Published on 12, July, 2020
I have been doing a lot of reading about this recently, and I am finding more and more that there are potentially significant links between people with autism and people who have gastrointestinal (GI) issues such as gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
I am a 32 year old male. I have suffered from acid reflux my whole life due to being born with a hiatus hernia. I am medicated for it, and I have been told that I will always be on medication for it due to the severity of my condition. It gets worse with stress, sleeping in a different position, changes in diet... all sorts of things can trigger it to be worse.
Does anyone else, formally or self-diagnosed with autism, have any issues like this?
I also have a long history of GI problems and learned about the association whilst preparing for my ASD assessment last year (which resulted in diagnosis).
After delays due to a disbelieving GP, I was diagnosed with GORD at age 9. I'd also been told that I'd be on medications for life, but the top dose became increasingly ineffective. A couple of years ago, I had surgery to repair my hiatal hernia and reinforce the valve with an implant. Since then, I haven't needed any PPIs.
I also have diverticular disease with complications and Barrett's Oesophagus.
This is VERY interesting.
I have had reflux since I was a baby and I went on medication to control it. When my medication became ineffective, I had fundoplication surgery to repair my hiatus hernia to reinforce my valve with part of my stomach and a titanium implant by wrapping it around my oesophagus. My surgery failed to resolve my problem but this was always a risk that I was aware of. My medication was changed and increased and I have been managing by taking that ever since.
I was diagnosed with Barrett's Oesophagus at the time of the my first surgery.
BeagleDad said:I had fundoplication surgery to repair my hiatus hernia to reinforce my valve with part of my stomach and a titanium implant
I'm really sorry to hear that neither of those procedures worked for you. It must be so disappointing, despite having understood the risks beforehand.
I do feel very fortunate that my LINX implant (the same gadget as yours, I'm sure) is currently working so well - especially given the struggles that I had whilst my vagus nerve adapted to it. There's no guarantee that I'll stay PPI free, but so far so good.
Do you know about the latest surgical intervention, RefluxStop?
https://refluxuk.com/treatments/refluxstop
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/surgical-solutions-reflux-overview-fundoplication-linx-refluxstop-by1fe
I accepted the risks, and I always knew that there was a chance of failure, so I am where I am.
There's nothing to be sorry for. Without having this conversation with you and the other people in this thread, I wouldn't have found out that there could be a link between our neurodiversity and our GI issues. It cannot be a coincidence that so many people with autism also have GI-related issues.
I also wouldn't know about the ReflexStop treatment, which is something I am going to look into, so thank you very much for that!