Heartburn in bed: soda, sleeping pills can spoil sleep.For many people, meals come with an unwanted side order: heartburn heartburn, burning sensation beneath the breastbone, also called pyrosis. Heartburn does not indicate heart malfunction but results from nervous tension or overindulgence in food or drink. . But heartburn has a more sinister aspect (Astrol.) an appearance of two planets happening according to the succession of the signs, as Saturn in Aries, and Mars in the same degree of Gemini. See also: Sinister that can show up well after people leave the table. Acid reflux acid reflux n. See heartburn. at night, which can have serious long-term health consequences, often causes sleep problems, suggests a new medical survey. The pain of heartburn results from acidic stomach fluids rising into the esophagus. Various factors, including what a person eats and drinks, can weaken the gate-like sphincter muscle Noun 1. sphincter muscle - a ring of muscle that contracts to close an opening anatomical sphincter, sphincter muscle, musculus - one of the contractile organs of the body that normally confines the fluids to the stomach. Estimates of the prevalence of all forms of reflux range from about 10 percent to nearly 50 percent of adults. According to the new report, about one-quarter of adults are aroused from sleep by heartburn at least twice a month. "It is a stunning number," says gastroenterologist Gastroenterologist A physician who specializes in diseases of the digestive system. Mentioned in: Rectal Examination gastroenterologist a physician specializing in gastroenterology. Ronnie Fass of the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System in Tucson, who led the study. Being awakened by reflux is bad enough, but sleeping through the irritation can be worse, Fass says. When asleep, people produce little acid-neutralizing saliva and may not swallow, an action that ushers straying gastric fluids back to their place. Lingering acid can lead to problems such as chronic esophageal inflammation, coughing, or asthma, Fass says. Compared with daytime heartburn, "nighttime reflux is a much more malignant form of the disease," says William C. Orr of the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. To understand factors linked to nighttime heartburn, Fass and his colleagues distributed a questionnaire to volunteers in several long-term health studies. Some 15,000 people completed the questionnaire. Subsets of people with and without nighttime heartburn also answered questions about health problems, medication use, and beverage intake. A variety of factors were more prevalent among people with nocturnal reflux than among those without it. They included excessive weight, high blood pressure, asthma, insomnia, and obstructive sleep apnea Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) A potentially life-threatening condition characterized by episodes of breathing cessation during sleep alternating with snoring or disordered breathing. . Some of these factors had previously been associated with reflux in general. Fass notes that insomnia and sleep apnea sleep apnea, episodes of interrupted breathing during sleep. Obstructive sleep apnea is a common disorder in which relaxation of muscles in the throat repeatedly close off the airway during sleep; the person wakes just enough to take a gasping breath. could be consequences, rather than causes, of nighttime reflux. Many patients with disturbed sleep "don't make the connection" to reflux and seek treatment only for sleeping problems, Fass says. "Carbonated beverages are highly associated with reports of heartburn during sleep," says Fass. Also implicated im·pli·cate tr.v. im·pli·cat·ed, im·pli·cat·ing, im·pli·cates 1. To involve or connect intimately or incriminatingly: evidence that implicates others in the plot. 2. are benzodiazepines Benzodiazepines Definition Benzodiazepines are medicines that help relieve nervousness, tension, and other symptoms by slowing the central nervous system. Purpose Benzodiazepines are a type of antianxiety drugs. such as Valium and Xanax, medications often used to treat sleep problems, Fass and his colleagues report in the May Chest. Past studies have shown such drugs to increase the frequency of reflux in general. If suffering from nighttime reflux, "I would definitely avoid carbonated beverages in the evening [and] not have benzodiazepines as sleeping pills," Fass says. Health care providers need to be aware of the problems associated with nighttime reflux, says Harley Liker of the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. . According to research that he and his colleagues presented this week in Chicago at the annual medical conference called Digestive Disease Week, about half of people with recurrent reflux report being awakened by heartburn, which typically costs them 3 to 4 hours of sleep per week. Heartburn is often treated with acid-blocking medications. However, a person with reflux who visits a physician because of sleep loss "may not complain directly of heartburn," Orr says. "That patient could probably be cured of both problems simply by curing their reflux." |
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