What is GERD and What It Means

One of the most recent changes to the whole heartburn field recently is the introduction of GERD. GERD is basically the medical term for heartburn if you did not know. Technically, it stands for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, and the definition of it is typically that you have to get heartburn twice a week (or more) for an extended period of time. Different health organizations of course make different requirements.

Doctors have been using the term GERD for decades, but it is only been in the vocabulary of every day people like myself (and probably you as well) for the past 10 years or so. Why the sudden shift?

The truth is that heartburn is now GERD because of the invention and integration of prescription (and expensive over the counter) heartburn medication into mainstream society. We've known that long-term heartburn is bad, so it's not like this is a recent development designed to alert the public about the dangers of GERD.

GERD can lead to serious health problems (even cancer) so it is not to be taken lightly, so do not get the wrong message. What I am saying though is that the reason we hear GERD so much now is that consumers are not necessarily motivated to spend 100$ a month on "heartburn" but are much more likely to spend money on "GERD". It is much more effective for advertising of proton pump inhibitors to promote them as a treatment for "GERD" rather than a treatment for "heartburn".

It's common sense really - GERD sounds serious whereas heartburn sounds harmless. It is not as if heartburn mutated into some new disease in the past decade, it's just that we can easily charge a few dollars a pill for a brand name PPI but no one would pay that kind of money for an antacid.

Now, again, I am not necessarily saying that we should not take PPIs or H2-blockers, as these medicines have been proven effective. What I am saying though is we probably do take them too much in place of healthy lifestyle changes like weight loss and dietary modifications. We would be better off in all aspects of our lives if we just managed chronic conditions via improving our overall health (eating healthier, not being obese, sleeping enough, avoiding alcohol, etc).

So there you have it. GERD is acid reflux that occurs regularly over a period of time, whereas heartburn is just a symptom of acid reflux. Clear enough?