What Is Acid Reflux And What Are Its Symptoms?

You may remember at least one incident during which you felt some sour liquid come up into your esophagus. Such coming up of the liquid is known as acid regurgitation and the condition is known as acid reflux. Do you know what is acid reflux? Acid reflux is a medical condition that relates to the coming up of acidic digestive contents from the stomach into the esophagus.

The digestive contents in the stomach become acidic due to the presence of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. This acid is secreted by the epithelial cells lining the stomach. An acidic environment is required in the stomach for the action of digestive enzymes in the stomach on the food that we eat.

Very mild incidents of acid reflux do not have any medical significance.

Only when severe acid reflux causes heartburn do they assume any significance. Statistics show that more than 7 million people in the US suffer from severe acid reflux.

Such cases of severe acid reflux are known by the term reflux esophagitis. Heartburn is the burning pain felt in the chest just behind the breastbone. Chronic heartburn is a symptom of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD). The disease is also characterized by dyspepsia in about 50% cases.

Dyspepsia is a disturbance in digestion with symptoms of nausea, vomiting, bloating, and stomach discomfort. However, some people may have dyspepsia alone, without the heartburn symptoms that are characteristic of GERD.

During heartburn, a moving burning pain is first sensed in the upper part of the stomach. It moves up through the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) into the esophagus. The sphincter is situated at the join of the esophagus and the upper end of the stomach. Most heartburn incidents take place during the night. The burning pain sensed during heartburn is akin to that experienced in cases of congestive heart failure or by angina sufferers.

Not much correlation exists between the severity of heartburn and the actual damage to the esophagus. Some people may have severe heartburn without any associated damage to the esophagus. There is a difference between the pain suffered in the chest due to angina or heart attack on one hand and the heartburn of severe acid reflux.

The main symptom of severe acid reflux is acid regurgitation. Some other symptoms are heartburn, nausea, vomiting, and stomach discomfort. Some more uncommon symptoms include acid laryngitis, dysphagia, chronic sore throat, and persistent cough. All the latter symptoms are felt in the throat.

Acid laryngitis is identified by hoarseness, dry cough, and a lump-in-the-throat feeling. Dysphagia is identified by difficulty in swallowing food.

A condition known as erosive esophagitis results if severe acid reflux is allowed to continue for some time, without any medicines being taken for it. In this condition, extensive damage occurs to the cells lining the esophagus. A further severe extension of what is acid reflux occurs in Barrett's esophagitis, through precancerous changes in these cells.

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