Destination The Pacific

Simply explained, GERD occurs when bile or stomach acid flows back into your esophagus on a regular basis. This backwash of stomach acid agitates your esophageal lining, causing serious pain and discomfort. Generally, GERD is caused by a weakness or malfunction of the esophageal sphincter, a valve at the bottom of your esophagus that acts as the doorway from your windpipe to your digestive system. When this valve weakens or malfunctions, it allows stomach acid back into the esophagus, thus causing the irritation that results in the pain associated with GERD. Folks diagnosed with GERD generally suffer the symptoms of heartburn and acid reflux at least twice per week.

If you think you may have GERD, it's likely that you suffer from symptoms such as:

• a severe burning feeling in your throat or chest and/or a nasty taste in your mouth.
• pain in your chest area
• a hoarse, dry cough
• a sore throat
• the feeling of having a lump in your throate
• trouble swallowing
• vomiting of food or bile

The symptoms of a heart attack can be mistaken for GERD, and result in death if the heart attack is left untreated. If you're experiencing the symptoms of GERD along with shortness of breath or a shooting pain in your jaw or arm, you should seek emergency medical treatment immediately, because it's likely you're having a heart attack.

If your GERD is severe or frequent enough that it's disturbing your quality of life, don't be afraid to see a doctor. In general, you should seek medical treatment for GERD if you're having to use over-the-counter medication for GERD symptoms more than twice per week.

A doctor can run a number of tests to determine whether you have GERD or another illness. Some of the tests include barium swallows x-rays, a biopsy obtained by gastroscopy, or esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy, or EGD, involves the insertion of a tiny scope via the mouth and throat into your esophagus and stomach. This is ususally done while the patient is sedated and allows doctors to check out the internal surfaces of your stomach, esophagus and duodenum.

There's a number of disorders and illnesses that have similar symptoms as GERD, such as cancer, so it's important that your health care provider does appropriate tests to determine whether GERD is your actual, or only, problem.

There's a number of medical conditions and lifestyle choices that can contribute to GERD. For instance, people who smoke or use alcohol immoderately have a higher likelihood of experiencing GERD because these substances ramp up stomach acid production. Links have also been found between GERD and obesity and hiatal hernias. Diabetes has also been found to have a correlation to GERD.

Folks with GERD may also experience other health problems such as sleep aponea, asthma or laryngitis because of the damage GERD can cause to the thoat and breathing apparatus.

GERD can be a serious problem that can contribute to other illnesses. Treatments for GERD range from over-the-counter medications, to prescription medicine to surgery.

The easiest, and most common treatments for GERD involve making changes to your lifestyle. Some of these changes can include, stopping smoking, cutting back on alcohol and caffeine intake, refraining from eating close to bedtime, eating smaller, more frequent meals and cutting out foods high in acids such as tomatoes.

GERD can also be treated by positional therapy. Some common, successful positional therapy treatments include sleeping on one's left side, or sleeping with the head elevated on a pillow.

There are also a number of prescription medications that can be successful in treating GERD. These medications include antacids, prokinetics, proton pump inhibitors, gastric H2 receptor blockers, mosapride, sucralfate and alginic acid. The downside is that it may take several tries before your physician is able to find the medication that works best for your specific case.

For severe cases, there is a surgical option available which works by wrapping part of the stomach around the esophagus to strengthen the esophaegal sphincter. Other surgical options exist, but the stomach wrap is the most common.

GERD can have an extremely unpleasant impact on one's life and ability to be productive. More than 20 million Americans suffer from this illness, but with the right treatment and lifestyle modifications, the symptoms of GERD can be greatly mitigated or eliminated.