Everyone feels anxious sometimes. Before a job interview, before a difficult conversation, before a medical procedure you have been dreading. That tight feeling in your chest, the racing thoughts, the sense that something is about to go wrong — these are normal human experiences. Anxiety in these moments is not a disorder. It is your […]
Ask any group of pregnant women about heartburn and you will get knowing looks all around. It is one of the most universally shared experiences of pregnancy, affecting an estimated 17 to 45 percent of pregnant women in the first trimester and climbing to as high as 80 percent by the third trimester (Richter, 2005). […]
You get a blood test. The report comes back with four or five numbers – serum iron, ferritin, TIBC, transferrin saturation – and none of them seem to be telling the same story. One is low. Another is high. Your doctor says something about iron deficiency, but you’re not sure what any of these markers […]
You’ve probably heard it your whole life: drink eight glasses of water a day. It’s on wellness posters, in fitness apps, repeated by well-meaning friends. The only problem? There’s no solid science behind it. That’s not to say hydration doesn’t matter – it absolutely does. But the conversation around hydration has been oversimplified to the […]
Most people have a pretty clear mental image of acid reflux. Burning in the chest after a meal. A sour taste rising into the throat. The classic heartburn that sends you reaching for a Tums at 10pm. It is uncomfortable, it is recognizable, and it tells you pretty directly that something is going wrong in […]
Of all the terms that come up in conversations about GERD, Barrett’s esophagus is probably the one that causes the most anxiety. People hear it and immediately think of cancer. They worry that their years of heartburn have quietly been doing something irreversible. They search for it online at midnight and come away more frightened […]
Walk into any pharmacy in the United States and you will find them right there on the shelf. Prilosec. Nexium. Prevacid. Protonix. These are some of the most purchased over-the-counter and prescription medications in the country, and the class of drug they belong to, proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs, is among the most widely prescribed […]
If you have ever read anything about acid reflux or GERD, you have probably come across the term lower esophageal sphincter, usually abbreviated as LES. It gets mentioned briefly, described as a valve that is not working properly, and then the article moves on to talk about symptoms and treatments. What rarely gets explained is […]
There is a moment that many people with upper digestive discomfort eventually reach. The burning is happening too often to ignore. You have started avoiding certain foods. You are Googling your symptoms at midnight. And somewhere in your search, two conditions keep coming up side by side: GERD and peptic ulcer disease. They both involve […]
Most people with GERD notice their symptoms most acutely after meals. The burning sensation after dinner, the discomfort on the couch, the sour taste that lingers after eating too much too quickly. These are unpleasant. But they are also usually temporary, and most people manage them and move on with their evening. What gets far […]