Signs and Symptoms of Acid Reflux Disease

It's likely that you have experience some heart burn at some point in your life.  This is common.  When you eat a certain kind of food or you eat too soon before bedtime,

If you are unsure of whether your may have this health problem, you should learn more about the symptoms.  Acid reflux symptoms can be quite severe.  In addition to a heavy, acidic burning feeling in your chest, you may also have trouble swallowing.  This can be an indication that the acid from your stomach is going farther up your esophagus than is normal.  This can cause a lot of damage to this area of your body.  Another common sign of this health condition is a cough, throat hoarseness, and a change in your voice.  If you notice any of these acid reflux symptoms, it is important to contact your doctor as soon as you can.

GERD and acid reflux disease is actually quite a bit different than classic heart burn.  Instead of an occasional pain in your chest or stomach, pain from GERD can happen every day.  This is caused when the valve separating your stomach and esophagus is faulty.  This valve is important because it keeps your stomach acid inside the actually stomach.  While the stomach can withstand the acid, the esophagus cannot.  When acid gets up in there, it causes pain and damage.  Some people's valve is only faulty sometimes, while it may be permanent with others.  This is why the symptoms occur and why it can be so painful.

Although you can general ignore a case of heartburn, you can't ignore acid reflux disease.  This is because it can cause more damage to your health than you would expect.  For instance, you could have esophagus spasms that can be quite painful.  You may even develop ulcers there because of the damage created by the stomach acid that travels into the esophagus.  In some severe cases, GERD can even lead to esophagus cancer.  If you are experiences symptoms of this illness, it is important to get treated right away so that you can avoid these terrible side effects.

There are various levels of treatment that may work for some people.  Often just a change in your diet can make a big difference on your symptoms.  Some foods will create more pain for you.  For instance, you should avoid such foods and drinks as alcohol, coffee, vitamin C, chocolate, milk, and carbonated drinks.  You should also avoid eating shortly before bedtime as this can have an effect on your symptoms as well. 

If your bout of GERD is particularly bad, there may need to be more serious treatments.  There are prescription drugs that often do the trick for people, such as antacids, proton pump inhibitors, and alginic acid.  If these methods don't work well, you may even need surgery in order to improve your problem.  Although this may be scary, you will be lowering your chance of cancer if you go ahead with the procedure. 

Now that you know the difference between simple heart burn and acid reflux disease, you will have a better time determining whether or not you have a problem.