Acid reflux, etc.

I had no interest in this topic until I witnessed a rather alarming episode when I was visiting an old friend and some of her family. We were at a restaurant and my friend had eaten about two-thirds of her salmon burger when she experienced pain between her shoulder blades. Soon after, she turned pale, had a vacant look in her eyes, broke out in a cold sweat, her hand shook, she threw up, and briefly passed out. It seemed to us she might be having a heart attack or stroke, so her daughter called 911 and my friend was hauled off to the hospital in an ambulance.

At the hospital, she immediately began to feel better. Her heart, blood pressure, and blood sugar were all fine. The doctor told her she had esophageal reflux, which astounded all of us. He assured my friend that her symptoms were consistent with that disease. For one thing, if she’d had a stroke, she certainly wouldn’t have recovered so quickly. The pain she experienced had triggered a cascade of the symptoms we observed. (People often experience pain in their chests from acid reflux; in my friend’s case, the pain was in her upper back.) After an hour or two the doctor discharged her and she was quickly her normal self.

Months prior to this event a doctor had told her she had acid reflux, but she pooh-poohed this idea—as I would have. I thought that with acid reflux a bit of stomach acid leaks into your esophagus but that it was no big deal. I’ve learned that it can be a big deal because of the damage it can do to your esophagus. In my friend’s case, the injury to her esophagus occasionally caused internal bleeding and anemia. As you can see in the illustration below, the leakage is a result of a faulty sphincter muscle between the stomach and esophagus.

The terminology used for this condition can be confusing: Acid reflux is a rather common condition that can range in severity from mild to serious; gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the chronic, more severe form of acid reflux; heartburn is a symptom of acid reflux and GERD.

Even though my friend would have been fine had she not gone to the hospital, we’re glad she did. We all learned a lot.

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