Treating Reflux Helps Asthma Patients
For reasons that are not entirely understood, there is a connection between asthma and a condition called gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD, in which stomach acid baccks up in the esophagus causing heartburn, in that treating GERD lessens the number of asthma flare-ups and decreases the need for asthma medication.
Researchers in New Orleans had 62 asthmatic children undergo testing to see if they had GERD. Those who had GERD were then treated either with drugs or surgery, and compared with the children who did not have GERD, and found to be doing better two years later.
Vikram Khoshoo and his colleagues who conducted the study think this is a strong message that anyone with asthma should be tested for GERD to see if their symptoms can be improved by treating the second condition, one that is often overshadowed by the asthma.