Dr. Dean Edell: Does heartburn turn your sweet dreams into a nightmare? If so you got a lot of company. 60 million Americans have heartburn each month, but when it happens regularly it could be a sign of a more serious condition known as gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD. Now GERD often rears its ugly head at bedtime making it hard to get a good night sleep, left untreated it can lead to more serious problems.
Here is how to put your sleepless stomach to rest.
Female Speaker: It sometimes had pains so bad that I felt as having heart attack.
Male Speaker: Get up at night or also heartburn.
Dr. Dean Edell: Heartburn, regurgitation, indigestion. If you suffer from your GERD, the choices you make during the day can haunt you at night.
Dr. Neil Stollman: Up to 20% or 25% of adults in this country will at some point be labeled with a diagnosis of reflux disease.
Dr. Dean Edell: GERD or acid reflux happens when acid backs up from the stomach into the esophagus.
Dr. Neil Stollman: The lower esophageal sphincter or valve at the bottom of the esophagus can be too weak or can relax too much and allow these contents to come back up.
Dr. Dean Edell: Nighttime can make matters worse. While lying down damaging acids concrete out of the stomach into the esophagus and burn the protective lining.
Dr. Robert Bresalier: We don't salivate as much at night with is that protective mechanism. So we lose a whole variety of protective mechanisms in the nighttime hours.
Dr. Dean Edell: A study found almost 80% of GERD sufferers have painful symptoms at night. 40% said it slows them down the next day.
Dr. Robert Bresalier: People with nighttime reflux especially actually can feel tired during the day, have decreased energy.
Dr. Dean Edell: Because GERD can masquerade as other diseases, some people don't even know they have it.
Dr. Steven Morris: Chronic cough, recurring sinusitis, pneumonia, symptoms such as get a tickly or sore throat over a long period of time.
Dr. Dean Edell: Left untreated GERD can lead to more serious problems like bleeding, ulcers or Barrett's Esophagus which is a precursor to cancer.
Reid Fleming: You go for walk.
Dr. Dean Edell: Four years Reid Fleming lived on a daily diet of antacids.
Reid Fleming: I think heartburn to be -- it's normal. I wasn't, I don't think I had a day free of heartburn.
Dr. Dean Edell: Then in 1996, he got a wake-up call. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
Reid Fleming: Nobody ever said, well this acid could lead to cancer, or this heartburn can lead to cancer, never. It really brought up.
Dr. Joel Richter: It's a problem with heartburn as the American public thinks everybody had heartburn.
Dr. Dean Edell: Well, esophageal cancer makes up just 1% of cancers diagnosed with nighttime refluxers are 11 times more likely to develop it than those who don't.
Dr. Joel Richter: I don't want to scare people about it but we got to take heartburn more seriously.
Dr. Dean Edell: Medication is one way to keep GERD in check over-the-counter, antacids neutralize acid in the stomach, while H2 blockers or antihistamines reduce acid production.
Dr. Glen Lehman: They are first cousins of the medicines that dry up stuffy noses, but these antihistamines dry up stomach acid.
Dr. Dean Edell: Powerful drug called Proton Pump Inhibitors or PPIs do more than reduce acid. They shut off acid hey shut off acid production completely.
Dr. Steven Morris: By blocking what we call proton pump, we're blocking the end step.
Dr. Dean Edell: In addition to relieving symptoms PPIs can help heal erosion to the esophagus caused by acid.
Dr. Steven Morris: We know that with proper treatment you can reverse most of this damage and get back towards a normal esophagus.
Dr. Dean Edell: More than 90% of patients improve with PPI treatment. But Walter Fiallos fell into that small percentage who needed something more.
Walter Fiallos: Anything that I'd eat that will digest and even if it were a piece of bread and a glass of water.
Dr. Dean Edell: Instead of invasive surgery he chose a procedure called stretta that uses radio frequency energy to reduce symptoms.
Male Speaker: It really involved simply delivering heat to a certain place.
Dr. Dean Edell: Doctors use electrodes to make strategic burns in the esophagus. The scar tissue tightens the valve, reducing the reflux.
Dr. Neil Stollman: About three-quarters of them are completely off of the medication that they all required previously.
Walter Fiallos: I will have extra onions.
Dr. Dean Edell: For Walter life with extra onions hold the reflux is a dream come true.
Walter Fiallos: I can sleep better at night. My bed is not elevated anymore and I can eat things that I was not able to before.
Dr. Dean Edell: And as for Reid, seven years after his diagnosis, he is still cancer free and his sleepless stomach has finally been put to rest.
Reid Fleming: But I think I just, you know, I just sort of take things little lightly now.
Dr. Dean Edell: Adopting a few new habits can also help control GERD, like cutting out smoking, caffeine and fatty foods. Avoid eating close to bedtime. Wear looser fitting clothes. Shed some pounds if you're overweight and at night raise the head of your bed.
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