A newest and so-called largest study till now examining the growing cases of heartburn and other symptoms of acid reflux has recently concluded a massive rise in the number of people, who are today suffering with the acid reflux.

Not only this, the researchers have also revealed from the study that the increase in the affected people is very high that the number that persisted a decade ago.

Researchers are really worried to find 50 % increase in the number of patients suffering from weekly heartburn and other symptoms of acid reflux over the last decade.

To conclude firm results from the study, researchers studies more than 30,000 people in Norway. The study was run for 11 years. Since the study started, researchers reported only 11.6 % people, who were facing the acid reflux symptoms at least one during a week but the percentage unfortunately rose to 17.1% towards the end of same highlighting a 47 % increase in the number of affected ones, which raised the concerns of the researchers higher.

Though researchers didn’t conclude any particular reason behind the increase, they doubt obesity could be one, which has made the findings of the study very relevant to the U. S. and other industrialized countries that have a big population suffering from obesity, says Researcher Eivind Ness-Jensen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Concerns rose higher when Prof Ness-Jensen explained that long time persisting acid reflux is highly risky to develop cancer of the esophagus, which is rare but increasingly common malignancy.

Regarding the findings of the study, New York City Gastroenterologist Dr. Anthony Starpoli, MD said that “This is a very common problem, and it is interesting that there appear to be patients who get better. We don’t know if it is because they were more careful about what they ate or if they lost weight, but it is worth finding out”.