Acid reflux is a painful disease that affects all sorts of people. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what your sex or gender is, you are susceptible to acid reflux disease. Acid reflux is a long lasting disease that is often chronic. Most people who contract acid reflux disease will have it their entire lives.
GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) is another name for acid reflux disease. With acid reflux, the liquid in the stomach, which includes acid, pepsin, and sometimes bile, backs up into the esophagus. The acid is the most damaging of the refluxed liquids and can cause painful inflammation and damage the esophagus.
The most common symptom of acid reflux disease is heartburn. The feeling of heartburn is a burning sensation in the chest. Some patients also report feeling the burn in the area of the neck or throat. Heartburn is often the cause of unnecessary visits to the hospital because it can feel like a heart attack. If you are not sure if your chest pain is from acid reflux or from the heart, you must seek immediate medical attention. Some people assume that their pain is just heartburn and refuse to go to the emergency room, and some of those people were wrong. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
Some other symptoms of acid reflux, though not so common, are nausea, regurgitation, or vomiting. Nausea happens the most often of the three and can be chronic. When the acid pushes all the way up the esophagus and into the mouth, this is regurgitation. Vomiting is seen most often in the littlest bodies, babies and toddlers, because typically when a baby regurgitates he gags on it and subsequently vomits.
A complication of acid reflux disease is esophageal ulcers. This happens when the regurgitated acids break down the esophageal lining resulting in a tear. Bleeding can be a result of esophageal ulcers, which can prove dangerous if the bleeding is serious.
In order to diagnose acid reflux doctors use hypothesis and trial and error with treatment. If treatment in ineffective the doctor will then use x-ray, endoscopy, biopsy, or esophageal acid testing before ruling out acid reflux disease as a cause for the symptoms.
Treatment for acid reflux disease includes lifestyle changes and changes in diet. Other things that could exacerbate symptoms of acid reflux are smoking, alcohol, caffeine, and foods like peppermint or chocolate. Giving up these things and reducing other food items that you think might be triggering symptoms may be the only treatment needed. Antacids or a prescription can be used to alleviate symptoms of heartburn and pain from ulcer. Anti-nausea medications can help with the nausea and vomiting in adults. A pediatrician should be consulted before giving anything to a baby for acid reflux disease.
If none of the initial attempts at treating acid reflux symptoms, a tablet can be used that is a combination of an antacid and foam that form a barrier over the acid in the stomach, preventing it from coming up. Surgery would be a last resort, but is ultimately an available option. Only you and your physician can decide what the best treatment for your acid reflux is.
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Posts Tagged ‘Hypothesis’
Scientists have developed a number of myths about themselves. They are, in one sense, the new priesthood, expected to bring us new technologies to make our lives simpler, easier and safer. They work away in these laboratories with complicated pieces of equipment lying around. They wear these spotlessly white coats that would show even the slightest stain, were they to be splashed with chemicals from one of their bubbling retorts. They are the new elite who deliver the goods to the front office where ageing managers sign off on advertizing campaigns to sell the latest gadgets and earn their commissions and bonuses. So we grow used to seeing the latest scientific journals full of the reports from these superbeings. They are couched in strange and incomprehensible jargon, accessible only by fellow scientists and other godlike beings. So it comes as something of a shock to see something written in a blunt, no-nonsense style. How can we take this as a serious piece of research when it is so easy to understand what it means?
Well, in this instance, there have been several years of work involved. The scientists started out with a complex hypothesis. They devised different methods for testing the various possible theories. Work began. Data were collected and numbers crunched. Slowly, a pattern emerged in the results. It was a revelation. Used by countless generations, the traditional idiom was proved by the scientific method. “Use it or lose it” was the right answer! Back to the beginning. One of the more obvious facts of life is that, as men age, they become more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction. A number of different explanations have been offered for this starting with the simple truth that they grow tired and have less energy, to more complicated explanations about the build-up of plaque on the lining of arterial walls. Now we have this new piece of research. One of the features of ageing is that the opportunity for sexual activity can decline. Couples grow old and get out of the habit. One partner can die leaving the other alone and reluctant to re-enter the dating game. Whatever the reason, some men can go some years without sexual intercourse. It seems that the muscles lose their tone when not used, that the soft spongy tissue inside the penis breaks down and is no longer able to hold as much blood to form the erection. Combined with the tendency of the arterial walls to harden with age and so lose their ability to dilate, and you have a classic recipe for erectile dysfunction. That’s before we get to all the psychological problems of performance anxiety likely to affect some men as they approach the possibility of restarting sexual activity.
The evidence from this new research is clear. Men who continue to have regular sex are significantly less likely to suffer erectile dysfunction. Their self-confidence is strong and their bodies still in training. For men who are ageing and with some history of inactivity, the best way forward is by using cialis. Taken as needed about thirty minutes before expected sexual activity, this can boost performance and restore confidence. If there is some embarrassment about the prospect of asking a doctor for a prescription, you can now buy cialis online without the need for a prescription. Your privacy is respected, your reputation safe.
If you ask any cat or dog owner, they will tell the animals are one of the family. Talk to them for a while and they will strike you as happy and well-adjusted. This might not seem significant but continuing medical research has detected a significant trend. This is not just your neighbor. It’s the majority of people who keep a pet. The most recent piece of research was presented to the International Society of Anthrozoology conference held in Kansas City this October by a team from Loyola University of Chicago.
They were testing the hypothesis that the use of dogs in a hospital environment would represent a beneficial therapy, promoting faster healing and a better rehabilitation following joint replacement surgery. Some of you will be convinced that dogs are the equivalent of disease carriers and believe they should never be allowed into a hopefully relatively sterile hospital. After all, dogs are barred from most eating places. Allowing animals into public spaces is a balancing of risks and benefits. Hospitals are not as clean as we might believe and dogs do not make what is often a bad situation any worse. In fact, their presence is proving to be great therapy and the benefits of admission now significantly outweigh keeping them out.
The team was using a number of dogs specially trained to respond positively to patients. Each animal has been taught some 40 different commands and will respond with behavior likely to soothe a patient or to motive his or her to resume movement. The exploits a fairly common reaction in humans to stroke dogs. Many of them found the feeling of fingers running on and through fur to be relaxing. When the dogs also appear to show appreciation, bonding takes place quickly and patients feel happier. Pets are stress busters. Even more significantly, this research confirms that patients going through rehabilitation with dogs healed more quickly and used 50% less painkillers than a control group who relied on human therapists for counseling and support. Regular monitoring found the pets lowered the heart rate and blood pressure of their human companions.
It’s easy to sneer at research like this, feeling people who get sappy over dogs are strange in all kinds of ways. Yet this research is not unique. There have been many studies with similar findings. The real point of interest in the latest trial is the finding that patients who are not pet owners benefit after only one period of interaction with a dog. The more regular the contact, the better the human’s physical and emotional response. This research does not, of course, suggest people should recover from serious surgery without the use of some painkillers. Tramadol will remain the standard drug for pain management. But the finding that people recover more quickly using less medication is encouraging. No matter how good tramadol, it’s better to use it only over the short term. Having a pet is clearly a good move.
Article by Paramantapa Dasgupta
“Profit Maximization”…… Is the only way out?
By Paramantapa Dasgupta
As per wikipedia, Profit Maximisation can be defined as “…. the process by which a firm determines the price and output level that returns the greatest profit. There are several approaches to this problem. The total revenue — total cost method relies on the fact that profit equals revenue minus cost, and the marginal revenue — marginal cost method is based on the fact that total profit in a perfectly competitive market reaches its maximum point where marginal revenue equals marginal cost.” Untill recently, it was generally assumed that the rational beheaviour of a firm or an entreprenuer was to maximize profits. And definitely that profit was money profit.However, the profit maximisation hypothesis has been challenged recently and other than profit maximisation, various alternative optimization procedures have been proposed. Following are a couple of those variants:1. Sales Maximisation Hypothesis2. Constrained Revenue Maximisation Hypothesis3. Secure Profit Maximisation Hypothsis4. Growth Maximisation Hypothesis5. Staff Maximisation Hypothesis6. Profit Maximisation ( Through Mark-Up Price Approach)7. Utility Maximisation Hypothesis of a Firm.
Before going further deep into those tough words, lets take some fresh oxygen and get an overall idea of the challenges against the age old Profit Maximisation Hypothesis. In the analysis of the equilibrium of a firm, the major assumption is that the entreprenuer aims at maximisation of his profits. So it’s nothing but a rational beheaviour and its just like the rationality of a consumer is to maximisation of his utility or satisfaction. At this point, you may ask, ” If Profit Maximisation is a rational beheaviour of the entreprenuer, then why should one find out the other alternative ways to maximise Sales, Growth, Utility…and all other craps???” Yes, you are right. But partially. Why ? Lets take a closer look around.
It should be carefully seen, what does the entreprenuer suppose to maximise under Profit Maximisation principle. An entreprenuer’s income consists of two elements. A. He gets wages for his job of routine management and overall supervision which he is supposed to pay himself.B. He gets what is left after meeting all the explicit and implicit costs( even including his own wages).The great economist, Marshall described the business owner’s wages of management and supervision as normal profit and the residual income as super normal profit. This means normal profits are the minimum income which the business owner must get in order to stay in a business. So, from another angle, normal profits are nothing but a kind of cost to the firm or may be a special kind of wages, which entrepreneur pays himself. Now, if we want to maximise the profit of the firm, its not the normal profit ( as its nothing but a cost) but the super normal profit.
Ok, now it has become a bit complicated. What does the owner maximise ? Normal profit? No.. its Super normal profit. Agreed.Now let us move forward. Here the question is, how far is it true that the owner of the firm always runs after maximising super normal profit ? If you think deeply, you will find out maximising super normal profit is nothing but a short-term activity, in long run, entreprenuers rather want to maximise a ” steady flow of profits” or a “secure profit”. It’s true that the Profit Maximisation idea is valid for explaining the beheaviour of the firm which is working under perfect competition. In that case if firms get normal profit, they feel they are happy. But in case of oligopolistic market nature, where the number of firms are not so huge, in that case the owners of the firm have to think about how to maximise secure profit, not super normal profit. The same thing may also happen in monopolistic competition as well. According to Prof.Rothschild, in oligopolistic nature of business, profit maximising assmuption is no longer sufficient. He asserts ” Here is both the desire for achieving a secure position as well as the power to act on his desire”.
So, we started with Profit Maximisation…then Supernormal Profit Maximisation..and after that Secure Profit Maximisation…not a bad idea. But, whats next?
As satisfaction or utility is the ultimate end which an individual aspires to get, therefore emenent economists like Prof. Benjamin Higgins, Prof. Reder, Prof. Tibor Scitovsky have rightly argued that in case of small unincorporated business firms, the entreprenuer who actually acts as the owner-manager of the firm, he may pursue the objective of maximising utility other than maximisation of profit. For him, leisure may appear as an alternative to making money profit. It’s very much true that profit maximisation does not guarantee utility or satisfaction maximisation. The more activity or work put in by the entreprenuer will mean the less leisure he will be able to enjoy. The preference for leisure must be incorporated into the analysis of an entrepreneur who is supposed to maximise his utility and this again shows the Profit maximisation may not be the sinle goal of a firm.
Great!!! So time onwards we will have to consider Utility Maximisation also..!!!
Now, let us shift our focus from entreprenuer driven business model to manager driven business model incorporated by the global business giants. Here the total business set up is broken into small geographic or functioanl division and the entreprenuer keeps managers for each and every division. In reality, the corporate managers try to maximise the rate of growth of output or toatal sales revenue rather than maximising profit. Because they don’t know anything about the global movement of the company. Most of the cases their salaries are related to the sales revenue and for this they put their best efforts to maximise the sales revenue. Though, now a days, mostly the maximisation of sales revenue is pursued by the managers, subject to the constraint of minimum profits which they must obtain for the owners ( share holders). I don’t want to make this proposition more complicated by taking the example of Employee Stock Option plans where the managers may think themselves as the share holders and they go for both Sales Revenue Maximisation ( for their performance related salaries) and Super Normal Profit Maximisation ( to earn more money from the sompany shares). Do you want to take another look into this ? There is a notion that the corporate managers aim at achieveing satisfactory rate of profits rather than maximising profits. According to this hypothesis, one can say that the corporate managers set a minimum standard of performance and that can be described as the minimum aspiration level. And in the day by day operation, a manager always wants to optimise this minimum aspiration level, not to maximise profit.Enough of taking and making hypothesis. Lets take an example of one empirical study. This was done by the famous Oxford economists, Prof. Hall and Prof. Hitch. They interviwed around forty entreprenuers on pricing policy. From their empirical study, they have come down to a conclusion that the businessmen do not try to maximise profit by equating marginal cost with marginal revenue, which they seldom know. According to Prof. Hall and Hitch, businessmen charge prices to cover their avarage cost of production and so they add profit mark-up to fix the prices of their products. And most of the time the busienssmen aim to maximise the mark up, and not the profit, directly.
In the present days, inside the corporate giants, there is a seperation in the outlook of managing business between ownership managers (i.e. share holders) and business managers. Specifically for the business managers there is a trade-off between sales maximisation and maximisation of personal utility or leisure. And to cover up the trade off,recruting more sub-ordiante staff is the one of the best practices. Which leads to another activity i.e. staff maximisation. If one business manager recruits more sub ordinates so he can distribute his work load amongst them so to some extent he may optimise his personal utility or leisure. On the other hand recruting new a staff will increase the sales oriented revenue stream so it will maximise sales but may not maximise profit.
So, in this way we can come to a conclusion that, in today’s era, profit maximisation may not be the best business optimisation process. There are many other proven optimising factors like sales, mark up price, staff, utility, growth, secure profits etc.