About GERD

GERD, short for gastroesophageal reflux disease, is sometimes referred to as acid reflux. The acid part of the term is because acid comes from your stomach. Reflux simply means backwards. So basically, GERD means the acid in your stomach comes back up into your esophagus. Acid in the throat? Doesn't sound too good, does it?

Believe me, it's not.

The Bad: Long term GERD without proper treatment can lead to a whole lot of not so fun problems you don't want to deal with. Problems like ulcers, bleeding and even scar tissue.

What are some of the signs you might have GERD?

The Ugly: Some people experience the constant need to clear their throat, have frequent heartburn or wake up in the middle of the night gagging because of the acid backing up. Even children can be affected by GERD. If your child wakes up at night on a regular basis coughing and gagging and complains of a chronic sore throat, talk to your doctor about the possibility of GERD being the culprit.

So what's good about GERD?

The Good - There are medications that can help you treat and manage your symptoms. You don't have to live with the burning in your throat and some medications can even heal damage already done to your throat due to GERD.

Having GERD doesn't mean you can't eat foods you enjoy, but just know that certain foods will make your GERD worse. Why? Because they're higher in acid content and since the foods go into your stomach and your stomach brings them back up, you get more acid than usual.

The foods that you need to be aware of that can cause a worse flare up in your GERD are as follows:
Any food that has a tomato base. These would be foods like pizza (because of the tomato sauce), tomatoes, spaghetti, ketchup which I know technically isn't a food but most people eat it on their fries, burgers, hotdogs etc. Read labels. If the product is tomato based, you might want to limit how much of it you eat or if the GERD isn't under control yet, you might want to avoid it altogether.

Throw out your deep fat fryer if you've been diagnosed with GERD. Not only are deep fat fried foods bad for anyone, but for someone with GERD, it can be a real pain in the throat.

Some like it hot and spicy. The spicier, the better, but foods that zing your tongue with spices or hot sauce (such as chili or hot taco seasoning) will revisit you later.

Fruits such as grapefruit, oranges, lemons, limes, contain citric acid so watch out for those as well.

Does this mean you can never eat any of the foods I talked about? Not at all. There are medications available that can help you with the effects of acid in foods.

If you can't afford the medicine to treat your GERD, there are ways to make it affordable for you. Talk to your pharmacist. Many drug representatives give coupons and discount cards to area pharmacies. These are kept in a book at the pharmacy. All you have to do is ask the pharmacist if he has a coupon for your medication. And if your pharmacist isn't making you aware of deals and offers on your medications, it might be time to consider switching to one who will.

You can also contact the maker of the medication. One popular GERD drug company offers a $30 monthly savings on their GERD medication.