GERD and acid reflux often peak during the holidays, when heavier meals and disrupted routines can trigger painful flare-ups. In this Smart Patients story, community members share what GERD really feels like and what helps.

Unpaid caregivers shoulder staggering physical, emotional, and financial burdens that often go unseen — yet they are essential to patient health and outcomes. Smart Patients surveyed nearly 300 caregivers to hear from them what they want the world to understand. This summary presents their data, their words, and how they link to evidence-based research.

Stomach cancer affects patients from ages 22 to 89, and this story explores how people across generations navigate symptoms, treatment decisions, and daily life after diagnosis. Drawing on real Smart Patients conversations and data from ASCO 2025, it highlights emerging therapies and hope for gastric cancer care.

In honor of Antibiotic Awareness Week, this story examines how repeated UTIs, long-term bladder issues, and multiple antibiotic courses pushed one patient into antibiotic resistance. This is why understanding antimicrobial resistance and everyday stewardship practices is essential for anyone navigating chronic infections.

A Smart Patients’ question—“Should I have surgery now or wait?”—sparked an insightful discussions in the pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET) community. This story, shared for World Neuroendocrine Cancer Day, explores how patients navigate uncertainty, timing, and treatment choices for this rare form of pancreatic cancer.

After successful cancer treatment, an unexpected diabetes diagnosis left one patient searching for answers and support. In the Smart Patients Diabetes Community, they found understanding, practical advice, and hope.

Not sure what to say to someone in hospice? You’re not alone. In this Smart Patients story, I Am…Learning to Say the Right Words, members share compassionate ways to offer comfort. Published in honor of Hospice and Palliative Care Month, this piece explores how presence, gratitude, and quiet love can mean more than perfect words.

When patients share their lived experience, medical education becomes more than instruction — it becomes insight. This practical guide from Smart Patients shows how to integrate patient voice into continuing education so learning is more human, relevant, and effective.

A Smart Patients conversation about parotid gland swelling revealed something bigger: the importance of listening to your body — and not settling for “don’t worry.” Here’s what patients and studies agree on about lymphoma risk in Sjögren’s.

Drawn from real Smart Patients conversations, this story shows how community wisdom, small tips, and words of encouragement can become part of the process of learning to inhale, exhale, and heal together through uncertainty.

At ASCO 2025, groundbreaking breast cancer research introduced new targeted therapies, precision treatments, and long-overdue recognition for rare subtypes like inflammatory breast cancer. I Am…Looking to Research for Hope connects these advances to patient stories to show how science, compassion, and community are changing what’s possible in breast cancer care.

This story captures the often-overlooked middle of recovery where progress feels slow and persistence is everything. It honors the physical therapists who walk beside patients in that uncertain space, turning steady effort into renewed strength and hope.

From quiet symptoms to complex treatments, liver cancer patients share stories of resilience. Discover strength in the Smart Patients community.

This story is written in the first person, but it is not the story of one woman alone. It is a composite drawn from the voices of many Smart Patients members who have shared what they wish they had known about ovarian cancer. Their collective wisdom offers guidance, honesty, and hope for anyone beginning this journey.

For Alzheimer’s Awareness and Healthy Aging Month, Smart Patients is lifting up the voices of caregivers. This story reflects the reality many face: vacations and outings often bring more stress than relief, while home becomes a place of comfort, safety, and small joys. Through laughter, shared memories, and listening to one another, caregivers in our community are redefining what rest and connection mean.

To be part of the patient safety team, it just takes ordinary courage, bringing a notebook, asking the names of the people caring for you, thanking them, and then asking your next question. And if something doesn’t look right, say so kindly at first, more insistently if you must. In the language of safety science, that’s called a “good catch.” In the language of the families who have learned how much it matters, it’s called love.

These words aren’t just one person’s alone -  they’re stitched together from the stories, questions, and hard-won lessons shared by many people in the Smart Patients multiple myeloma community. What follows is not one person’s journey but a chorus of voices. Their honesty is sometimes raw, often practical, and always rooted in hope.

For Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, Smart Patients is sharing the voices of men living with prostate cancer. This collective story reflects the shared struggles and strengths of the community—from the uncertainty of diagnosis, to the impact of side effects, to the search for answers and hope in new treatments. Most of all, it’s about connection: men finding strength, confidence, and solace by listening to and supporting one another.

Caring for a loved one with dementia means navigating shifting realities with patience, creativity, and love. In the Smart Patients community, caregivers share hard-earned wisdom on when to step into your loved one’s world instead of correcting them—whether that’s going along with a mistaken memory, offering gentle reassurance, or finding small ways to bring calm. This post explores how dementia caregiving challenges identity, tests resilience, and underscores the need for practical support, breaks, and self-preservation.

Caregiving for someone with Parkinson’s means balancing love, patience, and exhaustion—often in the middle of the night. From midnight showers to 3 a.m. cleanups, caregivers walk the line between ‘too much’ and ‘not enough.’ In the Smart Patients community, they share the small victories, hard truths, and creative strategies that keep them going—and remind each other they’re not alone.