The letters GERD stand for gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD). Basically it’s any disease caused by reflux of stomach of gastric contents into the esophagus. The classic symptom is heartburn. After eats one eats a few minutes to an hour they develop a burning sensation in their upper abdomen this burning could go all the way up behind the breast bone and into the throat, may have complaints of coughing or wheezing. They might get up at night with these symptoms. They may have swallowing disorder so there’s not just one symptom. A percentage of patients with chronic uncontrolled reflux disease will have a changing in the cellular lining of the esophagus. This is called Barrett’s esophagus and Barrett’s esophagus puts you at risk for cancer
