stomach

Reflux vs Ulcer [Show Notes]

 in Podcasts  tagged acid / GERD / heartburn / reflux / stomach / treatment / ulcer by

Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disorder

GERD, or just Reflux.

Reflux is a word that is used to describe something in your body that flows backwards.  The fluids in your body have a certain direction they naturally flow for your body to work properly.  If they start flowing backwards, it’s called reflux, and can lead to problems.

Is that like heartburn?

Yes, heartburn is a type of mild reflux.  Something (like a certain type of food or overeating) causes the stomach acid to bubble back up into the esophagus.

Overeating or other physiological disorder can cause the lower sphincter to not close tightly or completely.

Ulcer

They lining of your stomach produces the acid, thus it’s intended to be resistant against the acid.  The lining of the esophagus is not intended to handle that acid.  And stomach acid is way more acidic that our saliva or acidic foods that we may eat.

Now, if the acid-producing (and acid-resistant) lining of the stomach wall gets injured, and the layers underneath come in contact with the acid, it causes pain.

Would that cause someone to throw up blood?

Yes, it possibly would.  Any tissue that is living and working in your body, requires a blood supply to bring in nutrients and carry out waste.  So, the walls of your stomach is full of blood vessels.  If the acid, eats through the layers and gets to the blood vessels, that blood will spill into the stomach.  Unfortunately, your digestive system isn’t intended to digest large amounts of blood.  The pain from the acid plus the large amounts of blood can lead to nausea and vomiting.

How I assess ulcer or reflux

Where does it hurt?
– Reflux: in the esophagus or throat (even to the point of hoarseness)
– Ulcer: Stomach

Does it hurt worse when you’re hungry or after you eat?
– Reflux: hurts after food has gone into stomach or you lay down at night because you don’t have gravity holding the acid down into the stomach.
– Ulcer: hurts when the stomach is empty because the acid only comes in contact with the stomach lining, rather than having food to work on.

Treatment

The treatment for both is the same.  The goal for both is to reduce the acid production.  People will try to self-treat by taking tons and tons of OTC antacids (liquid or tablets).  Antacids are bases, so they goal is to neutralize the acids, but once that amount has moved into the intestines, the base is gone and the acid is till there.  Other acid reduces are OTC as well.  Histamine 2 Receptor Blockers (Pepcid, Zantac) can start to work within 30 minutes.  Proton Pump Inhibitors (Prilosec, Prevacid, Nexium) can take up to 2 weeks to reduce the acid, so not intended for instant treatment.

Bottom Line

Whether it’s ulcers or reflux, your doctor needs to know what’s going on so they can monitor your progress.  Anything that manipulates cells in your body (whether stomach cells damaged in an ulcer or esophageal cells being corroded by acid) can cause cellular changes that may become cancer.

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Music Credits:  “Radio Martini” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Location of Important Organs

 in Blog  tagged anatomy / brain / heart / location / lungs / organs / stomach by
Ever have a twinge and wonder what organs or body parts are in that area?  When the next step is to run a Google symptom search, you will find yourself faced with a potentially deadly diagnosis in approximately 3.2 seconds!
To avoid the unnecessary stress and anxiety of appointments with Dr. Google, help yourself make wise health decisions by knowing the approximate location of your organs.

Important Organs

Brain:  It’s in your head (obviously).  Interesting tidbit: your main is made of nerves but they are not sensory neurons, so your brain doesn’t feel.  The other things around your brain feel, like membranes and connective tissue inside and outside the skull.
Thyroid:  It is on the front of your neck right above the middle dip between your collar bones.
Heart:  Ball of your fist and put it right in the middle of your chest (yes ladies, right between your boobs).
Lungs:  They actually start way up high right below your collarbones and extend down and stop right about your last complete rib.
Stomach:  It starts in the middle, right under your sternum (or breastbone) and curves to the left. Interesting tidbit: laying on your left side causes gastric emptying, which is when the stomach dumps its contents into the top of the small intestines.
Liver:  It is shaped like a triangle on your right side, starts under your ribs. The long side of the triangle crosses over what you might call “the pit of your stomach”, the short side extends down about even with your belly button.
Gallbladder:  It’s located under the liver, a little to the right of “the pit of your stomach”.
Small intestine:  It snakes its way left and right across your abdominal region
Kidneys:  They are towards your back, under the bottom few ribs.
Colon:   It is right above your tailbone.  Interesting tidbit: this is why constipation can cause back pain.
Appendix:  It is on your right side, above your hip bone.
Bladder:  It is right above the pubic bone (the middle bone that connects the two sides of the pelvis). I mean, we all know what it feels like to have to pee, right?
So this is a list of the major things that you can’t see but you might be able to feel if something isn’t quite right.