Kim Kardashian has once again put her health at the center of public conversation. In the trailer for the eighth season of “The Kardashians”, the American socialite, model, actress and businesswoman revealed that she was diagnosed with esophagitis, a disease that affects the tissues that cover the esophagus, and confessed that the news gave her “course to cry.”
The advance shows the businesswoman in a health center, and a voice out of the picture asks her if that wasn’t what killed her father. Kardashian responds affirmatively, while her mother, Kris Jenner, expresses her anxiety before the cameras.
The reference is not accidental: Robert Kardashian, the father of Kim, Khloé and Kourtney, died in 2003 from esophageal cancer.
That quick outcome explains the fear of the family. In fact, after the death of Robert Kardashian, a health center dedicated to his memory was created in 2019 at the University of California in Los Angeles, focused precisely on the prevention of esophageal diseases.
According to experts consulted by U.S. media, esophagitis is the inflammation of the tissue that covers the esophagus, the muscle tube that transports food and liquids from the mouth to the stomach. The most common symptoms include acidity, pain when swallowing and discomfort in the chest.
The causes can be varied. Among the most common triggers are reflux of stomach content to the esophagus, alcohol and tobacco consumption, certain drugs — such as doxycycline or risedronate —, frequent vomiting, obesity and sleeping shortly after eating too much.
Gastroenterologist Stuart Spechler, of the Baylor University Medical Center, told NBC that the most common form is reflux esophagitis, a complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), in which mechanisms that normally prevent acid from rising from the stomach fail and end up damaging the esophagus.
Here’s the nuance that various media have rushed to clarify: they’re not the same disease. Diagnosing esophagitis doesn’t mean Kim Kardashian has esophageal cancer; they’re different conditions. However, there is a clinical relationship between the two that justifies family concerns. On the one hand, chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments against esophageal cancer can cause esophagitis; on the other hand, untreated esophagitis can eventually result in a diagnosis of esophageal cancer.
Spechler himself explained that some patients with reflux esophagitis end up developing Barrett's esophagus, a condition in which chronic acid exposure damages the normal lining of the esophagus and replaces it with cells similar to those of the intestine or stomach. Barrett’s esophagus is recognized as a risk factor for esophageal cancer, which explains why the news was so sensitive to the Kardashian family.
Despite the initial alarm, the prognosis is usually favorable. According to MedlinePlus, the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s health resource, the treatment of esophagitis depends on its cause, but may include medications to reduce stomach acid, antibiotics or antifungal medications if there is an infection through, medications that cover the esophageal coating, and dietary changes. The same source points out that, in most cases, the disorders that cause esophageal inflammation respond well to treatment.
The trailer does not specify what type of esophagitis Kim Kardashian suffers or what originated it in her particular case, something — as expected — will be addressed in more detail throughout the new season of the show.
This is not the first health outcry Kim shares on the reality show. In October 2025 she had revealed, during the premiere of the seventh season, that a small brain aneurysm had been detected during a magnetic resonance, finding that she herself linked to accumulated stress, in part due to her divorce from Kanye West.
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