Heartburn As A Symptom of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)


Have you ever experience this burning, often painful, feeling in your chest that can sometimes be scary. Most often, this sensation is caused by a heartburn. This is not really about the heart, so you need not worry that you may have a heart condition.
A heartburn is really gastric acid coming from the stomach area and rising up to the chest, and even all the way to the neck or jaw area.

Heartburn has been confirmed to be a sign of possible Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease or simply GERD. GERD is also known as chronic indigestion, and it affects so many Americans, becoming a major concern among doctors. In fact, it has been estimated that around 20% of Americans suffer from heartburn due to GERD.

To help you understand GERD, a pot of water boiling over. This is similar to what happens when you eat, and the acid that is used to break down the food builds up and goes to the esophagus area. However, a few incidents of heartburn does not mean that you have GERD. As with any chronic disease or condition, heartburn has to keep recurring for at least 3 months.

The reason the word “reflux” is part of the disease is because when your lower esophagus muscle, known as the lower esophageal sphincter or LES, a muscle that controls the opening between your esophagus and your stomach, does not close, the stomach acid finds its way back to the esophagus. Reflux refers to the backward motion of the stomach acid.

When this happens, you will start to feel pain, and the pain is because your esophagus does not have the same kind of protective lining that your stomach has. This means that the acid is giving you the pain. This is something you would not feel at all normally.

This acid can cause very serious danger, and the pain should not be the only reason to be concerned. When the stomach acid keeps going to the esophagus area, it is very probable that a part of your esophagus becomes thinner and start to erode. This will lead to bleeding, ulcers, and scarring.

There is also another more grace condition that can develop known as the Barrett’s Esophagus. This is a condition that could end up in cancer of the esophagus.

The way to handle GERD from a non-medical angle is to make sure that you lessen the trigger points for the acid to go backward to the esophagus. This merely means that you should try to avoid certain food and drinks that can be considered acidic like orange juice, lemonade, potatoes, ice cream, wine, coffee, tea, chocolate, and corn chips, to name just a few.

If you are experiencing heartburn regularly, at least twice a week, you should go in for a checkup. Your doctor can prescribe you a diet which will include a complete list of what food to avoid.