Heartburn Misconception
Misinformation can play a vital role in health and health behavior. Share one example of misinformation you have heard about a health matter. How could that information impact people’s health? Our goal here is to consider how BAD health information could impact someone’s behavioral choices and possibly their health.
For example, the misinformation that bats will fly into your hair and get caught. Or that if you go out in the rain you will get pneumonia, or that if you swallow gum it will stay in your stomach for 7 years, or that drinking coffee stunts your growth, or that drinking bleach will kill a virus.
Sample Answer
Heartburn Misconception
Growing up, I have interacted with various individuals on different matters, appertaining healthcare. One of the most significant health misconceptions I came across was the issue of smoking cigarettes helping relieve heartburn. However, I came to understand that it is not right as a number of things cause heartburn. For instance, it can be caused by certain food and drinks, being overweight, smoking itself, and factors such as stress and anxiety (Ness & Lagergren, 2017). Therefore, smoking cannot address these factors to ease heartburn. Rather, smoking aggravates the issue and results in more adverse health effects. In light of the above, it is evident that smoking does not help relieve heartburn, and the exact opposite is true. Smoking increases heartburn by weakening the lower esophageal sphincter and the stomach, thus aggravating more chances of acute heartburn.
As a result of smoking, weak LES allows more acid to flow through and get back to the esophagus, thus causing pain and irritation (Makowsky, 2019). Through smoking, the inflammation of the esophagus increases, and thus the content backs up and causes damage which other health concerns. Therefore, it is factual to state that the issue of smoking to ease heartburn has been is a healthcare misconception, and it is bound to cause major damage to an individual than good. The information passed about heartburn and smoking affects the health of those who practice in the long run, thus affecting the overall outcome of these individuals. Individuals need to understand that there are ways of avoiding heartburns that are more health-friendly (Domingues et al., 2018). These are learning to eat slowly, avoiding heartburn triggers, and eating smaller portions. The above measures are more of health promotion activities, and they are bound to increase better of mitigating heartburn in the right manner.
References
- Domingues, G., Moraes-Filho, J. P. P., & Fass, R. (2018). Refractory heartburn: a challenging problem in clinical practice. Digestive diseases and sciences, 63(3), 577-582.
- Makowsky, M. (2019). Heartburn. In Patient Assessment in Clinical Pharmacy (pp. 107-120). Springer, Cham.
- Ness-Jensen, E., & Lagergren, J. (2017). Tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. Best Practice & Research Clinical Gastroenterology, 31(5), 501-508.
