As the saying goes, food is the most important thing for the people. Eating has always been the most important part of our life. However, there are some young people who are troubled by the problem of eating.
Looking at all kinds of delicious food, my stomach cooed, but I couldn’t swallow it. I always feel that the food goes down very slowly, as if it is stuck in my throat, and occasionally I feel pain behind my sternum or in my upper abdomen.
Finally, after eating the meal, I took a rest and felt food reflux, nausea and vomiting as soon as I lay down. Even when you sleep at night, what you eat will flow back to your throat, choking people to cough, even a piece of news will be sucked into your lungs, causing pneumonia.
Over time, they eat less and less and weigh less and less.
Is this what?
Be careful at this time, this may be a disease called achalasia. The situation described in the first paragraph is a typical symptom of this disease.
If you get this disease, when swallowing food, the esophagus will not peristalze. The opening under the esophagus leading to the stomach is called cardia, which is relatively tight, just like its name [achalasia]. The sick person is usually 30-60 years old, with similar men and women.
Although there are not many people suffering from this disease in our country, doctors pay special attention to it because it seriously affects the quality of life, even can’t eat anything at all in the late stage, and even canceration may occur.
To diagnose this disease, esophageal cancer must be excluded. Therefore, don’t blame the doctor. If he asks you to have a gastroscope after barium meal, or to have an esophageal manometry after gastroscope, each examination has a clear purpose to diagnose or exclude a disease.
How to treat achalasia of cardia?
This disease is not incurable. According to the severity of the disease, the general doctor will give the following different treatment methods.
1. General treatment
Eat regularly, have good habits, chew slowly, and avoid supercold, overheated or spicy food. Avoid long-term mental stress.
A clinical study conducted by Peking Union Medical College Hospital found that [drinking water therapy], that is, drinking a small cup of hot water of about 200 ml and 50 ℃ at 3-5 minutes before and after each meal and 2 hours before going to bed, can temporarily relieve the symptoms of patients.
2. Surgical treatment
If the symptoms are more serious, surgical treatment is required. This can be minimally invasive surgery, through laparoscopy or video-assisted thoracoscopy, the cardiac position is too tense muscle to open, the name of the operation is called lower esophageal cardia musculotomy, also known as Heller surgery.
3. Endoscopic therapy
It can also be like a gastroscope, Under the endoscope, use a small ball to spread out the tense part, Or use a knife to cut the tense part. The latter method, Professionally called transoral endoscopic myotomy, abbreviated as POEM. Because the long-term effect is better, so now more doctors will choose to use POEM methods. However, after all, it is a relatively advanced operation, requiring relatively high levels of equipment and operators. Therefore, in some places where POEM cannot be carried out, balloon dilatation is still a very feasible method.
If you suspect that you have this problem, remember to go to the Department of Gastroenterology for examination earlier.