Reflux disease can be stressful: belching, frequent heartburn, difficulty swallowing, burning in the throat, stomach noises.
The list of possible symptoms is even longer than this list. This limits those affected in everyday life. You can often no longer enjoy eating or drinking and sometimes have trouble sleeping due to the symptoms. What helps?
So much in advance: There is no one-size-fits-all solution. But there are different approaches that sufferers can try.
Reading tip
In reflux disease, the closure at the junction of the esophagus and stomach does not work properly – muscles actually keep it closed. If the mechanism is disrupted, gastric juice can flow back into the esophagus and cause problems.
Heartburn: Which foods should you avoid?
Does it help to cut out certain foods, stop smoking or avoid alcohol? All of this may be worth a try. But: Whether and how changing behavior helps against heartburn and acid reflux has not yet been well researched.
Coffee, chocolate, fatty or spicy foods, citrus fruits or carbonated drinks are among the foods that may cause symptoms. It’s worth watching this closely and adjusting your diet if necessary. However, there is no blanket guarantee that the symptoms will change by changing your eating habits.
It often takes a little time and patience to find out which foods you don’t tolerate well. This may also show that food is not the cause of these symptoms.
Other possible triggers include: stressa rupture of the diaphragm or disorders of the esophagus, for example hypersensitivity.
Reading tip
Heartburn: Losing weight can help
Overweight people with reflux disease are also often advised to lose weight. Reason: The extra pounds could put pressure on the esophagus and stomach, among other things, which may disrupt the closure at the end of the esophagus. However, experts counter: Even thin people who eat a low-fat diet could have reflux and heartburn.
To combat reflux symptoms at night, it may be worth trying to avoid late meals or elevate your upper body while sleeping. Another tip for testing: Turn to the left side – then the stomach seal is on top.
Heartburn: medication and surgery
If lifestyle changes do not bring improvement, medication could be an option to improve the symptoms. If there is no success here, anti-reflux surgery is an option. Part of the stomach is placed completely or partially around the esophagus.
Reading tip
There is evidence that people who have undergone surgery feel less restricted by heartburn and reflux than people who take medication. But this can only be said for the first year after the operation. Whether the procedure performs better than medication in the long term has not yet been well studied.
And: Just as the medicines can have side effects, undesirable consequences are also possible with the procedure – these include, for example, difficulty swallowing.
The original for this post Constant heartburn? When should you see a doctor about it? comes from FOCUS Online.
Reading tips
