Acid Reflux Asthma

Is there an asthma and acid reflux connection?

You might be surprised to find out there is.

Asthma is a chronic lung condition that is characterized by difficulty in breathing. People with asthma have extra sensitive or hyper-responsive airways. During an asthma attack, the airways become irritated and react by narrowing and constricting, causing increased resistance to airflow, and obstructing the flow of the air passages to and from the lungs.

Some research indicates that the symptoms of asthma may get worse when stomach acid rises up your gullet, a condition called gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, or, more commonly acid reflux.

Acid reflux can cause painful heartburn which you can relieve with antacid medicines. That is, special medicines which neutralise the acid. Acid reflux happens mostly in people who are older and overweight. But it can happen in children and in all types of people.

In some studies, researchers have injected acid into the gullets of people with asthma, and found it had a significant impact on their asthma, causing a worsening of their symptoms.

These is also evidence to suggest that people who have asthma get acid reflux more often than people without asthma. This is probably because of the significant pressure changes in the chest during breathing in those with asthma. These high pressures can force liquid to travel the wrong way up the oesophagus. In these cases, asthma sufferers seem to lose out twice: they suffer from asthma and they may suffer from acid reflux more often than non asthma sufferers.

However, this is not the whole story. You would imagine that if acid reflux really was an important cause of asthma symptoms becoming increasingly worse, then treatments against acid reflux would make the asthma better. Generally, however, this has not been found to be the case.

In the meantime, it is worth noting that if you have asthma and acid reflux, careful treatment of your reflux may improve your breathing.

If your asthma appears to be worsening and no one seems to know why, ask your doctor to check whether you might be dealing with acid reflux asthma. He can conduct tests to measure the acidity in your gullet. If the result demonstrates a tendency for acid reflux, then your doctor may likely try to improve your lungs by also treating your stomach.

 At A Glance

• Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways (bronchial tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants, and this is characterized by difficulty in breathing.
• These is also evidence to suggest a link between asthma and acid reflux.  For example, people who have asthma get acid reflux more often than people without asthma.