{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.026174895895300417, 'fraction_numerical': 0.014277215942891136, 'mean_word_length': 5.469230769230769, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease and ulcer disease

Gastro-oesophageal reﬂux disease (GERD) was recog-nized as a clinical entity in the mid-1930s. It is thecommonest disorder of the gastro-intestinal tract,resulting from failure of the gastro-oesophageal sphinc-ter. It is a chronic condition and often requires life-longtreatment with proton pump inhibitors in up to25–50% of patients. The most common reportedsymptoms are heartburn and acid regurgitation, oftenexacerbated by eating. Heartburn alone occurs in 20–40% of the adult population in European countries. Thisdisorder is associated with considerable long-termmorbidity and mortality. Symptoms of GERD can havea major effect on a patient’s lifestyle. In one surveyconducted in the USA, 46% of patients were found tohave moderate to extreme difﬁculty in eating certainfoods that they wanted to include in their diet, and 30%also had difﬁculty eating the quantity of food theywanted. Half of respondents claimed that they did nothave enough energy for activities they wanted to do,and 21–25% said that they felt tired or worn out almostall of the time.There has been a dramatic increase in the number ofpeople suffering from GERD and fortunately, effective butcostly medications are now available. These factors incombination have exponentially increased the cost ofreﬂux management to health services. The estimation ofthe prevalence of GERD is difﬁcult because of the lackof an accepted deﬁnition and of gold standard diagnosticcriteria. European epidemiological data is lacking,however according to the available European data, theprevalence of GERD symptoms, mainly heartburn, hasbeen reported to range from 10 to 40%.