Technology makes it easier and cheaper to see your doctor, which may encourage you to check in more often. Regularly touching base with your doctor via telehealth may, in turn, help you manage your condition better and even reduce the severity and frequency of flare-ups, according to a study published in March 2020 in the journal Smart Homecare Technology and TeleHealth. “There’s no question we’ll find that a mix of telehealth and inpatient appointments will [lead to] better outcomes,” says Louis Cohen, MD, an assistant professor of gastroenterology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City....

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans seem to echo this sentiment that moderate drinking is safe. They recommend no more than two drinks a day for men or one daily drink for women. One drink, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes, could be a 12-ounce (oz) beer, 8 oz of malt liquor, a 5-oz glass of wine, or a 1.5-oz shot of hard liquor like gin, rum, vodka, or whiskey....

I don’t know if all those women sincerely liked either the hue (if you’re wondering what Thyme Is Money looks like and you’ve settled on a kind of green that can also look blue in the right light, you win). But in retrospect, I wonder. Because in the OR — not the most relaxing place in the world and even more intimidating flat on my back on a gurney — the women’s compliments compelled them to pick up and hold my hands in their own....

It’s a line written by Aaron Sorkin for the character of the best friend and chief of staff to the eventual president — who, incidentally, has MS — on The West Wing, a political drama TV series that ran from 1999 to 2006. Caryn and I binge-watched the entire series in the waning months of the previous American administration. The line stuck with me in recent weeks, and I realized that I’d gone beyond “fake it till you make it” and have been living in a world of stories, fairy tales, and outright lies to myself for a good while now....

“Meningitis can be a life-threatening illness,” says Jeffrey R. Starke, MD, medical director of infection control at Texas Children’s Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, both in Houston. “It’s an infection of the meninges, the protective covering of the brain and spinal cord, and it can cause temporary or permanent damage.” About 800 to 1,200 Americans contract meningitis each year — a number that’s become much lower since more and more people are getting the vaccine....

Thyroid cancer ranks as the 8th most common cancer in the United States, affecting 3.5 per 100,000 people each year, according to the National Cancer Institute. However, the cancer kills only 1 per 200,000 people each year. About 98 percent of people with thyroid cancer survive for at least 5 years after being diagnosed with the disease. Part of the reason for this high survival rate is that thyroid cancer is usually caught early, before it has had a chance to spread beyond the throat....

What Is Dangerously High Cholesterol? You may be diagnosed with borderline-high or high cholesterol if your blood test results show: Total cholesterol higher than 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL)LDL (“bad”) cholesterol higher than 100 mg/dLTriglycerides over 150 mg/dLHDL (“good”) cholesterol lower than 40 mg/dL But what do these numbers really mean for your health? While having high cholesterol isn’t something you’ll notice day to day, it does mean you’re at risk for — or may already have — heart disease, the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United States....

RELATED: Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment and Therapies Things to Avoid When You Have RA Below are a dozen things that can make you feel worse, cause your symptoms to flare, or cause your disease to progress. While you may be aware of some of this list, the rest are lesser known in terms of being linked to RA. 1. Not Sticking to Treatment After you are diagnosed with RA, your doctor will recommend a course of treatment to help manage RA symptoms and disease activity....

In the past decade I’ve seen an improvement in my psoriasis symptoms with biologic treatments and have felt more confident about traveling. But the COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020 came at an inopportune time, just when I’d started a four-month sabbatical from work and had booked several trips. A vacation in Hawaii with my wife to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, a journey to China with my parents: Sadly, we had to cancel everything....

The study, published in May 2019 in the Journal of Diabetes, follows several other studies over the past decade — including an Australian study published in February 2015 in the journal Diabetes Care, a Swedish study published in January 2015 in the International Journal of Cancer, and previous research from Japan — that have pointed to a convincing association between diabetes and cancer, says coauthor Bin Cui, MD, of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China....

Treating eczema and atopic dermatitis and preventing flare-ups can be confusing and overwhelming. That’s why it’s important to find doctors and healthcare providers who can answer your questions, offer recommendations for avoiding triggers and easing symptoms, and prescribe treatments if needed. Fortunately, there are many experts out there who can do just that. Here’s who they are, and how they can help. RELATED: Eczema and Diet: Foods to Eat and Avoid to Prevent Flare-Ups There are several different types of eczema, but atopic dermatitis is the most common, per the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD)....

For example, a study published in November 2016 in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases found many young people in particular want to use social media to manage their IBD and find educational information about their condition. “Social media can connect patients to both an online community and reliable information,” says Dana Lukin, MD, a gastroenterologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, in New York City. “Online community support can help patients geographically separated from an in-person IBD community or those with busy lives that might not be able to — or if patients are apprehensive to — attend in-person support groups....

A family history of developing itAre overweight or inactive, or have obesity according to your body mass index (BMI)Are of a certain ethnicity, including Black American, Hispanic American, Native American, Asian American, or Pacific IslanderAre a smokerHave had gestational diabetes Previous research suggests men with diabetes are up to three times more likely to develop ED than those who do not have the disease. A healthy diet and regular exercise are important to staying within this goal....

Doctors assign multiple myeloma a stage as a concise way of describing where the cancerous cells are, whether and where they have spread, and whether they are affecting other parts of the body. As with other cancers, the purpose of staging multiple myeloma is to help doctors determine the best treatment and prognosis (chance of recovery). Different types of cancer rely on different staging systems. The staging system used for multiple myeloma is different from the kind used for breast cancer, for instance....

For most people prone to hives, the welts disappear in 24 hours or less without leaving any bruises or scars. But for some people, the welts don’t disappear in a day — or even a week. Urticaria are defined as chronic when they last longer than six weeks, either continuously or intermittently, according to Mark Aronica, MD, a physician in the department of pulmonary, allergy, and critical care medicine who specializes in asthma and allergic disorders at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio....

NMOSD tends to be a relapsing disease, characterized by attacks (also called flare-ups or exacerbations) with periods of recovery (also called remissions) in between. These attacks can be debilitating and cause permanent damage, so treatment is geared toward both reversing recent symptoms and preventing future attacks, according to the Mayo Clinic. NMOSD happens when your immune system targets myelin, a substance that forms a protective layer around nerves. It’s unknown what causes this autoimmune attack....

As many as 50 to 75 percent of new mothers feel some degree of unhappiness, worry, and fatigue after having a baby, Cleveland Clinic experts say. Although it may take more time for a mom to “feel like herself again” after having a baby, the feelings of sadness associated with these so-called “baby blues” rarely last more than two weeks, and they typically go away on their own. When the symptoms last longer — or seem more serious — the diagnosis may be postpartum depression, a condition that can persist for months, according to the Cleveland Clinic....

Different Microbiomes in the Body Various communities of microbes live throughout the human body, each making up its own microbiome: Several strategies can rebuild a healthy gut microbiome. Foods that promote increased levels of SCFAs (sometimes called prebiotics) are raw forms of garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, bananas, seaweed, dandelion greens, and Jerusalem artichokes. It’s important to introduce prebiotic foods slowly into your diet, as doing so suddenly can lead to an increase in gas and bloating....

For some it was extremely challenging. Some 27 percent of respondents to a nationwide survey conducted by Harvard and the University of North Carolina reported feeling very or extremely lonely, the researchers observed in their National Pandemic Emotional Impact Report in June 2020. Another survey, of 2,000 people who’d received care at the Mayo Clinic, found many people, and especially women, increased their feelings of loneliness during the pandemic, according to Social Science & Medicine in April 2021....

Feelings of grief may also be more pronounced right now, when the absence of loved ones from annual events is plainly evident. With the disproportionate number of Black and brown people who have become sick or died of COVID-19, along with other significant events of the past two years, such as racial and social unrest and mass job loss, the Black community may be even more at risk of depression and anxiety this holiday season than in past years....