An increasing body of evidence indicates that being overweight and obesity favours the development of numerous disorders such as joint problems, hypertension and heart disease, and increases the risk for cancer and post operative morbidity. Furthermore, being overweight or obese is suggested to foster gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Compared with people with normal weight, overweight individuals with a body mass index of 25 kg/m2 to 30 kg/m2 are fifty percent more likely to have GERD, and obese individuals with a body mass index greater than 30 kg/m2 are twice as likely to have the disease.
Furthermore, the chances of getting GERD seemed to rise in a dose-response relationship with the ballooning of weight. An additional BMI of 3.5 kg/m2 paves way to a 2.7 times more chances of having GERD. In contrast, a decrease of 3.5 kg/m2 of BMI cut your chances of having GERD by 40%.
The system causing the relation of obesity with GERD is still unknown. However, it was noted that being overweight has been associated with increased intra-abdominal pressure, impaired gastric emptying, decreased lower esophageal sphincter pressure, and increased frequency of transient sphincter relaxation, all of which can lead to increased esophageal acid exposure.
Obesity and being overweight increases your chances of having acidic disorders of the esophagus. It was suggested that future studies should examine the mechanism by which being overweight and obesity cause these complications, as well as the potential effects of weight loss. But for now, it makes sense to advise all fat people who have disorders related to GERD that losing weight may make them better.
It was also noted in one study that there is a clear link between body mass index and reflux symptoms in both men and women. Compared with persons with a body mass index below 25, the likelihood of developing gastro-esophageal reflux disease is 3.3 times greater for severely obese men with a body mass index over 35. Extremely overweight women have 6.3 times more chances of suffering from gastro-esophageal reflux disease compared to those with average weight.
It is even more dangerous to those females who have a BMI higher than 35 who have used estrogen-only hormone substitutes. They are 33 times more at risk of suffering from GERD as oppose to those women who have average weight and are not using hormone replacements.
This study shows a clear link between GERD and with both being overweight, and estrogen use in women. It is known that obese women have an increased production of estrogen-like substances in their fatty tissue, which may explain why weight loss helps reduce the risk of gastro-esophageal reflux disease. Thus, this gives us one more motive to beat the bulge insistently.
Excess “baggage” puts more pressure on your tummy, which might hinder the lower esophageal sphincter from opening and closing normally.
If you are obese, losing as little as 10 to 15 pounds could improve your symptoms of GERD. Healthcare providers suggest as well that those who suffer from GERD should avoid wearing tight-fitting clothes to lessen the strain on their tummy.