As its name suggests, it is a typical situation resulting from stomach acids or its contents going back up into your esophagus via LES (lower esophageal sphincter). This ailment is known as acid reflux. LES is the muscular ring located in your digestive tract at the point where the stomach and esophagus meet. When it opens, food is allowed to move into your stomach after you have swallowed it. Later, it closes back to prevent the stomach content from rising up towards the esophagus.
Your stomach has hydrochloric acid or more commonly known as HCL. This substance has very strong digestive and protective properties that help in breaking down of food and protects the stomach from pathogen bacteria. The inner coating of the stomach contains a special layer of cells that protect the mucosal lining from the acid. However, the esophagus has no such protection.
When the lower esophageal sphincter is damaged or weak due to multiple reasons, the lower esophageal sphincter doesn’t close properly. This event allows harmful stomach content to rise upward into the esophagus causing damage to the unprotected mucosal layer. In the case of acid reflux, as the stomach content rises upward into the esophagus, this movement is known as gastroesophageal reflux or acid regurgitation. Acid reflux is also termed as heartburn, although it has nothing related to your heart.
As stomach contest backs up into the esophagus repeatedly, it causes a wide range of symptoms. These symptoms depend on the portion of the gastrointestinal tract more commonly affected by stomach acids. Consequently, not every person with this disease displays the same symptoms.
Signs and symptoms of acid reflux disease
The symptoms can be mild or severe, depending on the stage of the disease. Most signs and symptoms can be influenced by the posture or specific time of the day such as when you lie down or bend over, after eating a heavy meal, consuming spicy or fatty food and others. You can suffer from acid reflux at any time. However, most people experience these signs at night. It is because lying down causes the acid to move upward into your chest. Some other factors that can cause or worsen the acid reflux disease include;
- Being obese or overweight
- Lying down after meals or eating heavy meals
- Taking snacks before bedtime
- Eating foods like tomato, mint, chocolate, citrus, fatty foods, garlic onion or spicy food
- Smoking
- Taking ibuprofen, muscle relaxers, blood pressure drugs or aspirin.
It is therefore important to take these common risk factors seriously, knowing that if you avoid them you will significantly increase your chances of recovery. Next, we are going to introduce you to the most common signs and symptoms of acid reflux disease.
1. Heartburn
One of the common symptoms of acid reflux is heartburn. It is characterized by experiencing pain in the lower part of the chest or throat. The stomach has a lining to avoid the damaging effects of hydrochloric acid. If the lower esophageal sphincter doesn’t stop the stomach acid leaking and entering into the esophagus, a burning sensation arises in the chest. This burning sensation or pain can range from mild to serve. However, its severity doesn’t indicate a permanent or lasting injury to the esophagus.
Heartburn is also a common feature of gastrointestinal as well as cardiac conditions like stomach ulcers, esophageal cancer, and heart attack. Therefore, it is important to consult with your health care provider for better evaluation and diagnosis of the underlying condition.
2. Sour taste
When the stomach acid backs upward to your mouth, the taste it leaves to it becomes bitter or sour. You may get a burning sensation in your mouth and throat as well. The reason behind soreness is the irritation of specific nerves that carry taste signals from the mouth to the brain. You may feel this sign, particularly in the morning because of the overnight backflow of the stomach contents.
3. Regurgitation
A feeling of food, bile or liquid moving upward towards your throat instead of moving downward, is known as regurgitation. In a few cases, vomiting may occur in adults. Children and infants having acid reflux disease may have repeated regurgitations. This condition can be completely harmless and quite natural in infants aged less than 18 months. As per the research of National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse, around 50% of the infants have acid reflux during the first three months.
However, it is not entirely harmless in adults due to the maturation of the inner lining of the esophagus. Chronic regurgitation can lead to increased severity of the disease and also increase the risk of lower esophageal cancer.
4. Dyspepsia
A burning sensation with discomfort in the upper part of the stomach is known as dyspepsia. It is also known as indigestion. Heartburn is a symptom of dyspepsia and indicates that your stomach is not functioning correctly to digest food. Sometimes, the patient may experience pain in the abdomen while others may describe this condition along with;
- Heartburn
- Feeling bloated
- Feeling uncomfortable
- Having an upset stomach
- vomiting or burping
All of these symptoms must be considered seriously as they may be pointing out at another problem known as a peptic ulcer, with another array of signs and symptoms, including occasional bleeding. In some cases, if not treated, they can lead to the medical emergency known as perforation.
5. Nausea and Vomiting
Plenty of ailments may trigger nausea. Therefore, it’s hard to know whether it’s due to reflux or not. However, in a few cases, the only symptom people report in acid reflux disease is nausea. If you feel nauseated and don’t know the reason, one thing you must consider is acid reflux. If you feel nauseous right after taking a meal, this shows a clear indication of acid reflux. In that case, a proper medical treatment like acid countering drug or antihistamines can cut down your discomfort.
Sometimes vomiting also develops following nausea. Of note, the color of the vomitus in acid reflux disease depends on the food that you have recently ingested. Sometimes the color could be bright red, which indicates active bleeding in the stomach. When vomiting is triggered by acid reflux, it usually leaves a burning sensation in the mouth due to the presence of acid.
6. Hoarseness
A hoarse voice can be a symptom of acid reflux. As the stomach acid starts to seep into the esophagus, it starts to irritate the vocal cords and its associated nerve supply. Damage to any of these structures can lead to hoarseness of the voice.
Hoarseness usually develops due to damage on one side of the vocal cord or when a unilateral nerve is damaged. However, bilateral damage can result in complete malfunctioning of the vocal cords, and you may lose your voice permanently. Thus, pay close attention to the condition if your voice suddenly becomes huskier than usual. If it happens right after you take a meal, it can be an indication of reflux.
7. Difficulty in swallowing
Dysphagia or difficulty in swallowing affects 1 out of 25 persons each year. In this condition, it becomes painful or difficult to swallow anything. There are a lot of potential causes of this condition and acid reflux disease is one of them. Besides acid reflux, it can develop due to
- Esophageal or stomach cancer
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson’s disease
- Stroke
In the case of acid reflux disease, the underlying cause of dysphagia is the constant regurgitation of the acid and food particles. Stomach contents are harmful and cause inflammation of the tissues, which is why you may feel intense pain and burning sensation while eating. As the disease progresses, many patients even avoid eating solid foods and shift their nutrient intake to fluids. This further leads to less supply of nutrients to the body, malabsorption, loss of appetite and a significant weight loss.
8. Sore throat
Your throat may get irritated due to the presence of acid and other harmful stomach contents. Acid reflux disease is often described by the sensation of having a lump in the throat and a hoarse voice. As there are other causes of sore throat, especially in the winter season, it’s better to consult your doctor for an evaluation.
♦ Other Symptoms of Acid Reflux Disease
Most kids under the age of 12 and a few adults with acid reflux disease don’t experience heartburn, dyspepsia and other aforementioned common signs of the acid reflux disease. Instead, they have other symptoms like the following:
1) Dry cough
A persistent dry cough can be indicative of acid reflux disease, especially if it is accompanied by other symptoms of this condition. It usually affects adults and the elderly. Some adults may get a feeling of having a lump obstructed in the throat and feel the urge of repeatedly coughing to clear their airways.
2) Asthma symptoms
Acid reflux doesn’t cause asthma, but it can aggravate the symptoms. For instance, wheezing and shortness of breath usually get worse due to the irritation caused by acid reflux in the airways. Sometimes regurgitation of the stomach contents into the lungs may also lead to an asthma-like condition called pneumonitis or chemical pneumonitis. It further leads to severe infection of the lung spaces and causes airway obstruction that needs immediate medical attention.
3) Emergency Symptoms of Acid Reflux Disease
According to research, acid reflux disease accounts for around 22 – 66% of the visit to emergency rooms for chest pain. The majority of patients take this condition as some sort of emergency related to the heart. It is due to the fact that the primary symptom of heart attack and acid reflux disease is the same; i.e., heartburn. As symptoms of this disease are usually similar enough, you should take them seriously and get yourself checked for more severe problems such as heart attack.
• Get a medical treatment in emergency instantly if you have:
- heartburn which seems different or gets worsens than usual
- Severe pain in the chest
- A crushing, tightening and squeezing sensation in the chest.
• Emergency care is also critical if the pain is felt during any physical activity or along with:
- Nausea
- Sweating
- Dizziness
- Pain extending towards the left arm, back, jaw, neck or shoulder
- Difficulty in breathing
Other than a heart attack, acid reflux symptoms can signal other serious problems as well. Call 911 immediately if the color of your stool becomes tar black or maroon or if the color of your vomitus is bloody, black, or resembles coffee grounds. These are probably signs of bleeding in your stomach, often because of peptic ulcer disease.
4) The Take-Away
Acid reflux disease is not highly fatal in most of the cases, yet it needs careful attention as it can give rise to more serious problems like esophageal cancer. In recent decades, the incidence of acid reflux disease and other associated gut condition is on the rise. It is due to poor eating habits and careless lifestyle.
Generally, it is recommended to visit a doctor to check for acid reflux disease if any one or two of the symptoms repeat twice a week. Acid reflux disease does not always exhibit the same symptoms in every patient and can be somewhat different from person to person. Likewise, it is not necessary that the disease will produce all of the symptoms mentioned above. Acid reflux disease is treatable with medications and care at its early stages. However, not giving due attention and delay the diagnosis may end up in an open incision of the patient’s abdomen or chest.