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EPI is a condition that inhibits your ability to properly digest food, and according to a review, it affects an estimated 14 percent of people with Crohn’s and 22 percent of people with ulcerative colitis. Keep reading to learn more about the link between EPI and IBD and how to manage both conditions. What Is EPI? According to The National Pancreas Foundation, EPI occurs when the pancreas — an organ located in the abdomen — doesn’t produce enough exocrine pancreatic enzymes, which results in an inability to properly digest food....

You may have heard of liquid nutrition in the form of elemental diets — nutrition made from amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and electrolytes, as opposed to whole foods. A complete elemental diet is a big commitment and something that should be planned carefully with your doctor. But adopting some of the diet’s characteristics for a few hours or even a day might give your digestive system a break and help you avoid some of the nausea and lack of appetite that can accompany flare-ups....

For the study, published March 30 in PLoS One, researchers combined data from social media and city parks in the 25 largest U.S. cities and found that park visitors experienced a “happiness benefit” that was roughly equivalent to the mood spike people feel on holidays like Thanksgiving or New Year’s Day. The results showed that the bigger the park, the bigger the benefit. “These new findings underscore just how essential nature is for our mental and physical health,” said a coauthor of the study, Taylor Ricketts, PhD, a professor and the director of the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont in Burlington, in a press release....

Published May 13, 2019, in JAMA Neurology, a large new retrospective analysis of more than 130,000 patients found that people with no history of heart disease or stroke who take low-dose aspirin face a heightened risk of bleeding in the skull. The results support the latest American Heart Association guidelines recommending that most individuals who have never had a heart attack or stroke avoid aspirin therapy because of bleeding risks....

Maybe you had trouble making the choice yourself when you determined you wanted to lose weight. After all, there hasn’t been a clear answer on what diet works best — and for whom. But a new study attempts to shed some light on that question. The research, published in February 2018 in the journal JAMA, found that people following either a low-fat or low-carb diet lost just about the same amount of weight — 11....

The large number of people who drink beyond what is recommended for optimal health surprised researchers and raises questions about helping cancer survivors maintain their long-term health. “I think our study should serve as a beginning discussion point for future research. At the very least, our study suggests providers should ask about alcohol use and counsel patients engaged in heavy alcohol use to potentially cut down,” said the first author of the study, Nina Niu Sanford, MD, an assistant professor and Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care in the department of radiation and oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas....

Massage therapy involves manipulating the soft tissues of the body, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). There are many different forms of massage in both Eastern and Western medicine, including shiatsu, Swedish, trigger point, neuromuscular, and more, says Polly Liontis, a licensed massage therapist with the NorthShore University HealthSystem Integrative Medicine Program in Glenview, Illinois. Each of these may be used in different ways, depending on your wellness and health goals....

While it typically involves removing the entire breast, a mastectomy may spare certain tissues depending on the extent of the cancer and the wishes of the patient. Types of Mastectomy The term mastectomy is used to describe several different surgical procedures, including the following: Radical mastectomy involves removing the entire breast, nipple, areola (dark skin around nipple), axillary chest wall muscles underneath the breast, and lymph nodes under the arm....

After he was charged with a DUI in 2014, Phelps soon found himself in a spiraling state of depression, the darkest place he’d ever been. At this point, he locked himself in his room for several days and even faced serious thoughts of committing suicide. “I questioned whether I wanted to be alive anymore,” he said at an onstage event with Talkspace (a leading mental health app that connects people to online therapists)....

But among people with multiple sclerosis (MS), the prevalence of migraine is about 30 percent overall, with a higher prevalence in American and African countries and a lower prevalence in Asian and European countries. “The emerging science suggests a higher morbidity of migraine in patients with other inflammatory or immunological conditions such as multiple sclerosis,” says Ana Felix, MBBCh, assistant professor in the division of general medicine and clinical epidemiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill....

CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM This is the body’s control system. Comprised of the brain and spinal cord, it sends and receives messages from the rest of the body through a network of neurons. Those neurons have a protective myelin sheath that helps with quick, efficient conductivity of signals. IMMUNE SYSTEM The immune system attacks foreign invaders to keep you healthy. But with MS, immune cells mistakenly invade the brain and spinal cord, damaging myelin and, to some degree, myelin-producing cells (oligodendrocytes) and the neuron itself....

Using multiple surveillance systems, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) closely tracks new mutations and has identified two of particular concern: BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. The CDC refers to these BA.5 offshoots as “grandchildren of BA.5.” In the middle of September, the two BQ mutations together accounted for just over half a percent of infections in the United States. That proportion has rapidly increased. Now, data from the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker for the week ending October 22 show BQ....

The number of overdoses is climbing in children under 5, who accidentally ingest the drug, and in kids 10 years and older who misuse the cough suppressant on purpose; the findings were published in the December 2022 issue of Pediatrics, published online November 15. “The most significant finding in our study is that drug safety considerations extend beyond the safe and appropriate use of prescription medication,” says the lead author, Ivone Kim, MD, a senior physician at the FDA....

OCD is more than a desire to a keep a clean house, maintain a schedule, or read everything you can about a favorite celebrity. It’s a chronic and long-lasting mental health condition marked by uncontrollable recurring thoughts or behaviors that must be repeated over and over in order to quell extreme anxiety. Left untreated, OCD can significantly impact every area of one’s life from school to work to relationships to one’s ability to participate in everyday activities....

Warfarin Use Linked With Increased Risk of Knee and Hip Replacement in People With Osteoarthritis, Data Suggests A new study found that warfarin (Coumadin), a medication that is commonly prescribed for atrial fibrillation, is associated with a significantly greater risk of knee and hip replacements in people with osteoarthritis (OA). The research is to be presented on Saturday, November 7, 2020, at the ACR Convergence, the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting....

If you really pressed the pan, or worse, the oven rack, you may have a second-degree burn, the kind that extends into the dermis, or bottom layer of skin. Along with turning skin red, it raises blisters. Next, be sure to wash the burned area with mild soap and water. Then cover it with sterile gauze. The burn effect doesn’t stop right away; it actually progresses for another 24 to 48 hours, in an evolution of redness, possible blisters, and peeling....

If you have nr-axSpA and are trying to conceive or pregnant, working with your rheumatologist and obstetrician/gynecologist to manage your condition is an important part of ensuring both your health and the baby’s. How Pregnancy Can Affect nr-axSpA How pregnancy impacts nr-axSpA disease activity can vary from one woman to another, according to Eric Ruderman, MD, a rheumatologist and professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago....

Organizations American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Founded in 1938, this organization represents virtually all practicing dermatologists in the United States. The website provides information about conditions and treatments, as well as a searchable database to find local dermatologists. American College of Rheumatology (ACR) National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) One of 27 institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health, NIAMS supports research into the treatment of diseases affecting the bones, joints, muscles, and skin....

What Is Resistant Starch? Starch is one type of carbohydrate in your diet — the other two being sugars and fiber, according to MedlinePlus. When your body digests starchy foods, it typically breaks them down into glucose (sugar) in the small intestine. Resistant starch, however, is a type of carbohydrate that doesn’t break down into sugar and is not absorbed by the small intestine, according to the National Cancer Institute. Instead, resistant starch passes to the colon (large intestine) to be fermented, says Nancy Cooper, RDN, CDCES, at the Molly Diabetes Education Center at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey....

RELATED: 8 Things I Didn’t Know About Rheumatoid Arthritis Until It Happened to Me Here are 10 things you should know about seronegative rheumatoid arthritis. 1. Doctors Rely on Symptoms to Diagnose Seronegative RA, Not Just the Results From Blood Tests Since blood work doesn’t tell the whole story, your doctor will want to find out if you’re experiencing these key symptoms: Inflammatory joint painMorning stiffness for more than an hour in your hands, knees, elbows, hips, feet, or anklesJoint swelling, tenderness or pain, and sometimes redness....