In addition to a sore throat, it can also be responsible for pain on swallowing, difficulty swallowing, and nausea.
By Dr. SYLVESTER IKHISEMOJIE
Acid reflux is often linked to the development of several different symptoms, and one of these features is a sore throat. Any person can develop this condition, including young children who are still in their infancy.
The usual treatment will include a number of self-care strategies, including the intake of smaller meals at shorter intervals.
In older children, teenagers, and adults, these strategies will include the use of medications, changes in the consistency of the food the person takes, and the position in which to sleep or lie down.
For most people, if acid reflux occurs after a period of indigestion and is associated with chest pain, shortness of breath, or pain in the arm or jaw, it is time to go to the hospital and get a doctor’s attention.
Acid reflux is a common condition, and people may notice the symptoms when they bend over or lie down, especially soon after eating, when they eat a spicy meal, or if they eat a large meal.
In some situations, the food could even flow from the nostrils without control. Therefore, the condition can be acute, with a rapid onset followed by rapid resolution, or it can persist over a long period and become chronic.
There is no question that it often causes huge levels of discomfort to many people, with some even wondering if they are about to have a stroke or a heart attack.
Acid reflux is another name for gastroesophageal reflux disease. It occurs when the acid within the stomach and other contents of the stomach rise into the gullet, especially when such a person is lying down after a meal.
It can also cause a sore throat when this happens repeatedly. In children, this can cause them to regurgitate food, but that can also happen in adults. More commonly, though, this event can cause heartburn, a bitter taste in the mouth, or indigestion.
In this situation, many people resort to the use of all sorts of medications and food supplements, including antacids, menthol-containing sweets, and even proton pump inhibitors like Omeprazole and Lansoprazole. Such people essentially go on like this for a long time before making a proper diagnosis and seeking treatment.
However, on many occasions, no symptoms are found, but when symptoms are present, such people usually experience indigestion or heartburn. It is usually because of this acid content that the features persist.
Some people develop chronic reflux due to the persistence of the symptoms above, which is then properly called a disease by many doctors. At this stage, it is liable to cause more severe and lasting symptoms, some of which may make the sufferers miserable.
The incidence of this disease condition is likely to grow as more people find comfort in the consumption of highly processed, fatty, sugary, and spicy foods, as seems to be the case around the world.
At the same time, a fast-paced life ensures that most people eat on the move, sleep in unusual positions and locations, and often have no decent interval between a meal and lying down to sleep.
Other causes of this malady include the presence of unusual muscle spasms at the lower end of the gullet, slow emptying of the stomach, and the presence of a hernia sliding just beside the gullet at its lower end.
This is known as a hiatus hernia, and there are various ways of managing this separate condition, which is often found in association with acid reflux.
One more common reason why acid reflux might occur is pregnancy, and this association is seen only in women.
In addition to a sore throat, it can also be responsible for pain on swallowing, difficulty swallowing, and nausea.