A variety of these drugs are available, both by prescription and over the counter. Here’s what you need to know about weight-loss drugs and your heart rhythm. Weigh the Medication Risks and Benefits People who are overweight or obese are at risk for serious health problems, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. On top of all that, extra weight makes your heart work harder. Excess weight can cause your heart rate to increase, and an increased heart rate can eventually weaken your heart muscle and lead to congestive heart failure, explains Kevin R....

Many people look to herbs and over-the-counter supplements to help alleviate Crohn’s symptoms. When you seek out dietary supplements and herbal remedies for Crohn’s disease, it’s crucial to remember that such supplements are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), so it’s best to speak to your gastroenterologist or dietitian before trying anything new. “I think the most important thing is for people to take whatever medications their doctor prescribes them and have any supplements be secondary,” says Meira Abramowitz, MD, a gastroenterologist at the Jill Roberts Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City....

Some tumors contain cells that are both SCLC and a form of NSCLC (often large cell), according to the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer. (1) Doctors must know the type of cancer you have to determine the best lung cancer treatment, because each kind requires a different approach. RELATED: Americans Can Do More to Avoid Developing Cancer, Says the American Cancer Society Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer, accounting for 80 to 85 percent of all cases, according to the American Cancer Society....

Overall Symptoms of a Crohn’s Flare There are general symptoms that “potentially indicate active Crohn’s disease,” says Joseph Feuerstein, MD, an attending gastroenterologist at the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. These include: Abdominal pain (i.e., stomach pain)Loss of appetiteNauseaVomitingFeverWeakness or fatigueNight sweatsWeight loss People with Crohn’s will often experience a few of these symptoms at the same time....

You may be wondering: If it’s an activity that can help someone in their nineties stay fit — can it really provide benefits for everyone? Yes, people of all ages and fitness levels, from newbies to elite-level athletes, can get many of the same benefits running provides by doing walking workouts — with the right techniques. When does walking qualify as a workout rather than a few steps here and there to toss laundry in the dryer or get a snack from the kitchen?...

For this reason, your doctor may occasionally administer a blood test that measures your average blood sugar level over the past three months. Called hemoglobin A1C, or A1C, this test can show you how well your type 2 diabetes management plan is working. Here’s what you should know about it and ways to make sure your A1C is in a healthy range. The A1C test results provide insight into how your treatment plan is working and how it might be modified to better control the condition....

Food and Flatulence: Why Gas Happens When you eat, your digestive system works to break down food into usable energy to power the cells and the body’s many processes and functions. But your gut finds certain foods too difficult to break down into just energy and waste, and gas is the leftover product when those foods sit in your colon. Portions of foods that can’t be broken down and digested by the intestines travel to the colon, which is full of bacteria....

I had a plan of attack: I would have a double mastectomy followed by five months of chemotherapy. It was all very simple. Straightforward. Breast cancer, in my mind, would be gone in a few months and therefore didn’t deserve real estate in my brain. I am often the one to prepare, plan, and process. But I didn’t do that in this case. Looking back, I didn’t really understand what I was about to embark on, because I obviously didn’t want to....

Read on to learn the essential information you need to know about alopecia areata, including the symptoms, causes, treatment options, and more. Medication Options Corticosteroids Also known as simply “steroids,” medications such as prednisone may help reduce inflammation and your immune system’s attack on the hair follicles. These may be oral, topical, or injected, and the results may be gradual.Minoxidil (Rogaine) It’s typically sold over the counter for pattern baldness, but minoxidil may also help with hair regrowth in alopecia areata....

There are two main types of COPD: emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Most people with COPD experience both, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). (1) “Think of COPD as a spectrum of disease, with chronic bronchitis on one end and emphysema on the other,” says Jeffrey Michaelson, MD, a pulmonologist with WellStar Medical Group in Marietta, Georgia. When you inhale, the alveoli expand and stretch, taking in oxygen and transporting it to the blood via small capillary vessels within their thin walls....

Intuitive eating (IE), on the other hand, is the complete opposite of dieting, but experts say that it really does help you live a more well-rounded life. She, along with Elyse Resch, RD, coined the term “intuitive eating” in 1995 and authored the groundbreaking book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach, which is now in its fourth edition. They also wrote The Intuitive Eating Workbook: Ten Principles for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship With Food, which is regularly cited by the new wave of registered dietitians who are moving toward a nondiet approach in their practices....

The parasites that cause malaria attack your red blood cells, typically causing a high fever, shaking chills, and other symptoms that may develop into life-threatening complications. Most cases of malaria occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, but the disease also affects several other areas of the world, including Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Parasites That Cause Malaria P. falciparum This species is found in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, but it’s especially common in Africa....

Oral cancer occurs in the tongue, lips, and floor of the mouth, but it can also begin in the gums, minor salivary glands, lining of the lips and cheeks, and roof of the mouth. (2) Oral cancer is most commonly found in squamous cells, the thin, flat cells that line the inside of the mouth and throat, including the lips and oral cavity. (3) If diagnosed early, the five-year survival rate for oral cancer is 86 percent, compared to 40 percent if it’s caught at a more advanced stage....

Findings from a new study presented in March 2018 at the American Heart Association scientific meeting show that people with symptoms of depression have a higher risk of developing afib. In the study, led by Parveen Garg, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, people who scored highest on a clinical screening test for depression and were taking antidepressant medication had more than a 30 percent higher risk for developing afib than people with normal test scores and people who were not taking medications for depression....

“Sometimes we see involvement of one or two bones at initial diagnosis of non-small-cell lung cancer,” says Amy Cummings, MD, a thoracic oncologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles. “Bone metastasis can also occur later on as a progression event.” Unlike bone cancer, which originates in the bones, bone metastases from lung cancer happen when cells break off from the original tumor in the lungs and travel through the bloodstream or lymph system to the bones....

In the study, researchers compared the tumor biology of 96 Black women with breast cancer to that of 87 white women. Within these groups, 49 percent of the Black women had their cancer spread, versus 35 percent of white women. The tumors of Black women had higher tumor microenvironment of metastasis (TMEM) scores, a marker that can help predict the likelihood that a cancer will spread. Even after adjusting for other factors such as age, type, and size of the tumor, having a high TMEM doorway score was linked to a more likely spread of cancer, according to Maja H....

According to Robert Gotlin, DO, a specialist in sports medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital and Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, the benefits of exercise for your energy level are twofold: Exercise boosts your body’s fitness and also your mood, both of which contribute to your overall health and well-being. An increase in endorphin levels “Endorphins are our body’s natural hormones that get released when we are doing something that requires a burst of energy — they are the things that make us perform, make us move,” says Dr....

After a satisfying feast the night before, you wake up with a really grouchy big toe – inflamed, throbbing and red. Your life with gout pain has begun. This form of inflammatory arthritis is largely hereditary and strikes mostly men over 30. But women are also at risk, especially after menopause. Dietary changes alone won’t banish gout pain attacks, but it’s still important to eat gout-fighting foods and avoid those that may sabotage your body....

Essential hypertension is the most common cause of heart-related emergencies for women, accounting for 16 percent of cases, and the second-most common cause for men, making up almost 11 percent of cases, according to study findings published September 8 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study examined nationally representative data on more than 20 million emergency department visits from 2016 to 2018. The good news for patients is that most people treated in U....

Sure, there were short-lived fads like the watermelon diet and a celebrity-endorsed nonalcoholic holiday drink that went viral on TikTok, but there were plenty of recipes you’ll want to add to your regular meal prep rotation, if you haven’t already. After all, cooking more at home not only saves you money, it’s also healthier for your body and, surprisingly, maybe your mind, too. Researchers evaluated more than 650 people who took part in a seven-week healthy cooking course, and found that they had significant improvements in general health and mental health after completing the program compared with a control group, and those results persisted at a six-month follow-up, according to research published in March 2022 in Frontiers in Nutrition....