March 22-31, 2012 - Original Health Articles

Having diabetes is no walk in the park, but living with the disorder really does get easier all the time. Just 10 years ago, testing the blood sugar took several long minutes. Insulin pumps were unheard of. And the concept of an artificial pancreas was almost unthinkable.

Can you sniff your way to a better mood and better health?  It all depends on what scents you smell. If you surround yourself with these aromas, you might find that the secret to health is all in your nose. Aromatherapy is a form of alternative and complementary medicine based on the use of concentrated oils from flowers, leaves, bark, branches, rinds, or roots of plants with purported healing properties.

The prevailing theory of how cancer develops is that tumors begin when mutated genes trigger uncontrolled cell growth. However, some cancer experts attribute cancer to disrupted chromosomes, which alter the balance of thousands of genes and produce cells with entirely new traits.

About 1.4 million people in the U.S. suffer from Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. According to the American Gastroenterological Association, ulcerative colitis is a disease of the colon in which the lining of the large intestine gets inflamed.

Most asthma inhalers will either give you long-term control to manage your condition or short-term relief to address presenting symptoms. Long-Term and Short-Term Medication Types Many asthmatics need a combination of both types of medicine as part of their overall asthma management strategy.

Chest pain, shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, and generalized weakness are all well known symptoms of a heart attack. However, they may also indicate a condition called Broken Heart Syndrome—officially called takotsubo cardiomyopathy. While this condition sounds like something straight out of a blues ballad, it is very real.

How much do you know about your eyes? Many Americans are in the dark about eye diseases that could cause blindness, according to a recent survey conducted by U.S. National Eye Institute and the Lions Clubs International Foundation. Use this guide to separate sight myths from reality and to become more enlightened about your vision.

Doctors who download Mozart while performing colonoscopies have higher chances of detecting adenomas, a polyp that is a precursor to colon cancer. This is according to researchers Catherine Noelle O'Shea, DO, and David Wolf, MD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UT Health) Medical School.

Research into treatments for all types of arthritis is ongoing, and promising new advances occur all the time. Some are immediately useful; others will take years to fully develop into approved treatments. Here's the latest news. Most of the advances in arthritis treatment over the past decade have focused on rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune and inflammatory forms of the disease, but researchers measuring the effects of osteoarthritis treatments have also seen good results.

Common warts are growths that appear on your hands and fingers (as well as other areas) when the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infects the top layer of the skin. They're generally harmless, though quite contagious. And they typically go away on their own sooner or later.

You might be seeing a doctor of osteopathy (DO) when you visit your regular primary care physician and not even realize it. That's because DOs practice with the same privileges and responsibilities as medical doctors-MD's, but with additional training including osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), which works wonders to relieve pain for many patients.

If you're a dog or cat owner, there's no avoiding pet dander, saliva, and urine that could appear on your floors, fabrics, and furniture. Although you often can't see these allergens, the animal proteins they contain are enough to spark an immune system response in people who are allergic to pets.

In 1995, the Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccination for chicken pox. Before then, chicken pox was an almost universal childhood illness, uncomfortable but generally not severe. Recovering from childhood chicken pox helps people develop natural immunity against developing shingles (a related illness) as adults.

Ever wonder whether it's possible to experience multiple orgasms? For women, it is indeed possible, although after the first big one, they may seem like "momentary spasms, not one big explosion," says Alexandra Katehakis, MFT, CSAT-S, CST-S, clinical director of the Center for Healthy Sex in Los Angeles.