What is the difference between GERD and heartburn?Dr. Sidney Smith: It really is it varies depending upon the person, I think GERD is the medical terminology that we used to describe gastro reflux disease and I have of folks coming in complaining of GERD and I think its always important to test how exactly what they mean by GERD. Some folks have reflux which they feel of sensation of liquid coming back up in the esophagus, other folks have classic heartburn which is usually describe as a burning sensation behind the breast bone. So, it varies from person to person but again GERD is the blanket term that we use to describe reflux disease but again there is a quite a bit of variation within that condition.