Hyperacidity

Hyperacidity is a term loosely used by people to express a group of symptoms like upper abdominal or chest (behind the sternum) discomfort / vague pain, nausea, bloating, occasional vomiting (sometimes self-induced in the hope of relief), tightness in the chest or abdomen, excessive burps etcetera. Often it is combined with back pain, neck pain, headache, flatulence, constipation, increased frequency of stools, foul smelling stools and many more. It is important for the doctor at such times to differentiate the exact organ involvement whether it is esophagus, stomach, pancreas, gall bladder, small intestine, large intestine; in short the entire GI system. This will be followed by making a clinical diagnosis like gastritis, acid reflux disease / GERD, pancreatitis, cholecystitis, colitis, renal colic, enteritis or anything else. When complaints are few and pertinent it is easier for the doctor to pinpoint the organ e.g. retrosternal / upper abdominal burning / pain, nausea, vomiting, bloating, regurgitation usually points towards esophagus and stomach. Rarely these could be complaints of a heart attack or biliary-pancreatic pain or even renal pain. However these are the most common complaints attributed to hyperacidity or excess acid in the stomach by patients. Often acid and bile are both labelled / mixed as पित्त by the patient.

These complaints are grouped under term dyspepsia and represent a variety of problems as mentioned above. However Only those diseases which arise from direct or indirect effect of gastric acid or diseases that lead to higher gastric acid secretion and therefore it’s ill effects can be considered under “hyperacidity” or acid peptic disease or ulcer dyspepsia. Those dyspeptic complaints that are due to biliary / pancreatic cause are termed pancreato-biliary dyspepsia. Those which are due to other organic causes are combined under non-ulcer dyspepsia. Finally those patients who are found to have no organ involvement after thorough and complete investigations; are considered for a possibility of functional dyspepsia. This includes stress / anxiety / depression related dyspepsia complaints. Patients often have overlapping problems like gall stones, gastritis and anxiety-depression.

What is true hyperacidity?

True hyperacidity or ulcer dyspepsia can include diseases like gastritis / inflammation of inner lining of stomach, peptic ulcer ( duodenal and gastric) and acid reflux disease / GERD. These problems directly arise from excessive acid secretion or reflux of normal or excessive acid from stomach into esophagus. Hiatal hernia and esophagitis / inflammation of inner lining of esophagus are often part of GERD.

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