Wear This for a Little Pain Relief From Your Gastric Reflux

If you have acid reflux or GERD, a new study from the United Kingdom suggests a magnetic bracelet or facemask may be a way to improve your health.

Acid reflux, or GERD, is the buildup of stomach acid in the esophagus — the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach. This can occur for a variety of reasons, including heartburn, a condition usually caused by foods such as oysters, and a condition that occurs due to the acid pushing through food and proteins into the stomach lining.

People with GERD typically experience recurrent heartburn and often feel lousy, but cannot put a time limit on how long they feel like having the pain.

The most common treatment for acid reflux is medication, but often it’s not effective enough, study author Professor Stephen Light at King’s College London said in a university news release. “This is when we need to consider various behavioral changes or therapies, such as, for example, exercises,” he added.

To that end, Light and colleagues carried out a study to examine whether a small magnetic bracelet could improve the physical symptoms of GERD. When the researchers gave 155 people with GERD small magnetic devices that looked like a device worn to handle sickle cell anaemia, they saw a positive effect on the symptoms of acid reflux, Light said.

For example, in two weeks, people with symptoms felt less discomfort from feeling a slightly different temperature in their esophagus compared with people who wore nonmagnetic devices, the study found.

The researchers theorized that because the magnetic device had a temperature difference between left and right arms, it was not on the left-handed person’s stomach, Light said.

In addition, the study showed that the device improved the medication response of participants, Light said. “We think this is because the magnetic bracelets delayed the start of medication use and the physiological drug effect had less effect on the body as a whole,” he said.

The study was published online March 12 in The Journal of Gastroenterology.

“In my opinion, both the magnetic device and the route to the symptoms is a worthy approach,” said Dr. Sasho Chikkar, professor of gastroenterology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “I would not say that one has the upper hand over the other.”

Chikkar, who was not involved in the study, added that the idea of a magnetic device as a treatment may be a good idea, but that patients should consider any device carefully to make sure it is safe.

What’s more, the device must be used properly. “Patients who are on medication for acid reflux have to be extra careful, because sometimes they have to use two different medications side by side,” Chikkar said.