| How to manage reflux disease
Gastroesophageal reflux disease is one of the most common digestive disorders. It is a condition where stomach acid refluxes upward into the esophagus. Usually, the acid in your stomach is retained by a muscular valve at the end of the esophagus, known as the lower esophageal sphincter. The LES is supposed to remain closed, except when swallowing. If it opens at other times, stomach acid can flow upward (reflux) into the esophagus, causing heartburn. Typical symptoms include an uncomfortable feeling of burning, warmth, heat or pain just behind the breastbone, which is commonly referred to as heartburn. Other symptoms can include nausea, increased belching, regurgitation of food and even chronic cough. Occasional heartburn does not necessarily mean you have reflux disease. In GERD, the symptoms last longer and occur more often.
Acid reflux and GERD: Are they the same thing?
Acid reflux is one cause of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a disease in which stomach acid or, occasionally, bile flows back (refluxes) into your food pipe (esophagus). Because GERD may also be caused by bile reflux, the term "acid reflux disease" is more specific in describing the cause. But it doesn't describe the body part affected by the acid reflux. Most doctors prefer "GERD" because it's a more comprehensive term. Drug companies that market and sell acid-suppressing medications, however, often prefer to use "acid reflux disease." .
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Are you experienced?
A ccording to this story, Jenna Bush has the highest approval rating of any president in 30 years, in spite of Gulf War VI," a resident of a Bay Area nursing home reads aloud from the newspaper to his companions after naptime. The year is 2022, and you're on Chapter 1 of Tim Sandlin's tragicomic satire, "Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty." If you're laughing, you'll love this book, which pokes stiletto-sharp fun at the boomer generation while taking seriously its idealistic hope that change is (still) possible. Everyman protagonist Guy Fontaine is neither hippie nor veteran, perfectly poised to observe the stoners and protesters now living with catheters and in wheelchairs, suffering the slings and arrows of age in Mission Pescadero, a pricey facility commanded by a fortysomething dictator who treats these elderly citizens -- many accomplished, most grandparents, some still smoking dope daily and tripping on weekends -- as unruly, ungrateful children.
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