Something Doesn’t Feel Right Should I See My Doctor
Yes, absolutely. This applies to both chronic reflux and emergency situations.
If you suspect you have GERD, please speak to your doctor. Untreated GERD can lead to serious complications including:
- Laryngitis – May 2 weeks to recover provided irritation by stomach acid is arrested.
- Esophagitis – With potent acid suppression this can take 2-8 weeks to heal.
- Ulcers – Can potentially perforate if untreated.
- Strictures – Chronic inflammation can lead to scar tissue that restricts passage of food.
- Swallowing problems – This can lead to difficulty eating and drinking, and eventually cause weight loss
- Pre-cancerous changes to the esophageal lining – These may become cancerous.
If you have symptoms that make you suspect something more serious is going on, you should visit your local emergency department. Symptoms which may indicate a more serious condition include:
- Severe heartburn or heartburn that is worse than ususal
- Chest pain which may have a squeezing or pressure-like quality
- Difficulty breathing
- Pain that radiates to other areas of the upper body
- Dizziness
Treating Back Pain Caused From Acid Reflux
Your impulse when experiencing nausea from acid reflux may be to lie down.
Lying down can actually aggravate your acid reflux more, so instead consider finding a calm, quiet place to sit for a while.
To alleviate back pain brought on by acid reflux, improve your posture when you sit to stretch out your diaphragm.
In most cases, acid reflux can be treated with home remedies, lifestyle changes, and over-the-counter medications.
What Are The Symptoms Of Indigestion
Feeling discomfort in your tummy after eating or drinking is the main symptom of indigestion, but other common symptoms include:
- feeling full or bloated
- a burning feeling in your chest
- an acidic taste in your mouth
- feeling sick
- belching and farting
These symptoms can happen when acid from your stomach irritates the lining of your digestive system, causing soreness and swelling. Usually, youll notice them after youve eaten a large meal, but you can get them at any time.
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Control Your Acid Reflux
If you have frequent acid reflux, that means you have acid reflux disease . The vast majority of patients with acid reflux disease respond well to daily acid suppressing medications, such as proton pump inhibitors.
It’s important to note, however, that while these medications effectively manage symptoms, they are not a cure. The heartburn pain will go away, but the backsplash of damaging fluid still occurs.
That’s because proton pump inhibitors can’t fix the underlying mechanical problem the dysfunction of the valve between the esophagus and stomach. Long-term use of proton pump inhibitors can also cause significant side effects, and you must consider the lifetime cost of taking these medications.
For these reasons, surgery may be necessary to correct the valve mechanism, with the goal of eliminating the need for reflux medication. Advances in technology have improved doctors ability to tailor procedures to each individual patient, with greatly improved outcomes.
These techniques are performed through small or even no incisions, and serve to restore the valve mechanism between the esophagus and stomach to prevent acid reflux, explains Justin Karush, DO, a thoracic surgeon at Rush. Common procedures for GERD include laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication, transoral incisionless fundoplication and magnetic sphincter augmentation .
Abdominal Discomfort And Excessive Air In The Stomach
Everyone knows that when they have mild abdominal discomfort, belching often relieves the problem. This is because excessive air in the stomach often is the cause of mild abdominal discomfort as a result, people force belches whenever mild abdominal discomfort is felt, whatever the cause. Unfortunately, if there is no excessive gas to be expelled, forced belches do nothing more than draw air into the esophagus. Usually this air is expelled during the same belch , but the air also may enter the stomach, and itself result in excess gas that must be expelled with additional belching.
If the problem causing the discomfort is not excessive air in the stomach, then belching does not provide relief. As mentioned previously, it even may make the situation worse by increasing air in the stomach. When belching does not ease the discomfort, the belching should be taken as a sign that something may be wrong within the abdomen, and the cause of the discomfort should be sought. Belching by itself, however, does not help the physician determine what may be wrong because belching can occur in virtually any abdominal disease or condition that causes discomfort.
- carbonated beverages.
Excessive air in the stomach is not the only cause of belching.
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How Long Does The Chest Pain Associated With Acidreflux Last
Asked by Retha Sokol
How Long Does The Chest Pain Associated With Acidreflux Last?
I was taken to the ER on Tuesday of this week. They ran a few tests and determined that they thought it was Acid Reflux. However, after taking medication and eating small and bland foods, the pain in my chest is still persisting when I walk, lean over, or lay down. Would the pain associated with this last for three days?
How Can I Treat Indigestion
The good news is that you can manage mild and occasional indigestion yourself. Making some simple lifestyle changes can often help, including:
- cutting down on tea, coffee, fizzy drinks and alcohol
- losing weight if youre overweight
- eating a healthy, balanced diet
- using a pillow to raise your head slightly when youre in bed
- not eating after 4 hours before going to bed
- avoiding rich, spicy food
- avoiding medication which could make it worse, such as ibuprofen and aspirin
- stopping smoking
You can also ask a pharmacist for advice they may be able to recommend medication to treat heartburn.
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Not All Of Them Are Obvious
Feel like you just cant keep that nasty stuff in your belly from bubbling up into your throat? What youre experiencing might not be run-of-the-mill heartburn. It could be a case of gastroesophageal reflux diseaseGERD, for shorta condition that causes the acid and food in your stomach to rise into your esophagus, and sometimes even enter your mouth or lungs. GERD is far from rare: In fact, it occurs in 20 percent of the U.S. population, according to the medical journal Gastroenterology. But there are also several factors that make some people an easier target for the disease.
Everyone has a small, normal amount of gastroesophageal reflux, but an abnormal amount of acid reflux occurs when the one-way valve between the esophagus and the stomach, called the lower esophageal sphincter, becomes too loose, says Ketan Shah, M.D., gastroenterologist at Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California. This can occur for multiple reasons that cause intra-abdominal pressure to be abnormally elevated, including being overweight or obese, frequent overeating, lying down too soon after eating, chronic straining or coughing, or chronic heavy lifting. These are typically the people who are more susceptible to GERD.
Heartburn won’t go away
Bitter taste
Trouble swallowing
Heart Attack Feeling
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What Does Acid Reflux Feel Like Symptoms
Acid reflux is the main symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease , but GERD is associated with other symptoms like nausea, dry cough, hoarseness, sore throat, trouble swallowing, and a feeling of a lump in the throat. See your doctor if you experience pain, burning, or irritation in your chest or abdomen.
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What Treatments Relieve And Cure Indigestion
The treatment of indigestion is a difficult and unsatisfying topic because so few drugs have been studied and have been shown to be effective. Moreover, the drugs that have been shown to be effective have not been shown to be very effective. This difficult situation exists for many reasons including:
The lack of understanding of the physiologic processes that cause indigestion has meant that treatment usually cannot be directed at the mechanisms. Instead, treatment usually is directed at the symptoms. For example, nausea is treated with medications that suppress nausea but do not affect the cause of the nausea. On the other hand, the psychotropic drugs and psychological treatments treat hypothetical causes of indigestion rather than causes or even the symptoms. Treatment for indigestion often is similar to that for irritable bowel syndrome even though the causes of IBS and indigestion are likely to be different.
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How Long Heartburn Lasts
Heartburn can last anywhere from several minutes to a few hours, depending on the underlying cause.
For example, after eating a spicy meal, mild heartburn can last for as long as it takes to digest the food but the symptoms may reoccur a few hours after youve eaten, when you lie down in bed at night or when bending over.
Bending over allows gravity to help pull the acid from the stomach, potentiating the severity of heartburn symptoms. The symptoms often awaken a person during the night, while sleeping.
Occasional heartburn goes away on its own and can often be prevented by avoiding certain foods . But when heartburn is severe, it usually requires medical treatment.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Acid Reflux And Oesophagitis
- Heartburn: this is the main symptom. This is a burning feeling which rises from the upper tummy or lower chest up towards the neck.
- Other common symptoms: these include pain in the upper abdomen and chest, feeling sick, an acid taste in the mouth, bloating, belching, indigestion and a burning pain when you swallow hot drinks. Like heartburn, these symptoms tend to come and go and tend to be worse after a meal.
- Some uncommon symptoms: these may occur and if they do, can make the diagnosis difficult, as these symptoms can mimic other conditions. For example:
- A persistent cough, particularly at night, sometimes occurs. This is due to the refluxed acid irritating the windpipe . Asthma symptoms of cough and wheeze can sometimes be due to acid leaking up .
- Other mouth and throat symptoms sometimes occur, such as gum problems, bad breath, sore throat, hoarseness and a feeling of a lump in the throat.
- Severe chest pain develops in some cases .
Can Heartburn Last For Days
Usually, the symptoms last for an hour or 2 depending on the cause of the heartburn.
Not so severe heartburn after consuming a spicy and heavy meal is normal and will end when the food is digested.
Heartburn may also occur again after hours from the time it first appeared when one lies down or bends.
However, if the heartburn is common and appears a few times a week then its the result of gastroesophageal reflux disease and this is the condition for your when to see gastroenterologist question.
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Why Omeprazole Is Your Best Treatment Option For Acid Reflux
With moderate to severe cases of acid reflux, making simple lifestyle and dietary changes may not be enough to curb your symptoms. The good news? Prescription drug Omeprazole has been proven to be incredibly effective treatment, alleviating all symptoms!
Take control of your treatment by speaking with one of our online doctors today. They can help you discuss your best course of action, including prescription medication Omeprazole.
The best part? Omeprazole works the same as brand name acid reflux medicationsat a fraction of the cost! It works by reducing stomach acid, effectively preventing recurring episodes of acid reflux. Plus, most adults, including pregnant and breastfeeding women, can safely take Omeprazole.
Schedule a virtual doctors appointment, today.
How Common Is Indigestion
Indigestion is one of the most common ailments of the bowel , affecting an estimated 20% of persons in the United States. Perhaps only 10% of those affected actually seek medical attention for their indigestion. Indigestion is not a particularly good term for the ailment since it implies that there is “dyspepsia” or abnormal digestion of food, and this most probably is not the case. In fact, another common name for dyspepsia is indigestion, which, for the same reason, is no better than the term dyspepsia! Doctors frequently refer to the condition as non-ulcer dyspepsia to distinguish it from the more common acid or ulcer-related symptoms.
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So How Long Does Heartburn Last
Sadly, its difficult to say how long your heartburn is going to last, as this depends on each individual. For some it goes away after a few minutes, and with others it can stick around for hours or even days.
If youre experiencing the milder form of this condition that usually occurs after eating certain foods, then your heartburn symptoms can last until your body has digested the meal. The symptoms can also return when you lie down or bend over, as this puts extra pressure on the sphincter muscle.
If youre not among the lucky ones who only get heartburn during the day, you might be wondering how long heartburn can last at night. This form is known to be the most painful, and can even keep you up the whole night, and its also the most dangerous, since the stomach acid can stay in your oesophagus for longer, causing more damage to it. Night-time heartburn can also point to a more serious underlying medical condition, one that should be checked by a doctor.
What Are The Common Signs Of Gerd
The most common sign is heartburn. Heartburn is a pain in the middle of your chest. The pain from heartburn can be very strong. Sometimes the pain can be so strong that you think you’re having a heart attack.
GERD can cause other signs, too. You can even have GERD without having heartburn.
Sometimes GERD can cause problems in your throat. It can make you feel like you have a lump in your throat or like you always have to clear your throat. It can also cause hoarseness. You might be more hoarse when you first get up in the morning.
GERD can give you a burning feeling in your mouth. It can cause you to have a sore throat or to have trouble swallowing. You may feel like food is sticking in your throat. GERD may also make you feel like you’re choking or that your throat is tight. A dry cough is another sign. GERD can also cause bad breath. It can even cause pain in your ears.
If you have any of these signs, you may have GERD. Be sure to tell your doctor about any of these signs.
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Is Heartburn A Symptom Of A Heart Attack
Heartburn is often a symptom of GERD, but it can also be a symptom of a heart attack. In fact, heart attacks can cause other symptoms that usually happen with GERD, such as nausea, burping, and vomiting. In this case, the symptoms usually do not occur by themselves and will come with other symptoms that point to a more serious cause.
Can Acid Reflux Really Make You Feel This Bad
If you already have problems with acid reflux, your bending forward could actually force the stomach acid back up and cause you to feel sick or vomit. You have to already have acid reflux problems for this to be a potential cause, but it is a probable cause in many cases where people are suffering from acid reflux.
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Treat The Cause Not The Symptoms
Stage 3 and 4 patients have a very weak lower esophageal sphincter the LES and/or a hiatal hernia. If you have stage 3 or 4 GERD, you have an anatomical medical condition. Medications simply suppress the symptoms Medications do not and cannot treat the cause. At Houston Heartburn and Reflux Center, we can help you treat the cause of GERD through a minimally invasive surgical procedure. From initial consultation to diagnostic work-up, surgery, and post-op visits Houston Heartburn and Treatment Center:
- Facilitates a coordinated team approach of healthcare professional dedicated to the treatment of GERD.
- Offers access to an efficient, streamlined medical diagnostic program to confirm if you have GERD and/or hiatal hernia.
- Works with experienced surgeons who are specialist heartburn and reflux physicians.
- Acts as a liaison with healthcare providers to provide you with the best experience possible.
- Will help you meet your insurance requirements and assist in the insurance claim process.
- Will vigorously defend any insurance appeals process, if you are denied the benefits you are due.
What Can A Person Expect During The Diagnosis And Treatment Of Indigestion
The initial approach to dyspepsia, whether it be treatment or testing, depends on the patient’s age, symptoms and the duration of the symptoms. If the patient is younger than 50 years of age and serious disease, particularly cancer, is not likely, testing is less important. If the symptoms are typical for dyspepsia and have been present for many years without change, then there is less need for testing, or at least extensive testing, to exclude other gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal diseases.
On the other hand, if the symptoms are of recent onset , progressively worsening, severe, or associated with “warning” signs, then early, more extensive testing is appropriate. Warning signs include loss of weight, nighttime awakening, blood in the stool or the material that is vomited , and signs of inflammation, such as fever or abdominal tenderness. Testing also is appropriate if, in addition to symptoms of dyspepsia, there are other prominent symptoms that are not commonly associated with dyspepsia.
If there are symptoms that suggest conditions other than dyspepsia, tests that are specific for these diseases should be done first. The reason is that if these other tests disclose other diseases, it may not be necessary to do additional testing. Examples of such symptoms and possible testing include:
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