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Hey! It's Barrett's day!
It usually starts with acid reflux. If chronic, you might suffer from gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (known as GORD) that cause heartburn, nausea, regurgitation of food, and pain. According to the Guts Charity, around 1 out of 10 patients with GORD will develop Barrett's Oesophagus. And between 3% to 13% of people with Barrett will develop a type of oesophageal cancer.
What is Barrett's oesophagus?
Who is Norman Barrett?
Born in Australia, Norman Rupert Barrett was a British thoracic surgeon in the 20th century. Even if he was not the first to describe this condition, it has been named after him. He was a consultant surgeon at St. Thomas' Hospital in London most of his career.
What is Barrett's oesophagus?
As mentioned earlier, when GORD are recurrent we can suspect the development of Barrett's oesophagus. Please note that it is a rare condition. Irreversible, it is characterised by the normal cells (good pipe or gullet) lining the oesophagus being replaced by abnormal cells. this latter starts where the oesophagus meets the stomach and spread upwards.
There is usually no clear symptoms of this condition, but you can identify the effect of GORD on your daily life (GORD which is the primary condition to Barrett's oesophagus). So symptoms to identify and care about are the GORD symptoms: abdominal discomfort, burning sensation in abdomen, bad breath, difficulties to swallow, loss of appetite, loss of weight, bitter ou sour taste in mouth, nausea, burping, heartburn (and associated symptoms)... See more information on Heartburn and reflux symptoms on the blog.
It is more common on men than women and on people around 55 or more. Some daily lifestyles can be factors associated with this condition: smoking, heartburn, hiatal hernia, obesity...
What are the causes?
The exact causes remains unknown but the main suspects are heartburn symptoms of a long-term gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. The lower oesophageal sphincter (LES), which separates oesophagus from stomach is weakened and allow acid to flow into the oesophagus. This exposure to these fluids damage the lower oesophageal lining and change the tissue permanently.
How and when get diagnosed?
When observing the GORD symptoms for a long time, you might need to talk to a health professional and ask for a diagnosis.
Barrett's oesophagus is diagnosed with an upper endoscopy to examine the oesophagus. A small lighted tube is inserted through the throat into the oesophagus to look for a change in the lining of the oesophagus.
The diagnosis can only be confirmed with a biopsy where a pathologist will examine a small sample of tissue obtained through the endoscope.
How is Barrett's oesophagus treated?
The treatment will depend on the symptoms and the results of biopsies.
If you suffer from Barrett's oesophagus without dysplasia
Without dysplasia means without precancerous cells. No treatment needed at this stage. You might need to have an upper endoscopy every two to three years to monitor the condition. You can have prescriptions of medications to treat GORD and advice on how to change your lifestyle accordingly (how and what to eat, how to sleep, how to stay active...).
If you suffer from Barrett's oesophagus with dysplasia
Dysplasia means the presence of precancerous cells. The monitoring must be frequent and you will need a treatment to prevent cancer from developing.
If the majority of your cells are affected, if the change in your oesophagus lining is substantial (high-grade dysplasia), you will need to repeat endoscopies to look for cancer. Some treatment can help you remove the damage tissues like an ablation therapy (also used if you have abnormal cells but the majority is not affected: low-grade dysplasia, heat will burn off abnormal tissues), cryotherapy where liquid nitrogen freeses diseased parts of the oesophagus, endoscopic mucosal resection (use of an endoscope to remove precancerous spots), and surgery to remove all of parts of the oesophagus.
Why Barrett's day is important?
"Because prevention is better than cure"
Many people remains unaware of the danger of persistent acid reflux, GORD and Barrett's oesophagus. The easier the problem is highlighted, the better the outcome is likely to be. Prevention and education is key to prevent oesophageal cancer (7th most common cause of cancer death in the UK according to Heartburn Cancer UK). Remember that on its own, Barrett's oesophagus does not produce symptoms!
How to support?
You can either donate, make some research, talk around you about acid reflux, heartburn, GORD, Barrett's oesophagus, oesophageal cancer, and share useful information to your colleagues, friends and family. Be aware of the symptoms, get diagnosed as soon as you can or encourage people living with pain to get a diagnosis too.
Where to start?
Some organisations you can support to raise awareness, contribute to everyone's education, support the research and help saving lives:
- World Barrett's Day
- The Oesophageal Patients Association (OPA)
- The Guts Charity
- Living with Reflux
- Heartburn Cancer UK
- Barrett's Wessex - Barrett's UK
You can join support groups online or identify organisations around you. Do not hesitate to talk about this with you doctor as he might have some contacts and useful information to share.
At MedCline, we humbly offer a sleep solution to relieve acid reflux and heartburn during the night. It is a patented natural solution which is complementary with an appropriate lifestyle and a medical monitoring if needed.
