How Veterans Disability Conditions Can Lead to GERD: Top 3 Links

0:08Leah Bucholz Hey guys, it's Leah B from Prestige Veteran Medical Consulting. I am a US Army veteran, physician assistant, and former compensation and pension examiner. So today I want to come on and discuss GERD, which is a very common, disability that veterans are service connected for and how that can be connected as a secondary condition to a variety of things that veterans are suffering from. Okay? So this video isn't specifically on what what conditions GERD can cause, but but what things are as a veteran like you potentially service connected for now that can lead to GERD.

0:40 Okay? So I hope that makes sense. Right? And should a little bit more as we sort of get through this. Okay? So Veterans that are service connected for mental health conditions like anxiety, PTSD, and depression have a higher incidence of having GERD, and this is often a service connection that Veterans have that I see Veterans get service connected for. So I have some literature that I'd like to go over, but just as an introduction, I wrote up a little, synopsis and and basically PTSD can significantly affect the body's ability to manage stress, leading to an overproduction of stomach acid. The heightened anxiety and stress levels associated with PTSD can disrupt the body's normal digestive processes, increasing the likelihood of acid reflux. Additionally, certain behaviors linked to PTSD like smoking, alcohol consumption, these can further worsen GERD symptoms. Smoking weakens the lower esophageal sphincter, which is the muscle that helps prevent acid from entering the esophagus, while alcohol can increase acid production and relax that same sphincter making reflux more likely.

1:48 And veterans with PTSD may also experience disrupted sleep which can cause GERD symptoms to worsen during the night when the body is lying down. Okay so I'm gonna pull up some of my articles that I use and these may help you if, you know, if your treating provider wants to potentially write a report for you or support you with a Nexus statement or a Nexus letter. You might wanna present these to them to see if they agree. So let's see here. Okay, a study titled The Association Between Reflux Esophagitis and Psychological Stress published in Digestive Diseases and Sciences in 2013 is a good one to take a look at.

2:30 There's another great article that shows a bidirectional link, meaning GERD can cause mental health conditions and mental health conditions can cause or contribute to GERD, entitled The Association Between Gastroesophageal Reflux with Sleep Quality, Depression, and Anxiety published in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology is another great article to look at. And then another one, how about increased incidence of gastroesophageal reflux symptoms among nineeleven. World Trade Center survivors worsen their health related quality of life dated ninesixtwenty eleven showed a link in survivors with PTSD and GERD. The study found that psychological distress may have been a factor in those that did not have GERD prior to nineeleven exposure. PTSD, depression, and gastrointestinal symptoms in veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq Complex, What's the Relation?

3:25 Published in 2013 in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Looked at that relationship, especially in those OEFOIF veterans. Measuring the effects of emotions on esophageal motility published in Psychosomatic Medicine also studied this relationship. Okay? So some of these may there's a lot of great literature out there as well for just anxiety and depression.

3:52 Those were a little bit more focused on PTSD, but there's some overlap, right, even in those articles. Okay? So the next thing that I wanna discuss is chronic pain conditions like back pain, knee pain, any kind of chronic pain condition that you may be service connected for and the medications that you can take for those can lead to the condition. Veterans with chronic pain often rely on medications like NSAIDs, non steroidal anti inflammatory medications, or opioids to manage their symptoms. These medications can irritate the stomach lining leading to a reduced ability for your GI tract to be protected from acid.

4:35 NSAIDs in particular can weaken the stomach's protective mucus lining making it more susceptible. Long term use of opioids can also slow the digestive process leading to delayed gastric emptying and increased risk of acid backflow into the esophagus. Additionally, chronic pain itself can be a trigger for increased acid production as the body's stress response, as we just discussed, can exacerbate GERD symptoms. So let me pull up some of that literature for you guys. So nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drug use as a risk factor for gastroesophageal reflux disease and observational study published in 2008 is a good one, in elementary pharmacology and therapeutics.

5:21 There's another one titled Mechanisms of Damage to Gastrointestinal Tract from Non steroidal Anti inflammatory Drugs published in the American Gastroenterological Association in February 2018 that you might wanna look at that discusses NSAIDs and how they affect the GI tract. And another one titled nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs induced failure of lower esophageal and pyloric sphincter and counteraction of sphincter's failure with stable gastric pentadeceptatide BPC1 by seven in rats. That was published in Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology. That's another good one for you guys to take a look at. So moving on to the third most common thing that I see that can kind of influence GERD is weight gain, right?

6:11 So we talk a lot about weight gain and obesity in a lot of our videos because it's very common because a lot of these disorders can affect mobility, exercise, desire to go. You know, you can develop some, you know, coping mechanisms like drinking and things like that, which can add to weight gain. So obesity is a significant risk factor for GERD, particularly for veterans with service connected physical limitations that reduce their ability to engage in regular physical activity. Excess body weight, especially around the abdomen increases intra abdominal pressure, which pushes the stomach upward and encourages acid to flow up through the esophagus. This added pressure can also weaken the lower esophageal sphincter that we keep talking about, which is a key barrier against reflux.

7:04 And as a result, veterans with obesity are at a higher risk for developing GERD. And symptoms can be worsened by a physical strain placed on the body. Furthermore, obesity often leads to other health conditions like sleep apnea, hypertension, which can also compound GERD. So I've got a good article about GERD and obesity as well. Let me find that here for y'all.

7:27 So obesity and GERD published in Gastroenterology Clinics of North America in 2013 discusses the link between obesity and GERD. They wrote that the data demonstrates that obesity is an important risk factor in the development of GERD and that cross sectional studies have demonstrated a higher prevalence in obese individuals compared with non obese, okay? And then I've got a ton of articles just about exercise and how that lack of exercise can lead to obesity. You can check out some of our other videos about obesity as an intermediate step, and those may be beneficial for you guys. So I hope this was helpful.

8:03 I hope some of these articles can help you guys in your pursuit of VA disability if you believe your GERD is related on a secondary basis some of these ailments and your suffering. I appreciate as always you guys watching. Please like and subscribe and drop any comments that you have. And if you have any other videos that you'd like to, you know, have me, you know, talk about, please just I'm always I'm always happy for new ideas. Alright?

8:29 So thanks a lot for watching and talk to you guys later. Bye.