Causes of Acid Reflux: Lower Esophageal Sphincter

By: Jill Seimer
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:20:38
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Gastro esophageal reflux disease, also known as acid reflux disease, is cause by a variety of things, the lower esophageal sphincter being one of them. While some think that fatty foods or high cholesterol foods are the reason for acid reflux, there may be much larger problems than your diet. One possibility is that, in some patience, excess acid may be produced. When your body does not use all the acid it produces, the acid needs to go somewhere, so it goes up, causing heartburn. There may be other factors at work; following is what you need to know about the lower esophageal sphincter.

The lower esophageal sphincter is the tube of muscle that goes from the bottom of the throat to the stomach and is one of the biggest factors in acid reflux. In the majority of individuals, this area is active most of the time. The lower esophageal sphincter is a gatekeeper of sorts, between the stomach where the food is digested, and the esophagus where the food travels after it is swallowed.

What happens to cause acid reflux is that the lower esophageal sphincter is actually malfunctioning. When everything works right, the sphincter will open to let food through to the stomach, then close tightly afterward. When you suffer from gastro esophageal reflux disease, the lower esophageal sphincter does not function correctly and does not shut tight, this lets partially digested food out of the stomach, causing heartburn.

There are a couple of ways that the abnormally functions causing the reflux. A weak contraction of the muscle is one way. When the muscle does not close tightly, the reflux prevention is reduced. The second way the lower esophageal sphincter can malfunction, or not function properly is when the it does not close tightly for a prolonged period and it gets too relaxed, and this allows acid reflux to occur more often than normal.

When you eat a meal or snack, your stomach has to distend to accommodate the new material. When you eat a large meal, the stomach can stretch too much, the lower esophageal sphincter then becomes too active and acid reflux can occur. Even if you don’t usually suffer from acid reflux, can sometime suffer after a large meal, because the lower esophageal sphincter has become too active.

Jill Seimer reports on health issues at RefluxLife.com and wrote on acid reflux disorder symptoms from her experience with heartburn and acid reflux.

Article source: Expert Articles

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