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When a child wakes during the night screaming and frightened but remains unarousable, answers and solutions are quickly sought by disturbed parents. These sleep terrors, or night terrors, can affect the whole family. Scheduled awakenings in the first part of the night, but this treatment may require additional help. Learn about using the Lully Sleep Guardian smart device to treat sleep terrors in children. What Are Sleep Terrors or Night Terrors?...

When a person is cisgender, they identify as the gender that is typically associated with the sex that they were assigned at birth. Cisgender is, as such, a complementary designation to the term transgender. A transgender woman is a person who was assigned male at birth but who exists as a woman. A cisgender woman is a person who was assigned female at birth and exists as a woman. A common mistake that people make when trying to use this term is to say someone is “cisgendered....

Genitourinary syndrome of menopause, or vaginal atrophy, is a condition in which the vaginal walls become thin, dry, and inflamed due to menopause. Menopause is when a person who menstruates no longer has a menstrual cycle. It is reached after 12 months without a period. Perimenopause is the time leading up to menopause, when hormone levels begin to fluctuate. This stage of menopause usually lasts about four years, but the time frame varies from person to person....

Wearing contact lenses requires responsibility. Contacts may seem small and harmless, but they are medical devices that must be used with caution. Proper wear and care of contact lenses can prevent serious eye infections—some that could even cause blindness. If you are making the switch to contact lenses, you will need to have an eye exam performed by a certified optometrist or ophthalmologist. You will be fitted with your new contacts and taught how to insert and remove them, as well as how to clean them....

Have you ever wondered why seeing someone yawn makes you feel like yawning? Yawning is an involuntary deep breath, with your mouth open wide, that’s followed by a slow exhale as your mouth closes. There’s a short pause in the breathing cycle between inhaling and exhaling that doesn’t occur except when you’re yawning. Yawning is often considered contagious. Seeing someone else yawn, seeing a picture of a person yawning, or even thinking about yawning can make you do it, too....

Snoring sounds like noisy breathing that occurs during sleep. It’s a very common issue. In fact, around 25% of people are habitual snorers. Men snore more than women—four out of every ten men snore, compared to roughly three out of ten women. Sometimes snoring is harmless, but it can be an indication of a health problem that requires attention. Causes Snoring has many causes, including obesity and anatomical variations affecting the upper airways....

Several different imaging tests can be used to assess the brain’s structure and function. These tests are used to aid in the diagnosis and treatment planning of conditions that affect the brain. Imaging tests can be used to visualize the structure of the brain, skull, or blood vessels. Some diagnostic tests also provide information about activity in different regions of the brain. Interventional procedures for treatment of brain conditions are often done with real time imaging guidance as well....

Calcium supplements are generally safe and are not likely to affect your blood pressure, at least not directly. However, if you are being treated for hypertension, calcium supplements may indirectly cause your blood pressure to rise by interfering with your medication’s effects. Calcium supplements can interfere with the action of certain high blood pressure medications, making them less effective at controlling blood pressure. In this case, the calcium isn’t actually causing your blood pressure to rise; rather, it is stopping your medications from exerting their blood-pressure-lowering effects....

With an early diagnosis and proper treatment, the life expectancy of a person with HIV is near that of someone without the virus. While an HIV diagnosis can raise many questions and fears, the outlook for people living with HIV has improved significantly over the past 30 years. Getting prompt treatment for HIV results in a substantial improvement in prognosis. Since the year 2000, the number of deaths from HIV has been steadily declining....

If you follow sports such as boxing or mixed martial arts (MMA), you’ve probably seen cauliflower ear on professional fighters whose ears appear lumpy and deformed. This condition is a result of repeated injury to the ear and while it is common in combat sports it can occur any time a person suffers significant trauma to the ear. Causes Trauma to the outer ear, which is common in contact sports, can cause damage to cartilage and blood vessels....

You’ve heard good things about the acne treatment Proactiv and want to try it. Until you look at the price tag—uh oh. It’s not cheap, especially when you take into account you’ll need to buy a new kit every month. Does Proactiv really work, and are there any alternatives to Proactiv that aren’t as expensive? When you’re on a limited budget, higher-priced skincare products like Proactiv may not be within your means....

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is a buildup of fluid in the macula—the part of your eye that processes what you see directly in front of you. DME can cause blurry vision or even blindness and is a complication of uncontrolled type 1 or type 2 diabetes. This article discusses the symptoms and complications associated with DME. Frequent Symptoms Early DME is often painless and hard to detect. Symptoms appear when fluid begins to accumulate in the area of the retina surrounding the macula....

Fever, a temperature that is at or above 100.4 F is one of the more common symptoms of childhood illnesses. It is also one of the symptoms that tend to worry parents the most. In fact, there is even a term to describe how parents sometimes overreact to a child’s fever: fever phobia. But some level of concern is warranted because fevers can sometimes signal a serious problem that needs immediate medical attention....

Flaxseed, also known as linseed, is the tiny seeds from the flax plant. Because of their nutritional makeup, flaxseed has been investigated as a way to address the symptoms of many health conditions, including constipation. Here you will learn about flaxseed so that you can make an informed decision as to whether it would be a good thing to add to your diet to ease your symptoms of constipation of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)....

If you or a loved one has contracted viral hepatitis, you should be aware that acute liver failure is a rare but serious possible outcome of the infection. What Is Acute Liver Failure? Acute liver failure is a rapidly developing medical emergency. The condition is also referred to as a fulminant hepatic failure, acute hepatic necrosis, fulminant hepatic necrosis, and fulminant hepatitis. It occurs when cells of the liver are injured so quickly that the organ cannot repair itself fast enough....

Health experts recommend that we check our skin every month for signs of skin cancer and melanoma, but how do we really know whether a mole or freckle is normal or abnormal? And what if you have a lot of moles on your body, including hard-to-see spots on your back or neck? Where do you even start? While a dermatologist is the only person who can truly differentiate between a normal and abnormal mole, there are a few things you can do at home to preemptively spot a troublesome blemish....

If you are dealing with issues like pain, stiffness, or swelling in your knees, massage may potentially be of benefit to you. Whether your symptoms are caused by osteoarthritis or another condition that impacts your joints, there is some evidence showing value in this supplementary treatment. While physical therapy or pain medication may be more frequently prescribed, massage can be an additional option that may positively impact your day-to-day function....

The federal mask mandate for public transportation abruptly ended on Monday after a Florida judge declared the rule unconstitutional. UPDATE On Wednesday, the Department of Justice appealed the ruling that struck down the mask mandate. However, it did not issue a stay to put the travel mask mandate back into effect. Key Takeaways A federal judge in Florida struck down the CDC mask mandate for travel on Monday.Since then, many travel authorities from airlines to buses have stopped requiring masks....

Meghan Fitzgerald, RN, MPH, DrPH, is an adjunct associate professor with the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and a private equity investor. She has decades of experience working in the healthcare field, ranging from frontline patient care to advising prominent healthcare firms. Here, she explains why government-funded child care should be viewed as a benefit, as well as a gain for the economy. While child care expenses in America are increasing exponentially, government spending on early care and education is nearly nonexistent....

An impairment of spatial abilities is the decreased ability to appreciate three dimensional space and to coordinate the use of one’s own body or physical objects. Often described as ideomotor apraxia, this is one of the handicaps that can occur as a result of a stroke that affects the parietal lobe of the brain. Ideomotor apraxia is one of the most challenging neurological disorders to overcome. It affects the ability to carry out simple motor tasks, yet is not related to weakness or loss of sensation....