Who has never felt burning in the esophagus, possibly accompanied by acid regurgitation after a heavy meal?
If everyone can have this unpleasant experience from time to time, a third of adults complain about it regularly and 5% to 10% suffer from it on a daily basis.
This problem has a name well known to doctors: gastroesophageal reflux disease.
A disease which, when it becomes chronic, can cause damage if left untreated.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (or GERD) is purely mechanical.
"It occurs when the barriers that normally oppose the rise of gastric contents do not work properly
," explains Professor Frank Zerbib, head of the hepato-gastroenterology department at the Bordeaux University Hospital.
The stomach contains an acidic liquid which participates in digestion, but
“the pressure in the abdomen and in the stomach is positive, while it is negative in the esophagus, which can favor the reflux of gastric contents towards the esophagus”
, specifies…
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