If you’ve been diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis, then you are probably wondering what causes it and how you can treat it. In this video I’ll explain exactly what it is, and how to get the best health care possible for eosinophilic esophagitis.

Over my career I’ve seen many patients with eosinophilic esophagitis, and I’ve been frustrated by how the medical system has mismanaged these cases and not given people a solution so that they can get their lives back.

What is Eosinophilic Esophagitis?

Eosinophilic esophagitis, or EE, is a very descriptive diagnostic term. It is diagnosed when you have an upper endoscopy. An upper endoscopy is when the gastroenterologist scopes you through the mouth and down into your stomach.

While doing that, they may take a tissue biopsy sample of the lining of your esophagus. This tissue sample is then sent to the lab, where it is looked at under the microscope. If there are eosinophils showing up in the tissue sample, then you will be diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis.

What are the Symptoms of Eosinophilic Esophagitis?

People with EE may experience difficulty swallowing, food getting stuck in their throat, reflux even vomiting, and potentially strictures in the esophagus that can develop because of all the inflammation and subsequent tissue damage.

What are Eosinophils?

Eosinophils are part of your immune system. They only show up when your immune system is triggered to respond to something. So, if you have eosinophilic esophagitis, it means that your immune system is being triggered to respond to something that is coming down your esophagus.

Which leads us to the next logical question:

What Is Triggering My Eosinophils?

Eosinophils are generally triggered by an allergic reaction. But this is where you probably got left at the side of the medical road by your doctors. Gastroenterologists are not experts in allergies. So they are likely to refer you to an allergist.

Unfortunately, allergists are not experts in the kinds of allergies that trigger digestive problems. So if you have EE and ended up seeing an allergist, and still didn’t get any help, you are not alone. I’ve seen this happen to many people.

So what happens is that you end up with a lot of guessing, and often end up being treated for your symptoms rather than finding and addressing the cause,

What Do You Do Next?

In order to get the proper help for solving your EE, you need a doctor who is an expert in things that trigger allergic reactions in the digestive system. This is a subspecialty in digestive health and in allergy medicine, and it is relatively rare.  However, it’s exactly what we do at the IBS Treatment Center.

In our experience eosinophilic esophagitis can usually be improved and the cause can be found. If you suffer from EE, we would be happy to work with you. And the good news is that we can work with you via telemedicine and have helping people this way since 2005.  So please don’t hesitate to reach out to us to learn more.

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