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The factors causing diabetes are extremely complex and poorly understood. The multiple types of the disease confuse the matter further, since each type has it own risk factors. The majority of cases in the United States are Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Each form is a result on numerous hereditary and environmental influences.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common type.

Obesity is thought to be a major contributor to Type 2 diabetes. Being overweight is a good prototype for a cause since it is itself a combination of genetic background and lifestyle choices. Though the diet opted for and the amount of exercise one chooses to undertake are lifestyle choices, it’s still true that some individuals gain or shed weight more easily than others.

But there are many other factors, as well.

While diabetes that develops during pregnancy (gestational diabetes), ceases after delivery, it is a risk factor for developing Type 2 diabetes later in life. Nearly 40 % of women who have gestational diabetes will develop Type 2 diabetes, usually within ten years of the pregnancy in which the gestational diabetes occurred. Giving birth to a larger baby is another sign of high risk.

Glucose intolerance is another genetically influenced factor. Since Type 2 diabetes results not from underproduction of insulin (as in Type 1) but from inadequate use of it, it shouldn’t be surprising that glucose intolerance is a contributing circumstance. That glucose intolerance should exist is puzzling enough, since it’s a major source of the body’s energy. But genetic anomalies produce some unusual situations.

Another risk factor of Type 2 diabetes is ethnicity. The reasons for this are not understood. Some Asians, as well as Africans, Latin Americans, and Aboriginals are at higher risk. One Canadian study found that these groups have from a risk level of 1.5 to 2 times higher than Caucasians. However, Caucasians are at greater risk for developing Type 1 diabetes than other groups are.

Having high blood pressure raises the odds, too. That again is partly a lifestyle (chiefly, diet and exercise) choice but it has a strong genetic aspect as well. There’s a strong correlation between those with high blood pressure and those who will develop diabetes. Similarly, high cholesterol levels increase the risk. Over 40% of those with diabetes have higher than average levels of cholesterol in the blood.

While all of these factors have a genetic component having a family member with the disease likely represents the highest hereditary risk factor.

Someone with a sibling or a parent with Type 1 diabetes has as a 10-20 times higher risk than the average person of developing the disease. Babies of mothers under the age of 25 have a 1 in 25 chance of developing diabetes if one of their parents has the condition. Babies born to mother older than 25, have about a 1% chance of developing diabetes if one of the parents has it; this is about the same risk as the general population. If the parents were younger than age 11 when they developed the diabetes, their baby’s chance of getting diabetes rises to 10%.

Scientists are actively researching the genetic factors of diabetes. Modern genetic treatments offer hope of lowering the odds; a hope previous generations did not have.

The specific causes of feline acne are not known. Cats with weakened immune systems are more susceptible, but otherwise healthy male and female cats of all ages may be affected.

There are a number of factors that may contribute to the development of the disease, including poor grooming habits, abnormal sebum production, and stress.

Lesions usually initially present at about 1 year of age, and remain cyclic for the life of the cat. Lesions are typically mild, but secondary bacterial skin infections may cause pain or itching.

Depending upon the severity of the symptoms, and whether or not any secondary conditions exist, treatment may or may not be required. Your veterinarian will have to make this determination.

Feline acne signs and symptoms — The clinical signs of acne in cats may include lesions on the lower lip and chin. Your cat may have dark brown comedones or crusted reddish papules. In addition, there may be swelling of the chin and around the lips.

Secondary bacterial infections may be present, and you may see swelling or drainage of the lesions. In these cases, both topical and oral antibiotics may be prescribed.

Sometimes, bacterial skin infections may appear to be acne, but are not. Sometimes ringworm or yeast infections may be mistaken for acne as well.

Feline acne treatment — Treatment is often not necessary, except in more serious cases. In fact, it’s believed that overtreatment may increase the severity of the skin lesions.

Treatment may vary based on the severity of the case. Your veterinarian may recommend topical therapy of some kind to help remove the blackheads.

Your vet may remove excess skin from the lesion area. This facilitates cleaning of the area, as well as the application of topical medications. You should never do this yourself as you can hurt your cat or cause an infection.

Antiseptics may be used, such as Listerine or alcohol, as well as antiseborrheic shampoos. Some of these contain a common component of human acne treatment formulas, salicylic acid.

It may be effective to use topical benzoyl peroxide solutions in gel or shampoo form. Benzoyl peroxide preparations made for small animals are half the strength of those made for humans.

Never use preparations designed for humans on your cat unless instructed to do so by your veterinarian. Even the animal formula benzoyl peroxide treatments may be irritating to your cat’s skin when used repeatedly.

In cases where patients are immune compromised, such as feline AIDS patients, treatment may include steroid therapy. Additional supplements may be used as well, including off-label drugs.

Now I know that all of you smokers out there know darned well that smoking isn’t good for you, so I’m not going to go on and on about the main problems that smoking can cause you, these things are already well documented, but I will say this; you can eat five portions of fruit and veg a day and exercise regularly, but healthy behaviour means little if you continue to smoke.

The message that ’smoking is bad for you’ is an old one, so not everyone gives it much attention anymore. Here, however, is a list of some of the facts and figures that are not so well known about the health risks of smoking:

There are nearly 4000 chemical compounds in every single cigarette that you smoke, and of these, around 400 are toxic to your body. The tip of a cigarette burns at 700 degrees centigrade, whilst the core burns at 60. This combined heating and burning process turns the tobacco into various toxins (poisons, effectively) which is then sucked toward the butt as you inhale. If you smoke a cigarette right up until the filter, this is where you get a much higher level of toxins into your body.

The products that are most damaging are:

1) Tar, a carcinogen that causes cancer

2) nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body

3) carbon monoxide lowers the oxygen in your body

The damage caused by smoking is influenced by:

1) The amount of cigarettes that you smoke

2) Whether the cigarette has a filter

3) In what way has the tobacco has been prepared

It has been shown that life expectancy can be improved by as much as seven or eight years if you do not smoke, but not only that, recent research has shown that if you continue smoking from a young age, people are dying of smoking related illnesses at much younger ages.

It’s almost unbelievable to say, but there are more people under the age of 70 who die from illnesses related to smoking, than of breast cancer, traffic accidents, drug addiction and AIDS combined.

I know you’re all going to shout, ah c’mon at this one, but the ugly truth is this…if you started smoking at an early age, smoke more than 20 a day and inhale deeply, the greater your chances of getting lung cancer. It then takes roughly 15 years for your risk of getting lung cancer to drop to that of a non smoker.

Other cancers that are not so publicised are cancers of the mouth. If you smoke the risk is four times that of a non smoker to get cancer on or under the tongue, or on the lips. Another illness that smokers do not tend to be as aware of as lung cancer is COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), for which smoking is responsible for 80 percent of cases.

A further illness affecting the lungs is emphysema, which 94 percent of a pack a day smokers have when their lungs are examined post mortem (when they’re dead!). Compare that to a non smokers lungs of which 90 percent have little o none. Not too impressive huh!

When anyone ages, it is a natural process for their lung function to slowly reduce. However, for a smoker this can be as much as three times faster. Over years, you can expect to become more and more breathless, until needing constant oxygen, hospital care and then death due to slow suffocation…NOT GOOD.

Here’s one that I bet you guys didn’t know about (at least, not until it was too late!). For men in their 30s and 40s, smoking increases the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED) by about 50 per cent. Erection can’t occur unless blood can flow freely into the penis, so these blood vessels have to be in good condition. Smoking can damage the blood vessels and cause them to degenerate; nicotine narrows the arteries that lead to the penis, reducing blood flow and the pressure of blood in the penis.

This narrowing effect increases over time, so if you haven’t got problems now, things could change later (and I’m not apologising for scaring you on that one)…in actual fact, erection problems in smokers may be an early warning signal that cigarettes are already damaging other areas of the body - such as the blood vessels that supply the heart.

If all this isn’t enough for you, then I’m going to get down and dirty…it’s guilt trip time. Did you know that the smoke that you do not inhale, the stuff that is released by your cigarette between puffs, carries an even higher risk than the smoke that you inhale. Think about what that means for your partner, kids, non smoking friends, etc,…

When a child is brought up in a home where one or both parents smoke, the instances of asthma and bronchitis are twice that of non smoking households. The prevalance of allergies is also much higher. There is a much greater risk of cot death and chest infections amongst the very young.

It has been proven that the risk of lung cancer is increased amongst people who smoke ‘passively’ but as yet there is no proof of whether the risk of heart disease is also increased. You can be sure though, that you can look forward to a much healthier old age if you can stop smoking.

So after all this, what is my message? Well I hope to have given you one or two things that you had never thought of before to think about. There are folks out there who love you, and there are 100’s of stop smoking programmes to help you too. Go on, give it a go…and stop smoking now!

If you’re thinking of giving up smoking, suddenly you discover that there are probably as many tips to quit smoking as there are ex-smokers. It’s very definitely a case of information overload. These tips on stopping smoking get discolored and misinterpreted through Chinese whispers.

The fact is that with so much information passed around that is confusing to people it is often much easier to just continue smoking and hoping for a simple solution. Actually taking the necessary steps to really quit smoking is not easy. It means coming to terms with the fact that stopping smoking really is best for you, as well as your health.

I’m sure most, if not all smokers are well aware that giving up smoking will lead to a dramatic improvement in their health, but figuring out how to quit smoking and beat the addiction is never that easy. There are distractions and temptations every where we go, so it’s hardly surprising the failure rate of quitting smoking is so high.

Tip #1 You must have a very good reason to quit smoking. The health benefits of quitting smoking are obvious, but you need your own personal desire for giving up, otherwise you’ll be relying on will power alone.

Tip #2 As you make progress, give yourself small rewards for your achievements. Quitting cold turkey is hard, so these rewards will help spur you on, and are great ways to boost your motivation.

Tip #3 Plan out your quitting strategy. Decide how you want to try to quit and stick to it. Set a specific amount of time for your plan. If after a time, say six weeks you have not quit, work on a new plan. This will allow ample time to try each method, while still giving yourself flexibility to try something else.

Tip #4 Spend some time to deal with any issues that you may be facing. If your smoking helps to alleviate your stress levels, look at alternative ways you can combat that stress so that you don’t need to rely on cigarettes anymore for it.

Tip #5 Punish yourself on days where you have not met your goals to quit smoking. If you normally buy a coffee on your way into work, consider skipping the coffee if you didn’t meet your goals the previous day. Just make sure that the punishment you choose does actually mean something to you.

Tip #6 Don’t be afraid to ask your friends and family to help you. Most people need some extra support when they are giving up smoking. Asking for help or support is not a bad thing.

Tip #7 Look for someone to quit with you. If you are entirely on your own, you are going to be much more likely to slip back into smoking. If someone is working with you and holding you accountable, you are more likely to struggle to succeed. Working to quit smoking is not easy, but hard tasks are much easier to accomplish with a partner.

Tip #8 Don’t let yourself get tired. If you’re not getting enough sleep, it’s going to make your task of quitting smoking even harder. You no doubt already know what it’s like to be tired. Don’t make giving up smoking any harder than it already is.

Tip #9 Aim to quit for good. This might seem a bit strange, but if you are just planning to quit for a weekend you are not going to put much effort into the process. If you are planning to quit for good, a lot more time and effort is going to go into the process as well as your plan to quit.

Tip #10 Make of list of things you can do to take your mind of cigarettes. You know that when you have thought about cigarettes in the past, you thought about lighting up. You now need to get rid of those thoughts as quickly as possible by focussing your mind on other things.

Addiction to medically prescribed medication has assumed widespread proportions in the USA. People obtain prescriptions for medicines to handle some kind of discomfort and get so used to taking them that before they know what is happening they become utterly reliant on them even when there is no pain or discomfort.

To enable a ailing person to come out of the influences of a incapacitating disease or collision, a medic will prescribe some drugs to make him feel better. Since it has been prescribed by a physician, the patients imagine that using them is safe. When they begin to take them to get through their ordinary days and to cope with the vagaries of life, they have become addicted to them.

Such addiction to medically prescribed drugs, projected to have affected over 20 million Americans, has spared no one. The rich, the poor, the renowned and the commonplace, celebrities and tycoons have all been affected.

If you think that you may be grappling with such an addiction, it is time for you to have a vital dialogue with your medical practitioner. Preferably the one who prescribed them to begin with. If you cannot do without them and need cumulative quantities of them, you need to cut off the source and commence the healing process.

It is very arduous to see some one dear to you walk down this path due to addiction to prescription medication. It is fairly possible that the original devotion for the medically prescribed was some painful event. It may be that you may even deny their addiction just as they are likely to. This may be a major error in judgment.

Be it for yourself or somebody that you care for, it will be a good idea to keep track of the usage of drugs like Vicodin or Oxycontin prescribed to combat pain. Monitoring the dosage and occurrence of intake can give a good indication to usage in excess to necessity.

The main reason why people get hooked to medically prescribed medicine is the fear of pain - the fear that the pain for which the medication was originally prescribed will reappear, if the prescription was not present in the body. The fact of the difficulty is, yes, the pain is likely to return for a diminutive while. Not for the initial reason for which it was prescribed, but as a reaction from the body which has got used to its presence. The pain will eventually go.

Addiction to prescription medication is a profound complication. It can clasp hold of you before you know what is happening and refuse to let go. It is necessary, whether it is for you or for someone that you care for, that you take instantaneous help and return to your usual life at the earliest. To do this, you have to first admit that there is a problem. Do not delay this, do it now. Get help.

INTRODUCTION: Eczema is a kind of dermatitis, or inflammation of the upper layers of the skin and usually cycles, meaning that at some times of the year sufferers are able to feel normal, while at other times they will distance themselves from social inter-action. Diagnosis is usually based on the appearance of inflamed, itchy skin in sensitive areas such as face, chest and other skin crease areas.

It is sometimes called the “the itch that rashes,” since the itch, when scratched, causes the appearance of a rash. It can occur on practically any part of the body; however, in infants, it usually occurs on the forehead, cheeks, forearms, legs, scalp, and neck. Outbreaks can often be avoided by taking simple precautions.

DERMATITIS: One of the most common forms of eczema is atopic dermatitis (or “atopic eczema”). There are several different types, but the one people usually mean when they say eczema is atopic dermatitis. In general,it will come and go, often based on external factors.

Eczema is a chronic skin disease characterized by itching rashes, which may be red, scaly, dry, or leathery. Causes for it is yet unknown, but it does appear to run in families that have a history of asthma, allergies or atopic dermatitis.

Some herbs, like chamomile, are known to be a cause of allergic contact dermatitis. It is a chronic disease, but only about 1/3 of children with it will continue to have problems as they grow older. In atopic dermatitis it is normal for there to be episodes of calm mixed with flares ups of the disease. It’s the most common type of eczema.

TREATMENT: Using moisturizers is one of the most important self-care treatments for sufferers of the disease. Another course of treatment is bathing using colloidal oatmeal baths. Other than direct treatments of the symptoms, no cure is presently known for most types of eczema; even cortisone and immuno-modulation may often have only minimum effects on what may be a complex problem.

These applications are usually most effective when applied directly after taking a bath (within 3 minutes is a common recommendation) so that the dampness from the bath is “locked in”. Tar treatments and photo-therapy are also used and can have positive effects; however, tar can also be messy.

While there are a lot of therapies, it isn’t always easy to find the one that works for you. Patients with eczema can be treated, but traditional therapies often don’t help a pain which is more than skin deep. The primary treatments are aimed at controlling and preventing inflammation and itching including avoiding triggers, frequent bathing and hydration of the skin, liberal use of moisturizers and lubricants, and the use of steroid creams for flare ups.

With many kinds of treatments on the market, it’s critical to be well informed when making decisions with your physician. The natural human desire to scratch or rub an itchy rash simply makes the condition worse, and treatments can be slow and are not always totally effective.

CONCLUSION: Eczema is a general term embracing various inflamed skin conditions and occurs in both children and grownups, but commonly appears during infancy. It is an allergic condition that affects the skin. Also known as dermatitis it can be worsen by dryness of the skin. It’s not catchable but like many diseases, currently there is no cure.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that 15 million people in the United States have some form of this disease. About 10 percent to 20 percent of all infants have it; however, in nearly half of these children, the disease will improve greatly by the time they are between five and 15 years of age.

Since dermatitis is usually dry and itchy, the most common treatment is the use of lotions or creams to keep the skin as moist as possible. One of the most important parts of a treatment routine is to prevent scratching.

Finally, in cases where eczema does not respond to therapy, your doctor may prescribe the drug cyclosporine A, which modifies immune response; however, this is used only in extreme situations because of its association with serious side effects.

INTRODUCTION: High blood pressure or hypertension means high pressure (tension) in the arteries. It does not mean excessive emotional tension, although emotional tension and stress can temporarily increase blood pressure.

Hypertension usually has no symptoms, but it can cause serious problems such as stroke, heart failure, heart attack and kidney failure.

It makes the heart work much harder and can impair the arteries, causing them to narrow faster. It can also damage many parts of the body and is a major health problem in the USA affecting one out of every three Americans or 65,000,000 people, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).

HYPERTENSION: Frequently referred to as “high blood pressure”, HTN or HPN, is a medical condition that is caused by the blood pressure being chronically elevated and is considered to be present when a person’s systolic blood pressure is continously 140 mmHg or greater, and/or their diastolic blood pressure is consistently 90 mmHg or higher.

It is classified as either essential (primary) or secondary and is among the most common complex disorders, with genetic implication averaging 30%. High blood pressure can be a temporary or lifelong disease, depending on what causes it and is dangerous because it causes the heart to work harder than normal.

Pre-hypertension is blood pressure between 120 and 139 for the high number, or between 80 and 89 for the low number. For example, blood pressure readings of 138/82, 128/89, or 130/86 are all in the pre-hypertension area. If your blood pressure is in the pre-hypertension area, it is more likely that you will develop high blood pressure unless you take preventative action. If you have this kind of hypertension, it may not be necessary to take medication.

HEART: Some people may not find out they have HBP until they have trouble with their heart, brain, or kidneys. When it is not found and treated, it can cause the heart to get larger, which may lead to heart failure. With HBP, the heart works harder, your arteries take a beating, and your chances of a stroke, heart attack, and kidney problems are greater.

If you don’t have hypertension by age 55, you have a 90 % chance of developing it at some point during your life, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. If left untreated, it will cause the heart to eventually overwork itself to the point at which serious damage can happen. About 1/2 of people having first-time heart attacks and two-thirds of people having first-time strokes suffer from hypertension.

Are you aware that laughing heartily 100 times per day gives the same cardio results as exercising for 20 minutes?

TREATMENT: Treatment is focused on reducing water retention and lowering blood pressure to normal limits. When you first start treatment, your doctor may want you to come to the office regularly. Your doctor will review the information with you and decide if your treatment program is working or if you need to make changes to it.

Among the 61 percent who are under taking treatment, only 35 percent have their hypertension under adequate controlled. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your physician.

CONCLUSION: Hypertension is called the silent killer because it usually has no symptoms and is a risk factor for heart and kidney disease and stroke. HBP is not evenly distributed throughout the population and occurs disproportionately more often in minority communities.

High blood pressure rates are also growing among American children, paralleling an epidemic of obesity. Hypertension in grownups will usually be measured on at least two different trips to the doctor before a diagnosis is made. It can be treated by both modifying lifestyles, usually as the first step, and, if necessary, with medications. Diuretics work in the kidney and flush out excess water and sodium from the body.

Nearly 1 in 3 American adults has high blood pressure. Once It develops, it usually lasts a lifetime. Fortunately, it can be easily detected, and once you know you have it, you can work with your doctor to control it.

Gouty arthritis is inflammation of the joints. This is induced through the excessive quantities of uric acid in the body that the kidney can’t address. When this happens the surplus runs into the bloodstream.

Uric acid in the bloodstream settles in the joints, usually in the lower half of the body. Gout is very painful and relief is necessary in order to be able to function and complete daily activities.

Uric acid is produced when the body acts upon on purine, which is detected in many foods. Nutrients rich in purine are meats, particularly red meat, food from the sea, fish, and fats. Many of these nutrients are what we would regard as as normal food stuff, all the same these ingredients don’t manage the gouty arthritis, these foods may make for an attack of chronic gout.

There’s of course medicaments that deal with the pain. That doesn’t repair the disorder it simply covers the consequence of the problem - and in many a case not so well.

Many people are seeking out natural treatments to address the problem. Many are considering good nutrition as a wise treatment for their gout condition. Because some of the foods that cause gout are viewed as natural we have to understand what is good and what is not good, as the foods relate to gout.

The nutrients which are low in purine are found in certain fruits and veggies. These are crucial when it comes to treating gout. Adding additional fruits and vegetables is needed.

Appending much water to your dieting is likewise necessary. If there’s one and only one single thing which helps, that must be water. Fresh natural spring water is all-important. The intake of 10 to 12 drinking glasses of water per twenty-four hours is recommended. This aids in flushing out the kidneys and helps in detoxifying your body.

Vitamins are needed if you do not feel you are getting a good balance in your diet. The vitamins that are recommended for gout are vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and Selenium. These are nutrients that assist the body in processing the toxins through the body.

If there is any one food that is highly recommended, it is the Wild or Black Cherries. These are high in vitamin C, the kind that is easily absorbed. To achieve a significant level of relief from these cherries, the intake needs to be about 45-50 per day.

There is also evidence that raising the body pH level is a good natural treatment for gout. The higher the pH (meaning the body is alkaline), the more the body is able to reduce uric acid. The uric acid is more soluble the more alkaline the body. This is significant. If the uric acid is soluble then the body can expel it. Otherwise it does not leave the body.

Remember raising the pH level makes the body more alkaline and lowering the level makes it more acidic. We need to maintain a high pH for optimum health.

You might like to know how to achieve this high pH level and thus make your body healthy in this respect. It’s simpler than you probably think. Drink water - that is one way to achieve it. You should be aware that in the marketplace you’ll find water treated to achieve this in a better way. That is to say, you can drink alkaline (ionized) H2O, meaning water that has extra of oxygen in it.

This ionized water is tastier than regular water and when used in cooking it makes the food flavors more enhanced.

You will have understood that there are certain basic principles for natural nutritional gout treatment. Not only are they easy to implement, also they will have lasting results when thinking of a life free of gout induced pain.

Disclaimer: Always check with your health care provider about any health problem and before you start on any kind of a modified diet or exercise routine.Be aware that this article is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any kind of a health problem.

Most people thinking about their future always would like to think about availing of some attractive financial products that will effectively be able to provide additional income for them as well as their families especially at the time of their retirement. This will take some time to consider most especially in trying to choose which will provide the best option depending on one’s situation or circumstances. Among the products available out there are a host of annuities.

For your information, an annuity is simply an agreement for an organization (an insurance company) to pay another an income stream in the form of regular payments in exchange for investment given in the form of premiums. There are various types of annuities that people can choose from. One of those choices is fixed annuity.

In a fixed annuity, an individual receives a fixed and guaranteed regular income for the term of the agreed contract. This term usually covers the duration of the individual’s life. Fixed annuities also provide a guaranteed interest rate for the investment sum of the policy. The advantage of a fixed annuity contract is that it has a cash surrender value which can be availed in partial amounts or in its entirety before or during the annuity period.

In a fixed tax-deferred annuity, the individual is allowed to invest in a annuity with an accumulation period wherein taxes on earnings are deferred or delayed until a certain term. The advantage of this is that it allows your investment to grow faster because it earns an interest on the money that you would have otherwise pay to taxes every year. The individual benefits from compounding of the tax-deferred earnings, that is, until he makes a withdrawal or begins receiving his annuity income.

Fixed tax-deferred annuities are safe as investment income especially for people planning for their retirement. Every qualified life insurance company issuing such tax-deferred income investment instruments are required to meet its contractual obligations. This is made possible by companies establishing reserves that should be equal to the withdrawal value of every annuity policy at all times. Aside from the reserves, the insurance companies are legally obligated by state law that certain levels of capital and surplus be met in order to further increase the protection of the policy holders.

As an added benefit to fixed tax-deferred annuities, they are not subject to withholding taxes while they are compounding. This makes such policies the best option for those people planning to save money for a long period of time. The longer the investment stays without any withdrawals or income payouts made, the longer the growth and the higher the earnings that it will make for the policy holder due to the tax deferment.

What makes tax-deferred annuities attractive is that they do not mature like other instruments such as bonds and certificates of deposit. The principal as well as the interest of your annuity policy will continue to earn interest until you finally withdraw an amount from it or if one reaches the age of a hundred years. You can let your money grow even more if you let it. But what makes tax-deferred annuities even better is that you will always have that option available to make necessary withdrawals or begin receiving your annuity income at any time.

Unfortunately, acid reflux disease can eventually become a much more serious, potentially life threatening problem if it is allowed to continue untreated.

The long term effects of acid reflux disease can potentially be quite serious. The esophagus can become scarred because highly acidic stomach fluids flush into it and burn its walls. As food continues to be digested it causes further damage to the esophageal walls and contractions by the muscles of the esophagus begin to weaken and slow down.

Infants and children who have Acid reflux may not vomit, but may still have stomach contents that move up the food pipe and spill over into the windpipe and affect the lungs. Asthma, pneumonia, and even SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) can happen. Infants and children with reflux who vomit frequently may display unsatisfactory growth.

Erosive Esophagitis is an inflammation of the esophagus that occurs when the cells that line the esophagus are damaged by highly acidic stomach fluids.

Ulcers and the additional associated inflammation gives rise to bleeding into the esophagus. Sometimes, the bleeding can be severe and may cause severe anemia and require transfusions of blood and endoscopic or surgical treatments.

All this scar tissue and ulceration of the wall of the food pipe, effectively narrows it, causing a natural barrier to easy passage of food. This makes swallowing difficult. Airways narrowing can cause shortness of breath and wheezing.

Finally, a long standing scarred and ulcerated Esophagus, constantly awash with gastric acid reflux, often causes a change for the worse, in the nature of the cells lining the Esophageal wall. These cells then become pre-cancerous, and finally cancerous. This condition is referred to as Barrett’s esophagus, which occurs in approximately 10% of patients with Acid Reflux. Today, we find an increase in the frequency of those diagnosed with Barrett’s Esophagus.

Nerves located in the lower portion of the esophagus can also be affected by acid reflux causing an unpleasant feeling commonly referred to as heartburn. This can also be responsible for cough, a breathless feeling, and airway constriction since pain in the esophageal nerves can be transferred to other nerves.