48 | June• 2019
THE BURNING QUESTION
accepted the idea that his pain
might be stomach-related, so he
was surprised to be diagnosed with
gastro-oesophageal ref lux disease
(GORD), or inflammation of the oe-
sophagus, the tube that leads from
the mouth to the stomach.
“I still have the doctor’s words in
my head: ‘Your stomach is totally fine
inside, but the lower part of your oe-
sophagus looks like flames climbing
up the wall’,” says Stier.
His doctor pre-
scribed medicine,
which helped soothe
his oesophageal in-
flammation. At the
same time, Stier mod-
ified his diet, which
meant cutting out
chocolate, sweets, spir-
its, juices and coffee.
A COMMON PROBLEM
For many, the searing pain of heart-
burn is an unpleasant occasional fact
of life. It’s often the sign of acid reflux:
stomach acid backing up into the
oesophagus when the muscle that’s
supposed to separate the oesophagus
and stomach doesn’t stay shut.
Heartburn tends to fade after a few
hours, so many people don’t consider
it a serious concern.
“It’s pretty acceptable to have once-
a-month episodes of heartburn, par-
ticularly related to a heav y meal or
alcohol,” says Dr Daniel Sifrim, a pro-
fessor of gastrointestinal physiolog y.
“It’s c onsidered a disease when the
symptoms are more than once a
week, when it affects quality of life,
or when there are complications.”
More frequent heartburn could
indicate GORD, which sometimes
causes damage to the delicate lining
of the oesophagus, due to the effects
of stomach acid repeatedly spewing
upward. GORD affects up to 12 per
cent of Australians and New Zea-
landers. Some people
feel such intense pain,
they worry that they’re
having a heart attack.
“People say: ‘I woke
up in the middle of
the night with the
most searing chest
pain, and I rushed to
the hospital thinking
it was a heart attack,
and they did all the
tests and they were normal. They
said maybe it was acid reflux’,” says
Dr Laurence Lovat, professor of gas-
troenterolog y at University College
London.COMPLICATIONS MAY ARISE
Although GORD isn’t as serious as a
heart attack, it isn’t always benign,
either. Left untreated, GORD may
cause complications over time. Some
people get a chronic cough. Others
may experience a narrowing of the
oesophagus caused by scar tissue,
which makes it difficult to swallow
food comfortably. Years of damage