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HEARTBURN TREATMENT STUDY

Currently there are several available acid reflux treatments. 60 million Americans suffer from it. One-fourth of these, approximately 15 million, have daily symptoms. That is the case with patient Michael Mills.

Now a new acid reflux treatment is providing relief to patients like Michael.
“Acid reflux is stressful. You never feel good and you’re tired all the time, because you wake up in the night. You don’t get a sound night’s sleep,” he complains. Michael is like many acid reflux patients, experiencing symptoms such as heartburn, coughing and wheezing. He even has trouble breathing. Often the symptoms come at night when the patient lays flat. This leads to the sleep deprivation of which Michael is all too familiar.
The condition is caused when the muscle between the esophagus and stomach, the lower esophageal sphincter, relaxes abnormally. This causes stomach acid and food to travel back into the esophagus, or food pipe.
There are a large number of acid reflux treatments available on the market. There is a dizzying array of over the counter and prescription medicines which, in effect, decrease the amount of acid produced, resulting in a decrease of symptoms.
But Dr. K. Iswara of Maimonedes Medical Centers says, “The problem is most acid reflux treatments don’t treat the cause. We are treating the acid which is causing the damage. However much you give the acid blocking, when you stop the acid blocking medication, the symptoms are going to come back.”
Now, this new acid reflux treatment procedure called Enteryx is proving to be an approach that can have long lasting benefits for patients, relieving symptoms and getting them off regular use of acid-reducing medicines.
This acid reflux treatment involves passing a scope down into the esophagus and injecting a liquid polymer directly into the muscle of the esophagus. That polymer hardens like calk, and acts like a permanent implant which supports the muscle, preventing it from abnormally relaxing.
The acid reflux treatment procedure was approved by the FDA almost two years ago, and so now doctors are first finding out how patients do in the long run after getting the Enteryx injections.
New data being presented at a major medical conference next month shows 74 percent of patients getting the Enteryx procedure either substantially reduced their medications or stopped them completely. Further there were no major long term side effects of the acid reflux treatment. “I think this is going to be the standard of care before patients go for the drastic surgical procedure,” Dr. Iswara states.
For more information on Enteryx and acid reflux treatment, click here:
http://www.bostonscientific.com/templatedata/imports/collateral/PatientEducation/broc_GERDpatedu_01_cl_us.pdf
For more information on heartburn treatment, click here:
http://www.healthnewsconnect.com/page0009.html

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