Dr Oz: Hiatal Hernia Risk Factors & Prevention Tips

Dr Oz: Hiatal Hernia Symptoms

In this segment, Dr Oz brought up audience member, Jessica, who is a mom of 2 and bus driver. Jessica stated that on a busy day, it could take her ten minutes or less to eat.

Dr Oz showed an animation of a woman in a car, eating behind the wheel. Because she was eating quickly, the food was sucked down along with air.  The extra air caused her stomach to become distended and the acid used to digest food burned the stomach and came right back up. This is what is known as a Hiatal hernia. Dr Oz showed an endoscopy view, which showed the stomach being pulled back up into the chest. (Not pretty!)

Dr Oz noted that the continuous burning of the esophagus is one reason that causes cancer.

To demonstrate this, Dr Oz used a pink water bottle, labeled, “stomach.” The water bottle was placed inside a glass box with a long tube coming from the top of the box, labeled “esophagus.” Jessica tugged at the strings on the outside that were attached to the stomach. As she pulled, the stomach moved its way toward the esophagus, eventually getting stuck. Jessica tugged harder and a yellow-ish liquid (acid) spewed out of the stomach and into the esophagus.

Hiatal Hernia Risk Factors:

-chronic hurried eating

-pregnancy

-overweight

-age 50 or older

Dr Oz Hiatal Hernia Prevention:

-eat mindfully and chew food 3 extra times

-take small sip of water in between

-avoid chocolate, mint and alcohol (there may be a slight problem for me with this one!)

Dr Oz noted that you shouldn’t rely on antacids because they are not dealing with the underlying problem.