look Harper is awful I don't know if there's ever been a person who's been suffering from heartburn doesn't matter how minor and they just sat there and said yes more of that please alright it just doesn't happen because heartburn really really hurts no matter how minor it made me and its most severe form it can cause significant damage to the digestive tract and that's it we're gonna talk about today we're going to talk about acid reflux and GERD the more severe form and figure out what kind of destruction it's doing to the digestive tract so let's do this [Music] first of all let's figure out the difference between acid reflux and GERD because while they're similar they are most definitely different you see acid reflux is something that you I and every other person you've ever known has suffered from at least at one point in our lifetime this is just heartburn now we shouldn't call it heartburn because it has nothing to do with the heart it's purely in the digestive tract and the esophagus is behind the heart so when you feel that burning sensation you interpret it as chest pain and we just call that heartburn now acid reflux happens due to a variety of reasons maybe you had too big of a meal or maybe you had something super spicy it really does depend on the individual and the time of day and the position they're sitting or lying and there's a lot of factors that goes into why they're suffering from acid reflux now GERD on the other hand stands for gastro esophageal reflux disease and this is much more severe you can think of it like a hyped up chronic version of acid reflux individuals who suffer from GERD typically will get this multiple times a day so imagine heartburn multiple times a day and they can even get ulcers in their esophagus it can come with quite damaging results but it doesn't just happen in adults this can happen in infants and a lot of the parents out there will recognize GERD because of this I know my son suffered from a minor bout of GERD and it was really horrible to go through right because picture infants don't quite have the control over their esophagus that an adult would in fact you gain that control around the first year of life so under that one year of age it's much more likely that they will suffer from GERD and you have to kind of put them in different positions until their esophagus can learn to close properly but that but GERD just literally think of it multiple times a day acid just coming up and starting to consume the esophagus because your esophagus is not designed to handle stomach acid like the stomach is so what I want to do is take a look at the inside of the stomach to figure out how all of this is starting so you're looking at a stomach that has been cut in order for us to see inside and this is absolutely incredible this is one of my favorite things to look at and akima body these are called gastric roogie which literally means stomach folds and these allow the stomach to expand as well as they do some grinding of digestive material to further break it down now there are cells that line the inside of the stomach and the main ones we want to talk about are called mucosal cells you coastal cells protect the stomach by secreting mucus and the acid can't break through the mucus then you also have were called parietal cells and again these are microscopic so you're not gonna be able to see it but parietal cells are what secrete hydrochloric acid or what most of us would call stomach acid and the stomach acid is going to bathe the digestive material so you can kind of picture this stomach just kind of contracting and grinding and it's going to turn that digestive material into a paste called chyme so now you're looking at a fully intact stomach and you can see the base of the esophagus here and then as well as it's turning into the small intestine down in this area so just picture this thing loaded with chyme and what's gonna happen is it will slowly release that time into the intestines through this area here this is called the pylorus of the stomach and it's and inside of it is an extremely strong sphincter called the pyloric sphincter and that pyloric sphincter which pylorus literally means gatekeeper is what's going to determine whether or not the material can go into the small intestines to be absorbed but our focus is up here you see what we're looking at is the base of the esophagus as it turns into the stomach and this is a sphincter it's able to shut and we call this the lower esophageal sphincter and this is what has the issue when it comes to acid reflux and GERD just think if that lower esophageal sphincter is unable to close properly you're gonna get hydrochloric acid that's gonna go through it and up the esophagus now there's debate as to what's causing or preventing that sphincter from closing properly in the first place at least in terms of GERD in acid reflux it's typically just because you've produced way too much or maybe you've just you're putting too much pressure on your abdomen and it's kind of pushing it up the esophagus but in terms of GERD something is literally causing it to improperly or it's staying open more than it should and that's still up for debate we're still trying to figure it out but just think with acid reflux that's a temporary exposure so as painful as it is it's really not that bad in the long term you're as soon as the stomach is able to release its contents stomach acid content goes down and then you're typically gonna feel better a lot of individuals will also choose to take an antacid and that can also help with that but with GERD your typical antacids aren't going to help they usually have to get some kind of prescription medication that is going to significantly inhibit the production of the acid otherwise they are just susceptible to all sorts of damage in the esophagus it is excruciating and I well I've never suffered from it my heart goes out to those of you who have now hopefully this helped give you an idea of an understanding as to what's going on between acid reflux and with GERD as always be sure to give us a like a comment if you enjoyed this video if you haven't already be sure to subscribe we do this type of content all the time but until next time I'll see you [Music] you