Friday, 19 February 2010

Medical: Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Image from itechtalk
Recently, I think I have done some very bad things to my own body: I eat at irregular time, I combine two meals into one, I eat a lot at one time just so that I don't have to eat twice, I eat quickly and I eat late at night, sometimes before I sleep late at night.

Now, why am I doing that? Guess I am too busy, or maybe all those listed above have become my bad bad habits. You see, I do enjoy eating slow meals at a nice restaurant, but it always turns out that I am grasping for breath when I finish my bite, which means, I didn't even know I was eating too fast!

As a result, what do I get? I get something call acid reflux, or the proper name, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). Basically, it is when the food and juice in the stomach rush back to the oesophagus, and thus the gastric acid "burns" the walls of the oesophaghus and causing inflammation.

My symptoms include heartburn, trouble swallowing (dysphagia) and pain with swallowing (odynophagia).

There could be other symptoms for other people, so you may want to read up on more articles for further details.

There were a few days when I had to take strong medicine to relieve the pain, but eventually, it was the change back to regular lifestyle that helped me recover.

It is so good to be able to eat ~! Have a healthy life!

PS: By the way, I have to watch the amount of coffee I am drinking now. And when I drink, I have to make sure that I eat before I drink, because coffee increases the risk of acid reflux [1].



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