Do you have heartburn? Try this GERD symptoms checker.

by DAVIS BROWN PRC Agency

GERD or Gastroesophageal reflux disease is a condition concerning stomach acid juice. This disease could cause several symptoms besides heartburn and complications, which include pre-cancerous injuries in the body.

The esophagus is a tube that connects the mouth to the stomach. Its lining is not prepared for withstanding the acidity from stomach juice. Despite that, usually, some juice passes through reaching the esophagus. Therefore, only when this starts to happen much more than it normally should; then, it becomes GERD or a disease.

In a normal situation, when food digestion starts in the stomach. The latter produces acid to disintegrate the food into smaller pieces. Then, the food and the acid will move through the small bowel for further processing and absorbance.

The stomach has a sort of valves up and down that regulate and forbidden the food and the acid to escape from it. However, in some normal situations and despite all these mechanisms, this could fail, and the food plus the acid reaches the esophagus. So, when the acid from the stomach reaches upstream from where food just came, it is what doctors call a "reflux." And when this happens a lot, and repetitively, it becomes GERD.

Several symptoms because of GERD exist. Some of them are very characteristic, like heartburn, and others, not so obvious, such as a cough that does not go away. Also, many risk factors for developing GERD (like obesity) are wide known by the medical community.

It is important to diagnose GERD because it is not exempt from complications. For example, this disease could lead to swelling or narrowing (strictures) of the esophagus, which would mean further problems. Besides, if the disease continues without treatment, there could even be a Barret esophagus. This is a pre-cancerous state from the esophagus; people with this complication are nearly forty times more likely to develop esophagus cancer.

Luckily, all these complications are preventable with effective treatment; it comprises drugs and surgery in severe cases.

This tool is a GERD Symptoms Checker. It gathers the most important signs, symptoms, and risk factors for this disease.

GERD affects at least once a month and daily, to thirty and ten percent of the United States population, respectively. Accordingly, this disease is widespread and requires attention.

Sadly, for diagnosing this disease, several studies are necessary for both confirming the disease and discarding other diseases that could present with similar symptoms, such as a peptic ulcer or achalasia. The three main resources doctors have are upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, esophageal manometry, and ambulatory 24 hour pH monitoring.

Keep in mind that this tool does not replace an assessment from a doctor. Also, it cannot differentiate between similar diseases that only a gastroenterologist through several exams can know.

Despite all this, GERD is a disease with important symptoms and risk factors. Therefore, the GERD symptoms checker aims to tell anyone who uses it the likelihood of their symptoms because of this disease.

The tool has questions that identify the most common symptoms and the strongest risk factors for this disease. Using it is free and would only take a few minutes.

Originally published at //symptoms.care on December 7, 2020.