June 22-30, 2009 - Original Health Articles

Heart Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis

When you have rheumatoid arthritis (RA) it's understandable that you would be more concerned with controlling pain and inflammation. However, you should also be aware of the strong link between heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis. If you have RA, you're more likely to develop coronary heart disease, suffer unrecognized heart attacks and sudden cardiac death, according to the Mayo Clinic.

10 Things You Need to Know about HIV Medications

The most common treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are medications. HIV drugs have the ability to slow the progress of your disease and delay the onset of acquired immune deficiency syndrome AIDS. These medications are called antiretroviral drugs (ARV).

Relieving Diabetic Nerve Pain at Home

If you're living with diabetes, you know that you're at a high risk for nerve damage or diabetic neuropathy. According to the American Diabetes Association, one out of two people with diabetes has nerve damage. It causes burning sensation, numbness, stinging, tingling, and weakness and extreme pain.

Coping with Kids' Allergies at Camp

If you have a child with serious food allergies, you probably go to great lengths to ensure your home is free of any foods or ingredients that could trigger symptoms. But when it comes time for your child to go away to summer camp, it can be trickier--but not impossible--to ensure your child will be safe in a strange new place.

The Household Mold and Asthma Connection

Got dampness and mold in your home? If so, your household mold could be causing your asthma, or at least making your existing symptoms worse. In fact, the latest research confirms that damp living conditions that contribute to the growth of home mold seem to play a large role in triggering persistent asthma.

Ovarian Cancer: What You Need to Know

A cancer diagnosis is always scary but ovarian cancer is particularly frightening because it's difficult to detect in its early, most easily treated stages.  Once a woman knows she has it, it's often too late to cure.  The National Cancer Institute (NCI) says 21,550 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed annually and 14,600 women will die from it.

5 Ways to Simplify Your Meals

How would you like to fix meals at home in less time than it takes to go out for fast food?  By planning ahead you can prepare quick and easy meals at home. Being prepared is the key.  If your kitchen is well-stocked you will always have the ingredients for a healthy meal.

Surprising Home Remedies for Common Ailments

Your first instinct when something minor goes wrong with your body may be to run to the drugstore. Surely the remedy for what ails you lies down one of those aisles, right? But you may be surprised to learn that you can cure yourself of a medley of ailments using what you already have at home.

How to Make Sense of Miscarriage

Many women are all too familiar with miscarriage. If they haven't had one themselves, they most likely know someone who has. On average, 10 to 25 percent of all pregnancies result in miscarriage. This can be an extremely difficult experience for women and their families, resulting in grief, anger, sadness, and confusion.

How to Stay Healthy When Your Kids Are Sick

If someone comes in to work coughing and sniffling, you probably take pains to avoid him. You try not to share an elevator, move to another desk if you can, and don't touch the same keyboard he's using. At a family party, an under-the-weather relative might blow you an air kiss rather than offer her customary hug and kiss.

Dating and HIV

Relationships where one person is HIV-positive and the other isn't are commonly referred to as serodiscordant relationships. If you're in a serodiscordant relationship, you want to enjoy the same intimacy and sexuality of couples not coping with HIV, but it's natural for you to have concerns about your partner's health - and about your risk of HIV infection.

How Depression Affects a Marriage

Depression is a real illness that causes real suffering. But depression sufferers who are married or in committed relationships don't suffer alone. People living in close quarters are quite sensitized to each other's moods and actions, and when one spouse spends most of his or her time depressed, with the attendant complaining, moping, worrying, criticizing, crying or complete withdrawal, it's not surprising that the other spouse's emotional state will be negatively affected as well.

Sex Addiction 101

In the past few years sex addiction has garnered lots of attention, mostly because of celebrities such as David Duchovny and Eric Bénet (Halle Berry's ex). While sexual desire and sexual activity is a natural, healthy part of life, sex addiction isn't.

Erectile Dysfunction in Diabetics: An Early Indicator of Heart Disease?

Diabetic complications due to continued and unregulated blood sugar levels such as neuropathy (nerve damage) and circulation problems are most likely the culprits that make erectile dysfunction more prevalent in men with diabetes too. For men, a sequence of nerve impulses and muscular and vascular (veins and arteries) responses lead to an erection.

Can Deep-Brain Stimulation Cure Depression?

Although it sounds like something out of a science-fiction movie, deep-brain stimulation actually is a relatively new treatment for depression and other conditions involving the brain. Performed as part of clinical trials at accredited universities and centers, it is still in the experimental stage and, as such, remains controversial.

Mediterranean Diet for Diabetics

 The Mediterranean diet is rich in olive oil, grains, cereal, fruits, nuts, legumes, vegetables, and fish, but low in meat, dairy products and alcohol. Olive oil is used as the cooking medium of choice in this diet as well. So how does this diet compare to what The American Diabetes Association recommends? Below are the basic guidelines to follow and what you'll notice is that the Mediterranean is strikingly similar.

6 Ways to Reshape Your Body

Maybe you've finally decided to do something about your less-than-satisfactory shape or you're already fit but want to tweak a few things. Where do you start? Health and fitness experts agree, the best way to reshape your body is with overall fitness but focusing on specific exercise styles can have varying effects.

10 Ways to Cut Down on Sugar

The average American consumes an estimated 1/4-1/2 pounds of sugar each day. That's the equivalent of 30 - 60 teaspoons of sugar each day.  The Food Guide Pyramid and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that people should limit added sugars to less than 10% of total calories.

The Scoop on Protein Powder

Protein is the power player in athletic nutrition.  Bodybuilders, professional athletes and those looking to streamline their physique all know, protein provides the building blocks for muscle.  The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism is, the stronger you are and the better your athletic performance will be.

What Michael Jackson s Death Means for You

It came as a sudden, heartbreaking surprise that enveloped the entertainment world. Michael Jackson, known fondly as the undisputed King of Pop, died at his California home at the age of 50. Jackson began his fame in the family outfit The Jackson 5 with such hits as "I Want You Back" and "ABC".

Asthma and Other Health Conditions

The Link Asthma is a chronic disease that affects your airways, making them more sensitive to a host of triggers that can cause them to become inflamed and make you cough, wheeze and experience chest pain. If you regularly grapple with the discomfort...

Should You Have Joint Replacement Surgery for Arthritis?

Joint replacement surgery can help you regain function in your joints and reduce pain when you suffer from osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. Also called arthroplasty, joint replacement is the most widely known surgery for arthritis. Doctors can perform it on most joints, but the most common types of this procedure are knee replacement surgery and hip replacement surgery.

How Weight Affects Arthritis

It's well-known that extra weight places more stress on your joints, especially when you have arthritis. However, studies show that obesity and overweight affect rheumatoid arthritis in other ways as well. A study conducted in Oslo, Norway found that obesity worsens the quality of life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on four key levels including pain, fatigue, physical function and overall utility (quality of life) scores.

Is a Vasectomy Right for You?

Approximately 500,000 to 600,000 vasectomy procedures are performed annually in the America. Now sources such as the Cleveland Clinic and The New York Times report that the recession has sparked an increase in the number of vasectomies. The decision to have a vasectomy procedure shouldn't be taken lightly, even though vasectomy reversals are possible.

The Link Between Heart Disease and Cancer

Among the causes of death that threaten individuals 35 and older, heart disease ranks number one, killing about 900,000 American every year. Cancer, responsible for claiming the lives of 550,000 yearly in the U.S., comes in second place. But heart disease and cancer share yet another bond: Ironically, the quest to cure cancer has sometimes given the incidence of heart disease a boost.

Managing Space in Relationships

Q:  How do you manage emotional and physical space in a relationship? A:  If you're lucky in love, then you've probably found someone with problem-solving abilities and what I call  the "relationship rhythm range" of time alone and time as one that mesh with yours—two things that are necessary to resolve emotional and physical space issues.

The Link between Diabetes and Tuberculosis

Several studies show that people with diabetes have an increased risk of tuberculosis (TB), including three conducted at the University of Texas School of Public Health Brownsville Regional Campus (UTSPH). According to the researchers, patients with tuberculosis who identified themselves as being diabetic tended to have a more severe form of tuberculosis.

Coffee and Diabetes: What's the Link?

More than 23 million Americans suffer from diabetes--90 to 95 percent of those cases are type 2 diabetes. It's a chronic condition that occurs when your body doesn't effectively use the insulin that it makes. Insulin helps to control blood sugar levels in the body and to carry them into the cells.

What is Sex Therapy?

Most of us became familiar with the term "sex therapist" when the frank, bubbly Dr. Ruth Westheimer appeared on the scene. Her debut book Dr. Ruth's Guide to Good Sex was an international bestseller; yet many of us still couldn't explain what sex therapy is or what a sex therapist does.

Get Away From Your Allergies

Leave Your Worries Behind If you suffer from allergic rhinitis, you know all too well that when the trees, pollen and grass spring into full bloom, so do your seasonal allergies and all of the misery they bring. This can include sneezing, coughing and itching eyes, nose and throat.

5 Things You Should Know About Using an EpiPen

Get the Facts Every second matters when you have a serious allergy reaction called anaphylaxis. This is a life-threatening occurrence that effects the entire body and can cause a host of symptoms, including difficulty breathing, hives, chest pain, and swelling or your lips, tongue and throat and sometimes unconsciousness.

Childhood Asthma Misdiagnosis

Could your child's asthma diagnosis actually be a mistake? The latest research reveals that this could indeed be the case, since asthma misdiagnosis is increasingly common among children today. The reason for the confusion is that the symptoms of a childhood asthma attack can be similar to the symptoms of another, less severe, condition called Vocal Chord Dysfunction (VCD), and some medical professionals easily confuse the two.

How Men and Women Experience Heart Attacks Differently

The notion that heart attacks strike only steak-eating, cigar-smoking, nose-to-the-grindstone men in their late middle ages once prevailed. Although it afflicts women in almost equal measure, especially those 50 and older, heart disease used to be seen a man's predicament.

Living with a J Pouch

Seventy percent of Crohn's patients eventually require surgery to manage their disease. However, surgery may induce remission and provide relief from difficult symptoms, significantly improving patients' quality of life. One such method is J pouch surgery.

The Importance of Crohn s Support Groups

Why should I participate in a support group for Crohn's? You may have supportive family and friends; however, there's nothing like sharing experiences with someone who knows firsthand what it's like to live with Crohn's. Support groups become important social, educational and support hubs for people living with chronic diseases.

Living with an Ostomy

What is an ostomy? An ostomy is a surgical opening in the abdomen to remove your body's waste. A physician may perform an ostomy in patients who've had a portion of their large bowel removed or bypassed. It's also a common procedure for people who have Irritable Bowel Disease.

Juvenile Arthritis and Sports

When your child has juvenile arthritis - also called juvenile idiopathic arthritis, or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis - she may have difficulty with even the simplest movements. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by pain, stiffness, swelling and tenderness in the joints, which restricts movement.

Insulin Resistance: A Growing Epidemic

It's estimated that global diabetes rates will rise to 300 million in 2025, up from 135 million just over a decade ago. The rise is being attributed to the surging rates of insulin resistance linked to obesity. When insulin resistance coincides with obesity (especially abdominal obesity), cholesterol problems and high blood pressure, it's referred to as the metabolic syndrome or the insulin resistance syndrome.

Prescription Sleeping Pills and Over-the-counter Sleep Aids

Insomnia affects about 30 percent of adults in America. There are two types of insomnia - primary and secondary insomnia. Normally insomnia is treated by prescription sleeping pills, over-the-counter sleeping aids, or therapy. The American Academy of Sleep Science (AASM) defines primary insomnia as sleeplessness that cannot be attributed to an existing medical, psychiatric or environmental cause (such as drug abuse or medications).

Blood Clots 101

Blood clots, which are basically hardened clumps of blood formed by platelets and the protein in plasma to stem the bleeding of an injured blood vessel, have numerous causes: a surgical procedure, an injury, oral contraceptives, prolonged immobility, obesity, heredity, etc.

The Dangers of Ozone Air Purifiers

Ozone's Effects You've probably heard of the "ozone layer," which is a layer of the earth's atmosphere that serves as a shield to protect people from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. While in this capacity ozone can be a health protectant, when the ozone is generated right into the air that we breathe, it becomes dangerous and can make people sick.

Tips to Prevent Diabetic Retinopathy

For people with diabetes and health professionals, methods to prevent diabetic retinopathy are high on the radar. Diabetic retinopathy, the most common diabetes eye disease, is one of the leading causes of blindness. The retina of the eye is essential to good vision.

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