GERDS is caused by a weakness of the muscle at the end of the esophagus, where it empties into the stomach. Normally, after food or drink is swallowed, this muscle closes tightly to stop anything from going back up into the esophagus. When this muscle becomes weak, gastric juices are allowed back into the esophagus, which causes severe pain as it contacts the delicate mucus membranes and burns through them into unprotected tissue.
There are no exercises which will strengthen this muscle. Anyone with GERDS attempting to do situps will probably experience excruciating pain, as the tightening of the abdominal muscles would push against the stomach and, in a reclining position, make it even easier for gastric juices to go past the weak valve and up into the esophagus. I had GERDS, and at times thought I was having a heart attack, the pain in my chest was so bad. There is a relatively new procedure, using laparoscopy, which makes repairing this problem feasible. A portion of the top of the stomach is gathered around the bottom of the esophagus and stitched into place to assist the weak muscle. I had this procedure done 6 years ago and have not had any reflux discomfort since. I can eat anything, at any time, and can sleep in a flat bed once again. This surgery has the added benefit (for me anyway) of reducing the size of the stomach, so I lost some weight. Gained it all back, of course, but it was glorious to be slender for a while again. Bonnie __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: silver-list-requ...@eskimo.com -or- silver-digest-requ...@eskimo.com with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>
