Why are my reflux symptoms not getting better?

Have you wondered why your symptoms due to reflux may not be getting better despite medications for gastroesophageal reflux disease or (GERD or chronic heartburn). It just might be that you have not just acid reflux but also non-acid reflux. The GERD medications block acid from forming but do not actually prevent reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus.

Asthma is considered to be one of the common non-esophageal problems related to reflux disease. Dr. Condino and colleagues from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado studied children with asthma and GERD and published their findings in the Journal of Pediatrics (August 2006).

They wished to examine the proportion of acid and nonacid reflux events in children with asthma who were thought to concurrent gastroesophageal reflux. A combined impedance-pH monitoring was used to assess acid and non-acid reflux episodes. Twenty-four kids were participated in the study.

A total of 1184 reflux events were recorded. Of these, 51% were nonacid related. Similarly, 555 symptom episodes were recorded. Of these, only 27% were related to any reflux episode.

The authors concluded that kids with asthma have both acid and nonacid reflux episodes with equal frequency, but majority of nonreflux symptoms including cough is not related to reflux of any kind.

This study highlights the ongoing debate among experts about the relative significance of GERD in causing non-esophageal problems like asthma, chronic cough, laryngitis etc. This study adds to the growing data that although GERD plays a role in a subset of patients, its role in pathogenesis overall may be overrated.

Do you have GERD or any problems related to that like noncardiac chest pain, asthma, cough, laryngitis or bad breath etc? How well are your symptoms controlled? Are you satisfied with medications or have required surgery?