:: Jun-Jul 2008

Welcome to our Monthly Online Newsletter!

View all Treatment articles in our Treatment Report . The most recent articles are listed on top (not in alphabetical order). Click on the Topic on our home page and then the subtopic - Treatment Report. Stay updated on drugs and their side effects, and various other treatments, including exercise, nutrition, and supplements.

Repeated Past Article:

Acid Reflux Doesn’t Always Mean Heartburn "Researchers at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston collected data from patients who were brought to an emergency room complaining of chest pain. After measuring pH levels in the esophagus, they found 57 percent of the patients studied had acid levels that could be classified as GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease)."

AHRQ - Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) Consumer Summary (2005)

New Guidelines for Esophageal Reflux Testing

NGC - American Gastroenterological Association medical position statement: clinical use of esophageal manometry. (2005)

NGC - Dyspepsia and GERD. (2004)

NGC - Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). (2007)

NGC - Management of dyspepsia and heartburn. (2004)

NGC - Management of helicobacter pylori infection. (2004)

NGC - Management of persistent asthma. (2004)

NGC - VHA/DoD clinical practice guideline for the management of adults with gastroesophageal reflux disease in primary care practice. (2003)

Featured site

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Gastroesophageal reflux disease

NCI - Esophageal Cancer Screening

NIH - Barrett's Esophagus

NIH - Gastroesophageal Reflux/Hiatal Hernia

NIH - GERD Tutorial

NIH - Heartburn

NIH - Heartburn, Hiatal Hernia, and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Gastroesophageal reflux disease

Asthma

Cancer: General

Cardiovascular: General

Asthma

Prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux in difficult asthma: relationship to asthma outcome. (Chest. 2005) "STUDY OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)-both symptoms and objective evidence-using 24-h dual-probe pH monitoring in difficult asthma, and the relationship between the presence and treatment of GERD to clinical outcome. Ä CONCLUSIONS: In difficult-to-control asthma, GERD is common, but identification and treatment of GERD do not appear to relate to improvement in asthma control in this population."

Cancer

Gastroesophageal reflux and cancer. (Thorac Surg Clin. 2005) "The causal relationship between GERD and esophageal adenocarcinoma, although unclear just a few decades ago, now is established fairly well. The physiologic changes and the biocellular alterations of the damaged esophageal mucosa are documented better. Despite this knowledge, the dramatic increase in the incidence of esophageal cancer cannot be explained. The absolute risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma arising from GERD is low, and, at present, does not justify population-screening programs. Still, with the notion that adenocarcinoma of the esophagus is an aggressive cancer once documented, important questions still are in need of answers for patients suffering from reflux symptoms. Patients who have reflux disease are not necessarily symptomatic. It remains unclear if patients experiencing reflux symptoms should undergo mandatory endoscopy with biopsies at the esophagogastric junction. Furthermore, metaplasia of the lower esophagus often is not readily recognizable at endoscopy, and only biopsies can document abnormal histology. A severe and prolonged history of reflux always should orient to the possibility of a reflux-related columnar-lined esophagus."