Heartburn is an Epidemic of Global Proportions
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Throughout the
globe, scientist also known as epidemiologists have taken
on the condition of heartburn and are on a mission to
completely understand it. They have studied individual
all around the world looking for patterns and breaking
things down by age groups, sex groups, and different
cultures. This is how they were able to determine that
the common American diet was nowhere near as beneficial
as the Mediterranean diet which really worked for a
healthy heart. This also helped them figure out a number
of factors about where reflux occurs, who develops it and
how often it happens. They look at many things such as if
the person smokes, their exercise habits, diet, stress
levels and many others.
They found
out that heartburn does not discriminate and there is very
little difference between the gender and age of sufferers, with
the exception of pregnant women who tend to have it worst. The
American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) sets the numbers
at around 60 million adults who experience GERD symptoms at
least once a month, and 25 million that have pain daily due to
the illness. It is also said that around 50 million of
Americans experience some sort of nighttime symptoms which
would make it roughly 25 percent of the total
population.
In other
western countries the figures are very similar and Sweden for
example also shows that 25 percent of the population has these
symptoms. A British study for example had its numbers at around
31 percent of the total population, and a review of around
fifty studies from such countries averaged the numbers to about
10 percent. This means that even though the disease is very
common, there are some nations that are better off since they
are really bringing these averages down. In less developed
countries the numbers are not yet available but due to them
also treating for heartburn we can deduct that it is also
prevalent.
There are
some difference though and studies show that adults over fifty
are more likely to develop the condition than younger adults.
Other than pregnant women, it is the men that have far more
cases that develop chronic heartburn and eophagitis. This could
be due to the stress levels of supporting the family and as
more women have careers the numbers could change. Also black
men and women have twice the chance of developing
serious
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