Waterbeds could be causing heartburn

Press, 28 December 1987, Page 4

Waterbeds could be causing heartburn

Family Doctor

They were hailed as the best thing for back sufferers since back braces, but it turns out that not everyone, is benefited by buying a waterbed. My physiotherapist says he spends a good deal of time persuading his clients with chronic backache that they may need to sell theirs, flow there is evidence that the waterbed may worsen symptoms of heartburn.

In 1985, 4.3 million waterbeds were sold in

the United States — a figure representing 22.7 per cent of all beds sold, and a 25 per cent increase in waterbed sales compared with 1984.

In New Zealand, waterbed shops sprang up everywhere for a time — now the fad appears to be declining, and a few shops have closed.

Now two American gut specialists have reported in the “Journal of the American Medical Association” on patients with reflux oesophagitis — the regurgitation of acid from the stomach into the gullet that causes heartburn. Fifty patients with oesophagitis were compared with 50 without the condition, as proved by examination of the gullet by direct observation. The ages of the patients in both groups averaged about 50, and there were about equal numbers of men and women in each group. Of the 50 with the disease, nine used waterbeds, and of the 50 without, only two had a waterbed. Posture is related to regurgitation of acid — the effect of gravity is to

assist clearing the gullet of acid. It seems that waterbed use, and the sleeping posture promoted, may inhibit acid clearing and allow the development of acid regurgitation, causing oesophagitis and heartburn. Hard to swallow? Pills are, for some people, just hard to swallow. Now a Kentucky doctor has developed what may be a solution to the problem. He calls this the “pop-bottle method.” The method involves putting the pill in the mouth, pursing the lips tightly around the top of a soft-drink bottle filled with drink, and swallowing the drink with a sucking action. The tablet or capsule goes down before you are even aware of it.

Why? Because, the doctor says, “swallowing has a thinking part and a reflex part” and this way the thought is taken out.

Catching cold. Take your healthy child to the doctor’s clinic, and chances are he or she will come into contact with other kids who are coughing, sneezing, sucking the surgery toys, and generally spreading their diseases around. Is your child at risk? It seems not, according to a report in the “New England Medical Journal,” which found there was no hazard — at least for infections with incubation periods of a week or less. Not so safe is the childcare centre. Here, the journal "Pediatrics” reports, day-care attendance in under-five-year-olds is associated with a significantly increased risk of respiratory and ear infections. In fact, day-care attendance was responsible for 31 per cent of all upper respiratory infections and 66 per cent of ear infections in those children who attended at least part-time. An equally important risk factor was maternal smoking — which, unlike day-care attendance, is at least avoidable.