Cause of Gastric reflux disease

[mktsgm]

People generally associate Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) with excessive production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. We know that HCL is essential for proper digestion. In acid reflux the acid comes up the esophagus from the stomach due to the insufficiency of esophageal sphincter. But what is the acid that comes up? Is it HCL or lactic acid?

Edit: Inappropriate sources removed by moderator

And the real cause is under-production of HCL and not the over-production of HCL! Can anyone throw some light on this?

 

[jim mcnamara]

Okay.

First off - a very important point. Do not just ask google 'causes of GERD' (Gastroesophageal reflux). Most of the stuff you will see on the first result page is paid advertisements from fringe sites and supplement sellers. When you have a medical question google for example:

nih: causes of <disease name goes here>

Why? NIH and other national health organizations promote science and medicine, not products and services. The pages you link to are so-called "fringe" medicine sites. Not science at all.

Secondly, like many disease processes in humans GERD does not have direct a single indentifiable cause, but a common modality: lower esophageal sphincter fails to close when it should. There are lots of associations for GERD. No one absolute single cause. An association is something (behavior, problem, genetics, etc.) that is often, but never always present, in the person with the problem. The list of diseases that fit this model is very long. Because of genetic diversity in us humans many diseases are modeled as a Heredity <-> Environment interaction.

Answer: No. Lactic acid is not the problem.

Dietary changes and weight loss are step one. One of the associations is really spicy (hot) food consumption, for example. Does this match everyone with the problem? No.

Read here: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/acid-reflux-ger-gerd-adults

If you have this problem see a physician. I realize that sometimes this is not practical but we cannot suggest treatment to anyone or diagnose anyone. Trained medical practitioners should do this for you.

 

[Evo]

Good advice, thread closed.