COMPREHENSIBLE NUMBERS

[Guest guest]

A good estimate of the U.S. population is just under 300 million. Given that 1 in 100,000 supposedly have achalasia, then there would be a mere 3,000 people in the U.S. (or an incredibly low 60 people per state, assuming even distribution, which it can't be). Under this assumption, if a surgeon has told you he has performed thousands of Heller Myotomy's, chances are he's lying. (I'm just using the masculine gender of the surgeon here, but chances are a female surgeon wouldn't make that kind of claim).With the hypotheses that there are many people running around who have achalasia but don't know it, and that the estimates have varied from 1 in 5,000, to 1 in 15,000, then let's split the difference and say that 1 in 10,000 have achalasia. Then 10 times the above numbers would be our new results. It would be 30,000 people in the U.S. who have achalasia versus maybe 60 million who have GERD (a few have both, but we won't go there today).So, if I was to make some kind of a point out of all this, I would say we're screwed! Do the drug companies and surgeons want to help 60 million people and the revenues that it would be generate, or 3,000 people? We've all heard of orphan diseases: diseases so rare that nobody is interested in helping, unless the government kicks in with dollars. I think Achalasia should be "nominated" to be an orphan disease, if we are able to have a chance at a cure, or reliable treatment.With all due respect to the skilled and compassionate surgeons we have tried to associate ourselves with, its the research dollars that are needed to discover a cure. Perhaps someday, as a "byproduct" of stem cell research, a cure will be found.