GERD: Living With Acid Reflux Disease (MyModernHealth FAQs) by David Olle

Author:David Olle [Olle, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mercury Learning and Information
Published: 2015-06-28T21:00:00+00:00

Long-term exercise programs could reduce GERD if they result in weight reduction in obese patients.

44. Does stress increase GERD symptoms?

The stress response developed in early man as a means of coping with physical threats to his existence. When the senses perceive a danger, various neurological and hormonal responses take place in the body to prepare the person to cope with the danger. Although physical threats still exist for modern man, quite often stress is psychologically based. When this happens, the stress response no longer serves its original purpose to gear up the person to confront the stress by “fight or flight.” In this situation, stress can become chronic, with detrimental effects on the body.

Stress may exacerbate GERD by several mechanisms. One of the characteristics of the stress response is the shutdown of the digestive process. This effect can result in the slowing of gastric emptying leading to an accumulation of gastric acid. As we will discuss, decreasing stomach acid is a primary goal of GERD treatment. Stress may increase transient LES relaxations. Stress may alter a person’s breathing pattern, causing increased tension on the crural diaphragm, and changed functioning of the esophagogastric junction. One result could be incomplete esophageal clearance of acid refluxate (Mittal 1995).

Stress can also be related to GERD in indirect ways. Stress can cause weight gain due to an increased craving for comfort foods high in salt, fat, and sugar. These cravings may be due to an increased secretion of the hormone cortisol during stress (New York Times 2013).

A certain amount of stress in life is normal and inevitable. If you are concerned your stress is affecting your health or is aggravating your GERD, a vast amount of literature is available that discuss ways to reduce stress. A good place to start is on the NIH Health Information website:

http://health.nih.gov/search_results.aspx

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