Everything is exacerbated if I leave my home environment. And everyone wants to help me. But even though they try hard, they are not walking in my shoes. All I want is for those people to leave me alone! I’ve noticed that the more my disability has increased, the less patience I have with others helping me. Three and a half decades of living with MS is a long time, during which I have figured out what works for me and what does not....
“Sometimes when people have severe depression, they have a partial response to treatment,” says James Seymour, MD, a psychiatrist at Sierra Tucson, a behavioral treatment center in Tucson, Ariz. “They may need an add-on, or second, medication to improve or accelerate their response.” The National Institutes of Mental Health funded a study on this very subject called STAR*D (Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression). The seven-year study, which released initial results in 2006, looked at more than 4,000 people, ages 18 to 75, with depression....
Now what if I told you that amazing protein source was … bugs? Does that change your opinion and willingness to add them to your diet? The practice of eating insects, called entomophagy, may sound strange to those of us in Western cultures, but is commonplace in other parts of the world. Many cultures even consider bugs a delicacy. In some parts of Africa, almost 50 percent of the residents’ dietary protein comes from bugs, notes an article in Nutrition Bulletin....
How to Tell if It’s Chronic Hives If you notice a persistent, itchy skin rash, seeing a dermatologist is a good first step toward confirming a diagnosis and finding relief. “Giving a complete medical history and undergoing a physical exam are the best ways to determine what’s causing the rash or hives, and if there is a more serious skin disorder behind it,” explains Joseph L. Jorizzo, MD, a professor of dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City and Wake Forest Baptist Health University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina....
In fact, it seems to be right up there with weight loss as one of the main side effects of the diet. Research published in Epilepsia found 60 percent of study participants reported they lost weight as a result of adopting the diet, while 45 percent of the female participants also reported menstrual dysfunction. RELATED: What Are the Risks and Benefits of the Keto Diet? The Reason the Keto Diet May Mess With Your Period What gives?...
The results of the trial were considered so impressive that it was halted early on the basis of the preliminary results, which were released November 9. The study was originally designed to continue through 2022. “I don’t think we can overemphasize the importance of this study,” said Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), in a briefing on November 9. “One of the stumbling blocks in our prevention modalities is the inconsistency or lack of efficacy of preexposure prophylaxis in those who need it the most, namely young women,” Dr....
“In general, people with hepatitis C have been seen to have overall increased levels of fatigue, depression, and stress,” says Souvik Sarkar, MD, PhD, a hepatologist and hepatitis C expert at the University of California in Davis. Part of the problem may be physical: The virus can interfere with the body’s production of liver proteins, which may trigger a higher stress response, says Dr. Sarkar. But there are also some psychological explanations behind these emotions; for example, you may have been surprised by your diagnosis or worried about treatment and how much it will cost....
Ultimately, your treatment will be determined by the cause of your nerve damage, as well as the symptoms of neuropathy that you develop. (1,2) A Closer Look at the Types of Neuropathy and Their Causes and Symptoms Nerve damage doesn’t show up the same way in everyone. But potential signs and symptoms of neuropathy include temporary or permanent numbness; a tingling, prickling, or burning sensation; increased sensitivity to touch; pain; muscle weakness or wasting; paralysis; dysfunction in organs or glands; or impairment to urination and sexual function....
Because the BQ variants are new, more research is needed to determine exactly how harmful they may be. Evidence so far suggests they spread easily but cause milder illness that the original and delta strains of the virus. As the BQ variants have grown, so have the latest COVID-19 numbers. Analysis from The New York Times shows that the daily average of cases has increased by 4 percent over two weeks leading up to November 21....
How Knee Exercises Provide Pain Relief Exercise can help relieve the pain from knee osteoarthritis by strengthening the muscles around the joint. Stronger muscles ease the stress placed on the knee joint and act as shock absorbers, deflecting some of the day-to-day strain caused by walking and other activities. The AAOS guidelines emphasize that a wide range of exercises can improve knee pain, including weight-bearing, low-impact, and water-based activities. Most non-impact exercises are good for knee health....
Before you consider medication, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) recommends that you: Rest and avoid activities that cause pain.Exercise to strengthen the muscles that support joints affected by osteoarthritis.Lose weight, if necessary, to take stress off arthritic joints. When researchers reviewed data from 4,769 adults with osteoarthritis, they found that the more a person weighed, the more pain they experienced, according to a study in the November 2014 issue of Rheumatology....
The lack of awareness can lead to confusion and fear, and to all kinds of misconceptions. Combating misinformation can make all the difference in detecting and surviving the disease. “Ovarian cancer is a hard disease to treat, and we can be much more successful if we catch it early,” says Jolyn Taylor, MD, assistant professor in the department of gynecologic oncology and reproductive medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston....
Masks involved in the recall work with bilevel positive airway pressure (also known as bilevel PAP, BiPAP, or BPAP) machines and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines that are used to treat sleep apnea. All of the recalled masks — the Amara View full face, DreamWisp nasal, DreamWear full, Wisp and Wisp Youth nasal, and Therapy mask 3100 NC/SP — use magnets to headgear clips to attach the headgear straps to the masks....
In fact, in at least one publication, it’s being publicized as the holy grail of MS research. As someone who once considered engaging in scholarly study of Arthurian legend and grail lore, I’m not particularly fond of the search for a cure for our disease being likened to a centuries-long, unsuccessful quest for a likely nonexistent artifact. But we’ll give that a pass for the moment. A Reminder About MS ‘Cures’ The term “cure” has also been bandied about when it comes to this discovery, but it’s important to remember that a cure for multiple sclerosis looks different to different people....
The benefits of breakfast are seemingly endless. According to the Cleveland Clinic, breakfast not only replenishes your daily energy stores, but it also boosts your heart health, reduces your risk for diabetes, and helps alleviate brain fog. How Skipping Breakfast Creates Nutrition Gaps The findings of several recent studies point to the risks associated with not eating adequate amounts of nutritious foods. In one study published in April 2019 in The Lancet, researchers identified a suboptimal diet as an important and preventable risk factor for chronic noncommunicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes....
It’s been a tricky thing to master: At first, rechargeable batteries small enough to fit in hearing aids just didn’t have enough power to be practical. But thanks to lithium-ion technology, hearing aids with rechargeable batteries are now long-lasting and reliable. Rechargeable hearing aids can be tremendously convenient, but they aren’t for everyone. We took a closer look at the best hearing aids with rechargeable batteries to help you decide if the devices are right for you....
Basic Facts About Hand Grip Strength Grip strength is the amount of force you’re able to generate when grabbing something. There are various ways to test grip strength, including an instrument called a hand dynamometer, which you squeeze. The dynamometer has a gauge that records the force of the squeeze. When someone with RA has trouble bending their fingers because they don’t have full range of motion (ROM), they’ll have a harder time getting any force behind their grip and record a lower score, explains Mary Ann Wilmarth, DPT, CEO of Back2BackWellness, located outside Boston....
The exact cause of this slight increase is unknown, but global travel, overcrowding (which leads to more person-to-person contact in day care centers, schools, and cities), plus better reporting are possible factors. Another intriguing explanation for the increase in cases is pollution. Research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that short-term exposure to certain respiratory irritants raised the risk of scarlet fever. (2)...
Experts have learned a lot about COVID-19 since stay-at-home orders first hit the United States last spring. During that time, health officials in New York City, Washington DC, and elsewhere released guidelines on how to have safe sex during the pandemic. Although widespread vaccination is under way, these new guidelines regarding safe sex are unlikely to go away anytime soon, since no one actually knows when the pandemic will officially come to an end....
A new study, published in May 2020 in Injury Epidemiology, finds that if girls’ lacrosse players used the same helmets that are mandated in boys’ lacrosse, the number of concussions suffered by girls could be reduced by 44 percent. “What we found is that a surprisingly high proportion of the concussions that girls’ high school lacrosse players sustain, specifically by being struck in the head directly by the stick or the ball, could have been prevented if they had been wearing the same helmet as the boys,” says Dawn Comstock, PhD, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Colorado School of Public Health in Denver....
