{"id":896936,"date":"2026-09-18T20:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T20:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896936\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T20:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T20:26:11","slug":"kim-kardashians-new-health-scare-what-is-esophagitis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896936\/","title":{"rendered":"Kim Kardashian\u2019s new health scare: What is esophagitis?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kim Kardashian revealed in the trailer<\/a> for Season 8 of \u201cThe Kardashians\u201d that she\u2019s facing a new health condition. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have something called esophagitis,\u201d Kardashian says in one clip from the trailer, released Thursday. In another clip, Kris Jenner, Kardashian\u2019s mother, says the diagnosis \u201cmakes me want to cry.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to the Mayo Clinic<\/a>, esophagitis is inflammation of the tissue lining the esophagus, the muscular tube that carries food and drink from the mouth to the stomach.<\/p>\n

Later in the trailer, Kardashian is shown lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines, while someone off camera asks whether that is what her father, Robert Kardashian, died of. Robert Kardashian died of esophageal cancer in 2003, at age 59.<\/p>\n

Dr. Stuart Spechler, a gastroenterologist at Baylor University Medical Center and a member of the American Gastroenterological Association<\/a>, said that there are many types of esophagitis and that Kardashian did not specify which type she has.<\/p>\n

\u201cFar and away the most common form is reflux esophagitis, which is a complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In those patients, Spechler explained, the mechanisms that normally keep stomach acid from moving back up the esophagus are defective, allowing refluxed acid to irritate and damage the esophagus. Common symptoms include heartburn and regurgitation.<\/p>\n

Some patients with reflux esophagitis go on to develop Barrett\u2019s esophagus, a condition in which chronic acid exposure damages the esophagus\u2019s normal lining and causes it to be replaced by cells resembling those found in the intestine and stomach, Spechler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a risk factor for developing a type of esophageal cancer called esophageal adenocarcinoma,\u201d he said of Barrett\u2019s esophagus. <\/p>\n

Still, Spechler noted that esophagitis is only a small risk factor for esophageal cancer and that women are less likely than men to develop both Barrett\u2019s esophagus and esophageal cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost patients who have GERD and reflux esophagitis do not have Barrett\u2019s esophagus, and most patients with Barrett\u2019s esophagus do not develop cancer,\u201d Spechler said. <\/p>\n

Both conditions are diagnosed using endoscopy, a procedure that lets doctors examine the esophagus and take biopsies to check for abnormalities. Patients with Barrett\u2019s esophagus typically undergo regular endoscopies, Spechler said, \u201cto identify early changes that indicate higher risk for developing cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2019, the Kardashian family helped open the Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health at UCLA, established as \u201ca center for holistic, patient-centered treatment, research and education related to disorders of the esophagus,\u201d according to a news release<\/a>. The family said at the time that it planned to launch fundraising efforts to support the center\u2019s key initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family is proud to pay tribute to our father by partnering with UCLA Health to establish the Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health,\u201d Kardashian said, according to the 2019 release. \u201cWe look forward to working with our longtime family friend, Dr. Eric Esrailian, the Melvin and Bren Simon Digestive Diseases Center, and the UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases to build the best program of its kind in the country.\u201d <\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe hope to save lives and help the community for many years to come in honor of our father.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kim Kardashian revealed in the trailer for Season 8 of \u201cThe Kardashians\u201d that she\u2019s facing a new health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-896936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}