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The heart is an amazing muscle that beats around 100,000 times a day. It is essentially a complex pump that is able to adjust blood pressure, flow, and volume in order to provide your body with all the blood it needs. Your heart is constantly adjusting to what you are doing and the state of your body. As you age, your heart adjusts to the needs of an older body. These adjustments come with trade-offs, leaving the heart more vulnerable to disease and other problems....

ApoE 4 is one of several variants of the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene. According to The Alzheimer’s Action Plan, those who have the ApoE 4 gene are three to eight times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who do not carry ApoE 4. The level of risk partially depends on whether the person inherits one or two copies of the gene, which plays a role in how cholesterol is metabolized....

The saying “time is money” is as true for Medicare as it is for big business. This is because not signing up on time for Medicare can result in penalties that you could be paying for as long as you have Medicare. The Medicare Part B penalty, in particular, could cost you thousands of dollars. Knowing when to enroll in Medicare is crucial so that you can avoid paying more than your share....

Spinal meningitis is the inflammation of tissues, called meninges, that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord. This condition usually stems from an infection and leads to symptoms such as a stiff neck, fever, and severe headache. There are vaccines to prevent some types of spinal meningitis. In some cases, spinal meningitis can resolve on its own. However, it can also be life-threatening and require antibiotics, hospitalization, or other medical treatment....

Donating blood is such a simple thing to do and it makes a great impact on the lives of others. It is no wonder then that there are many questions regarding blood donation, especially when it comes to cancer patients. One of the most frequently asked questions goes something like this: “I would like to donate my blood, but was treated for lung cancer three years ago. Can people with cancer donate blood?...

Rectal prolapse is a condition in which there is a protusion of the rectum out through the anus. This article will answer some basic questions about the condition. Who Is Likely to Experience a Rectal Prolapse? Although rectal prolapse can affect anyone, it is most common in adults, and women ages 50 and older have six times the risk as men. It occurs in children, usually between infancy and 4 years of age, who have an underlying predisposing condition....

Sometimes, people with iron deficiency anemia don’t respond to treatment with iron supplementation and may go months to years with little to no improvement in anemia. This can happen if the dose is too low or may be due to factors such as missed doses or poor timing of doses. However, if there aren’t improvements even after making adjustments to the dosage and/or taking the supplement as directed, it may mean that the body isn’t absorbing iron properly or that the anemia is actually due to thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder....

Pulmonary hypertension—elevated blood pressure within the pulmonary artery—is a serious condition that has many causes. For healthcare providers, understanding the cause of a person’s pulmonary hypertension is a critical first step in deciding on optimal therapy. Classifying Pulmonary Hypertension Since the causes of pulmonary hypertension are so varied, it helps to classify them into discrete categories. In an effort to standardize the classification of pulmonary hypertension—so that when healthcare providers and researchers discuss the various causes they will be speaking the same language—the World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new system of classification that has rapidly become the standard....

You may care less about how to relieve trapped gas than you do making sure it happens—and quickly. Thankfully, these three simple positions and movements can help relieve trapped gas and get you feel better again: Getting on your feetLaying on your sideSquatting Trapped gas can cause abdominal pain, bloating, and distention that can make you not only uncomfortable, but interfere with your day. This article looks at ways you can use your own body to help relieve gas, and when you might need medical help instead....

Most doctors make a nice living, but some medical careers are much more lucrative than others. For example, primary care physicians, the general doctors who see patients for a range of care and check-ups, tend to make less than specialists who work in a particular field, according to a 2020 report from the Medical Group Management Association. If you are considering a physician career, and if money is a key factor in your decision, these top-paying medical specialties may be of interest to you....

For a young adult with disabilities, living at home alone isn’t always an option. Changes in your health or medical condition may take you from living well on your own to needing some assistance to perform daily activities. Whether you’re young or old, there are a variety of housing options to choose from when considering assisted living options. Also, some types of housing arrangements can be funded in whole or in part by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance....

Calcium channel blockers constitute a large class of drugs that are widely used for treating several cardiovascular problems. They are most commonly used today as a first-line treatment for hypertension, but they are also effective in treating angina, supraventricular tachycardia, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In general, the calcium channel blockers are well-tolerated, but there are certain side effects that need to be watched out for. Overview Calcium channel blockers prevent calcium from entering into the heart muscle cells, and into the smooth muscle cells that cause blood vessels to constrict....

Despite increased public awareness, there remains a lot of confusion about how you can get HIV and how you cannot. While most people understand that you can’t get HIV from utensils, for example, there are many who will experience a twinge of doubt if they learn that the chef of their favorite restaurant has HIV. It is these doubts, often unspoken, that fuel misconceptions about the disease. These misconceptions, in turn, can alter prevention practices—leading some to overcompensate (such as avoiding drinking fountains) and others to undercompensate (such as “pulling out” before ejaculation)....

Have you ever had an episode where one of your eyes has been twitching uncontrollably for a few days? An eye twitch, while annoying, is usually nothing serious. A twitching eye is a creepy sensation, as you can feel your eyelid moving uncontrollably. But what often feels like a huge movement to you, usually can’t even be detected by your friends. Find out what can cause this and how you can make it stop....

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a progressively worsening condition in which the heart becomes weak and congested. Other heart conditions, such as coronary artery disease, untreated high blood pressure, or a history of heart attack, contribute to the development of CHF. It typically affects people who are over age 65. When you have CHF—the heart continues to work, but it is unable to pump blood sufficiently to meet the demands of the body....

Menopause, premenopause, and perimenopause refer to specific stages in a person’s fertility cycle during and at the end of their child-bearing years. There are a wide range of fluctuations in hormones from adolescence, at the beginning of the menstrual cycle (monthly period), to the fertility peak in the mid-20s and then toward menopause. Perimenopause usually occurs in your 40s and menopause at an average age of 51, but the actual timeframe can vary from person to person....

Like the hair on the rest of your body, your eyelashes can fall out. Thankfully, they also grow back. It takes a couple of months for lashes to grow back under normal circumstances. However, your lashes don’t typically all fall out at once, so you won’t notice that they’re in the process of growing back. Sometimes, lashes can fall out due to an underlying condition. If there’s a medical issue causing your lashes to fall out, they may take longer to grow back....

Throughout the centuries, people have relied on home remedies for colds. Placing a cut onion in the room of someone who is sick is one suggested “remedy” that has been passed down in some families and gets shared over social media every cold and flu season. The idea is that onions have the ability to absorb bacteria and viruses and will actually “pull the germs out” of the sick person. There is no truth to any of these claims....

A dry mouth (xerostomia) can be caused by autoimmune diseases like Sjögren’s syndrome, diabetes, certain medications, and dehydration. Cancer care is also a major cause of dry mouth. Dry mouth is particularly important for cancer patients to address, since the discomfort that comes along with it can cause a change in eating habits at a time when good nutrition is especially critical to maintaining strength and fending off other effects of treatment....

There are two main types of brain tumors: those that start in the brain (primary) and those that spread from cancer somewhere else in the body (metastasis). Primary brain tumors, such as a glioma, happen less often, and when they do, they are mostly malignant (cancerous). A malignant tumor is a mass or clump of cancer cells that keeps growing; it doesn’t do anything except feed off the body so it can grow....