Symptoms of GERD: Why Timely Diagnosis is CRUCIAL to Your Health

By Jeff Martin

Not many people understand the medical significance of GERD (gastro esophageal reflux disease) and the symptoms that go with it. Decline in general quality of life is the result for many GERD sufferers. For inhabitants of developed countries, the problem is considerable. No less than 1 in 5 of all inhabitants in western countries are victims every week of some of the common GERD symptoms.

From different data available, some 70% of diagnostics based on the identification of common symptoms give the right answer. Because GERD can make patients suffer enormously and also result in serious complications, it is crucial to be able to pinpoint the symptoms, diagnose them and quickly organize a solution. Doctors and paraprofessionals are of the same opinion: a first diagnosis of GERD, often via a questionnaire on typical external signs of gastro esophageal reflux disease, is essential for effective and quick treatment of this ailment.

Symptoms of GERD may include: nose and sinus problems, chest pain (can be mistaken for heart attack-related pain), dry coughing, wheezing chronically, asthma, nausea, fallout of tooth enamel, bad breath, and dysphagia (feeling of an irregularity in the back of the throat). Acid reflux may also attack the ears (otitis media) and the voice (ranging from laryngitis, hoarseness to cancer). Heartburn and regurgitation are among the commonest symptoms of GERD. It is the contents of the stomach and its acidic juices, being thrown back up in the esophagus, that makes for the distressing burning feeling associated to damage of the esophageal lining where gastro esophageal reflux disease is happening.

What is critical for regaining health and well being as well as stopping complications is the ability to see those symptoms for what they are, in evidence of gastro esophageal reflux disease.

Failure to treat gastro esophageal reflux disease can mean severe physical distress and may also lead on to severe health problems such as pneumonia and esophageal cancer. Symptoms of acid reflux are frequently just the external sign of a much greater problem of lack of internal balance. If there is regular occurrence of a symptom (or a number of them), patients should see a gastrointestinal specialist in order to get a professional diagnosis. It is possible, fortunately, for victims that they can pinpoint the greater part of GERD symptoms prior to consulting a physician.

Although a gastrointestinal endoscopist can give a professional initial diagnosis, classical medicine as a solution for gastro esophageal reflux has two important negative points:

1. Life long dependency on drugs can result because a daily dose is required to keep the symptoms down but no action is taken on fixing the real causes. Medicaments available as prescriptions and over the counters only act on the external disease symptoms, but acid reflux goes far deeper than this, being the result of a range of different inner and outer aspects. 2. Some drugs such as PPIs and antacids can contribute numerous undesirable side effects.

The holistic program that targets the factors that are both internal and external and that trigger acid reflux, also addresses the basic problem that causes this condition. It is a much more effective answer and it works for the long term. Whatever your degree of GERD is, tackling this condition by using a holistic approach will make sure that the fundamental causes of your acid reflux problem are dealt with in safety and with permanence, to bring significant improvement to your well being.