You Can"t Die Of Heartburn - Can You?
If you have ever suffered with heartburn, acid indigestion, reflux, gerd or gord (depending on which side of the Atlantic ocean that you live) severe stomach bloating, gripe pains in your gut, constipation or diarrhoea then you will know that it can seriously affect the quality of your life.
Please, take it from one who knows, take it from one who has walked in your shoes for 35 long pain-filled years that I understand exactly how you feel.
From the about 22 years of age until I hit 56 years which was about 3 years ago, my life was a constant roller coaster of normality followed by bouts of crippling pain, followed by normality and so on and so on - I think you get the picture.
Doctor! I hear you cry! Go see a doctor.
Well yes, good advice I guess and I did see doctors - lots of them.
I was prodded and probed, medicated with this and with that and even had a camera shoved down my neck to see just what the heck was going on.
Throughout these 35 years I swallowed enough antacid type pills to sink a battleship.
By now I should own the makers of Gavison never mind have shares in the company.
What I want to discuss today is not so much the where's and whys' of your pain but more to bring your attention to the possible dangers of continuous heartburn and how yes indeed it could kill you if neglected.
There is now considered to be a definite link between continuous heartburn acid attacking your oesophagus (forgive me stateside people I know you spell it slightly differently as in esophagus which to be fair makes more sense to me but hey, what do I know? English language was never my strong point) and oesophageal cancer.
No I'm not a doctor so please people, do your own due diligence and read up on what I am about to share with you.
So far as I understand it, the danger is brought on by the acid in your stomach backing up into your oesophagus.
Now the reasons for this happening in the first place can be many and varied and not up for discussion at this point, however I do know that one of the reasons for this happening is due to a weak or faulty valve between the stomach and your oesophagus.
I actually have first-hand experience of this bodily malfunction because when the camera was introduced to this area of my body this is indeed was what the consultant found.
This faulty valve can be this way when you are born or it can weaken with age.
I'm not sure how or when I got mine but what I do know is that as I got older the situation definitely got worse as did the terrible pain.
Now as you may already know, the lining of the oesophagus is not designed to cope with burning acid from the stomach.
When it's repeatedly exposed to stomach acid the oesophagus will try and protect itself by creating a new lining.
When this occurs the condition is referred to as Barrett's oesophagus and the danger lies in the fact that this condition is more likely to turn cancerous than normal tissue.
There's also a twist to it too because once this Barrett's oesophagus condition exists quite often the pain will subside.
That doesn't however mean that the acid is not still splashing back.
Just because you can't feel the pain doesn't mean that damage isn't still being done.
My point here is not to frighten the wits out of you because it must be said that most people with this condition do NOT go on to develop cancer BUT your chances DO increase.
That said however it's quite alarming to note that the main current causes of oesophageal cancer are smoking and drinking for one type and heartburn, acid reflux, acid indigestion or whatever label you personally put on it for another.
It also has to be said that current trends seem to be seeing an increase in oesophageal cancer caused by heartburn.
In the UK there is a support group called Heartburn Cancer Awareness and Support.
You can find them here http://www.
h-cas.
org/ One of the problems is that there are still many GP's and Pharmacists' (certainly in the UK anyway) that are not aware of this deadly link.
This is a situation which is currently in the process of being rectified so that when either of these professionals encounters a patient with recurrent heartburn problems then the possibility of the Barrett's oesophagus should be considered.
If we forget the symptoms for the moment, it isn't hard to see where this typical modern-day scourge originates from.
Summed up in one word - FOOD! What we put in our mouths at some point, either 5 minutes or 5 years down the line will have an effect on our overall health condition.
Rubbish in - rubbish out! Our modern diet consists in the main of foods that break down into acidic ash and not enough of what we eat reduces to alkaline ash.
That is another topic for another day.
In conclusion, can heartburn kill you? Yes it can.
So take it seriously.
Don't keep burying your head in the sand hoping that it will just go away.
A piece of advice I read of recently given by a doctor to a newspaper advice column was this.
At the first sign of heartburn, the very first sign do something as quick as you can to get rid of it.
Do not put up with it, hoping that it will just go away.
Take an antacid tablet or some health salts in water or bicarbonate of soda in a little milk.
Deal with the pain first and then try to deal with the cause after.
I have now been free of pain for nearly 3 years.
I still have as far as I'm aware a faulty valve between my stomach and oesophagus but I have no pain and take no medication.
Please, take it from one who knows, take it from one who has walked in your shoes for 35 long pain-filled years that I understand exactly how you feel.
From the about 22 years of age until I hit 56 years which was about 3 years ago, my life was a constant roller coaster of normality followed by bouts of crippling pain, followed by normality and so on and so on - I think you get the picture.
Doctor! I hear you cry! Go see a doctor.
Well yes, good advice I guess and I did see doctors - lots of them.
I was prodded and probed, medicated with this and with that and even had a camera shoved down my neck to see just what the heck was going on.
Throughout these 35 years I swallowed enough antacid type pills to sink a battleship.
By now I should own the makers of Gavison never mind have shares in the company.
What I want to discuss today is not so much the where's and whys' of your pain but more to bring your attention to the possible dangers of continuous heartburn and how yes indeed it could kill you if neglected.
There is now considered to be a definite link between continuous heartburn acid attacking your oesophagus (forgive me stateside people I know you spell it slightly differently as in esophagus which to be fair makes more sense to me but hey, what do I know? English language was never my strong point) and oesophageal cancer.
No I'm not a doctor so please people, do your own due diligence and read up on what I am about to share with you.
So far as I understand it, the danger is brought on by the acid in your stomach backing up into your oesophagus.
Now the reasons for this happening in the first place can be many and varied and not up for discussion at this point, however I do know that one of the reasons for this happening is due to a weak or faulty valve between the stomach and your oesophagus.
I actually have first-hand experience of this bodily malfunction because when the camera was introduced to this area of my body this is indeed was what the consultant found.
This faulty valve can be this way when you are born or it can weaken with age.
I'm not sure how or when I got mine but what I do know is that as I got older the situation definitely got worse as did the terrible pain.
Now as you may already know, the lining of the oesophagus is not designed to cope with burning acid from the stomach.
When it's repeatedly exposed to stomach acid the oesophagus will try and protect itself by creating a new lining.
When this occurs the condition is referred to as Barrett's oesophagus and the danger lies in the fact that this condition is more likely to turn cancerous than normal tissue.
There's also a twist to it too because once this Barrett's oesophagus condition exists quite often the pain will subside.
That doesn't however mean that the acid is not still splashing back.
Just because you can't feel the pain doesn't mean that damage isn't still being done.
My point here is not to frighten the wits out of you because it must be said that most people with this condition do NOT go on to develop cancer BUT your chances DO increase.
That said however it's quite alarming to note that the main current causes of oesophageal cancer are smoking and drinking for one type and heartburn, acid reflux, acid indigestion or whatever label you personally put on it for another.
It also has to be said that current trends seem to be seeing an increase in oesophageal cancer caused by heartburn.
In the UK there is a support group called Heartburn Cancer Awareness and Support.
You can find them here http://www.
h-cas.
org/ One of the problems is that there are still many GP's and Pharmacists' (certainly in the UK anyway) that are not aware of this deadly link.
This is a situation which is currently in the process of being rectified so that when either of these professionals encounters a patient with recurrent heartburn problems then the possibility of the Barrett's oesophagus should be considered.
If we forget the symptoms for the moment, it isn't hard to see where this typical modern-day scourge originates from.
Summed up in one word - FOOD! What we put in our mouths at some point, either 5 minutes or 5 years down the line will have an effect on our overall health condition.
Rubbish in - rubbish out! Our modern diet consists in the main of foods that break down into acidic ash and not enough of what we eat reduces to alkaline ash.
That is another topic for another day.
In conclusion, can heartburn kill you? Yes it can.
So take it seriously.
Don't keep burying your head in the sand hoping that it will just go away.
A piece of advice I read of recently given by a doctor to a newspaper advice column was this.
At the first sign of heartburn, the very first sign do something as quick as you can to get rid of it.
Do not put up with it, hoping that it will just go away.
Take an antacid tablet or some health salts in water or bicarbonate of soda in a little milk.
Deal with the pain first and then try to deal with the cause after.
I have now been free of pain for nearly 3 years.
I still have as far as I'm aware a faulty valve between my stomach and oesophagus but I have no pain and take no medication.
Source...