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Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) - Treatment Overview
Treatment for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is aimed at reducing the abnormal backflow, or reflux, of stomach acid and juices into the esophagus, to prevent injury to the lining of the esophagus or to help it to heal if injury has already occurred, to prevent GERD from recurring, and to prevent other conditions that might arise as complications of GERD.
Initial treatment
Treatment for people who have symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) begins with making lifestyle changes and taking nonprescription medicines that reduce or block acid. These include antacids (such as Tums), H2 blockers (such as Pepcid), or proton pump inhibitors (such as Prilosec OTC). If you have been using nonprescription medicines to treat your symptoms for longer than 2 weeks, talk to your doctor. If you have GERD, the stomach acid could be causing damage to your esophagus. Your doctor can help you find the right treatment. If you have frequent or severe GERD symptoms, your doctor may recommend that you use prescription medicines along with lifestyle changes. When prescription medicines are used to treat GERD symptoms:
- You may need to try different medicines or combinations of medicines before finding the one that best relieves your symptoms.
- The dose or frequency may need to be gradually increased until the most effective dose for you is found.
- Long-term-perhaps for the rest of your life-medication therapy is usually necessary to treat severe, persistent symptoms or complications of GERD.
Medicines for GERD include proton pump inhibitors (such as Nexium and Prilosec) and H2 blockers (such as Pepcid and Tagamet). Many of these medicines are available in both prescription and nonprescription forms.
An important part of treating GERD is avoiding the things that trigger your symptoms. These may include foods such as spicy or fatty foods, chocolate, drinks that contain caffeine or alcohol, behaviors such as smoking, and taking certain medicines. If you think that your symptoms are worse after eating a certain food, you can stop eating that food to see if it helps your symptoms. If you think a medicine you are taking is making your symptoms worse, talk to your doctor.
Fundoplication surgery, which strengthens the valve between the stomach and the esophagus, may be used to treat GERD if lifestyle changes don't help or if treatment with medicines does not relieve your symptoms.
Ongoing treatment
If medicines and lifestyle changes control symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), you will likely continue the same treatment. It is important that you continue to take medicines as instructed by your doctor, because stopping therapy will often bring symptoms back.
You can try basic treatments like lifestyle changes and nonprescription medicines that reduce or block acid before you try prescription medicines. The nonprescription medicines include antacids (such as Tums), H2 blockers (such as Pepcid), and proton pump inhibitors (such as Prilosec OTC). If you have been using nonprescription medicines to treat your symptoms for longer than 2 weeks, talk to your doctor. If you have GERD, the stomach acid could be causing damage to your esophagus. Your doctor can help you find the right treatment. The approach your doctor chooses will depend the symptoms you are having, how severe they are, and how much damage (if any) has been done. You and your doctor will also need to balance the effectiveness and safety of various treatments against the costs.
Treatment if the condition gets worse
WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) Topics
It’s not just what you eat that can cause your stomach to churn. It’s also how much you eat and what you do after meals.
