Posts

Treatment of impetigo is swift if a parent notices signs of the infection — such as red sores on the child’s nose, mouth, hands, or feet — and seeks help from a healthcare provider. “Usually impetigo will appear with honey-colored substances on the skin,” says Vikash S. Oza, MD, a pediatric dermatologist at NYU Langone Health in New York City. “They’ll start as very tiny superficial sores or tiny bumps that form a particular crust right on top of it....

A new study of nearly 15,000 Japanese workers, all of whom telecommuted during the pandemic and had no prior experience doing so, examined how this experience affected these workers. Four in five of the workers didn’t notice any change in their job performance, according to a survey responses from the workers. But 15 percent of workers said their job performance got worse once they started working from home — and people were almost twice as likely to say this when they spent most of the day sitting....

However, knowing the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between symptoms of diseases like IBD and symptoms of depression can help you understand when it’s time to call your doctor. The Brain-Belly Connection You might not realize just how sensitive your GI tract is to your emotions. Think about it – when you’re upset, one of your first reactions might be to feel physically nauseated, lose your appetite, or run for a comfort food....

Psoriatic arthritis is an inflammatory form of arthritis that causes swollen and painful joints. It affects up to 30 percent of people with psoriasis, a chronic skin condition that causes itchy scales, called plaques, which typically appear around joints or on the scalp. Thought to be linked to a dysregulated immune system, psoriasis affects about 2 to 3 percent of the world’s population, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF)....

Jessica Goldman Foung, a food writer and author of the low-sodium cookbook Low-So Good, has particular insight into both lupus and nutrition. The San Francisco–area resident was diagnosed with lupus in 2004 — something she says changed both her life and her diet. “First and foremost, everybody — and every body — is different," Goldman Foung says. “And depending on the kind of lupus you have and the drugs you might take, recommended diets will vary from person to person....

Medical costs associated with advanced NSCLC include fees for doctor visits, procedures, lab tests, scans, treatment, hospital stays, and medications. Cancer also comes with hidden costs, such as transportation, extra help at home, dietary needs, complementary therapies, travel, and lodging. If you need to take time away from paid work during treatment, you may be facing the added financial strain of lost or reduced income. It’s hard to predict exactly how much cancer and its treatment will cost....

MDHearingAid devices have many attractive features, including affordability, and come in a range of models to suit many people’s hearing needs. The devices also have some drawbacks that you may want to consider. Read on for our review of MDHearingAid, including the reasons this brand made our list of the best hearing aids for 2023. 2,500 hours of research13 experts consulted30 brands considered96 models considered600-plus user survey Our experts have spent more than 2,500 hours conducting thorough research on hearing aids....

The unknowns, and the sometimes arduous nature of lung cancer treatment, raise the risk for anxiety. The research bears this out. In a study published in April 2020 BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, for example, researchers found that about 49 percent of participants with advanced lung cancer suffered from anxiety. Caregivers of people with lung cancer also experienced distress, with about 33 percent of reporting that they suffered from anxiety....

This year’s updates are focused on how to more aggressively treat diabetes and reduce diabetes complications, with changes to recommendations on weight loss, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and more. “The world of diabetes is moving quite quickly. There are lots of new studies, and we want to make sure clinicians have the most up-to-date information to guide them in how to care for people with diabetes,” says Robert A. Gabbay, MD, PhD, who serves as the chief scientific and medical officer of the ADA....

If you live in one of the 29 states that has decriminalized the use of marijuana for the treatment of certain medical problems, there are a lot of pain-relieving treatment options you haven’t heard much about. “Cannabis can be used as medicine in many ways, though not all types are equally effective,” says Jordan Tishler, MD, chief medical officer of InhaleMD, a holistic medical practice in the Boston area. “Low doses are also more effective and have fewer side effects, including intoxication,” he says, adding that in his opinion, cannabis can provide pain relief and an anti-inflammatory effect....

For those like Gabby with hydrocephalus, a condition also known as “water on the brain,” it’s hard to know if a headache is just a headache. It could be a sign a patient’s shunt, a medical device implanted in the brain to drain built-up fluid, is failing. Garzon rushed Gabby to the hospital. Sure enough, she was in shunt failure. Garzon couldn’t believe it was happening, again. For the 16th time, Garzon waited helplessly as her teenage daughter went through brain surgery....

Now scientists have developed a way to avoid these deterrents: a tattoo patch containing microscopic needles that can quickly color skin without causing pain or drawing blood. These single-use microneedle tattoo patches work for both color images and for markings visible only with ultraviolet illumination, according to a study published September 14 in iScience. “We’ve miniaturized the needle so that it’s painless but still effectively deposits tattoo ink in the skin,” said the senior study author, Mark Prausnitz, PhD, of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, in a statement....

“It’s very confusing because there are so many different products,” notes Richard Streiffer, MD, former dean of the University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences in Tuscaloosa. “People simply have to read labels. I tell people, especially older folks, to bring your magnifying glass with you because the print is so small.” While you’re squinting at the labels of various cold and flu medication options, pay close attention to the following information, which, per the U....

Once infected, the air sacs in the lungs become inflamed and fill up with fluid and pus, which causes coughing, fever, chills, and breathing problems. Symptoms may also include chest pain, dizziness, altered mental state, sweating, and rapid heartbeat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You can encounter the germs that cause pneumonia in the most common of places, and your daily environment may contribute to how susceptible you are to the disease....

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy for balancing the body’s energy, known as qi, which travels through various energetic pathways, known as meridians, according to the Mayo Clinic. In TCM’s conceptualization of health and disease, the balance of qi supports overall wellness, and any disruption to it may cause health concerns, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine holds that inserting tiny stainless steel needles into specific points called acupoints along the meridians may help rebalance the flow of qi, ultimately working to restore your overall health....

While psoriasis can pose challenges no matter where it occurs — causing symptoms such as itchiness, discomfort, and even pain — psoriasis in these sensitive areas can lead to an added layer of complications. People who experience psoriasis in prominent areas such as the face or hands may also feel self-conscious, ashamed, or embarrassed. And if they have psoriasis on their groin or genital region, their sexual relationships may potentially be impacted, according to an article about psoriasis in special locations published in December 2018 in the journal Reumatologica....

The World Health Organization (WHO) calculates that over 200 million cases of malaria are reported around the world each year, claiming the lives of nearly one-half million individuals. The Lancet Commission on Malaria Eradication, an international group of 26 leading malaria experts, published a report on September 8, 2019, in the journal The Lancet detailing a strategy to free the world of the disease by the year 2050. “The Commission’s report synthesizes existing evidence with new analyses to demonstrate that — with the right tools, strategies, and sufficient funding — malaria eradication can be achieved within a generation,” says author Ingrid Chen, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF), and an associate director of eradication research within the UCSF Global Health Group’s Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI)....

Biologic therapies have been hailed as a major advance in the treatment of Crohn’s disease. They offer a more targeted approach and can be very safe and effective. In fact, they may have fewer side effects than some other medications for Crohn’s disease. For instance, unlike corticosteroids that work by suppressing the entire immune system, biologics target specific proteins in the immune system that are associated with inflammation. Taking biologics is more complicated than swallowing a pill though, and they pose different health risks than other Crohn’s disease medications....

Other complications of ulcerative colitis, such as the potential side effects of medication and body-altering surgeries, can also make colitis difficult to live with; stigma and misconceptions about it being a “bathroom disease” can make things even worse. Stephen Lupe, PsyD, a clinical health psychologist specializing in digestive diseases at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, says that oftentimes people with ulcerative colitis feel like their body has betrayed them. There’s also the feeling of losing control, which can be devastating for a person’s self-esteem, says Berkeley Limketkai, MD, a gastroenterologist and director of IBD clinical research at the UCLA Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases....

Led by scientists at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard, the investigation examined more than 1.19 billion blood cells and 500 million tissue cells from a 30-year-old woman in Argentina, dubbed “the Esperanza patient.” Analysis of this massive numbers of cells revealed that the woman had been infected before, but scientists did not discover any intact human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) capable of replicating in the patient....