How Acid Reflux Can Worsen Your Asthma
Asthma is a chronic lung condition that is characterized by
difficulty in breathing, wheezing, and mucus accumulation.
People with asthma have extra sensitive or hyper-responsive
airways. During an asthma attack, the airways become irritated
and react by narrowing and constructing, causing increased
resistance to airflow, and obstructing the flow of the air
passages to and from the lungs.
Some research indicates that the symptoms of asthma may get
worse when you have heartburn or acid reflux. Acid reflux occurs
when your undigested stomach content moves back up into your
esophagus.
Acid reflux can cause painful heartburn which you can relieve
with antacid medicines or natural remedies. Antacids simply
neutralize your stomach's acid, which reduces the burning
sensation in your esophagus tube. It is best to use natural
remedies first because neutralising stomach acid is a temporary
method and only serves to suppress the cause of acid reflux.
For acid reflux, it is best to use digestive enzymes. Take a
good digestive enzyme with every meal you eat. The next step
would be to learn how to eat so you don't get acid reflux or
heartburn.
Acid reflux happens mostly in people who are older and
overweight. But sometimes it can happen in children and in all
types of people.
In some studies, researchers have injected acid into the
esophageus of people with asthma, and it had a significant
impact on their asthma and increased their asthma symptoms.
These is also evidence to suggest that people who have asthma
get acid reflux more often than people without asthma. This is
probably because of the big pressure changes in the chest during
breathing in people with asthma. These high pressures could
force liquid to travel the wrong way up the esophagus.
In these cases, asthma sufferers seem to lose out twice: they
suffer from asthma and they may suffer from acid reflux more
often than non asthma sufferers.
However, this is not the whole story. If acid reflux really was
an important cause of asthma worsening, then treatments against
acid reflux should make the asthma better, however, this is
generally not the case.
In the meantime, if you have asthma and you also have acid
reflux, it could just be that careful treatment of your reflux
will make your breathing better.
If your asthma is bad and no-one knows why, some doctors would
check whether you have or had acid reflux by conducting tests to
measure the acidity in your stomach. If the result showed a
tendency for acid reflux, then your doctor should help you
eliminate this condition.
Using a doctor who uses natural methods to treat acid reflux is
the best way to go. Using drugs to eliminate acid reflux when
you are already taking drugs for asthma is asking for addition
health problems in the future. Drugs do not cure acid reflux and
cause Theis condition to worsen. It is best to use natural
remedies and diet to eliminate acid reflux and heartburn.