.
Of course, the most important thing you need to do if you think you have acid reflux/GERD is see a doctor. All these tips aside, you’ll probably also need to take some form of medication, many of which are available only by seeing a doctor.
Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com
Tyson J Stevenson writes on a wide variety of health related subjects, look for his name often. A related resource is acid-reflux-natural-cure.info Further information can be found at HubbuH/a>
Write a Review
Add to My Favorite
Refer it to Friend
Report Article
Other links owned by this user
Data Recovery ? Definition of Data Recovery The salvaging of lost data or making available the previously damaged data stored on various damaged media such as hard disk drives, magnetic tapes, magnetic disks, zip disks, CD-Rom,
Category:
Electric Scooters (Mobility Scooters) Electric Scooters or Mobility Scooters are specially designed for people who have low mobility. An electric oter is basically a battery-operated vehicle with the capacity of only one person. These
Category:
Blood Pressure Blood is circulated through the arteries and veins to all the parts of our body. The pressure by which the blood pushes against the arteries' walls is known as the blood pressure. Whenever the heart beats it pumps blood into
Category:
Acid eflux/GERD is a eal pain in the neck. Liteally. Well, moe often than not it’s a pain in the chest, but in eally bad cases like mine that buning sensation it can tavel ight up to the back of my thoat. My wife has an even moe sevee acid
Category:
Acid eflux The formation of gases and acidic substances in the stomach and its backing up into the esophagus causes severe pain or burning sensation in the stomach and chest area that is clinically known as Acid eflux or Gastroespohageal
Category:
Hearing impairment is one of the most common ailments in the United States. Near about 30 million American citizens are affected ith hearing impairment. 2% children are affected ith hearing impairment belo the age of 18 and this percentage increases
Category:
Other links at Disease & Illness > Acid Reflux
This article will help reveal the secret on how to avoid acid reflux with diet and nutrition. If you are a chronic heartburn sufferer, the correct term to use is acid reflux. Anyone who has suffered from acid reflux before, knows how
Category:
Does your morning coffee cause you pain? Are you frustrated when a night out dining with friends ends in discomfort instead of relaxed conversation? Do you carry antacids with you every day? Heartburn is more than just a nuisance. It can
Category:
Heartburn is described as a burning sensation that can be felt in the chest specifically at the lower sternum. Such pain is caused by a reflux of digestive acid that shoots up and enter the lower esophagus thus resulting to a burning sensation and acute
Category:
Acid reflux (gastro-esophageal reflux disease) is a physiological condition that causes the content of the stomach to reflux into the esophagus and throat. Although there are many factors that contribute to the development of acid reflux, the main cause
Category:
Gastro-esophageal reflux disease, also referred to as acid reflux, is a physiological condition that causes the regurgitation of the stomach content into the esophagus and throat. Acid reflux is very common and may occur due to inappropriate diet,
Category:
Site Sponsor
Directory Statistics
Articles: 68205
Categories: 501
Yahoo Entertainment
