Importance of Pharmacologic and Lifestyle Changes in the Treatment of Gastroesophageal Reflux

The Importance of Pharmacologic and Lifestyle Changes in the Treatment of Gastroesophageal Reflux
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September 3, 2021
Understanding the relationship between illnesses and the effectiveness of drugs is essential for any healthcare practitioner. It allows him to appreciate a drug's mechanism of action better and use this knowledge to create a treatment plan that should ultimately benefit the patient. In this article, the author would like to focus on one of the most common illnesses that people experience around the world – Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). GERD is primarily characterized by a reflux of an individual's stomach to the esophagus, which can cause irritation or even permanent damage in prolonged cases. In line with this, the succeeding sections of this paper will discuss the pathophysiology of the disease, including its epidemiology, clinical features, and usual treatment processes, among others. Overall, the author believes that an in-depth understanding of the disease can help provide a more appropriate and cost-effective treatment that can be used in one's future practice.
Epidemiology of the Disease
GERD is a common disease that individuals around the world experience. In the United States alone, studies show that about 18.1% to 27.8% of American Adults have been experiencing the disease CITATION Ant21 \l 1033 (Antunes, Abdul, & Curtis, 2021). In the world, current estimates show that the disease afflicts an estimate of 8,819 cases per 100,000 individuals in 2017 CITATION Swe20 \l 1033 (Sweis & Fox, 2020). Between sexes, studies also show that men are more likely to be afflicted with this disease as compared to women. Nonetheless, both genders could also have a higher prevalence than the above estimates because of the broad access to over-the-counter antacids, which could dramatically reduce reported disease cases CITATION Ant21 \l 1033 (Antunes, Abdul, & Curtis, 2021).
Symptoms and Clinical Features
Some of the most common symptoms of GERD are heartburn and regurgitation. Even though the disease rarely exhibits any physical symptoms, these two cardinal symptoms are the usual illness presentation, whether short or chronic. Additionally, the disease could also manifest other symptoms such as chronic cough, chest pain, sore throat, globus sensation, and bloating, among others CITATION Dig20 \l 1033 (Dighe, 2020).
Although diagnosing the disease is relatively easy because of the presence of its two cardinal symptoms, there are also times when the presence of other diseases could make the assessment more difficult. Nonetheless, one of the most critical aspects of the diagnostic process is history taking. It allows the healthcare practitioner to isolate the symptoms and determine the triggers in the patient's case. In most cases, however, a presumptive diagnosis of the disease could usually be estimated when there is the presence of both regurgitation and heartburn CITATION Dig20 \l 1033 (Dighe, 2020).
Aside from history taking, Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) can also be used as a confirmatory test for the disease. This technique, also known as the Empiric PPI Trial, is done by prescribing a two-week therapeutic trial of a...