Anynne With Barrett's Esophagus?

[odcdinah 0]

Hello,

I have been gluten-free for 3 years, and expreiencing some acid reflux for the past few months. At the upper endoscopy this week, the doctor found visual evidence of Barrett's esophagus (which must still be verified w/ biopsy). I'm feeling frightened and a bit surprised. Anyone else w/ experience with this condition?

Thanks Dinah

[Mtndog 19]

The last time I had a scope, I showed the beginning of it. Not full-blown but may be coming down the pike. I freaked out because I thought it meant cancer in the future. But my GI assured me they will continue to monitor it and that it does not mean cancer anymore than GERD does.

From the NIH Digestive Diseases site http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/barretts/#risk

"People with Barrett

[butterfl8 9]

My husband (non celiac) has barretts. He just had a follow-up endoscopy today, after his preliminary diagnosis 2.5 years ago. It sounds like little change for his barretts. That is impressive, considering how much he wasn't taking care of himself. In other words--be sure to not do any thing like, smoke, chew tobacco, and if you are on meds for GERD, take them. This will help you keep it all in check a lot better than my husban has! Maybe now he will shape up! Oh well, can't change the past, can only look forward and impact the future. Anyway, I say take care of yourself, and try to NOT introduce evil bad things to your system. Now if only I could get my husband to believe these words of wisdom. 3 years ago.

[nauseatingnancy 0]

Don't be frightened,it's just another diet to get used to and the chances of cancer of very minimal. My mom has it too. There is medication called protonix, or PPI's that help Barretts alot. The only problem with my mom is that she is allergic to all the PPI's, she gets diabetes insipidus from it. We are actually trying to find out if it is because she has celiac that she is allergic to the medication...we aren't sure,but if you do start taking them be careful and keep track of how much you pee, drink and eat. The main things to avoid are soda, caffeine, tomatoes, garlic. It also helps to elevate the head of your bed 4-6 inches.

Since my mom is allergic to the meds we are looking into other options. Especially because of the cancer...like I said, the risk is very minimal but at the same time, cancer of the esophagus is one of the worst you can have. There are some surgical procedures I found that are pretty minimally invasive. We will be talking to my mom's GI this week about them, but you should check them out.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/barretts-esophagus/index.html

Hello,

I have been gluten-free for 3 years, and expreiencing some acid reflux for the past few months. At the upper endoscopy this week, the doctor found visual evidence of Barrett's esophagus (which must still be verified w/ biopsy). I'm feeling frightened and a bit surprised. Anyone else w/ experience with this condition?

Thanks Dinah

[AndrewNYC 4]

The doctors will tell you to avoid tomato, caffeine, alcohol, etc. The truth of the matter is that if you can cut down on ALL processed food you will do fairly well in my experience. I eat tomatoes and I eat citrus like oranges and grapefruit, but I don't eat altered foods like tomato sauce and orange juice, and I'm rid of my GERD. There are many many people who continue to eat normally or just cut out only the foods the doctor advises, and rely on the medicine, and they continue to have problems.