How Is Gerd Treated
There are typically two parts to GERD: lifestyle changes and medication. If you are experiencing any issues with heartburn or acid reflux , here are a couple changes you can make to immediately to help alleviate your symptoms after eating:
- Dont lie down after eating.
- Dont eat three hours before sleeping.
- Tilt the head of your bed by putting blocks under the legs. Gravity helps prevent reflux.
- Eat smaller meals throughout the day, rather than larger meals less frequently.
- Avoid trigger foods .
- Avoid drinking alcohol before bed.
- Dont drink alcohol without eating first.
- Stop smoking, as it weakens the esophageal sphincter.
- Lose excess weight.
Some trigger foods that can promote acid reflux include spicy, fatty, greasy or mint-flavored foods, citrus, chocolate, caffeine and tomatoes. A food diary can help you know if these foods are a problem for you.
Could Your Heartburn & Reflux Symptoms Be Allergy
As if sneezing and itching wasnt enough, some people experience heartburn symptoms due to their environmental and/or food allergies.
Eosinophilic esophagitis might be to blame. It can be allergy-related, but mainly causes reactions that impact your digestive system. The first official EoE diagnosis was in the 1990s, but theres been an increase in diagnoses and ongoing research ever since.
Find out what you need to know about EoE to help you figure out if your heartburn could be allergy-related. Well highlight some common symptoms of EoE, how its diagnosed, and treatment options, such as sublingual immunotherapy .
What Causes Gerd Heartburn And Acid Reflux
Acid reflux and GERD both occur when stomach acid travels back up into the esophagus. The acidic contents in your stomach go through the lower esophageal sphincter , which causes the sensation of heartburn. Typically, the diaphragm and LES keeps stomach acids from rising from the stomach. When this muscle is weak or loose, it can cause acid reflux, and potentially GERD.
These conditions and their symptoms can be triggered by multiple factors. Overeating or laying down after eating is often problematic. Some other risk factors include:
- Eating large portions of food at once
- Consuming acidic, fatty or spicy foods
- Drinking alcohol, coffee or tea
- Certain medications
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Is It Allergies Or Acid Reflux
For most of my 20s, my husband assumed he had allergies. He woke up almost every morning with a stuffy nose and mucus running down the back of my throat, and no amount of allergy medication seemed to make a difference. Eventually, he was referred to an ENT for a closer look.
As it turns out, he didn’t have allergies. What he actually had is a particular type of acid reflux with symptoms almost identical to allergies. After experimenting with some dietary supplements and making a few lifestyle changes, his symptoms have almost completely disappeared.
Of course, we’re not doctors, and aren’t providing medical advice, just our own stories. Always see a physician to get the right medical advice for your needs. But if you have stubborn allergies that never seem to get better, read ahead to see how we learned that these symptoms were actually acid reflux – and how we paid for treatment with our HSA.
What To Do If You Think You Have Silent Acid Reflux
So what should you do if you think your symptoms are silent reflux and not seasonal allergies or a cold after all?
You can start with a two-week elimination diet, Dr. Koufman suggested. That means no alcohol, nothing from a can , and cutting way back on dairy and coffee. You should also stick to low-fat, low-acidic foods, and you might want to avoid spicy or fried foods, which are also thought to trigger reflux. Tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and garlic may also spark reflux symptoms, so eat them sparingly.
If you truly have silent reflux, these diet changes can likely help clear up your symptoms, and you can adopt some of these healthier eating habits for good if they keep silent reflux at bay.
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases , tiny tweaks to your regular routine can help quell silent reflux, just as they can ease other types of the condition. Try not to eat or drink anything too close to bedtimefinish up three hours before you go to sleep, Dr. Koufman recommended. Prop your pillow up when you do hit the hay, as sleeping on an incline can help keep stomach acids where they belong.
If you still have worries about whether you’re dealing with acid reflux over allergies, it’s always a good idea to talk with your healthcare provider about possible options that can help get you some relief.
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Can Breastfeeding Cause Digestive Problems
When your milk flows out of your breast into your babys mouth very quickly and forcefully, your child may have to gulp it down to keep up with the flow. When they do this, theyre also swallowing a lot of air. Air trapped in the stomach and intestines can cause gas and stomach pain.
How do I know if baby has reflux?
Symptoms of reflux in babies include:
Should I stop breastfeeding if baby has reflux?
Does my baby with reflux need to stop breastfeeding? Ideally, a baby with reflux should continue to breastfeed. If your baby may be allergic to cows milk protein, then an elimination trial of all cows milk from the mothers diet may help to improve symptoms .
Your Heartburn Drugs May Be Giving You Allergies Study Suggests
When heartburn or ulcer pain strikes, drugs can target stomach acid to calm bellies and offer relief. But a new study suggests the medications may come with a hive-inducing side effect: allergies.
After analyzing health insurance data from more than 8 million people in Austria, researchers found that prescriptions of anti-allergy medications surged in those who were prescribed stomach acid inhibitors, a class of drugs that includes proton-pump inhibitors and H2 blockers.
The findings, published Tuesday in the medical journal Nature Communications, suggest that disrupting the stomachs delicate balance of acids and enzymes may cause our immune systems to go haywire, triggering allergies that didnt previously exist.
We need to have the general awareness that the stomach has an important digestive function, and it has a kind of sterilizing function, said Dr. Erika Jensen-Jarolim, the studys lead author and a professor at the Medical University of Vienna.
What we get in terms of food and bacteria is actually denatured and degraded in normal stomach function, she told CNN. When you take anti-acids, this function is impaired, and we have a wide-open window, and many things enter the intestines that are not good.
Its not entirely understood how the medications contribute to allergies, but one explanation may be that reduced stomach acid allows undigested food to sneak out of our stomachs. Our immune systems, in turn, can see those foods as a threat.
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Its Possible To Have Overlapping Symptoms
With GERD and EoE sharing so many symptoms, how do you know which one you have? If you tend to experience these symptoms in spring and summer and you dont get any relief from antacids or acid-suppressing drugs, ask your doctor to order an endoscopy to see just how irritated your esophagus is. When I see a patient having difficulty swallowing or pain without swallowing, it can often be EoE, says Alexandra Guillaume, MD, a gastroenterologist at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York. It happens when the eosinophilsreacting to some sort of allergyoverwhelm the esophagus, leading the esophagus itself to become spastic. This makes it difficult for patients to swallow.
Histamine Balance And Regulation
The histamine response is an important and essential mechanism in the human body, important for regulation of the inflammatory responses as well as gastric function and digestion, and restoration of the histamine response and metabolism is obviously desired over simple blocking of histamine. In recent years, more and more warnings of adverse effects of chronic antihistamine use have led to a great interest in achieving histamine balance and homeostatic regulation, and a number of common herbal and nutrient chemicals have been found to achieve this restoration of histamine metabolism. Studies have also shown that acupuncture stimulation is very effective at modulation of histamine response. These studies have demonstrated that short courses of acupuncture and herbal/nutrient medicine are indeed effective to treat allergies, GERD and skin conditions.
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Your Acid Reflux And Swallowing Problems May Be Signs Of Eosinophilic Esophagitis
Over the past two decades, the incidence of children and adults needing medical attention because of difficulty swallowing or food impaction has risen, prompting researchers to take a closer look at the problem. The result of their research is the identification of an allergic/immune condition, which theyve labeled eosinophilic esophagitis .
At Allergy Asthma & Immunology Institute, Dr. Laura Ispas and our team have long been aware of EoE, helping patients in Leesburg, Virginia, find answers and workable solutions. To better acquaint you with EoE, which can mimic other gastrointestinal problems, weve pulled together the following primer.
How Do I Treat Acid Reflux Or Allergies
An ideal way to treat your symptoms is to take steps to reduce acid reflux. Avoid drinking alcohol and caffeine. Cut out mints, chocolate, and fried or fatty foods. Try to avoid lying down for two to three hours after eating. Sleeping with your head elevated about six inches can also help prevent acid from coming up the esophagus.
If you do have acid reflux and your avoidance techniques arent working, medicines may help. Many over-the-counter medicines are available, and if they arent working your doctor could prescribe something stronger.
An allergy test will diagnose if you have allergies to pollen or other substances. Your personal medical history can help determine if you might have EoE, although further tests by a gastrointestinal doctor would be needed to confirm that diagnosis, Dr. Lewis said.
If you do have a pollen allergy, your doctor can help you come up with a treatment plan, which can include anything from avoidance to over-the-counter medicines to immunotherapy.
Remember, you may have both allergies and acid reflux, so just because youve been diagnosed with one doesnt mean you might not still need care for the other. Fortunately, CEENTAs ENT doctors can determine if you have either condition and help you get the care you need.
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Your Childs Allergies Could Be Caused By Acid Reflux
Lots of kids and adults alike find themselves sniffling and blowing their nose more often this time of year due to seasonal allergies. But sometimes, these symptoms may be caused by something else entirely, according to a doctor at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.
Dr. Karen Zur, an ear, nose and throat specialist at CHOP, said a form of acid reflux can be responsible for a host of respiratory ailments, including allergies, that are often misdiagnosed. Zur co-authored a new book that calls attention to this kind of respiratory reflux in children and recommends a low-acid diet to clear up the breathing problems that can result from it.
Many people think of acid reflux as synonymous with heartburn. But the acidic content of our stomachs can be spewed up past the esophagus and higher up into the respiratory system without causing that familiar burning sensation. This is sometimes called silent reflux, and Zur said children who have it have often already been diagnosed with another condition.
After a thorough history from them and an examination, you can determine that maybe its not allergies, maybe they dont need to be on all these medicines, maybe we need to address some of their eating habits, Zur said.
She wants more doctors to become aware that acid reflux can be implicated in respiratory issues, and she recommends they give careful consideration to what their pediatric patients eat.
The Gut Connection: How It Works
The guts job to break down the food we eat into tiny pieces before its absorbed into the bloodstream where its used to produce energy, build new cells, and much more.
But the gut also has another critical job to keep unwanted compounds out of the bloodstream.
This complicates things because the gut barrier needs to determine what to let through, and what to keep out.
If it lets the wrong things into the bloodstream it can trigger a host of reactions including
- a whole host of other problems.
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Description Of Controls And Cases Of Ar/nar/sinusitis As A Function Of Main Risk Factors
2887 subjects participated in the clinical visit and they had a mean age of 50.1 years. Cases of AR and sinusitis were younger than controls and cases of NAR . Controls and cases of NAR had a lower level of education and physical activity, a higher prevalence of obesity than cases of AR and sinusitis. Atopy, which was used to define NAR and AR, had a prevalence of 27% in controls and 58% in cases of sinusitis. Nasal polyps were rare in controls and cases of NAR, and more common in cases of AR and sinusitis. Use of antihistamines and steroids was frequent among cases of AR, and rare among cases of NAR, while the use of vasoconstrictors was similar in the two groups. Sex, smoking habits and alcohol intake did not significantly differ between cases and controls .
Table 1 Number and percent of controls, cases of non-allergic rhinitis , allergic rhinitis and sinusitis as a function of main socio-demographic, lifestyle, and clinical characteristics
Allergies Gerd And Antihistamine Alternatives
Paul L. Reller L.Ac. / Last Updated: August 03, 2017
Doctors now warn their patients not to take antihistamine medications continuously because of the damage to the sinus membranes from long-term constant use. Health of the membrane tissues is most important to the immune response. A treatment protocol to restore healthy membrane immune responses is needed with all diseases treated with antihistamine medications, which are prescribed to relieve symptoms temporarily. Antihistamines as H2 Receptor Antagonists are also used to block stomach acid production combined with Proton Pump Inhibitors, but now come with warnings that prolonged use is associated with an array of adverse effects, including various nutrient malabsorptions and increased risk for GI infections. Sensible use of these antihistamine medications involves finding complement medicines and treatment to limit the use of the antihistamine medications to short courses taken only as needed. Complementary and Integrative Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine provide safe and effective holistic therapies that both relieve symptoms and eventually solve the underlying health problems that create the symptoms. The main effects of CIM/TCM are not just symptom relief, but actual improvement in the underlying health, or the root of the problem.
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How Acid Reflux Can Be Mistaken For Allergies Or Asthma
Do you or your child have a chronic runny nose or cough?
Some experts say those respiratory symptoms you thought were due to a cold might really be something else.
Do you feel congested or struggle with a scratchy, hoarse throat? Your troubles might not be in your lungs. Medical experts are starting to look to the stomach as the culprit.
Susan Howard is a registered nurse and volunteer teacher who gradually started having trouble in front of a large class.
Id lose my voice and say just bear with me,” Susan Howard said.
Lisa Smelkinsons symptoms appeared suddenly and they were tough to ignore.
I remember distinctly having lunch with a friend and coming home and coughing to the point of almost vomiting, Lisa said.
Both women were treated for months for what doctors thought were colds, allergies or asthma, until they visited Dr. Jamie Koufman.
The problem with the idea that its asthma or a cold is that the symptoms dont go away,” Koufman said. “Even after the asthma is treated, they continue to have symptoms.
Koufman says with silent reflux neither the lower valve and upper valve is working right.
So whats in the stomach is in the esophagus, is in the throat, and it sits there at night, she said.
Koufman says if you have trouble breathing in but not out, the problem could be reflux. She says the No. 1 risk factor is eating too much right before bed.
No physician ever said to me its dietary-related, Lisa said.
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
REPORT: MB #4465
Why Acid Reflux Sometimes Looks Like Allergies
There are multiple types of acid reflux, with the most common symptoms being heartburn, acid in the back of your throat, stomach pain and bloating.
But one type of acid reflux, known as silent reflux or Laryngopharyngeal reflux , has a much different – and often confusing – set of symptoms. These include post-nasal drip, excess mucus and a sore throat. If that sounds a lot like seasonal allergies or hay fever, you’ll understand why so many people misdiagnose themselves.
One key difference between allergies and acid reflux is that the latter won’t cause sneezing, itchy eyes or a runny nose. If you’re experiencing symptoms and aren’t sure whether you have allergies or LPR, make an appointment with your primary care doctor to get an accurate diagnosis.
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Luxury Mice Offered First Clues
While there is still lots to do in the future to understand the link between acid-targeting drugs and allergies, Jensen-Jarolim says shes studied the connection for years.
She got her first lead around two decades ago: a middle-aged man who said he started wheezing after eating caviar for the second time, with swelling in his mouth and throat as his blood pressure dropped.
The case was striking because allergies to caviar the small, pearly black fish eggs that regularly cost more than $100 per ounce are thought to be incredibly rare. Scientists have identified only a handful of cases to date.
It was an interesting case because we, or at least some people, still know exactly when we eat caviar. And our patient knew that he ate caviar for the first time seven years before the . So, he ate it twice, and he knew that in both instances he was on anti-acid treatment.
That suggested the man had become sensitized to caviar the first time he ate it, with too little acid in his stomach to break down the food, Jensen-Jarolim said. So, that was a model case, she added, because for other foods, its not so easy to single out the co-factors that occur.
