For those who care for someone with Parkinson's disease
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Lately, Carl has been having terrible acid reflux. Is that common in PD? I don't get a definitive answer anywhere. He has been trying to avoid certain foods, times he eats before bed, etc., but nothing seems to help. |
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| Jane, I would say yes. Sadly I don't think you will get a definitive answer from the medical field. The business they are in to say yes cuts out referrals to throat, swallowing tests speech therapy a whole lot of visits to specialists who will because they don't know much about P.D. want to treat it as a separate disorder. Hope Carl finds some relief (I take antacid tablets almost constantly) I'm waiting for it to be dispensed like pez flip the top and out pops tums. |
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| I would agree. I know the stomach sometimes doesn't empty as quickly as it is supposed to. Once mom had a substitute doctor that wanted to have her do a gastric emptying test, which would have required her to stop her pain meds for several days, etc., which I thought would have been a disaster for an unclear goal. We happened to have an appointment with the neurologist the next day, and I asked him about it. He agreed with me--that it was too difficult for her to do the test, and even if that was the problem, there wasn't much they could do about it that we weren't already doing (antacids, etc). I can't tell you how many times her substitute doctors want her to do some weird test or take some new medicine, and it never works out. She goes in stable, and if we do what the sub doctor wants, she leaves unstable. |
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Years ago (before his diagnosis) my husband was really suffering from heartburn. He went through several tests and was given medications, which helped somewhat. In my research on the internet I found an article that suggested that heartburn was particularly prevalent in middle aged men who had put on some weight, wouldn't admit it, and now their pants were always too tight. That sounded like my hubby! I made him buy new pants a size larger and within a week his heartburn was gone and he was able to throw the meds away. Hah! Aside from all that, I've read in several places that heartburn is a symptom that is sometimes seen in Parkinson's. Along with slower gastric emptying and issues with swallowing, the esophagus also can work more slowly and less efficiently. Part of its job is to keep the bottom end of the tube closed and keep the contents of the stomach from coming back up, and if it isn't able to do it's job as well, then stomach acid can creep back up and irritate the lining. |