GERD and Crohn's

Over the past few months, I've been having increasing episodes of heartburn and burning in my throat. It's now frequent enough (a few times a week at least) that I'm going to seek medical advice.

My question is, are GERD and Crohn's related? Do Crohn's sufferers experience GERD at a higher rate? What aspect of the Crohn's disease could be causing these problems?

Similarly, for you GERD sufferers, what are the treatment options? Changes in diet? Medicine?

Hopefully I'll get into my GI in about a month, but I'm just curious in the mean time.

Thanks!

about 32% of a study group of Crohn's patients had gastritis. Gastritis is not GERDs, but the inflammation from gastritis can result in excess acidity and GERDs can easily follow if there is any slowing of stomach emptying or weakness of the valve at the top of the stomach. In my case, I had GERDs well before I was diagnosed with Crohn's and after being on Pariet for a year, I went cold turkey and after the rebound acidity, I managed to control the GERDs by diet restriction. The diet somewhat resembled the diet for Crohn's control. I think that this may be because Crohn's disease causes food intolerances and the stomach inflammation is due to the immune response to food proteins. The diet may just be eliminating common allergens from your diet and avoiding triggering an immune response by avoiding the food intolerances. There is a common approach in England that controls a flare by using an elemental diet (search here for "Modulen"). After that controls the flare, the patient should then be tested for food intolerances and the diet adjusted to avoid them. This approach has a rate of maintaining remission better than using prednisone long term at one and two years after starting. Note that individuals can have unusual intolerances and a "one size fits all" diet may not work for everyone. You just have to read this forum to see the range of things that different people here avoid to see how individual these intolerances are.

I was diagnosed with GERD long before they finally came to the Crohn's diagnosis.  Watching my diet and taking meds have always worked, but I went through a few years where I had to the change the med about every year, as it stopped working.  On my last endoscopy, they said I have NERD now, instead of GERD, which is "Non Erosive Reflux Disease."  Prilosec, Nexium, Protonix - these types of medicines can help.   

Change in diet and not eating late at night...is the best thing you can do for yourself..stay far away from tomatoes..citrus fruits..fried foods..and i am sorry to say..if it bothers you coffee..athough foldgers (is that how you spell it?) came out with a coffee for sensitive stomach...and my personal take is ..carbs are so soothing to the belly...oh and watch out for some crackers out their like cheese nips or goldfish..they have alot of spices in them!

A lot of GERDs is likely due to the level of fat in the diet. Undigested dietary fat slows stomach emptying and weakens the pyloric valve, so reflux is a common result of too much fat - like fried stuff. Strictures also cause slowed peristalsis and can do much the same thing - slower stomach emptying and increased opportunity for reflux. Blossom - if your surgery removed the terminal ileum, it also removed one of the sections (the most dominant one) of the gut that slows the digestion when undigested fat is detected. That would account for the improvement in stomach emptying. If you don't have an exceptional amount of fat in your diet, it may be that you have had an insufficient pancreatic response - resulting in inadequate digestion of fats. You might try adding digestive enzymes to your diet.

PPI's are really undesirable. They are associated with an increased likelihood of osteoporosis and hip fracture. They interfere with iron and other mineral absorption. They also reduce stomach acid levels so low that they prevents your stomach enzymes from working. They are also a known cause of SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth). SIBO here probably results from undigested food triggering the various peristalsis slowing mechanisms.