Gastroesophageal reflux disease is an uncomfortable symptom and complication caused by the reflux of stomach contents. Its main symptoms are reflux and heartburn (a burning sensation in the retrosternal region). The disease can cause a decrease in the quality of life of patients in mild cases and complicate reflux esophagitis, esophageal stricture, swallowing disorder, esophageal adenocarcinoma and other diseases in severe cases. Liu Junping, Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Ditan Hospital Currently, GERD is characterized by high incidence, low awareness, low consultation rate and low treatment rate, i.e. “one high, three low”. GERD can affect people’s daily life, including sleep disorders, eating habits, work efficiency, social activities and hobbies. With the change of diet and increasing work pressure, middle-aged and young people have become the key target of GERD, and the accelerated pace of work, irregular diet, and strong mental stress may become the triggers of the disease. However, these people who are busy with their careers always hold back from seeing a doctor whenever symptoms appear, or go to the pharmacy to buy their own stomach medicine, and less than 20% of working patients will take the initiative to go to the hospital. When symptoms such as heartburn and reflux appear, don’t delay your condition for the sake of work, but go to the hospital’s gastroenterology department as soon as possible. Taking medication on your own may cause related complications, such as esophagitis, bleeding, and in some patients, even life-threatening emergencies such as asthma, laryngospasm, and asphyxia. If not properly treated for a long time, it may develop into esophageal stricture and even induce esophageal adenocarcinoma. Few patients are prone to go to the wrong clinic Most patients with GERD will show discomfort such as heartburn, reflux and chest pain, but many others show symptoms such as reflux asthma, reflux cough, hoarseness, foreign body sensation in the throat and insomnia. This is because acid reflux to the esophagus may continue upward into the lungs, causing reflux asthma, and to the mouth of the throat, causing foreign body sensation in the throat, hoarseness and recurrent cough. The survey found that nearly 30% of patients do not have the common symptoms of heartburn and reflux, but only a foreign body sensation in the throat. In some patients, GERD could not be detected for many years. These patients have obvious symptoms, but gastroscopy shows everything is normal and treatment is neglected. About 60% to 70% of GERD does not show up as esophageal mucosal erosion on endoscopy. Therefore, a normal gastroscopy report does not mean that everything is fine. Patients should tell their doctor in detail about their symptoms at the time of consultation, and the doctor will make a diagnosis by using the GERD questionnaire and combining the patient’s actual symptoms. Once the diagnosis is confirmed, medications can be taken for the symptoms and the vast majority of patients will improve after 8 weeks.