Eat your strawberries, people!

Good reminder about this. There are a number of additional things that studies point to helping in this regard...brocolli sprouts (and of course, fruits and vegetables in general), turmeric, olive oil, fish oil, black raspberries (like you mention), and surely some other things I am forgetting. There was a thread once that was full of these...maybe it can be resurrected. Strawberries are one of the big ones though.

I am allergic to strawberries......

Hey Bill,

Yeah, and you are not the only one here that had that experience if I recall correctly...which made me resistant to the idea myself based on my own experience. But in the end I have to go with scientific studies over a few cases that I know...although, like I said, I am still afraid of progression myself. I suppose it is also possible that those of us that end up here at at a higher risk of progression.

I couldn't find some study to cite right now, although I've seen a few...but here is what the AGA guidelines for GERD say:

Chronic Management
7. Does GERD Progress in Severity, Such That Symptomatic Patients Without Esophagitis Develop Esophagitis and Barrett's Metaplasia, or Are These Distinct Disease Manifestations That Do Not Exist Along a Continuum? If Patients Do Progress, at What Rate Does This Occur, and Does It Warrant Endoscopic Monitoring?

Grade D: recommend against, fair evidence that it is ineffective or harms outweigh benefits
I.Routine endoscopy in subjects with erosive or nonerosive reflux disease to assess for disease progression.

Two potential paradigms for viewing the natural history of GERD exist. In the first, GERD is viewed as a progressive disease such that, in the absence of effective intervention, today's patient with nonerosive disease becomes tomorrow's patient with erosive disease, who then becomes a candidate for the development of Barrett's esophagus. This “spectrum of disease” approach has been contrasted with the view that GERD may be a disease with phenotypically discreet “categories,” such as nonerosive disease, erosive esophagitis, and Barrett's esophagus. In this phenotypically preordained view, conversion from one disease manifestation to another is distinctly unusual, and subjects generally stay in their initial category. Available, albeit limited, data suggest that while subjects with GERD may sometimes progress from nonerosive disease to erosive esophagitis (making it not a strictly categorical disease), the reported rates of progression are relatively low over a 20-year period. In patients in whom stricture, Barrett's metaplasia, and adenocarcinoma were excluded in the setting of a healed mucosa at index endoscopy, the likelihood of these developing within a 7-year follow-up period is on the order of 1.9%, 0.0%, and 0.1%, respectively. On the other hand, the likelihood of developing Barrett's esophagus (or unmasking prevalent disease) with healing of Los Angeles C or D esophagitis is about 6%. Most importantly, endoscopically monitoring patients with chronic GERD symptoms has not been shown to diminish the risk of cancer, and this practice is discouraged.

ARM...

You are a wealth of knowledge.  All that researching has really paid off with a great understanding of what's going on in there!  Thanks so much for sharing some of what you've learned with others here.  You sound like you're doing really well with it all, and that makes me very happy.

Enjoy that life of yours!

Denise

GroverCat said...
Don't know if anyone's posted this yet, but for those of you (like me) who are paranoid about developing Barrett's Esophagus, here's a cool study about the use of strawberries to prevent and treat progression of pre-cancerous cells. Freeze dried berries aren't cheap, but may be worth considering as an addition to your diet. I'm combining freeze dried black raspberries* and strawberries (which I blend into a powder using my long-defunct coffee grinder) and mix it with almond milk and maybe a banana daily. Tastiest treatment ever!


http://nutritionfacts.org/video/strawberries-versus-esophageal-cancer/

*you can do a search on this same website for info on black raspberries and oral cancer

Could you write more about how to prepare the strawberries and why are they safe for a sensitive esophagus if only the water has been removed? Any more details are greatly appreciated!

Shifting,

From what I understand, the freeze drying simply makes it more practical to get in higher doses of the fruit in one go (ie 1 cup of fresh berries will contain fewer berries than a cup of dry because the water volume has been removed). Thus, the helpful chemicals/antioxidants in the berries are more concentrated. This is useful for clinical trials in which they mixed dried berry powder into a solution and in one case into a gel (the latter for the direct application to oral cancer lesions). I've just been ordering the dried berries and blending them up into powder and then into almond milk, because a) it tastes good and b) it might coat the throat better than munching the crunchy berries individually. Just a conjecture based on what I've read. If others have a different understanding, please chime in.

GC

guess what-I found dehydrated strawberries at Walgreens! On line you can buy them in bulk from survivalist supply sites. I am still apprehensive to try it...am worried the acid will burn my throat. Any other suggestions or insights on this?