Stomach acid is one of the most acidic things there is, but it doesn't harm the stomach because the stomach lining is strong enough to withstand it. However, it causes damage when it refluxes up into the esophagus, because the esophagus isn't meant to withstand stomach acid and therefore isn't strong enough.
Solution: come up with a way to line acid reflux patients' esophaguses (maybe just the bottom, maybe the whole thing) with stomach lining, so the acid reflux can't do any more damage.
Ideas on where to get the stomach lining from: could they remove a thin layer (not the whole thing) from the patient's stomach? Could they transplant it from a dead person? Could they grow it in a test tube from stem cells? Could they grow it in the esophagus itself from stem cells?
I'm not exactly sure how this could be done, but they can do face transplants and sex changes! Surely they can install a few inches of new lining!
6 comments:
That would be a lot of surgery - and risk, and recovery - to avoid a change of eating and drinking habits.
Which is not to say you wouldn't opt for the surgery, you might. But it would be pretty major, I think.
The dietary changes (and, in fact, all other "treatments" including existing surgical options) don't stop the damage, they just slow it down. If you have reflux, you have to assume it's always happening (and therefore always damaging your esophagus) unless proven otherwise. You're just postponing discomfort/difficulty eating/esophageal cancer, hoping that you can postpone it until after you die of something else.
But if it were possible to successfully install stomach lining in the esophagus, that would stop the damage, because stomach acid then couldn't damage the esophagus any more than it can damage the stomach.
"If you have reflux, you have to assume it's always happening (and therefore always damaging your esophagus) unless proven otherwise."
Oh wow, I didn't know that! I apologize if you said this earlier and I missed it and/or forgot. I thought the dietary changes would actually cause the acid not to reflux.
This information makes your friends' minimizing comments even more insensitive.
Do stomach protectants work on the esophagus? There are drugs people take when they have to take anti-inflammatories, which can cause ulcers.
I have no idea. I had to google stomach protectants and I hadn't heard of any of the things I found.
I guess the question is, if they're meant to protect the stomach, how do you get them to not go into the stomach and hang out in the esophagus instead. Unless they're released through the bloodstream or something.
Oy, sorry this is so late. I lost the post, then forgot.
These stomach protectors are more properly called GI protectants. They do work through the bloodstream to protect the GI tract from gastic ulcers caused by N-SAIDS (anti-inflammatory drugs). I'm guessing they don't work on reflux, or you would have read or heard about them in your research, but I don't know.
The most commonly known such drug is misoprostol (generic), also known as Cytotec. It also causes abortion, so it comes with tons of warnings.
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