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Regular glucose monitoring is important for people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Monitoring can help you and your healthcare team understand what affects your blood sugar levels. This information can be used to guide decisions about your diabetes care plan. Having the right care plan in place can help prevent or delay complications of diabetes. This article looks at how glucose can affect your body, and what can cause your glucose levels to fluctuate....

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a treatment that can help ease some of the symptoms associated with menopause—the point in time when a person’s menstrual cycle has stopped for 12 straight months and permanently ends. During the transition into menopause, the body gradually makes less of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, causing bothersome symptoms like night sweats, hot flashes, and vaginal dryness. For many healthy adults, replacing these levels of hormones in the body through HRT can provide relief during the menopausal phase....

Hypogonadism, sometimes called gonad deficiency, occurs when your sex glands (males usually have testes and females usually have ovaries) produce little if any sex hormones. Hypogonadism can be inherited or acquired. It may occur due to insufficient hormone production in the brain or primary disturbances in the ovaries or testes. It affects teenagers and adults of all genders and is often the culprit of low sex drive (libido). Menopause is an inevitable event that causes plenty of physiological variation in people who have ovaries due to natural decreases in estrogen production....

Infusion therapy is a procedure in which medications are delivered directly into the bloodstream, usually with a needle and catheter that’s inserted into a vein. Infusion therapy is needed when a patient cannot take a drug orally. It’s also a method of delivering medications in larger or more controlled amounts, such as during chemotherapy for cancer or with pain medication during childbirth. You can get infusion therapy in a medical setting or at home....

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is when a lack of iron reduces the body’s ability to make enough red blood cells, which are vital to carrying the oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Without enough iron in the blood, you might feel weak, tired, and short of breath. Iron is necessary to make hemoglobin—the protein that helps red blood cells carry oxygen. IDA occurs because the body is low on iron....

Lexapro (escitalopram), which belongs to a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), is often prescribed to treat depression or anxiety disorders, but it does have side effects. Specifically, Lexapro weight gain is not uncommon. Serotonin is at the root of this. SSRIs like Lexapro work by increasing levels of this chemical, which is involved in feeling happier, calmer, and more focused. Serotonin is also involved in appetite....

Liver failure occurs when the liver cells cease to function. This condition can progress slowly without any symptoms until there is substantial liver damage. Eventually, liver failure can cause a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, jaundice (a yellowish appearance of the skin and eyes), itching sensations, and confusion. Liver failure also causes diminished immunity and makes it hard to efficiently metabolize food and medications. There are many different causes of liver failure, and the most common are alcohol and viruses....

Cracking the neck or popping the back can give off a loud crunching noise. While those sounds may come off as either terrifying or oddly satisfying, it’s quite normal for people like Donovan Smolich, DC. That’s because cracking backs, necks, feet, shoulders and other parts of the body is what he does as a chiropractor. Key Takeaways Chiropractic care is a treatment option used to relieve pain and improve spinal motion and physical function of the body....

A recent study from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) found that many patients being treated for neurological conditions had a history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Key Takeaways New research has shown that adults with neurological conditions are more likely to have a history of childhood trauma, suggesting that there’s a link between “toxic stress” and physical and mental health later in life. Childhood stress and trauma are often referred to as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), which can include things like poverty, violence, having an incarcerated parent, or having a caregiver die by suicide....

Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) is a rare disease caused by a zoonotic virus. This means it can be spread from animals to humans. Mpox is caused by a virus that is closely linked to the virus that causes smallpox. While its symptoms often mimic those of smallpox, mpox is likely to be less severe. The mpox virus is spread through close contact with a diseased person, diseased animal, or objects that contain the virus....

Myotonic muscular dystrophy, which is sometimes called myotonic dystrophy, is a type of muscular dystrophy. It is estimated that the condition affects about one in 8,000 people worldwide. There are two types of myotonic muscular dystrophy, described as type 1 (DM 1) and type 2 (DM 2). DM 1 is also called Steinert’s disease. Myotonic muscular dystrophy causes weakness of the skeletal muscles and the internal organs including the heart, the muscles that power breathing, and muscles of the digestive system....

Open enrollment for 2023 individual market coverage—both in the exchange and off-exchange—began November 1, 2022, and will continue until January 15, 2023 in most states. This article will explain how open enrollment works and what you need to know if you’re enrolling in health coverage for 2023. Although open enrollment continues through mid-January in most states, enrollments generally had to be completed by December 15 in order to have coverage effective January 1....

Oxygen saturation is a measure of how much oxygen is in your blood. Your organs and tissues need oxygen to work. Oxygen can “hitch a ride” in your red blood cells and travel through the bloodstream to get where it needs to go in your body. For most healthy adults, a normal oxygen saturation level is between 95% and 100%. An “O2 sat” level below this range requires medical attention because it means your body isn’t getting enough oxygen....

Diverticulosis and diverticulitis together are called diverticular disease. Diverticula are small outpouchings in the wall of the colon (large intestine). They’re thought to happen because the colon walls develop weak spots. The ultimate cause is not well understood, but it is now presumed to be from a combination of lifestyle factors, age, and genetics. Diverticula are common, especially in people over age 50, but they don’t usually cause symptoms. Indeed, many people don’t know they have any until they’re seen during a colonoscopy....

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often included in general education classrooms—aka “mainstreamed”—but not all thrive in this setting. As the parent of a child with autism, you may decide to look for a school that exclusively serves kids on the autism spectrum. In these settings, teaching approaches and activities are tailored to meet your child’s specific needs, and classrooms are likely to include autism-friendly physical adaptations, such as dimmer lighting and lowered sound....

Radiation therapy is a common treatment for lung cancer, but can it cure the disease? There’s not a simple yes or no answer. The success rate of radiation depends on the type used, what it is being used for, the stage of the cancer, and much more. In early-stage lung cancer, radiation may be tried as a curative approach, especially in people who are not expected to do well with surgery....

Strut-adjusted volume implant (SAVI) brachytherapy uses an implanted device that delivers radiation internally. Brachytherapy is also known as internal radiation therapy. SAVI is often used after a lumpectomy (removing abnormal tissue or cancer from the breast) in those diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. This type of brachytherapy is different from external beam radiation, which applies radiation from outside the body and can cause damage to underlying tissues of the breast, lung, and ribcage....

A sinus infection (sinusitis) can develop after sinus inflammation due to a cold or allergy. Acute sinusitis lasts 10 days to four weeks and can be viral or bacterial. Both children and adults can have acute or chronic sinusitis. Learning more about what causes sinus infections may help you prevent them—or at least be more aware of the possibility that one is on the way. When the inflammation and symptoms last 12 or more weeks, it is called chronic sinusitis and is often due to ongoing inflammation, allergies, irritants, or structural blockages, but can be caused by a fungal infection....

Tenosynovial giant cell tumors are benign (not dangerous), slow-growing tumors that affect joints in the fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, or legs. These tumors are relativity common, particularly in the hands and fingers. They are also called giant cell tumors of the tendon sheath or fibrous histiocytoma of the tendon sheath. Joints are the areas of your body that bend. They are composed of bones, cartilage, and muscles, which are held together with flexible tendons and ligaments....

Medical quackery is loosely defined as the practice of palming off falsehoods as medical fact. It not always done for the purpose of financial gain but often to concoct or contort fact simply to suit one’s own personal beliefs or pretensions. Tell-Tale Signs of Medical Quackery Medical quacks will generally suggest they have skills or insights that qualify them as experts or have unveiled secrets that governments and business want to actively suppress....