An anomaly that makes digestion difficult: the inability to “burp”

Today on the eve of the Christmas and New Year holidays and meals, Géraldine Zamansky tells us about a strange illness: the inability to belch or “burp” which, since 2019, has had the scholarly name : retrograde cricopharyngeal dysfunction…

It’s a disease that didn’t even have a name until 2019. Géraldine Zamansky, journalist for the Health Magazine on France 5, talks to us today about this digestive anomaly which can be a real handicap in society, and of course at home.

franceinfo: This is an anomaly which always makes digestion difficult, even outside of holidays: the inability to belch or burp?

Exactly, it’s a blockage in the pharynx that can prevent you from burping. And actually, it’s really difficult to live with. A real cause of anxiety and depression, for nearly 80% of those affected, who participated in the American study, published this week.

To understand better, when we eat, especially if we speak at the same time, air also enters our digestive tract. Same with the bubbles of a soft drink. The problem is that our stomach has a limited volume. So he has to get rid of the air that normally comes out through his mouth – this is burping. But this assumes that a muscle in the pharynx relaxes to allow passage. And in these people, it is too contracted.

What is so disturbing about this? It would seem rather practical to be rid of the risk of belching, on the radio for example?

These air bubbles that circulate randomly between the stomach and the esophagus are unpleasant. But above all, they cause quite spectacular noises that are often extremely annoying, as the first author of this study, Jason Chen, of the Texas Tech School of Medicine, explained to me. Because he himself is concerned, and he told me, for example, about the silence of an examination room, interrupted by a gurgling noise, impossible to control.

And I was able to imagine it, thanks to Dr. Robert Bastian, the doctor who, in 2019, gave a name to this disorder: retrograde cricopharyngeal dysfunction. He shares patient recordings on his website. And there, at the start of the festive weekend, we avoid. But certain noises can cause difficult reactions.

Is that why Jason Chen did this study? To make people more understanding, and to raise awareness of this problem?

Absolutely. Because his investigation also reveals the extent to which those affected often encounter ignorance from the medical profession. However, solutions exist. The main avenue is the injection of botulinum toxin. Here, we are far from its use against forehead wrinkles. This involves forcing the pharyngeal muscle to relax.

Jason Chen hasn’t tried yet. Perhaps it will be included in his next study, dedicated to evaluating the different treatments available. But he might finish his medical studies first. And yes, this first author of a scientific publication has not yet graduated. He dreams of being a gastroenterologist.

The study

Dr Bastian’s website