As one of many costly health disorders in the US, GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease) and heartburn, are costing Americans billions of dollars every year! It’s time to put the fire out!
Unable to find any current fiscal impact studies, I relate the last – 2009 study: It is estimated at that time we were spending about $142 billion per year in the treatment of digestive disorders, GERD accounting for $15-$20 billion. That was an increase of 42% over the previous 10 years. Now we are 10 years past that study and GERD and related disorders are climbing even higher. The amount of money spent per year on this disorder is staggering!
It doesn’t have to be. There are many things that set the stage for heartburn or reflux to occur, that is completely within our control to fix. I understand that when your gut fires are raging, you don’t care what you spend, you just need to put the fire out! To do that, we need to be looking at several things – we have to be our own “arson” investigator.
As all firemen know, you don’t just show up at a fire and start dousing it with water. There are protocols to follow to ensure the safety of the personnel, the safety of potential victims and personal property, containing it in an organized way, then conducting an investigation to find out what caused it.
Similarly, but in a different order, we have to find out what went wrong that caused the digestive distress in the first place, contain it (get the symptoms under control), then, while always supporting patient health and safety, applying methods that reduce or reverse the damage done and correct the reason for the fire (heartburn or reflux).
Other than the investigative work (that happens first), all the others happen at the same time in a treatment program aimed at correcting the underlying mechanism that set the stage for this flaming hot disease to happen in the first place.
What happens if you don’t put the fire out? More damage happens. In reflux, esophageal inflammation or erosion, can lead to Barrett’s Esophagus, and can progress into esophageal cancer. You can get a stricture, or esophageal spasm, making swallowing nearly impossible and necessitating your esophagus getting stretched. You can get a chronic cough causing throat and lung issues.
But the fires burn even deeper than what is commonly written, as above. When you are taking PPI’s (proton pump inhibitors), drugs that stop your stomach’s acid enzyme’s (which, by the way, are supposed to be there, and are supposed to be acidic!), you can’t digest well. That means you can’t repair and rebuild tissues at the rate you are supposed to. You are at risk for kidney and heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, bone fractures, and other diseases, including dementia.
With the use of good investigative work, acupuncture and nutritional changes, much can be done to get the fires put out!
©2019 Holly A. Carling, O.M.D., L.Ac., Ph.D.
