If you have symptoms more than twice a week, you may have gastroesophageal reflux disease, GERD.
To find out more about how stomach acid causes heartburn and GERD, check out the following image from our A–Z Health Library.
Heartburn is a feeling of burning, warmth, heat, or pain that often starts in the upper abdomen just beneath the lower breastbone (sternum). This discomfort may spread in waves upward into your throat, and you may have a sour taste in your mouth. Heartburn is sometimes called indigestion, acid regurgitation, sour stomach, or pyrosis.
Last Updated: September 6, 2007 