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.