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) Northeast Ohio Health and Medical Consumer News
But about 10 percent of those who suffer from acid reflux will develop a precancerous condition known as Barrett's esophagus. In turn, about one in 200 of those cases will develop into a type of esophageal cancer that's one of the deadliest cancers to treat. And while those numbers may seem low, the rate of adenocarcinoma esophageal cancer is climbing at such a high rate that new attention is being paid to the cause and treatments for Barrett's and esophageal cancer.The esophagus is a long tube from the pharynx that contracts to help move food into the stomach. People with Barrett's have a damaged esophagus lining and a loosening of the esophageal sphincter, which helps keep food down.
White men over 50, with a history of chronic heartburn, have the highest risk for Barrett's. More>>
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) Feeling the burn
Indeed, the uptick of diagnoses in kids and babies is “really scary," says Seattle physician Tom Vaughan, an expert on acid reflux and professor at the University of Washington. Two decades ago, it was almost unheard of. Now the use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), the strongest acid-blocking drugs, for infants like Cooper—who might once have been dismissed as “colicky"—has soared by 750 per cent in the U.S. in the past decade; a range of reflux drugs have been approved for use in kids under age 11. This year, a lime-flavoured, “kid's-strength" version of the GERD prescription drug Nexium will hit the market. “More and more kids are being treated with PPIs and getting anti-reflux surgery," says Dr. Douglas Corley of Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Oakland, Calif. “And no one has any idea what the long-term effects are."Unfortunately, ignoring the symptoms—which for kids can include coughing and tummy aches—has its perils too, notes Gail Attara, executive director of the Canadian Society of Intestinal Research. More>>
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) News to Take to Heart
The question about medicine used to block stomach acid in patients with heartburn, reflux, and ulcers may warrant further study, according to Steven Dunn, a pharmacist at UK and assistant professor at the UK College of Pharmacy. Dunn will present a substudy of research from the CREDO trial, which involved a study of the antiplatelet "blood thinner" clopidogrel in procedures such as stenting and angioplasty to open blocked heart vessels. . More>> - (
) Panel finds widespread Gulf War illness
He said civilian doctors have diagnosed him with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, dizziness, confusion, acid reflux disease and chronic sinusitis.He was not among the 100,000 U.S. troops who were potentially exposed to low-levels of Sarin gas, a nerve agent, as a result of large-scale U.S. demolitions of Iraqi munitions near Khamisiyah, Iraq, in 1991.
Troops who were downwind from the demolitions have died from brain cancer at twice the rate of other Gulf War veterans, the report stated.
A panel member, Dr. Roberta White, chair of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health, found evidence last year linking low-level exposure to nerve gas among in Persian Gulf troops with lasting brain deficits.
The extent of the deficits - less brain white matter and reduced cognitive function -- corresponded to the extent of the exposure. More>>