Many people have different things that trigger their heartburn. They include the following:

1. A searing burning feeing in the chest area just in back of the breastbone that occurs after you eat and lasts anywhere from several minutes to several hours.
2. Chest pain, particularly when lying down, bending over or eating.
3. A burning sensation in the throat or one can experience a hot, acidic, sour or salty-tasting fluid in the back of one’s throat.
4. Being hard to swallow.
5. You get a feeling that food gets caught in the middle of your chest or in your throat.
6. Heartburn symptoms may cause one to have a chronic cough, chronic hoarseness or a sore throat.

If you report these symptoms to your doctor that information may be all he or she needs to give you the news that you have heartburn. However, special tests may be performed that will indicate just how serious your problem is, or these tests can be used to monitor your treatment. If you happen to experience any unusual symptoms such weight loss or if you already suffer from complications that are caused by GERD, then additional tests may be required.

Is it Heartburn or a Heart Attack?

One of the most common reasons that a person may end up going to the emergency room is because of chest pain. Some episodes of severe heartburn have been known to make the sufferer actuallythink that they were experiencing a heart attack.

Often, the pain one feels when he or she is having a heart attack and the pain that one experiences during a bad bout of heartburn is so hard to distinguish that medical testing is needed to be able to tell if a person is having a heart attack or not. To further complicate matters, both of these problems may have a number of the same symptoms and they seem to occur in people that have similar traits.

If you happen to have any pain that tends to last for more than just a few minutes, or if you experience any of the warning signs of an impending heart attack, it is essential to seek medical attention as soon as possible. It will certainly be a relief for you in the end if what you are experiencing only happens to be heartburn symptoms.