Acid Reflux

Acid Reflux occurs when the tube that you uses to intake the food from the throat to stomach is not strong enough to handle the acid. The food intake by you is digested by the stomach with the help of an acid produced and stored by it.  The stomach walls are built strong enough to store that acid without causing damage.

For unknown reasons when acid flows back into the esophagus from stomach it creates heartburn, which is widely considered the first symptom of acid reflux or HERD.  It leaves a constant chest burning sensation.  You may find these acid reflux symptoms occurring to everyone once in a while, but when it happens regularly over a period of 2 to 3 times in a week with no visible relief even after medication, then you have acid reflux or GIRD.  A change in diet intake can give you relief to an extent from acid reflux attack, but if it reoccurs then one needs medical attention.

The main cause of acid reflux attack is when the lower esophageal sphincter which is a divider between stomach and esophagus giving up at inappropriate times, thereby not blocking the entry of acid into esophagus.  This stomach acid when flows back into the esophagus, it cuss severe heartburn right in between the chest.

The worst case scenario in Acid Reflux

If not treated appropriately, acid reflux attack for a prolonged period can wear out the inner protective lining of esophagus.  Doctors call this erosive esophagi.  A doctor can find out whether you have this condition through a simple endoscopy.  He can also treat you for this acid reflux condition depending on the extent of damage.

There are a lot of advices out there for people who suffer from acid reflux or heartburn about what they should not do. There are always a bunch of food items you are not supposed to eat. Here we are discussing a few things you can do and reduce your acid reflux problem.

It is known to be beneficial to sleep on the left side of your stomach than your right side. Sleeping on you left side is better for you not to experience acid reflux symptoms like heartburn.

If you make it a habit to sleep with your head in an elevated position that would reduce heartburn during your sleep. This can be achieved using one or two extra pillows.  If you can afford it, getting a bed that can be raised, a bed similar to the ones used in hospitals would be a great idea. If not, you can raise the head side of your bed with blocks of wood or some thing similar.

Eat any time you feel like eating. But make it very small portions. If you skip food in between for so long, you will end up eating a big meal in the end and it is going to cause the worsening of your acid reflux condition. Any person who tries to avoid meals in between for whatever reasons may end up over filling your stomach when you finally have food. This must be avoided at all cost.

In between meals, it would be helpful to you make it a habit of chewing gums. This would create a lot of saliva in your mouth and this can wash down any left over acids from your esophagus and throat. Saliva is alkaline in nature and is going to neutralize the acids to some extent. When choosing chewing gums avoid mint flavored ones. Mint is known to worsen acid reflux condition in many people.

Instead of chewing gums, you can suck on cough drops like halls or antacids, and they will provide you with the same effect.

Drinking water can dilute the stomach acids and can be helpful in reducing your heartburn condition.

It is an absolute no no to hit the bed right after a big meal. You need to walk for a little while before you go to sleep. The ideal case is to sleep only four hours after having your dinner. So have your dinner earlier around 5 or 6 O’clock, as was the practice of yesteryear.

Good News for Acid Reflux patients

Acid Reflux is a medical condition which if diagnosed in time can be treated.  Contact your doctor or contact Mandarin Health Consultants for further advise and guidance on overcoming your acid reflux condition.

Acid Reflux Symptoms

The stomach of a human body contains acidic juices like hydrochloric acid, pepsin and sometimes bile juices from the liver. These are supposed to enhance the sterilization and digestion process of the food that we eat and drink to release energy.

Hydrochloric acid also prevents the generation and growth of harmful bacteria's in the stomach and the intestine and hydrochloric acid is highly corrosive. However, our stomach is meant to handle this acid as the stomach contains a protective acid proof lining.

Now the LES i.e. lower esophageal sphincter doesn't have any acid proof lining. LES is the muscular valve that allows the ingested food to reach the stomach and then close the esophagus .Now, when the LES fails to close tightly or malfunctions and relaxes more often it causes GERD as experienced by people in the form of heartburn.

It is found that 300 million of the world population suffers from this disease and it still is a mystery why.50 million of the Americans suffer from heartburn once in a month And 25 million of them experience gastric esophageal reflux  on daily basis.

In spite of this huge estimation of population that suffers from acid reflux attack there are no known nutritional or alternative therapy to successfully prevent it. Doctors can maximum use the pharmaceutical drugs to treat the acid reflux symptoms and not the disease.

Though we would think the main cause of acid reflux attack is what we eat and drink, the fact is little different as it is also about how we eat and drink. This can be proved by the fact that many of us being different individuals find it difficult to digest some food.

The food travels from the mouth down to the stomach via esophagus with help of LES which opens up to let the food into the stomach. After which the LES constricts and closes to restrict the reverse flow of food from the stomach.

Acid Reflux - Causes or Reasons

When we eat food as a part of normal digestion the food chewed is passed on via the food pipe or esophagus to the stomach for further digestion aided by the acidic juices present in the stomach. These juices are not supposed to be in the esophagus but in the stomach which is meant to handle these juices for digestion of food.

Now when these acidic juices flows back to the esophagus it causes a burning sensation in the center of the chest also called heartburn leading to the phenomenon causing acid reflux.

To explain reasons for development of acid reflux further, acid reflux or gastroenterology reflux disease[GERD] occurs when the gastric juices flows reversely into the esophagus from the stomach .This happens due to the inability of lower esophageal sphincter valve to close properly once the partially digested food from mouth goes to the stomach via the esophagus for further digestion.

The lower esophageal sphincter [LES] is a valve made up of a band of muscles .This valve separates the esophagus from the stomach and closes itself once the food reaches the stomach so as to prevent the reverse flow ogf gastric juices from the stomach to the esophagus and prevents causing acid reflux attack. If this phenomenon occurs occasionally as in everyone causing heartburn it's O.K. However, it becomes a cause of concern if it starts occurring more than occasionally resulting in the Gastric esophageal reflux disease or causing acid reflux attack or GERD. That is when the lower esophageal sphincter relaxes more frequently and irregularly it causes GERD in the form of chronic heartburn.

Acid Reflux - Remedies, Medication, Self Care

Remedies;; As we have mentioned earlier infant acid reflux clear up on their own with the growth of the baby.  Also simple changes in feeding techniques help in further controlling of the situation. These include more frequent but smaller feedings, holding the baby in little upright or inclined position while feeding and letting the baby burp frequently while feeding. While breast feeding avoid cow's milk or other related food.

Switch the brand if you feed your baby on formula foods. Aggressive treatment may be needed for severe cases of infant acid reflux. Medication;; Doctor's may prescribe infant doses of medications that are used regularly for adults if the baby is really uncomfortable. These may include H-2 blockers like cimetidine [tagamet] or ranitidine [zantac], proton pump inhibitor such as oesomeprazole [nexium] or omeprazole [Prilosec].

However a 2006 study shows that these medications despite claiming to be safe for use in children and infants may increase the risk of intestinal and respiratory infections in otherwise healthy children and infants.  Alternative methods;; if the baby isn't growing as expected alternate high calorie food or feeding tube is required for the baby.

Surgery;; In very rare cases baby may need to undergo Fundoplication where the muscle that relaxes to let the food in to the stomach and closes to inhibit the revert of the food to the oesophagus, is wrapped and tightened surgically.

However this is done only if the infant acid reflux is interfering with baby's overall growth and is causing breathing problems because though it may treat the infant GERD but may lead to severe complications like constant gagging while feeding.

Self regulated care techniques;; First of all keep your self calm and relaxed before and during each feed and feed the baby before it gets frantic. Next try and feed the baby in upright position and every 15 to 30 minutes while feeding put the baby in sitting position to let gravity help in keeping the food contents where it belongs that is the stomach. Try a front pack a backpack or an infant chair. Try not to juggle your baby while the food is settling.

Acid Reflux Causes Remedies

my doctor or no one could help me guide me what to do. I had to find a way my own. I have become so dedicated to solve this problem and studied and did many researches on this. I tried to find out some naturalistic treatment for that I did many searches on natural remedies that can actually cure the acid reflux. Tried all the possible treatments available and remedies to acid reflux causes.

With my investigations I found that the remedial methods to acid reflux condition are very simple. By little change in your life style and with some natural remedies one can absolutely defeat the acid reflux syndrome, with out any drug.

The first cause for this condition to occur is due to a damaged esophagus. So avoiding the food that caused the damage can heal the esophagus. Some quick and simple thing that every one can practice to avoid such acid reflux condition is loosing weight, doing proper exercise, drinking plenty of water and elevating the head at night using an acid reflux pillow.

There are many natural ingredients available at any health store, which can be used during the recovery period from this acid reflux syndrome. Herbs like elm and marshmallow have great healing effects. Aloe Vera juice, licorice and natural honey have wonderful soothing effect on esophagus and also help in healing process.  These can act great as remedies to acid reflux causes.

Taking dinner at least three hours before going to bed can wonderfully reduces the chances of acid reflux problem. Chewing gum between meals can also reduce the stomach acids and if you really want to have the pasta with tomato sauce, there is always baking soda as a last resort.

Eat in smaller quantity with increased frequency. Have four or five small meals every day. My day stars with Katuscha Twig tea. Then some fruits like bananas and melons. I take several snacks of walnut, almonds and more fruits. My lunch include salads made with grilled chicken breasts or tofu mixed with hearts of romaine, tossed with a light lemon and chive vinaigrette

Acid reflux cure by drugs or by surgery

Recent series of reports provided by the federal agency states that to cureacid reflux or gastro esophageal reflux disease using medical doses of drugs may be equally useful rather than jumping on to surgery.

The report states that around 7 to 10 % of the American adult suffer from the heartburn caused when stomach acid enters the esophagus and the condition increases with age and may result in long term and serious damage to the food pipe.

The survey conducted to determine the effectiveness of acid reflux cure drugs over surgery or vice versa for GERD was done by the agency for healthcare research and Quality and the treatments were compared in chronic uncomplicated cases of acid reflux. This particular condition is comparatively a mild version of acid reflux which needs lifelong control though it may not necessarily lead to anything like esophageal cancer.

The report that was prepared after 8 months of extensive studies done worldwide states that few drugs like AcipHex, nexium, prevacid, prilosec etc and protonix that comes under the term proton pump inhibitors may be as effective in providing immediate relief from pain due to acid reflux condition heartburn and also heal the esophagus in due course thereby improving the health. That is they may be as effective as a surgical method where the stomach area close to the lower esophagus is wrapped around to control the reverse flow of the acid.

However, the report also suggests the overall ineffectiveness of another class of acid reflux medicine called H2 receptor antagonists in treating GERD. Some of these drugs are available over the counter are Axid, pepcid, tagamet and zantac. The reports also discovered that though surgeries are done to treat GERD completely wherein the need of the drugs to curb them is completely erased, the story is altogether different. It was found that anywhere between 10 to 60 % of the GERD patients including infants had to revert back to oral medication within an year or so of the surgery done to treat the disease.

After these astounding results a new drug-benefit program is getting launched mandated by the congress, the sole purpose of which would be to figure out more and more alternative methods of treating common illnesses among the elderly including acid reflux and explain them in a simpler language.

Dr. Carolyn Clancy the director of the research centre states that the purpose is not to tell the people or gerd patients what to do but to give them various suitable treatment options to choose from.

Nine more reports related to effective treatment methods will be prepared and this will include processes like breast imaging for cancer detection and detecting the effectiveness and safety of the medications that are used to treat even arthritis and joint disorders.

Medicines recommended for acid reflux - Acid Reflux medication

For a persistent condition stronger antacids like Mylanta II, Maalox II and riopan are suitable. These antacids should be taken at least half an hour before taking food and sleeping.

Given below are various types of medication to help in acid reflux;;

Proton pump inhibitors;; These help in reducing the acid production in the stomach and also control the reflux of acid in to the esophagus from the stomach.

Histamine Receptor blockers;; They too help in reducing the stomach acid.

Prokinetic or motility drugs;; These help in closing the esophageal sphincter muscle more tightly.

Omepraxole and lansoprazole;; They heal the inflammation caused by acid reflux in the esophagus.