I just replied to your question in the allergies/asthma forum.. I agree that it sounds like you have gerd.

Gastro oesophageal reflux disease is a condition in which the contents of the stomach tend to flow back into the oesophagus. It happens in a variety of causes like delayed meal intake more frequently, increased intake of oily, spicy foods, stimulants like tea, coffee, alcohol, tendency to skip meals, anxiety. All this lead to excessive stimulation and production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach layer (normally produced to breakdown proteins), this causes the regurgitations of the contents of the stomach into the oesophagus. The oesophageal sphincter also becomes patent and allows the food back from the stomach into the oesophagus. People who have the habit of lying down after a heavy meal are also prone to this.
Homeopathic medicine has very good remedies to control the symptoms like heartburn, pain in the pit of the stomach, nausea, vomiting, sensation of fullness of abdomen after eating little etc. And see that the healing takes place in the areas of erosion in the stomach and oesophagus. Needless to say life style changes also need to be made to prevent recurrence.
Dr.Venugopal gouri.

Thanks to both of you for the responses, I guess I will have to take a long hard look at my lifestyle - ok, I exercise a lot, but I do work in a stressful environment (which in my experience leads to greater caffeine intake), and I do like my spicy foods, both of which could be contributing to my condition.

In answer to the question from the asthma forum, I take milk of magnesia after a rich/spicy meal and I was taking gaviscon for a bit, which is for heartburn, but neither to any great effect.

Lifestyle changes can definitely help.. But if you get it often enough sometimes it only "helps" and does not get rid of it (as in my case). Definitely avoid the spicey foods. Caffeine sometimes irritates the heartburn for me, but only if I have a lot. Also, don't eat too close to bed because if your stomach is still digesting it can come up in your throat and sinuses and lungs too while you are sleeping. I would try the prilosec otc for a few weeks and really watch your diet and see how it goes. Hopefully it will help, if not your doctor can prescribe you something. I'm on prevacid and it works well for me.

i cured my hiatal herina with the help of a chriopractor that used cold laser and a vibrator on my stomach pulling it down and not eating chicken for a week or two because of h. pylori in
the meat and geting off the prilosec by cutting it in quarters for four days one quarter
on the last day. then using gastrex by standard process before that i was belching so much i lost 50 lbs and eating was almost impossible did accupunture with herbs cranioscacral homeophty now can eat peperoni pizza and spicy hot dogs if there is heartburn gastrex takes care of it a miracle still getting the anxiety bad even after meds if anybody knows acure