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Heartburn is a burning sensation in the chest just like the word seems. It's usually right behind the breastbone. It usually occurs after meals, or sometimes at night. Acid reflux is where the juices from the stomach go the wrong way up into the esophagus. And GERD, the disease, is where you have those symptoms more than once or twice a week. Gastroesophageal reflux disease affects about 20% of Americans, it's pretty common.

GERD is something that can take over your life sometimes. GERD can interrupt your sleep, it can force you to eat things or not eat things that you otherwise would like to. It can force you to eat at certain times of the day and not at others. There are quality-of-life tests that show that patients that suffer from GERD have a pretty poor quality of life.

If they just have acid reflux or heartburn and nothing else they can try over-the-counter things and see if that helps. If they are unsure of what over-the-counter medications are available, or what lifestyle changes are needed to help with this disease then they should see their medical doctor also. There are certain alarm features that patients should see their doctors for immediately. They include painful or difficult swallowing, bleeding out either end. Recurrent vomiting or anemia, which is a low blood count or unexplained weight loss.

I'd say surgery does cure GERD. A large percentage of patients are able to stop there medications and they have a long lasting improvement of their quality of life.

Laparoscopic surgery is a good option for people that fall into two categories. They can be patients who have tried medical therapy, and have either failed or are unsatisfied with it. Or they have a complication of GERD. The former category are patients who have taken medications and they don't want to take the medication for the rest of their life, because sometimes these pills can be a burden to take every day and some people who, let's say, they have it when they are young; they are looking at 20 to 30 years of taking pills every day. And that may actually be more expensive than surgery. Or they just may not be satisfied with the results that they are getting with the therapy.

The gallbladder is a small organ that is located near the liver, it's function is to store and concentrate bile. The liver makes the bile, that is then stored in the gallbladder. Bile's role is to help us digest foods, primarily fatty foods.

The liver makes the bile, the whole biliary system looks like a tree. The gallbladder is one branch off of that tree. The liver makes the bile, it runs down the liver branch into the gallbladder. When we eat the gallbladder squeezes and squirts the bile out that branch into the main trunk down into the small bowel where it helps us digest our food.

Gallbladder problems or gallbladder disease occurs when the gallbladder doesn't empty properly.

Gallbladder disease usually is due to gallstones which block the exit of the gallbladder so it can't drain properly. If it continues to have difficulty draining, a lot of times the bile becomes almost stagnant and the gallbladder continues to swell, become inflamed, cause pain because it can't empty properly.

A person does not have to have gallstones to have gallbladder disease, sometimes it just more of a functional issue. Normally the gallbladder will empty approximately 35% in response to a meal, that can be measured with the HIDA scan, if the ejection for-action or percentage of emptying is less then 35%, that's a sign of gallbladder disease as well and that can be present without stones.

A person should consider having their gallbladder removed when it is causing them problems. The problems commonly are pain after eating, usually the pain occurs in the mid portion of the abdomen, possibly the right upper quadrant, sometimes rotates around to their back, often will have nausea, sometimes a fever associated with that. If they have chronic problems with it they may wish to consider having their gallbladder out. If they have one attach that is so bad they never want to have another, they may want to consider having their gallbladder out.