This is, obviously, information the pharmaceutical industry does not want you to know. Doctors who have close ties to the pharmaceutical companies are not likely to acknowledge or mention it when they prescribe these medications. People who purchase their acid suppression medications over-the-counter are unlikely to recognize the risk. The destructive process may take many years to develop. During this time the patient may feel well when he takes the medication making him and his doctor feel like they are doing the right thing. If the patient is one of the unlucky people who also refluxes bile he may be developing Barrett’s or even cancer without feeling anything different.

The Good News

The good news about reflux disease and cancer is that we now have the technology to determine who is a greatest risk. We now have sophisticated methods of studying the esophagus and predicting with better accuracy who will likely get the cancer. We can now cure cancer of the esophagus better than ever if we can find it before it spreads. Many experts believe that anti reflux surgery can actually prevent it.

Who is at Risk?

If you need to take acid suppression medications on a regular daily basis.
If the medications don’t help control your symptoms.
If you sometimes regurgitate when you bend over.
If you awaken in the night with distress.
If you have trouble swallowing.
If you have taken acid suppressive pills for more than a year.
If you are a white male with reflux disease.
If you have been diagnosed with Barrett’s esophagitis

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