What happens in the body when “reflux” happens? Something “flows back.
The tide? That is a fairly well known phenomenon — the ocean has “tides.” This is when the ocean water gets higher and moves further up on the beach, then it recedes, goes back to a lower level and leaves the higher parts of the beach. The action of the tides is repeated, again and again. So, “reflux” is a “flowing back” like the tides flowing BACK into the ocean from which they started. You could say that when the “tide is coming in” it is “fluxing.” That would not be a common usage. When the tide is going out, that is “refluxing.” This is also not a common usage, but it helps understand the words. The image on the above left is a “bird sanctuary” where the ocean water high tide flows into the sanctuary, but some of it is then held inside the sanctuary when the tide flows out. I’m going, now, beyond the simple meaning of “reflux” to the next step in your understanding.
