GERD (acid reflux) is often a result of an incompetent muscle at the end of the esophagus where it meets the stomach. It should be able to constrict to prevent food (coated in nasty stomach acid) from "refluxing" back up. This is why people complain of burning after eating. One of my few soapboxes (I feel entitled to one or two more each year that I've been in medicine, so I only have a few, but they're important and evidence-based!) is about reflux. It's a known fact that untreated or poorly controlled reflux can sometimes lead to cellular changes in the esophagus, causing Barrett's esophagus which is basically pre-cancerous. So preventing reflux (by watching what you eat, and taking the over-the-counter medications) you can actually help PREVENT esophageal cancer! Of course, like most other things, just because you prevent reflux doesn't mean you are 100% protected against cancer (like non-smokers can still get lung cancer), just to protect my reputation here.
A quick interjection: esophageal cancer is horrible. Treatment often involves surgery and chemotherapy/radiation, neither of which are pleasant, to say the least. After surgery, you are left without a stomach- the stomach is actually pulled up through the chest to replace the esophagus. This leaves you unable to keep much food down at a time- you must eat frequent, small meals, and have a lifelong propensity for nausea, vomiting, pain, and lots of other problems.
So I got really excited when I saw this new device, which is basically a ring of magnets that is placed at the bottom of the esophagus! When the problem causing the reflux is a muscle that doesn't constrict properly, how brilliant is it to help it out by putting a circular magnet there?! Anyway, in people who still have reflux despite medication and diet modification, it has been shown to lessen and sometimes eliminate symptoms altogether. I don't think it's FDA approved yet but there are research trials currently.
Just some "food for thought!"
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