Word: reflux
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...line for a Zen experience. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston has a Zen rock garden (465 Huntington Ave., Boston; 267-9300), a perfectly serene spot to clear your mind. Better than the backyard of your favorite Beni-hana, this elegant Zen rock garden encourages quiet rumination without acid-reflux. Get there soon because the garden in only opened seasonally...
Most of us call the resulting pain heartburn (though it has nothing to do with the heart). If you get it often, it's called gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD. Along with an estimated 15 million Americans, that's what I've had for nearly 30 years. No big deal, though--or so I thought until I read a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine a couple of weeks ago. Turns out that this repeated acid bath can alter esophageal cells, creating a condition known as Barrett's esophagus. Once that happens, the cells can become precancerous, then...
...Pepcid AC. Most of the time, these and other heartburn remedies are all that are necessary to settle your stomach. But if you suffer from regular bouts of acid indigestion, you may need more than just a drugstore fix; you could have a more serious condition called gastroesophageal reflux disorder, or GERD, which can severely damage the esophagus and even predispose some people to throat cancer...
Heartburn has nothing to do with the heart, of course. It occurs when acidic juices from the stomach gurgle their way past a doughnut-shaped valve and into the esophagus. Unlike the stomach, the esophagus has no protective lining against corrosion. Repeated bouts of reflux eat away at its inner wall, triggering excessive scarring and bleeding. Sometimes the acid reaches the vocal cords, causing hoarseness. Other times it spills over into the lungs, triggering a potentially serious condition that mimics asthma...
...possible that the increased popularity of marijuana is merely cyclical, part of the usual flux and reflux that have also seen harder drugs like cocaine and heroin rise in their allure for a time, and then decline when the consequences became more luridly obvious--only to rise again when a generational forgetfulness sets in and a drug's glamour could assert itself afresh. Indeed, today some experts are worried that an obsessive concern about marijuana may confuse overall perspectives. Says Mark Kleiman, a UCLA professor who specializes in national drug policy: "It's destructive to focus the country...