Woman Diagnosed With A Rare Swallowing Condition Must Stand Up While Eating Or Risk Choking To Death; Know All About Achalasia

A British woman suffers from a rare condition that makes her vomit at least 60 times a day and she must stand up while eating and drinking anything or risk choking to death.

Elise Baynard said she was diagnosed with achalasia, a swallowing condition that affects the esophagus. Since the nerves get damaged, it makes it hard for the muscles of the esophagus to squeeze food and liquid into the stomach, collecting it in the tube—sometimes fermenting and washing it back up into the mouth. For the 25-year-old, it is practically impossible to eat or drink anything normally, and Elise says she finds herself regurgitating food or being sick all the time.

According to Elise, it all started in 2020, when she suddenly struggled to swallow and felt a tight pressure in her chest. Her doctors suggested it was acid reflux and prescribed her medication; however, her issues kept on getting worse.

Elise struggled to eat her favourite foods like bread and pasta as it all came out in vomiting.

And so, a year later, further tests revealed her condition after she lost a lot of weight and had a limited diet—mainly consuming cereal soaked in milk and crisps. “I can’t sit down when I eat; I have to stand up, so the food actually goes down. One side effect is an oesophageal spasm—pain in my jaw, neck, and back—which literally feels like having a heart attack. Some days I’m left sobbing on the floor in pain,” she told The Sun.

Also known as esophageal disorder, achalasia makes your esophagus unable to move food and liquids down into your stomach for digestion. Doctors say that the area where your esophagus meets your stomach is a ring of muscle called the lower esophageal sphincter or LES. If you have achalasia, the LES does not relax, which prevents food from moving into your stomach.

The condition, according to statistics, develops in about one in every 100,000 people in the US every year. It is typically diagnosed in adults between the ages of 25 and 60 but can also occur in children as well.

Doctors say achalasia can be extremely serious, especially if it goes untreated. If you have achalasia, you will gradually experience increased trouble eating solid foods and drinking liquids. It also leads to considerable weight loss to the point of malnutrition.

Those with the condition also have a small increased risk of developing esophageal cancer, particularly if the condition has been present for a long time.

Achalasia is caused when your esophageal muscles fail to contract and relax normally. Studies say the condition is an autoimmune disease that is triggered by a virus. Your immune system attacks the nerve cells in the muscle layers of the walls of your esophagus and at the LES.

A rare form of achalasia may be inherited; however, more research is needed on this.

Achalasia symptoms develop slowly, with symptoms lasting for months or years; a few of these include:

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