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Listen. Heartburn has nothing to do with the heart. You knew that already, didn't you? It should be called food tube burn. Or five-alarm fire in food tube. Call the food tube firemen for this conflagration. Yikes!

Who among us has not had an occasional bout, and I stress the word occasional, with heartburn? In most cases a simple antacid will solve the problem and we can get on with our lives. An occasional heartburn attack does not slow us down too much.

However, for many people heartburn is a daily occurrence, day after day, week after week, ad infinitum. For those who suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD, the heartburn cycle is a perpetual battle against the adverse and extremely painful effect of heartburn.

GERD is a disease where the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is compromised and cannot do its job properly. It acts as a guard to let food into the stomach from the food tube (esophagus), but slams the door shut so nothing can escape back up into the food tube. This is the reflux, a flowing backward of gastric acids and powerful enzymes back up the food tube where they do not belong.

While the stomach is protected from gastric acid damage, the food tube has no protection and the gastric acids are very painful. It's like a 5-alarm fire down in the food tube and simple antacids offer little or no relief.

This is a very serious condition, as the liquid that is regurgitated something akin to battery acid and pepsin (a powerful enzyme) that are produced by the stomach, which is generally o.k. But when refluxed up into the esophagus can actually cause detrimental damage to the lining of the esophagus. Remember, it's acid, folks.

GERD is a habitual condition, meaning that once you've experienced the onset you will typically be coping with it for the rest of your life.

Symptoms

When it comes to the symptoms of GERD there are many, but heartburn GERD symptoms acid reflux tend to be the most common. Heartburn GERD symptoms acid reflux are generally the first detected symptoms because they're so uncomfortable and painful. Heartburn GERD symptoms acid reflux can range from being mild to so grave that they are really debilitating, and a few people with the condition can hardly even get out of bed sometimes because the pain is so intense.

Heartburn GERD symptoms acid reflux can be treated in numerous ways. Most physicians urge that first a patient try taking antacids, as these are very mild but may offer relief for your symptoms. Whenever your condition perseveres or is plainly more grievous, then you will have to fall back to more serious formulas of treatment, such as changing your diet. This is going to be one of the most dependable things you can do since what you eat is going to affect the quantity of acid that is produced in your stomach. The less acid you have sitting around in your stomach the less often you're going to experience these heartburn GERD symptoms acid reflux and the less intense they are going to be.

Listen closely to what I have to say. When you suspect you have a condition as severe as GERD, do not try to medicate yourself. This is a serious disease. You need to consult a specialist, a gastroenterologist, who can assess your symptoms and assign various diagnostic tests to determine the extent of the condition. Once the parameters of the condition are known, then a treatment plan can be devised that will relieve the terrible outbreaks of heartburn and you will soon be back to your old self again. Ready, willing and able to take on the world again.