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That’s why Everyday Health teamed up with Jennifer Ashton, MD, chief medical correspondent for ABC News, and Douglas Dieterich, MD, director of the Institute of Liver Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and member of the American Liver Foundation’s National Medical Advisory Committee, to discuss the issues facing this population during a Facebook Live on October 30. In fact, Dr. Dieterich himself has had — and been cured of — hepatitis C....

The study focused on 412 adults without hypertension or cardiovascular disease who had urine tests for levels of four stress hormones — norepinephrine, epinephrine, dopamine, and cortisol. With each doubling of hormone levels in those urine tests, the risk of developing hypertension rose by 21 to 31 percent over a median follow-up period of 6.5 years. Over a longer follow-up period — a median of 11.2 years — 5.8 percent of the people in the study experienced cardiovascular disease events like heart attacks and strokes....

“My neck felt a bit funny, like it was parched,” the Collins, Ohio, resident said. “I didn’t really have pain, but there was some tightness.” Mesenburg, then 60, woke up the next morning with pain in her jaw and arm and felt a bit nauseous. A registered nurse who had recently retired, Mesenburg knew these could be the signs of a heart attack. However, since she also had GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), she thought it might just be heartburn....

Blood glucose that swings from high to low can make you feel sick and increase your risk of long-term health complications. And, low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) can lead to serious complications, and even seizures and loss of consciousness if left untreated. Unfortunately, blood sugar management isn’t always a straightforward process, particularly for those who have just been diagnosed with diabetes. According to Anders L. Carlson, MD, medical director of Park Nicollet International Diabetes Center in Minneapolis, people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes require insulin treatment right away — and this is a significant adjustment, in and of itself, that requires a whole new way of approaching your lifestyle....

Research has also shown that sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome are more common in people with MS. In fact, one Spanish study published in June 2021 in the journal Neurología showed that people who were older than 55, were more disabled, or had secondary-progressive MS had an especially increased risk for a sleep disorder. But not all sleep problems in people with MS are directly or even indirectly caused by MS....

But when those feelings of inadequacy are coupled with angry behavior, anxiety, blue moods, and avoiding playtime, parties, and other social situations, it may signal an inferiority complex, says Leigh Johnson-Migalski, PsyD, an associate professor of psychology at Adler University in Chicago. Although the term is not recognized in the American Psychiatric Association’s current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), inferiority complex can be thought of as a constellation of thoughts and behaviors that together impede a person’s ability to feel competent in almost all aspects of life....

First, I tell my friends to consider what information they’re looking for exactly. Do they want to better understand: Their medical illness from symptoms to diagnosis and treatment?The range of services and specialists they may encounter?The self-care and lifestyle changes they can adopt? Home in on the specific answers you’re looking for to narrow your search and it’ll be easier to find the information you need for more productive and satisfying conversations with your doctors....

A study published in September 2020 in the journal Quality of Life Research found that when a young person’s inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is active, they’re more likely to feel embarrassed about their condition and insecure about their friendships. The researchers also found anxiety and loneliness to be common among participants, who ranged in age from 14 to 25. Still, even though the last thing you may feel like doing (or be able to do) in the middle of a flare is hanging out with your friends and family, it’s also true that socializing can boost your mood and help you feel better....

The first businesses to be targeted for closure are gyms, which, in my opinion, are an essential business and not a luxury. But I don’t want to make this blog about my stance on which businesses should be opened or closed. I want to talk about the importance of maintaining fitness during a time like this. Don’t Stop Exercising Just Because You’re at Home There are many U.S. states where gyms are open, and the gym owners are doing their best to sanitize the equipment and ensure that members keep their “social distance....

Put simply, a person with ASPD doesn’t feel wrong or uncomfortable. People with ASPD, given their lack of empathy for fellow humans and their suffering, often don’t take the consequences of their actions into account. Believing they can do no wrong, and that their lies and manipulations are necessary for getting what they want, they typically don’t experience the kind of discomfort that might prompt people with other personality disorders to seek help....

You may have heard that making sure you get good sleep is an important part of staying healthy, particularly if you have type 2 diabetes. But what exactly is the connection between sleep and diabetes, and why should it be considered a crucial pillar in managing your condition? Here’s what you need to know. Sleep is also essential for hormone regulation, and insulin is a hormone. “In general, poor sleep plays a role in insulin resistance,” says Bidwell, which occurs when your body has difficulty using insulin to move glucose from your blood into cells....

Fortunately though, I’ve learned to persevere. To deal with the extra dose of worry from this pandemic, I’ve adapted my strategies over the last few weeks in ways that help me specifically keep my coronavirus concerns from spiraling into a crippling anxiety attack. The Health Problems That Brought On My Anxiety When I was pregnant with my first child in 2014, I developed preeclampsia. I had felt sick for a while thanks to constant morning sickness and recurrent kidney infections....

Although you may be able to treat the condition at first with oral medication and lifestyle changes, such as exercise and weight loss, most people with type 2 diabetes eventually need to take insulin by injection. “There are several scenarios in which insulin treatment should start, including in patients with significant hyperglycemia who are symptomatic,” explained Alaleh Mazhari, DO, an associate professor of endocrinology at Loyola Medicine in Maywood, Illinois....

Dealing with an AS diagnosis is never easy, and JAS can be especially scary for both children and parents — and it may be more difficult to diagnose because doctors aren’t looking for it in this age group. To make things even more complicated, the first signs of JAS may not include back pain, but rather pain from inflammation in surrounding areas that leads to a different or less specific diagnosis....

When you eat, your body breaks down foods into usable sources of energy. Glucose is the sugar that results. Your body needs glucose for energy and your baby needs it to grow. In order to get glucose out of your blood and into your cells, insulin is required. Insulin is a hormone that you produce in your pancreas. “In gestational diabetes, hormones produced during pregnancy can interfere with insulin and make it hard to use glucose....

Leukemias are cancers of the white blood cells, which occur when the bone marrow creates large numbers of abnormal white blood cells. These abnormal cells can’t do their usual job of fighting infection. They also crowd out the healthy white and red blood cells and platelets in the blood and bone marrow, preventing those cells from performing their normal functions. The result can be infection, anemia (low red blood cell count), and easy bleeding (from a lack of platelets)....

Fatigue and weaknessBruising and bleeding — even difficulty controlling minor bleedsBlood in the urine or dark, tea-colored urine that’s most noticeable in the morning but clears as the day progressesSmall red dots on the skin that indicate bleeding below the skin’s surfaceRecurring infections or feverHeadache, abdominal pain, or back painBlood clots The good news is, there are steps you can take to manage these symptoms. Start with these strategies. 1. Follow your treatment plan....

Still, as the World Health Organization (WHO) points out, headache disorders are some of “the most common disorders of the nervous system.” The WHO says that 1 in 7 adults worldwide has migraine, and that it can be 3 times more common in women than men. To raise awareness and lower the stigma associated with migraine disease and headache disorders, the Coalition for Headache and Migraine Patients (CHAMP) is back with its annual National Migraine & Headache Awareness Month (MHAM) in June....

Living With MS: Judy Delgrolice One morning, I was in the bathroom washing my hands, when I felt cold water dripping on the right side of my head. Believing the roof was perhaps leaking, I searched for signs of a possible source. I became increasingly anxious as the dripping continued but I was still unable to determine where it came from. When I realized that there wasn’t a leak and my head wasn’t wet, I knew there was something terribly wrong and had my client take me to the ER....

MS is believed to be an autoimmune condition, in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin sheath that normally protects nerve fibers in the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerve. As the myelin sheath is gradually destroyed, the resulting scar tissue (sclerosis) disrupts the electrical impulses between the brain and other parts of the body. It’s not clear what causes the onset of this immune reaction, although recent research points to infection with the Epstein-Barr virus as a likely trigger....