Can GERD Cause Constant Chest and Back Pain?
Are you wondering (hoping) that your constant chest and back pain is being caused by GERD rather than a heart problem?
GERD stands for gastroesophageal reflux disease and is notorious for causing chest pain.
“Acid reflux is when the normal stomach acid regurgitates up into the esophagus,” explains Jay Desai, MD, who specializes in colon cancer screening, upper endoscopy and consultative gastroenterology with New York Gastroenterology Associates.
“The muscles at the bottom of the esophagus are meant to act as a valve to hold down acid, but in many people this valve does not function properly. These symptoms can manifest differently in patients.
“In some patients, especially those with severe reflux, they can have constant chest pain.”
Sometimes, this sensation is more like an ache, including a duller type of ache.
Dr. Desai adds about the constant chest pain, “In general this is due to ulcerations in the esophagus from acid exposure.”
What about back pain?
“Back pain is less commonly associated with reflux. The treatment for this is antacid medication, which helps heal the damage of the esophagus from the acid.”
Keep a record of when your back pain or aching occurs.
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- Is it only when the chest pain occurs?
- Have you seen a cardiologist to rule out a problem with your heart?
- Have you been diagnosed with GERD?
If you haven’t seen both a gastroenterologist and cardiologist, it’s time to. Chest plus back pain should never be ignored.
Board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology, Dr. Desai provides a wide range of GI services including for bacterial overgrowth, constipation, acid reflux and GERD, IBS, incontinence and small bowel disease. Twitter handle: @NYGADocs
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Can Acid Reflux Cause a Heavy Pounding Heart?
Can the acid that’s refluxing up from your stomach and into your esophagus actually trigger a pounding heartbeat?
“Acid reflux is when the normal stomach acid regurgitates up into the esophagus,” says Jay Desai, MD, who specializes in colon cancer screening, upper endoscopy and consultative gastroenterology with New York Gastroenterology Associates.
“This happens to everyone to some degree. However, in some people, the symptoms can be more severe.
“This can be due to the presence of a larger amount of reflux compared to the average individual, or to the esophagus being more sensitive than in others.
“The symptoms of acid reflux can vary between individuals, but most people describe a ‘burning’ sensation in the stomach and chest.
“In some people, these symptoms can feel like a pressure sensation.”
Can acid reflux directly affect the way the heart beats?
Dr. Desai continues, “While a pounding heart is not a typical symptom, sometimes patients with acid reflux can become anxious that another issue, such as a heart attack, is occurring, which can lead to a pounding heart sensation.
“It is important for anyone with these symptoms to discuss them with their doctor to differentiate whether this is reflux related or a primary heart issue.”
Just because GERD or acid reflux doesn’t directly stimulate the heart to beat faster or harder doesn’t mean that a person can’t have both a digestive issue and a cardiac problem.
See a cardiologist for a thorough exam of your heart to rule out any issues.
Board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology, Dr. Desai provides a wide range of GI services including for bacterial overgrowth, constipation, acid reflux and GERD, IBS, incontinence and small bowel disease. Twitter handle: @NYGADocs
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Hriana
Parenting Mistakes that Make Child Bully Younger Sibling
One mistake parents can make is to blow off the bullying as normal sibling rivalry.
Sibling bullying isn’t “normal” or “healthy” just because the parents experienced it with their own siblings or just because it seems to be common.
Rivalry or competition among siblings is common and by definition, is not emotionally destructive or damaging. But bullying among siblings is exactly what it is: b u l l y i n g.
Most halfway decent parents don’t want bullying to occur among their children and will take efforts to stop it.
The problem is that many parents have the wrong approach, including failing to address the root causes—which is the secret to the cure.
What mistakes do parents make that create a fertile environment for sibling bullying?
One of the biggest factors is when the parents themselves bully one of their children.
If there’s a child in the house who’s younger than this target, chances are pretty good that this younger brother or sister is going to be the recipient of cruel treatment by that older targeted child.
Think of this as a pecking order effect. The older sibling doesn’t awaken one day thinking, “Well, Mom is always so hard on me, so that gives me the right to treat little Kassie the same way.”
Instead, the repeated cycle just naturally happens. You can say it’s learned.
But you can also say that the older child has a lot of hurt and pain inside, and needs a non-threatening dumping ground for it: the helpless younger brother or sister.
“Another often overlooked source of the older child’s anger is that when the younger child does inform the parents, they then reprimand or punish the older child, often accompanied by the castigation:
“‘You’re older! You should know better! You should set an example for your younger sibling!’
“So the older child now feels victimized by the younger sibling and their parents, and wants revenge!” says Israel (Izzy) Kalman, MS, nationally certified school psychologist; director of Bullies to Buddies and author of multiple books and publications on bullying and relationship problems.
Kids Do As You Do, Not As You Say
It’s Psychology 101. You’ve probably seen it right under your nose: A parent haranguing their child, and then the child behaving in a similar way to the younger brother or sister.
The bullying will fester if the victim is afraid to report it to the parents, or if the reporting results in the victim getting scolded and criticized.
Jack and his brother Jake get “beaten up” by their older brother Robby whenever Robby babysits them while their parents are away.
Robby threatens his brothers that if they “tell,” he’ll beat them up worse next time. This 11-year-old has more power over his eight- and seven-year-old brothers than their full-grown parents do.
How is this possible? Robby doesn’t feed them. Robby doesn’t provide them shelter or buy them things.
The parents here see parenting as a job, not as a relationship. Though Dad is a good provider materially and Mom keeps the house in excellent condition, they’re intimidating.
Dad is emotionally disconnected from his kids, and Mom is hard on all three, but especially the oldest, approaching her motherhood duties like a drill sergeant. No wonder Jack and Jake are scared to report the bullying.
It’s a “duhhh” situation: It’s only natural that “tough” Robby heap on two younger, smaller, helpless siblings. But he wouldn’t DARE talk back to his mother because he knows she’ll slap him if he does.
Don’t blame TV and video games on sibling bullying.
Freepik.com
Though these forms of entertainment offer violence, a child in a healthy, stable and fair household will be able to see this entertainment for what it is: entertainment only, not something to cruelly use on a younger sister or brother.
Violent video games won’t bring out what’s already NOT placed there by a dysfunctional household. “It is easy to blame entertainment for our children’s behavior and problems,” says Kalman.
Sibling bullying is NOT rivalry or competition. And it’s not necessarily physical.
It could come in the form of relentless belittling. Words are powerful.
Kids are told to shrug it off by adults who’d never tolerate the same kind of behavior from their coworkers in the workplace!
Dr. Kalman is a psychotherapist in private practice and has treated many victims of bullying for over 20 years. He has published extensively on solutions to bullying.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/igor kisselev
Popular Articles on Diarrhea
One day I began noticing oddly shaped and colored bowel movements that were loose enough to be considered mild diarrhea.
I thought this was related to my period, which was due in several days.
Very soft stools preceding the onset of menstruation had happened to me before, so I really didn’t think a whole lot about this.
However, it was difficult to dismiss the fact that these poops just plain looked weird.
I really began worrying when every day, I kept having this strange looking diarrhea, and my period had already begun.
So I knew this diarrhea wasn’t related to menstruation at that point. Furthermore, I was getting up in the middle of the night to have this diarrhea.
And like clockwork, almost right after getting out of bed in the morning, I had to do another poop. I’d feel this odd unfamiliar churning in my lower stomach. I knew something was wrong.
I was also wondering why the joint aches that began more than a week prior to my period were still with me.
My menstrual related joint aches (PMS) had always disappeared by the time I officially began flowing.
But this time, the joint aches – and the diarrhea – persisted even after my period ended.
At the time, I didn’t connect the joint aches to the diarrhea. Instead I attributed them to some oddball hormonal fluctuation related to my monthly cycle.
I soon had a colonoscopy and some tissue samples from my large colon were extracted and set to a lab for analysis.
A few days later I was told I had microscopic colitis of the lymphocytic type.
This is a benign inflammatory bowel disease.
The cause is not known, but in my case, the onset was preceded by enormous longstanding anxiety over a family situation.
Since being diagnosed with microscopic colitis (which, by the way, is known for causing transient joint aches), I have written quite a few articles about this uncommon condition. Below are links to some of them.
IBS vs. Microscopic Colitis: Similarities, Diagnosis
Microscopic Colitis Joint Aches Preceding Diarrhea for How Long?
Can Microscopic Colitis Diarrhea Cause Nutrient Loss?
Lag Time Between Joint Pain & Diarrhea in Microscopic Colitis
Microscopic Colitis: Can Intermittent Fasting Help Diarrhea?
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/ Pixel-Shot
Dent in Thigh: One of the Most Feared Symptoms
Let’s get to the bottom of whether or not a dent in your quadriceps muscle means you might have ALS.
The “quad dent” evokes fear in tens of thousands of people. Are you one of them?
Because I recognize the prevalence of how frightening this symptom is (it usually makes anxious people believing they might have ALS), I decided to write three articles on this topic.
Read all 3; they are a bit different from each other.
I’ve also included an article on dents in the calf muscle, since this location apparently is the second most cited for these mysterious dents that show up.
Wait till you find out what the most likely explanation is for this scary “symptom.”
Shutterstock/joshya
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Top image: Shutterstock/Chad Zuber
Why Zumba Classes Should Not Be So Crazy Loud
You will damage your hearing if you keep attending Zumba classes unless you wear significant ear protection.
Has it ever occurred to you, the Zumba enthusiast (either as a participant or instructor), that the volume of the music is harmful to your hearing? It is LOUD!
Zumba Classes Are Way Too Loud
Rachel Raphael, M.S., CCC-A, is a group fitness instructor (e.g., BodyPump and BodyStep) and also an audiologist with ENT Baltimore.
Raphael’s classes follow the Les Mills design for choreographed classes of exercise to music.
She explains, “The Les Mills slogan is ‘Turn It Up’, whereas my motto (as an audiologist who knows the risks of loud music) is ‘Turn it Down!’ I know it’s important to carefully balance the beat/volume of the group fitness music between being motivating and keeping it at safe levels!”
It doesn’t matter if it’s BodyPump, Zumba or a step class—pounding, battering music will cause hearing loss over time.
Think of exposure to thunderingly loud music like excessive exposure to sunlight. The damage is cumulative, and people respond differently.
Raphael says, “I’ve seen too many times the effect loud music can have on (mostly musicians’ and concert goers’) hearing loss, even though the damage (sensorineural or nerve type damage, with possible tinnitus as a secondary symptom) doesn’t usually show up immediately; can take many years.”
Zumba participants walk out of the class feeling energized, feeling as though they just did their body so very good.
But they put their ears in harm’s way. If you sprain an ankle in a Zumba class, you’ll immediately feel the pain.
If some nerve cells in your inner ear have been killed off by the loudness…you most likely will not feel any pain or other symptom.
Raphael explains that an immediate result of the loud volume is something called temporary threshold shift.
This is temporary hearing loss from excessive volume—but you may still not be aware of it!
After all, you exit the class and walk into the open area of the gym, which may be too loud for you to detect that you have a temporary threshold shift.
At one of the gyms I attend, the room where the Zumba class takes place opens up to the free weight area where music is played in overhead speakers.
Reams of women file out of the Zumba class at the end; that’s a lot of noise that can mask a temporary threshold shift: many women talking, plus music overhead, plus the clanging of weightlifting equipment.
At another gym I attend, the Zumba classroom is right next to the cardio equipment area.
During prime time, when the class lets out, participants walk straight into an environment loud with plenty of cardio machines going, especially the noisy treadmills. They’ll never notice they have a temporary hearing loss.
Even if you walk out into a quiet environment following a Zumba class, you may still not be able to detect the temporary threshold shift.
It’s painless. You simply head straight to your locker, or maybe you head for the dumbbells or straight to your car. Why would you necessarily notice you have this shift going on?
Temporary threshold shift can become permanent. Raphael says that temporary threshold shift can “become more permanent with repeated and ongoing exposures.” Need I repeat this a third time?
Solutions to Loud Zumba Classes
You’re health-conscious, right? Why would you want to sacrifice sharp hearing? You don’t have to.
You can’t get lost hearing back. Noise induced hearing loss is permanent over time.
And don’t think your ears will toughen up and become resistant. This is a myth. It’s like believing that the more you jump on that sprained ankle, the stronger it will get!
Hearing loss CONTINUES as long as you continue to be in the loud environment, even if you already have hearing damage.
Did you know that an older person who’s very hard of hearing will STILL receive injury to the nerve cells in their ears as long as they’re in a loud environment, even if they don’t perceive it as loud (due to their hearing loss)?
So don’t think for a second that your ears have been damaged so much that it no longer matters! And by the way, you cannot reverse hearing loss.
All of this is well-documented in medical literature. Make some hardcopies and present them to your Zumba instructor.
Hollering into the microphone, by the way, exacerbates the seriousness of the problem.
If your Zumba instructor fails to get any of this, then all you can do is have custom made earplugs made.
They will muffle enough decibels to make the environment safe for your ears. Or, you can wear the ear muffs that people in loud factories wear.
Are you afraid of what other class participants will think if they see the muffs or notice the ear plugs?
- Don’t rank YOUR hearing health below the opinions of people who choose to remain ignorant.
- If you do you’ll one day regret it dearly.
To be blunt…it just SUCKS being hard of hearing. Ask anyone who is.
Rachel A. Raphael specializes in clinical audiology and hearing aid dispensing. She helps in the diagnosis of hearing loss, tinnitus, dizziness and vestibular pathology in adults and children.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: zumba class TV Jahn-Rheine 1885 e.V.
Does Popeye’s Elbow Always Hurt?
As funny and goofy as Popeye’s elbow looks, one has to wonder if this bizarre condition always comes with pain.
Though Popeye’s elbow (olecranon bursitis) is associated with pain, it can also be painless — as in completely.
I know this because my mother was diagnosed with Popeye’s elbow. There was a superball-sized “bump” at the joint.
It was soft (because this condition is an inflamed sac that’s filled with fluid of the bursa).
And as much as it looked like the classic Popeye’s elbow, it was 100 percent free of pain.
It wasn’t even tender or sore. She noticed it only when she just happened to look there shortly after awakening in the morning.
It didn’t even hurt when she was sitting at a table leaning on it (which was the obvious cause).
My mother’s Popeye’s elbow didn’t hurt at all when she or I touched the affected area.
Nor was there any pain when she flexed or extended the joint, carried groceries or worked in the kitchen.
The physician’s assistant told her to just let time dwindle down the inflammation. It wasn’t even red.
The PA told her it may take days, a few weeks or even a few months for it to go down, but in the meantime, she could put a band around it.
So yes, it is possible for olecranon bursitis to come without any pain.
If you see someone with Popeye’s elbow…don’t assume that it hurts just because it looks so strange.
“Popeye’s arm is not always painful,” says Dr. Dave Candy, a board certified specialist in orthopedic physical therapy.
“ A bursa is just a fluid-filled sac, and if the bursa ruptures, the fluid leaks out.
“Unless the fluid gets infected though, the swelling itself is not painful.”
Dr. Dave Candy, PT, DPT, is a specialist in orthopedic physical therapy and owner of More 4 Life. He’s the author of Chronic Pain: You’re Not Just Getting Older, You’re Not Crazy, And It’s Not All In Your Head, available on Amazon.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
If You’re Dizzy Should You Get a CT Scan in the ER?
When is dizziness serious enough to warrant a head CT scan, being that this procedure emits radiation to the brain?
Many people go to the ER for feeling dizzy.
The sudden onset of what the patient can only describe as “dizziness” can be quite frightening, especially when they fall or feel nauseous as a result.
They may need to quickly sit down or even fall on the way to a chair.
Kaiser Foundation Hospital researchers reported that less than 7.1 percent of patients in the ER complaining of dizziness benefited from a head CT.
About only 6.4 percent of patients with faintness benefited.
The CT scan is fast and easy, but apparently much overused, says this study.
But ultimately, the ordering of a head CT should be based on each patient’s unique situation, including their medical history, rather than a percentage from a study.
Doctors definitely want to make sure they cover all their bases when dealing with dizziness in patients — which could have both benign and serious causes.
So it’s easy to understand when in general, CT scans are over-ordered.
After all, what if a scan isn’t ordered, and it turns out the patient had a brain tumor, which then caused a seizure while they were driving the next day — resulting in a fatal car accident?
On the other hand, it just wouldn’t be logistically possible for every single patient who reports dizziness to have a head CT scan.
When to Get a CT Scan of Your Brain
Liz West, Boxborough, MA, CC Wikimedia Commons
“Dizziness is a common complaint in general practice, and the severity of the symptoms we see is likely to be milder than those seen by hospital doctors,” says Dr. David Beatty, MD, a retired general practitioner with 30+ years of experience and an instructor of general medicine for 20 years.
“It’s important to work out whether the patient is lightheaded and feeling they might faint, or whether it is vertigo — more of a spinning sensation.”
Feeling faint is not the same as dizziness, and the patient needs to be clear about that when describing symptoms to a doctor or physician’s assistant.
If the patient has only one symtpom — dizziness or lightheadedness — the CT scan is unlikely to be necessary.
A doctor or P.A. will check for neurological signs that increase the suspicion of a more serious cause of the dizziness.
Worrisome neurological signs include: increasing headache pain, deteriorating level of consciousness or increasing drowsiness, speech problems, vision problems and weakness.
Another very concerning sign is vomiting, though that can be caused by benign vertigo.
A careful medical history should also be taken.
Often, with only one symptom (feeling dizzy) and a non-eventful medical history, there won’t be a need for a CT scan, but the patient will be advised to follow up with their primary care physician the next day.
How about when to go to the ER for dizziness?
“If symptoms are getting progressively worse this would be a bad sign,” says Dr. Beatty.
He also points out that benign paroxysmal positional vertigo can be so severe that the sufferer can’t even walk. An ER visit is in order.
BPPV is easy to diagnose, and, while the patient is lying down, the doctor will move his head to resettle the natural crystal-like structures floating around in the inner ear.
“If there are other neurological symptoms like loss of power, speech difficulty, loss of coordination, bad headache or double vision, consider the ER.”
Dr. Beatty has worked in primary medicine, surgery, accident and emergency, OBGYN, pediatrics and chronic disease management. He is the Doctor of Medicine for Strong Home Gym.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/sirtravelalot
Source: sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150126112438.htm
Suicide Attempt by Bullied Teen: Shall We Blame the Parents?
Is it possible that a bullied teen could feel helpless enough to try suicide because their parents have shamed them for their troubles?
Maybe the parents have always been critical, and that certainly would not have ever helped a bullied teenager feel hopeful about the future.
This isn’t about blaming the parents. It’s about explaining how the parents fit into the equation of kids attempting suicide (whether they succeed or not) as a result of bullying.
There are people who insist that when a teen or adolescent becomes suicidal “because of” bullying, there has to be much more to it—namely, bad parents who make their kids’ lives miserable.
The bullying at school or online only compounds things.
“This has become a popular idea,” says Israel (Izzy) Kalman, MS, nationally certified school psychologist; director of Bullies to Buddies: and author of numerous books and publications on bullying and relationship problems.
“But this is because most people, even those who take a hard line against bullying, protesting about what a horrible, intolerable problem it is, and demanding the harshest punishments for bullies, have a hard time believing that kids will actually kill themselves for no other reason than that they are being bullied. They assume the parents must be making them miserable as well.
“I strongly disagree with this. Of course this can be the case, but it is not a necessary condition. I have worked with a number of kids who were suicidal because of being bullied, and as far as I could discern, the parents were positive and supportive.
“But as kids come closer to adolescence, relationships with peers become increasingly important to them.
“If they feel their peers don’t accept them, it far outweighs the benefits of parental support.”
I’m going to stop here for a moment and remind you of a phenomenon you may have learned in a psychology class called “learned helplessness.”
There are famous studies done with rats and monkeys that demonstrate this. But learned helplessness happens in humans all the time.
Bullied Teens Learn to Be Helpless from the Parents
Dr. Kalman says that in most cases of bullying, “the parents become as depressed as the kids because they suffer their children’s pain. They will often try hard to make their kids feel better, getting them professional help and pressuring the school to make the bullying stop.
“But the parents’ misery only compounds the kids’ misery, and the parents’ helplessness in trying to make the bullying stop reinforces the kids’ sense of helplessness as well.
“They feel so hopeless because even their parents and the school cannot make the bullying stop. So they feel they have no way out, and they take their own lives.
“The truly sad thing is that such kids can be saved quite easily. However, the adults who are trying to help them do not know how to teach them to solve their problems.
“Many of my bullied clients had been in counseling or therapy and it did nothing to help them stop being bullied.”
The Impact Parents Have on Their Bullied Children
Freepik.com
Below are selected comments, copied-and pasted (not edited; there are typos, poor grammar) from people who, as teens, were bullied and who attempted suicide.
Each paragraph pertains to one post (seven paragraphs = seven different posters).
Suicidal Bullied Kids Place Blame on Their Parents (and other family members): Actual Posts
“I attempted suicide at 14 because my family turned on me as some horrible kid for skipping school and at school i was spit on daily and assaulted regularly.”
“My mother was the biggest bully in my life. All my growing up years Mother Dearest bullied myself and my sister mercilessly after our father walked out (because he could not stand my mother anymore).
I and my sister were both suicidal almost all throughout our teen years but especially she was at age 13 and I really had to watch her closely because I was afraid she really would take her own life then.
I also knew I had nobody in my world who would understand my pain if she didn’t live through that.
Yes there were bullies at school and yes they totally exacerbated the problem, especially for her. It really hurts when you can’t go to your own mom about bullies because the biggest bully in your life is her.”
“As a teen, I struggled with depression. I became suicidal. It was NOT a result of bullying, even though I had been. I went to my mother for help. You know, since parents are supposed to listen.
She would roll her eyes and tell me to get over it, because teens can’t get depressed and have no idea what depression is really like.
She was also aware of the situation that started the downward spiral and didn’t believe that either.”
“I’ve thought about taking my own life since I was seventeen. Actually attempted several times. I should have been on meds and seeing a therapist as a teenager.
My family, however, viewed therapy as a personal attack on them and the way they were raising me. I was told to quit whining and grow up.
How many teenagers in this country are dealing with just this kind of home life?”
“I have found from dealing with a family member who has attempted suicide 3 times in his life last being 15 years ago that he grew up in an abusive home was bullied etc. it was more that fact that as he says the people that should have cared didn’t it wasn’t the bullying it was other family members not being there. they tried professional help etc but it’s not just getting them the help its really having to reassure them that you are there for them and not going anywhere and what they mean to you and others who do really care.”
“I attempted suicide as a young teen and in my case it was because of bullying and being the one to get blamed for everything at home.
My mother always said that I was just like her sister, with whom she always had a rocky relationship. I have come to realize that is the reason she always treated me like I was the family demon.
The truth was that I had a more adventurous spirit than she or my older sister and she couldn’t relate to or accept it.”
“I tried twice, once when I was just 14 the other when I was 23.. I came from a broken and violent home.
I was picked on as a kid because we were so poor we would have to wear the same clothes to school twice in a row and of course we didn’t have much.
My attempts had far more to do with my parents and their screwed up issues than it did with bullying, but just like him [a suicide survivor featured in the Yahoo article] I think it did affect my self worth and made it easier for me to attempt suicide since I didn’t think I was worth anything.”
Are the parents of a suicide victim who was bullied partly to blame for the child’s actions? You be the judge.
Dr. Kalman is a psychotherapist in private practice and has treated many victims of bullying for over 20 years. He has published extensively on solutions to bullying.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Milles Studio
Source: shine.yahoo.com/parenting/survivors-teen-suicide-attempts-prevention-not-always-bullying-212800410.html
Acid Reflux in Nose (LPR): Cause, Solutions, Long-Term Effects
An ENT doctor explains all about acid reflux burning in the nose as part of LPR, plus cause, how to prevent and long-term effects if it keeps happening.
Acid reflux can shoot up into the nose. After this happened to me, stinging my nasal cavity, as a result of eating too much too quickly, I decided to write an article about it.
LPR is acid reflux that makes it up to the throat—and sometimes…the nose.
Acid Reflux and the Nose
“Acid reflux is very common, indicted by the isle of medicines in the pharmacy devoted to it,” begins Dr. Stacey Silvers, MD, of Madison ENT & Facial Plastic Surgery in NYC, who is board certified in otolaryngology—specialty of the ears, nose and throat.
ENT physicians deal a lot with LPR (laryngeal pharyngeal reflux).
“Many of us have it and are unaware that our symptoms are reflux related.
“Throat clearing, hoarseness and dry cough are amongst the most common symptoms of ‘silent reflux’ or laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR).”
LPR can be episodic (occasional or periodic), frequent or ongoing/chronic.
“Many of us, however, do experience acid or burning in the chest and back of the throat which are classic symptoms of GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disease,” continues Dr. Silvers.
“Some people may even experience the stomach acid contents reaching the back of the nose.
“When this happens, especially if the body is not prepared, one experiences significant burning and pain in the back of the nose.
“Hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) has a pH of 2 which is very acidic.
“These and any reflux incidents can happen when eating too much, too fast and increasing activity soon after.”
In my case, I wolfed down a lot of food, and immediately after, experienced a little reflux spurting up my esophagus, up my throat and higher, into my nasal cavity.
I instantly felt the burning. It was really weird.
But this is NOTHING to be scared of. It’s just stomach acid. It won’t stay there forever. In my case it persisted for a few minutes, then suddenly was gone.
But what if you get acid reflux in your nose on a frequent basis?
Dr. Silvers explains, “If these occurrences become frequent the body can learn to protect itself by producing a thick mucus in the throat and we will experience ‘post-nasal drip’ (a symptom, not a diagnosis).
“This is a frequent symptom of chronic silent reflux [LPR].
“These reflux episodes in the throat and nose explain why refluxers are more prone to bronchial infections, throat infections and sinus infections.”
You don’t have to worry about getting cancer in your nose from acid reflux going up there.
“The acid changes our healthy protective bacterial flora, making us more susceptible to unwanted infectious bacteria,” adds Dr. Silvers.
“Chronic GERD sufferers should work with a gastroenterologist to assure that the acid has not caused stomach and esophageal problems.”
Though acid reflux going up into the nose won’t cause cancer, chronic GERD can increase the patient’s risk of esophageal cancer.
This is a condition called Barrett’s esophagus.
Prevention of Acid Going into the Nose
“Chronic LPR sufferers should see an ear, nose and throat specialist to have the throat examined.
“Most importantly, avoid late night eating, eat slower, avoid excessive highly acidic and processed foods. Medications are available if these conservative regimens fail.”
An NYC expert in ear, nose and throat care, Dr. Silvers has been named among America’s Top Physicians and Surgeons in facial plastic surgery and otolaryngology numerous times since 2003.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
