Symptoms of a Heart Attack: What to Watch For

On TV, heart attacks are obvious. They cause crushing chest pain. Actors clutch their chests and collapse with theatrical flair. In reality, heart attacks are often not so easy to spot. “Heart attacks often feel like heartburn,” says William A. Norcross, M.D., a professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San […]

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Hepatitis: Overview, Symptoms and Treatment

The liver is the largest internal organ, and one of the most complex. It regulates the amount of sugar, fat, and protein that circulate in your blood. It makes cholesterol, vitamin A, clotting factors, and about a quart of bile a day, which helps digest fats. And it detoxifies your blood, removing drugs, alcohol, and […]

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Alternative Therapies for Back Pain

Willow was the original herbal aspirin, thanks to several compounds it contains, among them, salicin. A century ago, the Bayer Company tinkered with salicin and eventually produced acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin, the first nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Aspirin is still a mainstay medication for many people during the first day or two of back pain.

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Fibromyalgia Treatments and Remedies

Persons with fibromyalgia typically experience long-lasting or chronic pain, as well as muscle stiffness and tenderness. Fibromyalgia affects about 3 million to 6 million people in the United States each year. The disorder mostly affects women and typically develops in early-to-middle adulthood. There is no test for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Doctors make a diagnosis […]

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Diabetes Information Overview

Diabetes mellitus is a group of diseases characterized by high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects in insulin production, insulin action, or both. Diabetes can be associated with serious complications and premature death, but people with diabetes can take steps to control the disease and lower the risk of complications.

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Lyme Disease: Overview

Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system. Lyme disease is diagnosed based on […]

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Risk Factors for Heart Disease

The stereotype is that heart disease—mostly heart attack—is a man’s disease. Actually, it’s the leading cause of death for both men and women. Heart attack, medically known as myocardial infarction or MI, is almost as lethal as all cancers combined. Heart attacks strike Americans once every 29 seconds, and kill once a minute. The American […]

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Enlarged Prostate (BPH) Overview

The prostate is a walnut-sized, donut-shaped gland located below a man’s bladder. It produces most of the fluid in semen. It also has a tube running through it, the man’s urethra, which carries urine and semen out of his body. Unless it gets infected, a man’s prostate remains so unnoticed that many men hardly know […]

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Back Pain and Chiropractic

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) assembled a panel of experts (21 M.D.s and 2 chiropractors) to review the research on back care. The panel’s report, “Guidelines for Acute Lower Back Pain,” included a ringing endorsement of chiropractic.

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Depression Overview

Everyone gets “the blues” when disappointed. And everyone gets depressed over job lay-offs, divorce, the death of a loved one, or other major losses. Sadness is a normal part of life. But when sadness never returns to gladness, it becomes what the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) calls the nation’s leading mental health problem, […]

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