Can Acid Reflux Treatment Impact Asthma?
Having to deal with asthma is bad enough. But one of out every three asthmatics also suffers from acid reflux. For years, doctors thought that treating acid reflux might be able to help with asthma, but a new study is casting its doubts. Having lived with asthma most of his life, Matthew Leitz is used to always having medicine around. He doesn’t go anywhere without his inhaler. “I would say about once a month, I have something serious enough to call it an asthma attack. Other than that, it’s a lot of wheezing and coughing,” Leitz said. But inhalers are only part of the prescription for some people with asthma. It’s estimated that 7 million of them have another problem in common. “There is a proportion of patients who, for whatever reason, have acid in the esophagus, but they just don’t feel it; it doesn’t hurt, they don’t really understand that but we know it exists,” Dr. John Mastronarde of Ohio State University Medical Center said. Doctors had an idea. They wanted to know if treating
