Reflux

You get home from work, late as usual, a pepperoni pizza in your arms. You sit down, shake some chili pepper flakes onto the pizza and sit down to indulge, washing a few slices down with a beer, maybe two. You top it off with a cup of coffee and head straight to bed. Bad move. You might pay for your late-night indulgence, waking up in the wee hours with heartburn, the hallmark of acid reflux, or what doctors call GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease. Your biggest mistake? Lying down so soon after eating, which makes it easy for nasty stomach acid still churning around your pizza to burn its way up your esophagus.

It looks like an expensive bracelet, but the contraption laced in titanium beads gets placed around the esophagus rather than the wrist. The LINX Reflux Management System is a new treatment for acid reflux, a digestive order that causes heartburn, nagging cough and other chronic symptoms in 10 million to 20 million U.S. patients. The condition occurs when a weak valve where the esophagus meets the stomach, known as a sphincter, won't close properly, allowing bile and acid to wash up. Some doctors say the device, approved by the FDA last year, shows promise as an alternative for patients who don't find relief from drugs that reduce acid in the stomach, but don't want to get major surgery.

Do you have any inexpensive suggestions for treating heartburn? My son suffers from reflux, especially after eating. He has no insurance, so he cannot afford drugs like Nexium or Prevacid. His doctor says that it's not a heart problem or anything serious, but it causes him discomfort. Researchers have known for almost 30 years that stimulating saliva production by chewing gum or sucking on a lozenge can relieve heartburn. Saliva rinses the esophagus and buffers acid that has splashed out of the stomach.

Question: : A while ago, I read about persimmon tea for acid reflux. I have it from time to time, but my husband has it constantly. It is so bad that he wakes up almost every night and throws up! Prilosec, Nexium and a host of other drugs along with extra-strength Gaviscon or Pepcid do nothing. I made the persimmon tea. He drank a shot glass full the first morning and a shot glass after supper. From Day 1, he has slept soundly, and so have I. Nothing he eats now causes him heartburn. The recipe was simple, though we did have trouble finding persimmons at first.

Nothing seems to help my heartburn. I stopped drinking coffee, have used antacids for a long time, and have even tried the drugs advertised for heartburn that are now available without a prescription.Heartburn is caused by the backflow (reflux) of stomach contents, primarily gastric acid, which irritate the lining of the esophagus. It is important to control reflux, not only to stop the heartburn, but to prevent other complications of the disorder.These can include chronic inflammation, ulceration and even narrowing of the esophagus as a result of the chronic irritation from gastric contents.

Does sugar make kids hyperactive? Parents of young children never believe this, but the answer, at least according to some experts, is no. The American Academy of Pediatrics, in a book called The Official, Complete Home Reference Guide to Your Child's Nutrition, says that "when put to the test, the sugar-behavior link does not hold up." One study referenced by the doctors' group found "no effect on behavior or the ability to concentrate when sugar intake was far above normal, even among those whom parents identified as `sugar sensitive.

Q: For several months I have been troubled with heartburn almost every day. What causes it and what can I do to get rid of it?A: Your problem is a very common one. About a third of the population in this country suffers from heartburn at least once a month, and more than one in 20 has heartburn every day. Heartburn is a daily occurrence in about 25 percent of women during the early months of pregnancy.Heartburn is caused by irritation of the esophagus resulting from the back flow (reflux)

Q: My 18-month-old daughter kept a fever for a week, but didn't have a cold. Her doctor found infection in her urine. Does this mean she has bad kidneys? My grandmother had to go onto a kidney machine before she died.A: Your daughter probably had what is called a urinary tract infection, or UTI. Most children with UTIs have perfectly normal kidneys before and after the infection. Sometimes the bacterial germs that cause the infection never reach the kidneys. The kidneys are high up in the back, under the ribs.

I have taken Wellbutrin XL for two years, and it has taken care of my depression beautifully. In January, my insurance company switched me to the generic Budeprion XL. I didn't think twice about it. But since then I have been very depressed, crying and irritable, with no energy or ambition. I plan to return to Wellbutrin XL, even if I have to pay more. More than a dozen people have contacted us about experiences that are strikingly similar to yours. Some of them reported nausea or dizziness as side effects of Budeprion XL; all of them said their symptoms of depression had returned.

It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie: a pill-sized gadget equipped with two cameras, each of which takes seven photos a second and transmits them wirelessly to a nearby storage device. But the only thing this gadget will spy on is your esophagus. Known as the Pillcam ESO, the high-tech capsule is gaining fans among patients and doctors as a comfortable, convenient alternative to endoscopy. "It's ridiculously easy to use," says Dr. Blair Lewis, a gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

Napped right after that second bowl of ice cream? Ate too much at the post-graduation picnic? Overimbibed while watching the O's game? All of these behaviors can trigger what doctors call gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), or acid reflux. In fact, from 10 percent to 20 percent of Americans have symptoms of GERD once a week, says Andrew Rosenstein, gastroenterologist with St. Joseph Medical Center. Another 7 percent may suffer every day from GERD. What is GERD or acid reflux disease?

As long as there have been babies, there have been babies who spit up. Now this behavior, long dismissed as something that most infants just do, has evolved into a 21st-century disease. Critics say the condition is widely misdiagnosed and overtreated with unnecessary doses of heartburn medicine developed for adults. They call it the phenomenon of the "purple pill," a nickname for Nexium - one of many prescription drugs hawked incessantly on the airwaves to treat acid reflux, which itself is a medical term virtually unheard of 20 years ago. This aggressive marketing, critics say, can persuade parents to demand that their infants get medication they can easily do without - medication that is unlikely to be approved for small children, that could affect developing bones and that might not even work at blocking acid.

WASHINGTON -- The government is investigating whether popular acid reflux drugs Nexium and Prilosec cause heart problems, federal health officials said yesterday. An initial analysis indicates that the drugs don't increase the risk for heart attack or other heart problems, and the millions of patients taking the medicines or doctors prescribing them should continue, Food and Drug Administration officials said. AstraZeneca, the British maker of the two drugs, alerted the FDA of possible side effects May 29 after making a preliminary review of data from two long-term studies comparing the drugs' effectiveness to surgery.

I have taken Wellbutrin XL for two years, and it has taken care of my depression beautifully. In January, my insurance company switched me to the generic Budeprion XL. I didn't think twice about it. But since then I have been very depressed, crying and irritable, with no energy or ambition. I plan to return to Wellbutrin XL, even if I have to pay more. More than a dozen people have contacted us about experiences that are strikingly similar to yours. Some of them reported nausea or dizziness as side effects of Budeprion XL; all of them said their symptoms of depression had returned.

Does sugar make kids hyperactive? Parents of young children never believe this, but the answer, at least according to some experts, is no. The American Academy of Pediatrics, in a book called The Official, Complete Home Reference Guide to Your Child's Nutrition, says that "when put to the test, the sugar-behavior link does not hold up." One study referenced by the doctors' group found "no effect on behavior or the ability to concentrate when sugar intake was far above normal, even among those whom parents identified as `sugar sensitive.

It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie: a pill-sized gadget equipped with two cameras, each of which takes seven photos a second and transmits them wirelessly to a nearby storage device. But the only thing this gadget will spy on is your esophagus. Known as the Pillcam ESO, the high-tech capsule is gaining fans among patients and doctors as a comfortable, convenient alternative to endoscopy. "It's ridiculously easy to use," says Dr. Blair Lewis, a gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

In retrospect, it was clear from the moment Samantha Fargo was born six years ago that something was very wrong. At first, she was too weak to breast-feed. By five weeks, she could drink from a bottle, but had such bad reflux (in which food backs up in the esophagus from the stomach) that her parents, Justine and Bill Fargo of Medford, Mass., had to keep her semi-upright all the time. She didn't walk until she was a year and a half old. Worse yet, she never seemed to have much energy. This spring, she developed gastroparesis, in which her stomach and intestines stopped functioning, prompting a long hospitalization.

When local writer Jonathon Scott Fuqua lost a close friend to esophageal cancer in 2001, he dealt with his pain by penning a young-adult novel about a boy grappling with his father's imminent death from throat cancer. The book, The Willoughby Spit Wonder, was published in 2004 to rave reviews - only months before Fuqua found out that he, too, suffered from a throat ailment that was a precursor to the cancer that claimed his friend's life. As The Willoughby Spit Wonder hit bookstores, Fuqua was diagnosed with Barrett's Esophagus, a rare but preventable throat disease that can progress to cancer.