Serdahely, Jeffrey J. DO

Hooray—the holidays are here! While the season brings a lot of joy, it also ushers in plenty of food, and that can mean greater opportunity for acid reflux or heartburn.

While occasional heartburn isn’t something to worry about, frequent symptoms could signal a more serious problem known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or acid reflux.

Before digging into how to prevent that post-meal “bonfire in your chest,” let’s take a quick look at the difference between heartburn and GERD:

The third most-common cancer in the U.S., colorectal cancer, happens when abnormal cells grow and form tumors in the colon or rectum. While this life-threatening disease can often be successfully treated when caught in its earliest stages, only about half of people older than 50 receive the necessary screening tests to detect or prevent colorectal cancer.

Reasons why adults between 50 and 75 are not up-to-date with colorectal cancer screening include: