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Test your blood sugar and record it in a logbook. Monitoring your blood sugar levels is an important part of managing diabetes. Daily monitoring provides ongoing feedback about your blood sugar levels and diabetes management, says Alison Massey, RD, CDE, certified diabetes educator and registered dietitian at Frederick Primary Care Associates in Maryland. Your blood sugar readings can help guide your decisions about what to eat and when and how to exercise and provide insight into proper medication dosing if you’re on insulin, she adds....

But 3 times more women with IBD choose not to have children than women in the general population. Experts say a major reason for this is that many women falsely believe they are unable to get pregnant or they believe that it would be unhealthy or too risky to have a baby with Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis. But data from the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) published in April 2019 in the journal Gastroenterology showed that for women with IBD whose disease is in remission and who have never had surgery, fertility rates are equal to those of the general population....

How seriously you should take your injuries depends on several factors, including how severe your ITP is in general, how high your platelet count is currently, and how bad your injury is. Depending on these factors, the best response to an injury may range from slapping on a bandage to calling for paramedics. Because of this, the items you should have on hand to deal with ITP-related injuries vary from person to person....

Meanwhile, months of hype, hope, and controversy about the common lupus drug hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) and its unproven ability to prevent or treat COVID-19 has led to stockpiling, shortages, and difficulty getting prescription refills for many people with lupus. In a survey of 334 people with lupus living in the United States who had been taking hydroxychloroquine for more than 11 years, on average, 31 percent reported they were having trouble getting the drug and 5 percent simply couldn’t get it, according to a May report from the Lupus Research Alliance....

As a result, I feel more emotionally resilient and less vulnerable to the impact of stress and drama on my mood. Here are some of the foods I eat every day to feel good. They provide the nutrients my body needs to fight off inflammation in my brain, which leads to depression. “These foods help prevent the cancerous transformation of normal cells and keep the body armed and ready to attack any precancerous or cancerous cells that may arise,” he writes....

Try these expert tips to lighten your household workload and lessen its effects on psoriatic arthritis pain. Declutter. The less you have lying around, the less you’ll have to move when it’s time to dust or vacuum. “As we get older, we accumulate more stuff,” Dodge says, “But you don’t need three or four of the same item in your house.” And if you have knickknacks on your shelves or mantle, don’t leave them all out at the same time....

But many people born with congenital heart defects don’t realize how extensively their hearts continue to be different from others’ hearts. CHD is not just a pediatric health concern. Here are 10 things you might not have heard from your doctor about congenital heart defects in adults. Congenital heart defects are not all the same. For each of the 1 in 100 babies born with a congeni tal heart defect — a problem with the structure of the heart — the condition may be unique....

Stress Relief: 10 Tips to Help You De-Stress Here are some tried and true tips to get stress relief: Stress Relief: Unwise Choices Many people turn to unhealthy choices in an attempt to cope with tension, says Goodstein. These include: Substance abuseSmokingOvereatingDrinking alcohol to excessGambling Even a seemingly harmless source of stress relief, such as computer games, can add to your problems if it cuts into the time you need to take care of yourself....

A stricture is a narrowing of a section of the intestine that causes problems by slowing or blocking the movement of food through the area. Strictures, which are caused by recurrent inflammation, can lead to hospitalization and also to surgery to correct them. This complication is fairly common, with research estimating that more than a third of people with Crohn’s develop strictures within 10 years of disease onset, according to a review published in May 2018 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology....

Here’s how to deal with some of the most embarrassing aspects of living with the condition. Gas in people with Crohn’s may occur as a result of inflammation in the digestive tract, says Paul Lebovitz, MD, a gastroenterologist with West Penn Allegheny Health System in Pittsburgh. “Whenever you have active inflammation of the gut, it changes the natural milieu of the bacteria that live there,” Dr. Lebovitz says. “When you change the bacteria, it can change the gas pattern....

Nausea arises in a variety of situations, and understanding the cause is important for determining the most appropriate treatment. For example, nausea is frequently experienced in pregnancy, so some of these natural remedies may be particularly helpful, especially since you need to be very careful about the medications you take at this time. But whether or not pregnancy is the cause of your nausea, be sure to talk with your doctor about how to best treat it....

“I am originally from Brazil, and one of the things that I see is that the portion sizes here in the United States are crazy,” says Moreinos Schwartz, a Rio de Janeiro native and author of My Rio de Janeiro: A Cookbook, who calls Greenwich, Connecticut, home these days. The rich food eaten in many Latin countries wasn’t meant to be eaten in supersized American-style portions, she points out. “We have a saying in Brazil: ‘One is too little, two is okay, and three is way too much....

Cool, crisp days can make your skin feel parched and scaly. And it’s no wonder: “There’s less moisture in the air to give your skin ambient hydration,” says Jody Levine, MD, a New York City–based dermatologist and an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “That’s why it’s time to change your approach and think about how to protect your skin from harsh outdoor elements like the wind and chilly air....

Extraintestinal complications — those that exist outside the intestines — can even overshadow symptoms in your bowels, making UC tricky to diagnose. They are also highly prevalent, occurring in nearly half of UC patients and appearing more often in women, according to a review published in May 2019 in Current Gastroenterology Reports. While it remains unclear why UC complications can arise beyond the intestines, the review noted that genetic predisposition, irregular immune response, and changes to the gut microbiome are some common contributing factors....

“There’s no scientific data to support home remedies [for ear infections], but they may be soothing, and there could be a placebo effect,” says otolaryngologist Matthew Bush, MD, an assistant professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery with University of Kentucky Health Care in Lexington. The good news about these strategies? They won’t harm you — and they might do just the trick. Ear “popping.” Close your mouth, hold your nostrils, and try to breathe out through your nose, recommends otolaryngologist Austin Rose, MD, director of the pediatric rhinology, allergy and sinus surgery at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill....

As with all the choices you’ll make about your future breasts, finding an expert, in this case an experienced tattoo artist, is super important. One such practitioner is the mastectomy tattoo artist Stacie-Rae Weir, 46, of Austin, Texas. Weir’s work is based in personal experience. In 2008, not long after her mom died of ovarian cancer, Weir learned that she carried the BRCA1 mutation, which raises the risk of breast and ovarian cancer....

“Diagnosing depression requires a complete history and physical exam,” says Richard Shadick, PhD, associate adjunct professor of psychology and director of the counseling center at Pace University in New York City. Doctors must also rule out medical problems such as thyroid disease and consider coexisting emotional health issues issues like anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress, and substance abuse. What goes into a depression screening? “There are many types of depression scales and depression screens,” explains Shadick....

But if you have long-term damage to your pancreas — from, for example, chronic pancreatitis, alcohol abuse, or another disease — the digestion process doesn’t always go smoothly. A breakdown in pancreatic function can lead to a condition called exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, or EPI, in which you lack the digestive enzymes needed to properly digest food. “During exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats aren’t broken down,” says Deepak Agrawal, MD, MPH, chief of gastroenterology and hepatology and an associate professor in the internal medicine department at The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School....

Five years later, I’m still learning and figuring out what foods and activities help and hinder my body post-colectomy. I think it’s a good idea to break down my life with a J-pouch year by year. It’s important to create positive guidelines and milestones, and I’m happy to share mine here. Year 1: Surgery Is Not a Cure for Ulcerative Colitis I was always under the impression that once my J-pouch was anastomosed and I recovered from my final surgery, my life would be completely normal and colitis free....

When you have diabetes, storm preparation goes beyond the basics. Whether you’re living with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, or gestational diabetes, you must take extra precautions to manage your condition in a disaster. RELATED: ‘How I Wish I’d Prepared for Hurricane Irma to Better Manage My Blood Sugar’ To stay safe and healthy, follow these hurricane preparation tips if you have diabetes. 1. Stock Up on Your Diabetes Medication and Keep a Record of It The first thing you should do is check your stock of medication and supplies to ensure you have enough to last through the storm, and if you don’t, call in a refill before disaster hits, says Deborah Malkoff-Cohen, RD, CDCES, who is based in New York City....