What Causes Severe Acid Reflux?

From silent scorches to ultimate relief – understand how to tackle severe acid reflux holistically!
Living with severe acid reflux can feel overwhelming; it’s also known as gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD, which affects millions of people worldwide. Acid reflux is often considered an inconvenience but escalates into a severe condition that disrupts your daily life and results in severe health complications.
The blog post dives into acid reflux causes, symptoms of severe acid reflux and actionable strategies to prevent severe acid reflux pain.
What is Severe Acid Reflux?
Severe acid reflux occurs when stomach acid flows back into the oesophagus, causing painful symptoms and irritation. Although having an occasional episode of acid reflux isn’t a mere concern, signs of severe acid reflux require medical advice to prevent complications such as esophagitis, stricture, Barrett’s oesophagus or rarely even oesophageal cancer. Severe Acid reflux symptoms occur at least twice a week.
Understanding Severe Acid Reflux causes
LES, or the lower oesophagal sphincter, is a circular muscle that opens when you swallow food and closes again to keep the food in your stomach. Mainly functions as a one way valve. It also opens when you let gas bubbles while burping or hiccups. Severe acid reflux occurs when the LES muscles weaken or relax to let acid pass up from the stomach into the food pipe and rarely even into the throat. Some temporary causes, such as lying down after a large meal, will cause acid reflux symptoms. But GERD means your LES muscles relax more often or the acid stays longer than it should in the food pipe which can be a problem with the way our food pipe clears the acid.
The common severe acid reflux causes include,
- Hiatal hernia: the condition occurs when the part of the stomach pushes up through the diaphragm and gets into your chest activity. It happens due to natural weakness in the muscle or due to increased pressure in the abdomen. This forms a pocket to hold onto the acid that would otherwise travel down to the stomach in the abdomen.
- Pregnancy: Severe acid reflux during pregnancy is common due to increased pressure and volume in the abdomen, which push, stretch, or weaken the muscles in the diaphragm.
- Obesity: increased pressure or abdominal volume affects your LES and contributes to severe acid reflux symptoms.
- Smoking: Smoking relaxes your LES muscles, weakens diaphragm muscles, slows down digestion and results in the production of more stomach acid, causing various signs of severe acid reflux.
- Other Causes: congenital disabilities, connective tissue disease, previous surgery in your chest or upper abdomen, medications such as Benzodiazepines, calcium channel blockers, NSAIDs, theophylline, antidepressants, and Hormone therapy medications.
Severe reflux symptoms - Alarming signs of severe acid reflux
Severe acid reflux attack causes various symptoms that disrupt your daily life. Some of the common symptoms of severe acid reflux include,
- Burning sensation after eating, also known as Heartburn.
- The backwash of food or sour liquid in the throat – Regurgitation
- Chest pain that mimics heart attack symptoms
- The sensation of a lump in the throat or sore throat
- Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia)
- Chronic cough or asthma symptoms
- Nausea or loss of appetite
How to stop acid reflux? - Effective severe acid reflux treatment options
To stop or manage acid reflux, you have to combine lifestyle changes, diet plans, medications, and, in a few cases, surgical procedures.
How to treat severe acid reflux at home?
- Eat smaller meals
- Avoid alcohol and smoking.
- Eat 2 to 3 hours before going to sleep.
- Avoid tight clothes or belts.
- Keep your head elevated while sleeping.
- Follow stress management techniques.
Diet for severe acid reflux
- The diet changes for severe acid reflux include,
- Avoid trigger foods such as chocolate, tomatoes, coffee, fried, or fatty foods.
- Eat frequently and in smaller portions
- Stay hydrated
- Incorporate alkaline or reflux-friendly foods such as melons, oats, yoghurt, and bananas.
Medications for acid reflux treatment
- Antacids: For quick relief of occasional symptoms
- H2 Blockers: Reduce acid production (e.g., ranitidine or famotidine)
- Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs): Stronger acid reducers (e.g., omeprazole or esomeprazole)
- Gaviscon which forms a raft(barrier) to diminish reflux
- Prokinetics: Help strengthen the LES and speed up stomach emptying (May help)
From fire to freedom - Consult Dr Balaji for long-term acid reflux solutions!
Severe acid reflux is more than just an annoyance; if not addressed, it can significantly impact your health. Remember, professional guidance is crucial—consult Dr Balaji Nagammapudur, a leading bariatric and Upper GI consultant in the UAE.
Dr Balaji is an acid reflux and GERD specialist emphasizing the importance of tailored acid reflux treatment plans that alleviate symptoms and ensure ultimate recovery. With a dedicated gastroenterology team, he offers advanced diagnostic and therapeutic options for quick relief.
Schedule a consultation today, and a reflux-free future starts now!
There are several options to treat severe acid reflux, including immediate relief strategies, diet modifications, lifestyle changes, medical treatments, and surgical options. Consult Dr Balaji to understand the severity of acid reflux, and he will suggest the best treatment for quick recovery.
For example, if the cancer is detected early and is confined to the stomach, there is a 69.9 % chance of surviving five years after diagnosis. If the cancer has metastasized to distant areas of the body, the five-year survival rate significantly decreases to 5.5 %.
The NCI estimates that the five-year survival probability for stomach cancer patients is around 32 %.
Most of these survivors have localised cancer, meaning the cancer originated in the stomach and has not metastasized. Diagnosing and staging the cancer becomes more challenging when the primary origin is unknown, complicating treatment efforts.
Several factors contribute to severe acid reflux at night, including lying flat in a horizontal position, increased stomach acid, eating large meals close to bedtime, drinking alcohol, late-night snacks, medications, stress, pregnancy, or being overweight causes severe reflux at night.
Foods alone don’t contribute to acid reflux symptoms. However, foods such as onion, garlic, alcohol, chocolate, and coffee relax your LES muscles. Moreover, fatty foods take a more extended digestion period and increase stomach acid.
It’s normal for babies to regurgitate, but severe acid reflux requires immediate and proper medical attention. Severe acid reflux in babies shows symptoms such as forceful spitting or vomiting, crying after or during feedings, refusing to eat, difficulty gaining weight, hiccups or wet burps, difficulty sleeping, and frequent coughing. Babies are more prone to acid reflux because they have a developing digestive system, spend a lot of time lying, and have a liquid diet.
Yes, severe acid reflux during pregnancy is common because hormonal changes and growing uterus increase the chance of acid reflux in the second and third trimesters. As per the reports, more than 80% of pregnant women experience acid reflux symptoms.