The LES is the laziest bastard
No, not the neighborhood in Manhattan, I am talking about the Lower Esophageal Sphincter. This guy:
I'm having a new case of something like frequent heartburn right now, so in my idle moments of health anxiety I'm looking at fun facts to stress about online.
I'm coming across lots of mentions of what causes GERD (advanced and potentially risky heartburn, basically), and how it's mechanically caused by the Lower Esophageal Sphincter relaxing too much, or not being stalwart enough in its defense against its hapless human host's Bacchanalian eating habits, or against their now-medically-significant-Fatness, or their Unfashionably Tight Pants. Basically, the stomach acid shouldn't be in the esophagus, but this underpaid-security-guard of a structure lets it get into there sometimes. There are some pretty easy-to-predict things that make stomach acid worse. They're obvious if you've ever eaten too much of something that didn't agree with you: rich food, acidic food, spicy food.
But I was surprised by the less-expected mentions of several things that make this flesh ring relax too much. It's PRACTICALLY ALL OF MY HABITS:
Alcohol
Cannabis
Caffeine
Menthol (1)
Antihistamines(2)
Here is the kicker, the thing on the list that will send me into infinite stress spirals if I consider it too much: one of the things that makes this little flesh hole chill out too much is
Anxiety
ANXIETY, the mental state that is famous for tensing muscles, makes this critically important muscle RELAX. I guess the LES is just "not like the other muscles."
========================================
By the way, this post is not a request for advice - I am getting plenty of advice from sources other than Tumblr. Including, if this doesn't let up soon, an actual doctor. Thank you.
And don't worry, I am completely cutting both alcohol and cannabis out of my life right now, until/unless I can figure this out.
Footnotes:===========================
(1) (Inconvenient because menthol is normally useful for treating nausea and sore throats, 2 symptoms of GERD. Also, because I have a habit of constantly chewing sugar-free peppermint gum).
(2) (Inconvenient because they're useful for sleeping through coughing fits, which GERD causes).
