Understanding Acid Reflux

If you live with asthma, then you know which triggers are likely to set off an attack. It may be dog hair or the field of dandelions next to where you work, or cigarette smoke or a hundred other possibilities. Every person reacts differently to various triggers. It doesn’t take long to learn what the problem triggers are causing you the most trouble.

But what if the trigger behind your asthma attack wasn’t caused by external factor? What if it was caused by something within your own body?

Researchers are finding that asthma and acid reflux can be interlaced conditions that negatively affect each other. If you have both asthma and are experiencing acid reflux, you should know that they can compound the stress on your body. To understand how this happens, let’s take a quick look at both of these conditions:

Understanding Acid Reflux

Gastroesophageal reflux disease is the medical term for what we commonly refer to as acid reflux. This condition is created when stomach acid rises into the esophagus, causing inflammation and damage to the esophageal lining. The regurgitated acid generally consists of acid, bile, and pepsin. This process can cause a mild burning in the chest, sometimes known as heartburn.

Understanding Asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes airways (bronchial tubes) to be particularly sensitive to irritants. The result is characterized by difficulty in breathing. It works this way: during an asthma attack, smooth muscles around the bronchial tubes contract, making the airway openings narrower so less air can flow through.  Inflammation increases and the airways become more swollen and narrow.  Cells in the airways also make more mucus than usual, which narrows the airways further.  It’s the changes to the airways that cause the symptoms of asthma. Asthma is caused by a slough of triggers, and what causes attacks are different for every sufferer.

The Combination of The Two

When these two serious conditions are combined they feed off each other. Asthma can cause acid reflux, and acid reflux can cause asthma. It works this way … when you experience an asthma attack the pressure in your lungs shifts, which places pressure on the esophageal sphincter, which allows the stomach acid to rise into the esophagus and spill into the lower airways of your lungs. Once the acid gets into your lungs, it can cause the muscles to constrict, which then leads to another asthma attack with the added element of heartburn. As you can see, it can go around and around.

What You Can Do

Unfortunately, there isn’t much that you can do. If you suffer from asthma, you more likely to suffer from acid reflux. And researchers haven’t discovered a treatment yet that addresses both of these problems, particularly when they’re feeding each other. The current approach is to make every effort to control the acid reflux so that it doesn’t contribute to the asthma. This is commonly achieved with medications, eating smart (avoiding dairy products, citrus fruits, and caffeine for instance), and minimizing the stress in your life if you suffer from asthma.