Have you ever experienced a burning sensation around your chest after your meals. If you have, you may have just experienced heartburn and you are not alone. More than twenty million American adults experience heartburn every day while some sixty million adults suffer from it once a month. Heartburn aka acid reflux or acid indigestion is a condition that happens when the stomach juices flow into the gullet, or also known as the esophagus. When that happens the esophagus lining gets irritated and a burning sensation can felt be especially near the heart. This is the main cause of heartburn for most people. The part of the body that is responsible for heartburn happening is the Lower Esophageal Sphincter LES . This valve is responsible for keeping the stomach juices within our stomachs. The intestines of the stomach are capable of dealing with the stomach acids. However if for any reason the LES relaxes then the food, together with stomach juices, flows into the esophagus and thus causing a burning sensation in our chest. The walls or the skin of the esophagus are very thin, therefore the esophagus can get irritated by the acidity of the stomach juices. Sometimes the pain...

Trampolines may be fun, and they may be good for exercise, but they are also a source of accidents and injury. More than 90,000 people visited emergency rooms because of trampoline injuries in 2001. Most of the accidents affect children; more than 90 percent of such injuries happen to young people under 15. More than 10 percent of all trampoline injuries affect children under the age of five. It s important to make sure that ladders are removed to keep small children from getting access to the bouncy beds of the equipment. One very interesting statistic provides a good clue to trampoline safety. Three out of four trampoline injuries occur when two or more people are on the trampoline. Also, the person who weighs the least is five times more likely to be injured than the heavier person. If possible, have kids take turns bouncing. If two people are on, try to make sure they weigh approximately the same. Adult supervision is not enough to ensure trampoline safety. About half of all accidents occur in supervised situations. It s more important for adults to act as spotters to catch those who get too close to the edge of the equipment. There are many things you can do to decrease...

For most young people, the teenage years are a fun and exciting time, filled with first-time experiences: a new school, a part-time job, getting a driver s license, maybe a first romance. In general, it is a period marked by greater responsibility and freedom. However, teens can also experience feelings of doubt and may lack self-esteem. For these reasons, they are particularly susceptible to peer pressure: an overwhelming desire to fit in and do what everyone else is doing, even if it means participating in such high-risk activities as drinking, smoking and sex. It s all part of a teenager s efforts to try to separate from his or her parents and establish a personal identity. To help teens and their families cope with peer pressure, The Health Alliance on Alcohol HAA , a national education initiative established to address the issues of underage consumption of alcohol that includes members Heineken USA, New York Presbyterian Healthcare System and White Plains Hospital Center, has developed a booklet entitled Facts Conversations: Peer Pressure. Written by adolescent health experts at Columbia University Medical Center and The Morgan Stanley Children s Hospital of...