Feeling of burning pain in the middle of the chest, getting sour taste in the mouth, regular burping, tightening feeling in the lower chest may be due to reflux. However most importantly it is necessary to exclude these symptoms are not due to a heart attack. If you get any of the above symptoms suddenly it is mandatory to go to your doctor so he can do an ECG and some blood investigations to rule out the possibility of a heart attack.
Reflux can be diagnosed after excluding a heart attack and then with history of relation to meals, spicy or oily food, getting symptoms with bending forward etc. However an objective diagnosis can only be made by carrying out an endoscopy or a camera test. This will enable us to make a diagnosis, to assess the severity of the disease and to find a cause for these symptoms as presence of a hiatus hernia is associated with reflux.
Presence of non responsive long standing cough; especially in the night can be due to reflux. If you are having bronchial asthma, this can get worse due to reflux.
Avoidance of spicy and oily food, lifestyle modifications, treatment of gastritis, reducing weight if over weight, avoidance of certain movements like bending forward after meals, reducing the quantity of food one eats for a meal and avoidance of sleep at least 2hrs after meals etc can help in reducing the symptoms.
If the symptoms are persisting or longstanding and are not responding to your family physicians treatments, if you have loss of appetite, difficulty in swallowing or feeling of food getting stuck in the chest or pain during eating you have to go to a specialist doctor who can perform an endoscopy on you and check you.
Long standing reflux can give rise to changes of the mucosa of the lower part of the oesophagus which can progress to cancer.