![[ Beasley Allen Law Firm Logo ]](http://www.reglan-lawyer.net/wp-content/themes/system-unity/images/logo.png){kind=logo}
Participants needed for clinical trial on new GERD treatment
March 11th, 2010 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
Researchers from the North Alabama Research Center based in Athens, Ala., are looking for people to participate in clinical trials for a potential new medication to treat gastrointestinal disease, also known as GERD. Persons age 18 to 70 who are still suffering from symptoms of GERD despite treatment with prescription medications are welcome to participate in the clinical trial. Participants must live within 50 miles of the clinic. Those interested can sign up at the Clinical Connection Web site here.
If 27-year-old Mary Carter had her wish, she would be a food critic. But instead of enjoying lavish meals in fine restaurants, she gets her nutrition through a feeding tube. Mary remembers when her life changed so dramatically. It was August 1, 2006, and she was driving in her car. She began to feel nauseous, her heart raced, and her vision became blurry. From that moment on, everything she put in her mouth she would vomit up.
Sufferers of gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as GERD, often experience symptoms such as heartburn and a sour taste in the mouth. But nearly half of all people with GERD have no symptoms except a chronic cough.
Last December, Sen. John McCain identified Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) as an illness unworthy of receiving funds for research, citing an earmarked $665,000 for the Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, for equipment and supplies to research the debilitating condition. This triggered the Gastroparesis Patient Association for Cures and Treatment (G-PACT), an organization that raises awareness of gastric mobility disorders, to write a petition to present to Sen. McCain on March 8, 2010. The petition stresses that the money is used to assist in the “funding innovating GI motility research by Cedars Sinai to study the use of various antibiotics to enhance GI mobility and prevent severe bacterial overgrowth in various GI motility disease,” usage deemed worthy by many who suffer from GI disorders.
In the February 1996 issue of the drug newsletter Worst Pills, Best Pills News, a story was published by the Health Research Group of Public Citizen warning that a drug commonly prescribed for heartburn and slow emptying of the stomach contents, a condition known as gastroparesis, could cause a serious movement disorder known as 
A team of researchers renowned for their work in colon cancer believe they may have found a better treatment for Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal cancer based on findings from their colon cancer research, according to 
Very low doses of inhaled carbon monoxide has been shown to reverse a serious digestive condition in diabetic mice, a finding that could give hope to millions of sufferers of diabetic gastroparesis. The findings are based on a study conducted by researchers with the Mayo Clinic and presented at last year’s Digestive Disease Week gathering.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has found in favor with a lower court that patients may sue generic drug makers under state law for failing to provide adequate warnings about potential side effects with their drugs. The ruling extends a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling governing makers of name-brand drugs. The issue of whether generic drug companies should be held liable for not adequately warning consumers has divided several district courts, which can increase the odds of a Supreme Court review in the future, according to U.S. Circuit Judge 
An estimated 250,000 to 400,000 people in the United States suffer from 