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    Coping with Chronic Heartburn: What You Need to Know About Acid Reflux and GERD
    Coping with Chronic Heartburn: What You Need to Know About Acid Reflux and GERD
    Coping with Chronic Heartburn: What You Need to Know About Acid Reflux and GERD
    Ebook266 pages3 hours

    Coping with Chronic Heartburn: What You Need to Know About Acid Reflux and GERD

    By Elaine Fantle Shimberg

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    About this ebook

    An estimated 10 percent of the U.S. population suffers from Chronic Heartburn, also known as Acid Reflux or GERD. Many people simply dismiss this condition--the symptoms of which can include sleeplessness, chronic sore throat, heartburn, hoarseness, and dental problems--as something to learn to live with. Recent studies, however, have shown that GERD can have serious effects such as an increased risk for esophagitis, ulcers of the throat, and even cancer of the esophagaus, catapulting this condition into the media spotlight.

    One of the first books to demystify this condition for the lay reader, Coping with chronic Heartburn offers help, relief, and advice to sufferers of GERD, including:

    *When to consult a doctor
    *Which tests you may have to undergo
    *Effective self-care treatments such as dietary change and over the counter medications
    *Promising alternative and herbal treatments
    *Details on the latest prevention and treatment developments, including a new surgical procedure with a 96% success rate.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMay 21, 2013
    ISBN9781466846135
    Coping with Chronic Heartburn: What You Need to Know About Acid Reflux and GERD
    Author

    Elaine Fantle Shimberg

    Elaine Fantle Shimberg is an award-winning medical writer and Coping with COPD is her nineteenth book. She is the first layperson to serve on the Florida Medical Association's Ethical and Judicial Affairs Committee and is past president of the American Medical Writers Association. She is also chairman of the board of St. Joseph's Baptist Hospitals in the Tampa Bay area. Shimberg divides her time between Scarborough, Maine and Tampa, Florida.

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      Book preview

      Coping with Chronic Heartburn - Elaine Fantle Shimberg

      Chapter One

      Understanding Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

      What Is Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease?

      The more extensive a man’s knowledge

      of what has been done,

      the greater will be his power

      of knowing what to do.

      —BENJAMIN DISRAELI

      UNLESS YOU’VE been in orbit on a spaceship or lost and drifting at sea for the past few years, chances are good that you’ve heard of heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux. You can’t watch television for more than an hour or so without seeing a commercial for some over-the-counter (OTC) anti-reflux preparation promising that you can eat red peppers with spicy chili, chocolate cake, and black coffee yet still sleep like a baby. Just take their product. The hucksters make heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) sound like a piece of cake—chocolate, no doubt. Their thirty- and sixty-second ads often are comedic in tone, making light of this common ailment, with the implication that everybody pops antacids so there’s nothing to worry about if you’re part of the crowd.

      According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, in 1994 Americans spent more than $3.7 billion for anti-reflux drugs. A research study by Dr. Susan Oliveria and her team discovered that more than $1 billion was spent just on over-the-counter heartburn remedies alone in 1996.

      Adding to the confusion of which medicine to take and for what symptom, gastroesophageal reflux is known by a number of names. It is also called acid reflux, reflux, reflux esophagitis, heartburn (which is only one of a number of symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux), esophageal reflux, incorrectly as hiatal hernia, and occasionally by its full name gastroesophageal reflux disease, or by the acronym GERD. (It’s known as GORD in Great Britain, New Zealand, and Australia because of the spelling used in those countries, oesophageal.) For the purposes of this book, I use gastroesophageal reflux disease, acid reflux, or GERD.

      But what exactly is gastroesophageal reflux disease? It is a potentially serious medical condition in which acid, with or without partially digested food in the stomach, flows backward, up from the stomach, and is regurgitated into the esophagus and sometimes into the mouth. What causes this to happen and what havoc it creates are explained later in this chapter and others.

      Heartburn Is Only One Symptom of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

      Whatever it’s called, gastroesophageal reflux can be painful, interfering with the activities of daily living and, in some cases, even turning deadly. Although GERD presents with a variety of symptoms, the one we’re all most familiar with is heartburn, a burning, heavy sensation that hits right behind your breastbone and sometimes is accompanied by a bitter taste in your mouth. When heartburn happens, people may head for the nearest hospital emergency department, assuming they’re having a heart attack. (Actually, that’s a pretty smart step to take. Better safe than sorry. Let the emergency department doctors decide whether you’re experiencing heartburn or a heart attack. Sometimes it’s even difficult for them to know for sure without conducting some diagnostic tests.)

      There’s no denying that suffering from frequent heartburn can take all of the fun out of dining. You may have experienced symptoms just as you finish the last of Grandma’s Thanksgiving pumpkin pie and pushed away from the dining table or when you’re out for pizza. But heartburn also can happen when you bend down to tie your running shoes or when you take a catnap after dinner. It makes you swallow hard and reach for an antacid. According to a study by the United States Surgical Corporation, half the respondents said heartburn had interfered with their work, while 34 percent claimed their heartburn gets in the way of sex. Heartburn is what some experts call the Rodney Dangerfield of Medicine, because it gets no

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