Does asthma cause reflux or vice versa?

[GreatGateway]

Also can Ventolin potentially help difficulty breathing caused by reflux?

[O2Trees]

Kind of both GG.

If you have the kind of reflux known as silent reflux (so named as you don't automatically get any standard reflux symptoms such as heartburn), that can cause asthma symptoms. Ive read that around 10% of asthma symptoms are actually caused by reflux, through the acid breaching the upper oesophageal valve, getting into the windpipe and reaching the top of the lungs where it causes irritation.

With asthma, poor breathing patterns tend to cause the diaphragm to get weaker sometimes causing a hiatus hernia and hiatus hernias are often a feature of reflux. Also medication for asthma flare-ups - prednisolone and/or antibiotics - make the stomach more acid which may lead to reflux. (This is why it's best to get the enteric coated steroids as they protect the stomach lining.)

In the U.S. there is a prominent reflux medic - Dr. Jamie Kaufman - who is campaigning for a new integrated discipline - aerodigestive medicine - which treats stomach, lungs and airways. On the forum many of us with copd for instance also have silent reflux. Here in the UK I have to see three consultants, respiratory, gastro and ENT, which is ridiculous.

[Fennella02]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

I hope this link works. It is an article about the pulmonary manifestations of GERD