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According to the American Heart Association, around 50% of Americans have heart disease. Cardiovascular disease increases your risk for heart attack and stroke. Key Takeaways Almost half of all Americans have heart disease.While there are some risk factors for heart disease you can’t change, the foods you eat can have an effect on your health—including your heart.A new study has shown that plant-based omega-3 fatty acids, found in foods like walnuts and flax seeds, may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and fatal coronary heart disease....

Dry mouth (xerostomia) is a common side effect of radiation therapy for people undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer. It is caused by damage to the salivary glands when they are exposed to the direct effects of radiation. When a person has a treatment-related dry mouth, eating can be tricky. It is often extremely difficult to chew or swallow with little or no saliva to help break down the food....

Gout is an inflammatory form of arthritis that occurs when uric acid crystals accumulate in the joints, causing painful and sometimes debilitating symptoms. While the most common area affected by gout is the big toe, it’s possible to have gout attacks and flares throughout the body, including in the hands. This article discusses gout in the fingers, including the most common symptoms, causes, treatments, and preventive measures. Finger Gout Symptoms The symptoms of gout are fairly consistent regardless of the location of the attack or flare-up....

One of the most common and outwardly noticeable side effects of cancer treatment is hair loss or alopecia. Many people, women, and men alike are surprised at the emotional impact that losing their hair during cancer treatment can have. Chemotherapy and Hair Loss Chemotherapy is the most common type of treatment for blood and marrow cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. However, these powerful cancer-killing medications are not able to tell the difference between cancer cells and your body’s healthy cells....

To diagnose exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), a rare but serious malabsorptive condition, a gastroenterologist will perform a thorough medical evaluation to determine if your symptoms are EPI-related. This evaluation can help rule out gastrointestinal problems and may involve certain tests, such as stool, blood, breath analyses, and imaging. EPI most often occurs in people who have conditions affecting the pancreas such as chronic pancreatitis, celiac disease, diabetes, and cystic fibrosis. Most people don’t experience symptoms until the condition has become advanced, as mild forms of EPI may not warrant an immediate visit to a doctor....

If you’ve ever had surgery or been sick or injured enough to require hospitalization, there’s a good chance you were given something called lactated Ringer’s solution. This oddly named fluid is delivered via IV (intravenously, which means into a vein) to treat dehydration, deliver medication, and restore fluid balance following an injury. Lactated Ringer’s is a sterile solution composed of water, sodium chloride (salt), sodium lactate, potassium chloride, and calcium chloride....

Because there are many types of cardiac disease, each affecting different parts and functions of the cardiovascular system, we need a battery of heart tests to make an accurate diagnosis. Some tests, such as an echocardiogram, are used to identify abnormalities within the heart or blood vessels. Others, such as stress testing, aim to see how well the organs are performing with respect to your age, health, and personal characteristics....

Knee injuries are common in kids who play sports, including ligament injuries and sprains. And these types of injuries, especially if a child can’t walk or the knee is unstable, can be serious. This is often why parents bring their children to their pediatrician when they have knee pain. Osgood-Schlatter disease is also a common cause of knee pain, but unlike sprains and other injuries, it is usually not very serious and has few long-term effects....

Pituitary adenomas are tumors that can affect vision, sometimes causing vision loss. As they grow in size, pituitary adenomas can put pressure on important structures in the body, such as the optic nerve. Putting pressure on the optic nerve may cause blindness, so it is crucial for eye doctors to detect pituitary tumors before they cause damage to vision. Pituitary Gland The pituitary gland is about the size of a bean and is attached to the base of the brain behind the nasal area....

If you have a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease or another kind of dementia such as vascular, Lewy body, or frontotemporal, it’s important to be on the lookout for infections. Typically, a person whose cognitive functioning is intact would tell us of some pain they’re experiencing or express that they don’t feel well, but dementia makes this process more difficult because the person can’t always find the words to express a feeling or concern....

If you or a family member or friend have recently been diagnosed with melanoma, you may be wondering, just where and why can melanoma spread? With surgery, melanoma confined to the skin has a 5-year survival rate in 98% of cases. Unfortunately, if the lesion recurs (returns), gets thicker, or spreads from the skin to the lymph nodes or distant organs, it becomes much more dangerous. This occurs in stage III and IV melanoma and is called melanoma metastasis....

Hamstring muscle injuries are common, especially in athletes. Most often, hamstring muscle injuries are partial tears of the muscle. These types of injuries, called muscle strains, occur when the fibers that make up the muscle are stretched beyond their normal limits. Symptoms of a hamstring muscle strain can include pain, bruising, swelling, and difficulty with certain movements, particularly athletic activities. Sometimes, the injury to the hamstring is more severe. Complete tears of the hamstring typically occur when the tendon is torn away from the pelvis at the top of the muscle....

Voice surgery for transgender individuals may be an option for individuals who experience dysphoria about their voice and have not been helped enough by the practice of voice therapy. Purpose Voice therapy can be helpful for people who are learning to speak in a way that is read as more masculine or more feminine. It can also help people, to a degree, make their speaking voices sound a certain way. However, it does not adjust the fundamental pitch of the voice....

Injection of Botox (botulinum toxin type A) has become one of the most common nonsurgical cosmetic procedures performed in the United States. Yet, amid its unflagging popularity, there remain many myths about the procedure, the most common being that people who get Botox are being injected with botulism (a bacterial form of food poisoning). It is this and other types of misinformation that can lead consumers in the wrong direction when deciding whether to use Botox....

The use of a cast is a common treatment in orthopedics, a branch of medicine that treats bones and muscles. Often used for treating a broken bone, a cast can be useful after surgery and for other conditions that require immobilization. Unfortunately, a cast can start to stink, and often the smell can become quite bad. Once a cast starts to smell bad, it is unlikely that it will start to smell good....

Flumazenil is a drug used to reverse certain kinds of sedation given for diagnostic or surgical procedures. It can also be a lifesaving treatment for benzodiazepine drug overdose. What Are Benzodiazepines? To understand the uses of flumazenil, it’s helpful to understand a little about benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines are a class of drugs that activate a type of receptor found on many cells of the nervous system, called the GABA receptor. In general, binding to these receptors produces a calming effect on the brain....

Look in almost any medicine cabinet and you are likely to find an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug). NSAIDs, which are used to treat pain and inflammation, are so common that they often have their own aisle in drugstores. In fact, care needs to be taken to ensure that people do not accidentally take too many NSAIDS, especially because it can be easy to use more than one of these over-the-counter drugs to treat pain and fever from the flu or other common illnesses....

According to the National Cancer Institute, invasive breast cancer affects approximately one in eight U.S. women, and about 5 percent to 10 percent of all breast cancers are hereditary. At present, most people are familiar with BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, which are inherited gene mutations—or abnormalities in the DNA sequencing—that increase the risk of developing breast cancer. According to statistics from the National Cancer Institute, by age 80, about 72% of women who’ve inherited a BRCA1 gene mutation and approximately 69% of women who’ve inherited a BRCA2 gene mutation will likely be diagnosed with breast cancer....

If you or someone you know has had a stroke, you may be well aware that the road to recovery after treatment can be long and often frustrating. Rehabilitation begins as early as possible, often during the initial hospital stay, and may include rehabilitation nursing, physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy, and social work. In addition to standard rehabilitation, some people turn to acupuncture, a type of needle-based alternative therapy long used in traditional Chinese medicine....

The tibialis anterior muscle is the muscle located in the front part of the shin bone of your lower leg. The muscle courses from an area just below your knee, down the front of your shin, and finally attaches to the top of your foot. Function of the Tibialis Anterior Muscle Your anterior tibialis muscle serves to help flex your ankle and foot off the ground, as occurs when tapping your foot....