Other common symptoms are chronic cough (which, diagnostically speaking, is cough that persists longer than eight weeks), hoarseness, frequent throat clearing, and sore throat. They are more likely to have throat-related complaints such as feeling a lumplike sensation in the throat severe enough to cause dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing. In my practice, where we see up to seventy thousand people a month in more than forty different offices, over 90 percent of the people diagnosed with acid reflux disease do not have these typical symptoms. These symptoms are the poster children of acid reflux, but they aren’t the only symptoms related to acid damage-in fact, they’re not even the most common. Regurgitation is the sensation of food coming back up into your chest and throat after you’ve already swallowed it. The simple answer is that heartburn occurs when gastric acid from the stomach goes the wrong way, or refluxes, up into the delicate tissues of the esophagus, causing a burning sensation at the bottom of the chest and rib cage that can emanate out through the middle of the chest and toward the throat. Many of my patients ask: What are heartburn and regurgitation exactly, and how will I feel if I have them? Surprisingly, though so many people experience the symptoms, they don’t always know what causes them. You’ve likely heard of acid damage in the context of GERD, a condition that a doctor will typically diagnose you with only if you’re experiencing the symptoms of heartburn and regurgitation. What is acid damage? It’s a broad range of conditions that contribute to inflammation and disease in various parts of the body. Ten years ago this would have been a reportable finding, but not anymore.Īcid Damage 2.0: It’s Not Just Heartburn Anymore ![]() All of these patients had only throat-based symptoms and no heartburn complaints (more on this shortly). That’s a big number for a disease that was once considered rare in people under age fifty, and a startling revelation of how young people with the disease have become. Over the last year, in my practice alone, I have diagnosed Barrett’s esophagus, a potentially precancerous condition of the esophageal lining, in nine patients under age thirty. Even more alarming than the increase in the frequency of the occurrence is the severity of the symptoms. But experts in gastroenterology and otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat ) see it in their patients every day. ![]() Since there are no external signs of acid damage, you may not know how pervasive it is. Some researchers have even gone so far as to declare that a global GERD epidemic is taking place. Recent statistics reveal that incidence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), the most common form of acid damage, has more than doubled since 1995 in the United States alone at least sixty million people have acid reflux (the common name for GERD), and worldwide that number leaps to 1.4 billion people. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.ĭietary acid damage is one of the foremost health challenges Americans face, affecting more people than heart disease, diabetes, and celiac disease. His 28-day program is part of a two-phase eating plan, with a healthy balance of both macronutrients (proteins, carbs, and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants), that works to immediately neutralize acid and relieve the inflammation at the root of acid reflux. Jonathan Aviv, a leading authority on the diagnosis and treatment of acid reflux disease, helps readers identify those often misunderstood symptoms while providing a proven solution for reducing whole-body acid damage quickly and easily. Aviv guides readers through healthy dietary choices with targeted recipes, helping them balance their bodies and minds for optimal health and break acid-generating habits for good.ĭo you suffer from abdominal bloating a chronic, nagging cough or sore throat postnasal drip a feeling of a lump in the back of your throat allergies or shortness of breath? If so, odds are that you are experiencing acid reflux without recognizing its silent symptoms, which can lead to serious long-term health problems, including esophageal cancer.
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