Creaky Knees? Help for Aching Joints
About one-third of US adults have reported having joint pain within the past month. Topping the charts is knee pain, followed by shoulder and hip discomfort.
Continue readingAbout one-third of US adults have reported having joint pain within the past month. Topping the charts is knee pain, followed by shoulder and hip discomfort.
Continue readingI just finished allergy testing and found out that I’m allergic to many of the pollens from different trees and grasses, some of which are in my yard.
Continue readingWe’re going to talk about the 10 most asked questions about vaginal discharge.
Continue readingI’m pretty sure you know someone who suffers from asthma. This chronic inflammation of the lung airways that causes coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, or shortness of breath sends close to 13 million people in the US to see a providers each year. Cases of asthma are higher in children than in adults, and higher in women than in men.
Continue readingOur eyesight is one of those things we tend to take for granted until something goes wrong. Here’s the latest on keeping your eyes, well, looking good. (pun intended)
Continue readingWhat do you know about heart disease, the number one cause of death in the US? Read part 1 here, to get the basics, and a little of what it feels like to have heart disease. Here’s more on what you can do to optimize your health.
Tests and Diagnosis
Besides blood tests to check your cholesterol levels and a chest X-ray, tests to diagnose heart disease can include:
Prevention
There are behaviors that can keep your heart heathy and strong:
Sleep?
You’ve heard me mention the healthy habits above before, but what about sleep? What does that have to do with heart health?
The evidence has been mounting that poor sleep, including sleep deprivation and fragmented sleep, can negatively impact the health of our hearts. There is a lot of essential work going on in our bodies when we sleep.
In order to repair and refresh our systems we need a certain amount of the right kinds of sleep on a regular basis. During times of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep the heart rate slows, blood pressure drops, and breathing stabilizes. This gives your heart a nice break from all the work it does during the day. If sleep time is fitful or too short, NREM is not achieved long enough for the heart to rest.
So, chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to health and heart problems including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart attack, and stroke, as well as obesity and diabetes. The lowered night blood pressure is protective; with good sleep blood pressure drops by around 10 to 20 percent.
Sleep Apnea
This is another sleep related heart risk. When your airway gets blocked repeatedly for a few seconds while you sleep, over time the lack of oxygen can cause many health problems including heart damage. Sleep apnea can be successfully treated with a machine that delivers air pressure through a mask while you sleep. It’s called a CPAP (SEE-pap), machine and it is worn on the face at night to keep your upper airway passages open, preventing apnea and snoring.
So, here’s my heartfelt message to you, take care of your heart. Your family and friends will love you for it.
During the month of Valentine’s Day, we tend to think of the human heart in terms of love, emotional strength, and goodness. The heart is also our body’s essential engine, beating 100,000 times a day, pumping oxygen and nutrients throughout our system. Sadly, on the whole, our heart engines are not very healthy.
Continue readingThere is a whole medical branch called pharmacokinetics that is the study of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion.
Continue readingResearch has shown that when people are in pain, they very naturally limit their physical function, this leads to fewer interactions and results in many losses, including those activities which have brought joy.
Continue readingAt all ages, our brains need a good workout, just like our bodies. We are now living much longer but our cognitive health is not keeping up, because many of our brains are not being challenged and strengthened as we age.
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