This category covers Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease or GERD for short. GERD is a severe form of acid reflux with the most common symptom being heartburn.
A GI cocktail is a mixture given in emergency departments to settle upper-gut pain fast. The classic version combines three things: a liquid antacid, viscous lidocaine (a numbing gel), and sometimes an anticholinergic such as Donnatal. The idea is that the antacid neutralizes acid, the lidocaine numbs the irritated …
GI Cocktail: Ingredients, Uses and OTC Alternatives Read More
Some blood pressure medications can make acid reflux worse, and the ones most often implicated are calcium channel blockers and nitrates. The mechanism is real and well characterized: your lower esophageal sphincter is smooth muscle, its tone depends on calcium entering the muscle cells, and drugs that block that …
Blood Pressure Meds and Acid Reflux: Which Are Worse? Read More
Yes — low-dose aspirin can cause heartburn, reflux and direct damage to the stomach and esophagus, and the “low dose” part doesn’t protect you the way people assume. In a meta-analysis of 35 trials covering 87,581 people, doses between 75 mg and 325 mg a day raised the odds …
Yes, you can drink water with meals if you have reflux — but volume and pace matter far more than most advice admits, and the reason usually given for avoiding it is wrong. The popular claim is that water dilutes stomach acid and ruins digestion. It doesn’t, in any …
Drinking Water With Meals: Does It Make Reflux Worse? Read More
Yes — lying down after eating is bad for reflux, and it’s one of the few reflux “rules” where the mechanism is genuinely straightforward. When you’re upright, gravity holds stomach contents in the stomach and helps clear anything that does escape back down. When you lie flat, both of …
Is Lying Down After Eating Bad? What It Does to Reflux Read More
A gastric emptying study measures how fast food leaves your stomach. You eat a standardized radiolabeled meal, a gamma camera takes pictures at intervals over four hours, and the report tells you what percentage of that meal was still sitting in your stomach at each time point. The number …
Gastric Emptying Study: Normal vs Abnormal Results Read More