Up to 100,000 Swedes are believed to be affected.
But the vast majority do not know about it.
Now doctors want to broaden knowledge about the disease allergic esophagus.
– It becomes a social handicap in the end, says Marie Carlson, senior physician and professor in gastroenterology at the Academic Hospital in Uppsala.
Do you have trouble swallowing rice, chicken or meat? Then you may suffer from allergic oesophagus, a young disease that has only been brought to the attention of the healthcare system in recent years.
Something that can explain why up to 100,000 Swedes can walk around and be affected – without them knowing it.
Many have had problems for many years before they receive a diagnosis, says Marie Carlson, who actively works to get more people to learn about the disease.
The goal is for fewer sufferers to live their lives untreated with unpleasant complications as a result.
– If the inflammation is untreated, it will eventually become chronic. Then it heals with scar tissue, which leads to remaining strictures in the esophagus and then you have ended up in a much worse situation, says Marie Carlson.
“They try to vomit it up”
The disease usually affects people between 20-40 years of age, but can go much further down the ages than that. Those with food allergies or other allergies such as asthma or hay fever are particularly vulnerable. It is also three times more common in men.
Above all, it manifests itself in the form of problems swallowing and ordinary food such as rice and chicken getting stuck in the esophagus.
– Often they are the very last ones left at the dinner table because they get to chew and chew and swallow and swallow. In the end, it may be that they try to vomit it up, says Marie Carlson.
Often becomes a social handicap
In the worst case, it can happen that the affected person has to go urgently to the hospital to have a gastroscopy examination and pick up what is stuck in the esophagus.
But the disease also has a stigmatizing effect, which means that many avoid eating among others.
– It becomes a social handicap in the end. But people undergoing treatment can experience a real life change where, for example, they can tell how they have gone out and eaten at a restaurant for the first time in many years, says Marie Carlson.
First advice – go to your GP
If you suspect that you may be suffering from an allergic esophagus, the first advice is to go to your family doctor instead of starting to exclude different foods on your own.
With the help of samples, a diagnosis can be made and the right treatment instituted.
– The most common treatment is an anti-inflammatory tablet that melts in the mouth and which you initially take twice a day. It becomes like a local treatment in the esophagus. When the acute phase is over, you take one tablet once a day, says Marie Carlson.