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Heartburn is familiar to nearly everyone. Yet gastroesophageal reflux disease known simply as Gerd, is a relatively new term for defining this age old condition. uet leave it to the medical community to take simple words and turn them into long and confusing terms. Let's do surgery on that word and see what lies underneath.

Gastro is from a Greek word meaning the stomach. Anytime you see that word alone or in combination with another, remember it has some connection to the stomach. Esophageal is an adjective taken from esophagus, the passage way from the throat to the stomach. In other words the gullet. So now we know our medical problem has to do with the esophagus and the stomach.

To find the problem we look to the word reflux. Word's dictionary defines it as backward flow'. Instead of the gastric juice staying in the stomach and assisting in the digestion of food as it is supposed to do, it flows upward toward the mouth. The lining of the stomach is designed to deal with the acidic stomach enzymes, but the esophagus is not. Therein lies our basic problem with Gerd; but there is more to that simple little heartburn than that.

Aside from the first symptoms of a burning sensation in the upper chest behind the breastbone which often clears up with an anti-acid table or two, there can be extensive damage done by this regurgitation of stomach acid over time. Sometimes food will stall on its way down. Lots of people experience this when eating food such as peanut butter. It gets about halfway down and will not go all the way and the esophagus will go into a spasm trying to push the food up and out or on down. It clears up after a few minutes but it is uncomfortable and is a symptom of a malfunctioning somewhere in the area.

Heartburn becomes more vicious with time. It may be the reason for a dry cough, sore throats and even hoarseness. Swallowing may be difficult because of esophageal strictures. Until one learns to know the difference when the first episodes of chest pain occur due to reflux, it is easy to mistake it for a heart attack.

To avoid this mistake one must learn the symptoms unique to each. A heart attack does not respond to anti-acid medication; there will be no sweating - usually - with an advanced heart burn attack. The pain stays localized in mid chest and does not radiate to arms and shoulders. Yet, it is possible to be having both heartburn and a heart attack, one having precipitated the other, so it is better to be safe than sorry. Get help when in

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