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The majority of patients Dr. Jamie Koufman says she sees coming into her office every day suffer from acid reflux. She calls it a major public health threat most people do not know about

“In the old days, reflux affected predominantly middle-aged people. So you saw people in their 40s and 50s presenting with heartburn, hoarseness, cough and so on. Nowadays, we are seeing the same symptoms in 20- to 30-year-olds,” says Koufman.

Acid reflux is a digestive disease when stomach acid flows back into the food pipe or esophagus. One of her patients, 42-year-old Paul Rickard, says he'd been experiencing discomfort for years.

“Initially, I thought I was having a heart attack, so I ended up in the emergency room of the hospital. When they ruled that out, I went to some cardiologists. They couldn't find a problem,” says Rickard. “Then I started having a hard time swallowing in addition to chest pains. Then I got into a really bad cycle that the only thing I could eat was a milkshake, which was making things worse.”

Koufman says not only has she been seeing an increase in reflux, but also a rise in related cancers. In her new book "Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook & Cure," she points out that a lot has to do with higher acid levels, or pH levels, in most of the foods people eat.

“We began measuring the acidity of common foods, particularly things that are bottled and canned. And we found they all had the same acidity of stomach acid, which is below pH 4,” says Koufman. “People with reflux who went on low-acid, low-fat diets got well.”

Koufman urges reflux sufferers to stay away from heavy triggers like sodas, acidic fruits and canned and bottled foods.

“We recommend for people who really have significant symptoms, a two-week reflux induction diet,” she says. “It's almost a kind of ‘detox’ if you will, particularly for people who've had throat symptoms.”

In addition to medication, Rickard says switching up his diet has made a huge difference.

“The change has been unbelievable. I haven't had an incidence where I wasn't able to swallow,” says Rickard. “You always think, ‘I'll eat something, it gives you indigestion, you move on.’ I never thought the building and building on top of different things I was eating was causing this kind of effect.”

Now, what he eats is not longer contributing to a chronic health threat.