Certain dietary factors, blood lipids can affect gastroesophageal reflux disease

An increase in total cereal intake and total cheese intake may reduce the risk for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), according to a study published online Sept. 6 in the European Journal of Nutrition.

Xingwu Liu, M.D., from the First Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, and colleagues performed a two-step Mendelian randomization analysis to obtain causal estimates of dietary factors and blood lipids on GERD. Independent genetic variants associated with 13 kinds of dietary factors and five kinds of blood lipids were selected as instrumental variables. The summary statistics for GERD included 129,080 cases and 473,524 controls.

The researchers found that genetically predicted total pork intake, total bread intake, total cereal intake, and total cheese intake were associated with GERD risk in the inverse variance weighted analysis. After adjustment for smoking, alcohol consumption, use of calcium channel blockers, body mass index, physical activity levels, and biological sex, a negative association persisted between total cereal intake and total cheese intake with the risk for GERD, but the associations for total pork intake and total bread intake disappeared. There was a negative correlation for the concentration of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) with total cheese intake, with LDL-C mediating 2.27 percent of the association.

“These results showed the significance of dietary factors as well as blood lipids in the prevention of GERD,” the authors write. “Therefore, early dietary management and blood lipid control should be carried out to prevent the occurrence of GERD.”

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