Carbonfiberboy 

A naturopath friend of mine recommended that I try chewing a tab of deglycyrrhizinated licorice root extract (DGL - don't even try to pronounce it) ~20 minutes before every meal. It supposedly coats the stomach lining. As I said above, my symptoms of GERD had disappeared after taking generic Nexium (omeprazole) for 2 weeks, except that I still got that funny chest pain when starting a ride. Well, whatever the DGL does, that pain is now completely gone. It's like a miracle. I've been having GERD/chest pain symptoms for years. My first doc prescribed ranitidine, which helped but did't really fix it. Fixed now! I'll keep on with the DGL though.

On the alcohol consumption thing . . . My wife and I run a boatbuilding business. A fellow used to drop by from time to time to buy lumber and epoxy from us. He was building small boats in his garage and selling them really cheaply. I wondered about that. Then I didn't see him for a few years. One day his brother, whom I'd never met, dropped by. He told me a story. He and his brother had founded a business years ago and had finally sold it for $2 million. His brother and his brother's wife took up drinking and the brother did a little boatbuilding just for something to do. They drank more and more. They'd go to the liquor store to buy half gallons so drunk that the cashier "had to" sign their checks for them! Good customers. So one day the brother feels really bad and is admitted to the hospital. After a few days he's feeling better and has a conference with his doctor. He goes, "I know, you'll tell me to never drink again." The doc goes, "No, you'll never drink again because we don't allow that in the hospital. You'll die of general organ failure in a few days." And he did.

A sobering story one might say.

Cuyuna

Good news that your GERD symptoms have disappeared. Your reflux is still present, but at least you're feeling better. As long as you don't currently have any pre-cancerous changes in the lining of your lower esophagus, as long as the omeprazole is controlling your symptoms, and as long you're not concerned about the side-effects of long-term use of omeprazole, then your current treatment plan makes perfect sense. Note that the omeprazole doesn't decrease your risk of esophageal cancer, and several studies suggest that it increases that risk, so ongoing endoscopic surveillance every few years is something I'm sure your doctor has recommended to you, assuming he/she is keeping up with the literature.

Ray9

As a committed lifelong libertarian I support your right to enjoy the liberties we have here in the United States. You certainly have every right to eat bad food like a pig, smoke tobacco like a chimney, drink alcohol like a fish, smoke weed on a regular basis and lay around like a sloth. God bless America.

What I find difficult to grasp is your eager support of Venezuelan-style government health insurance like the Affordable Care Act that forces the rest of us to pay for your choices. Forty years ago when many were putting powder up their noses like there was no tomorrow I was running ten miles a day. A respected local physician told me then that when my joints and ligaments began to protest I should transition to the bicycle which I did in 1983.

With the thousands I saved from not smoking, drinking to excess and using illegal drugs I was able to purchase an expensive racing bicycle and never looked back. Today at 72 I have a 45-year-old body from riding with people decades younger than I am.

You are free to do live any way you want. If you want to get your leg sawed off from self-inflicted diabetes go for it. If you want to cough up blood because your liver looks like a Sun-dried sponge, have at it. If you want to be financially destroyed by paying for quadruple heart bypass surgery I won’t stand in your way. You certainly have every right to spend your twilight years enjoying COPD; I choose to have clear lungs so I can chase the wind on my bike.

What I can’t understand is that you want me to pay for all the dancing you did as the fiddler’s bill comes due. Why are you trying to use the government to strong-arm me to pay your bill? No government insurance buys me new tires for my bike or prescription coverage to pay for expensive frame components or cycle clothing.

I want you to be happy as you dance but you must pay your own bill as you either drop dead or end up swallowing your face in a nursing home at fifty. It’s your choice and as a libertarian I support that choice. Enjoy your government issued handicap parking sticker and electric shopping cart; I’ll ride my bike. I want the government to leave me alone.

Carbonfiberboy 

I guess you don't have car, house, or homeowner's insurance, do you? Good then that you have a few mil in the bank and haven't been stopped for a taillight out. Or maybe for the reasons stated, you don't have a car or house or any property and are living in one of those sidewalk tents. That'd work.

I've finally achieved the American Dream of making it all the way to Medicare and Social Security. Luckily, the government forced me to pay my premiums!

The USA is certainly not a Libertarian paradise. There is one, though: Somalia.