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Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a progressive condition that will worsen with time. It can cause significant pain, fatigue, and disability and affect various aspects of your life, including your work and home lives. The emotional strain of living day-to-day with AS can affect a person’s mental health and lead to mood disorders like depression and anxiety. There is no cure for AS, but treatment can manage the disease’s processes, ease back pain and other symptoms, and reduce the potential for disability and other disease complications....

Back pain is physical discomfort that occurs along the spine or back. It may feel like a constant, dull ache or sudden, sharp, stabbing, or burning pain. Problems with the spine, inflammatory disease, and other health conditions are common causes of back pain. Treatment for back pain varies, depending on the cause and severity of the pain. This article explores back pain symptoms, the various causes, risk factors, and treatment options....

Self-care is defined as ways people can prevent disease and manage health conditions without the support of a healthcare provider. Self-care is usually complementary to standard medical care. In some milder health issues, self-care strategies may be the sole strategy to manage the condition. There are many evidence-based self-care practices for treating atopic dermatitis (eczema). This article explains how to practice self-care with eczema and provides tips on finding a good skincare routine....

If you have hand weakness or have been experiencing “heaviness” in one or both of your hands, there could be a number of different reasons for this. Sudden hand weakness is concerning as it may be a sign of a stroke—a serious medical emergency. However, if you have had a nagging hand weakness, it’s usually not related to a serious medical problem and is rarely life-threatening. Hand weakness lasting for weeks or months is typically caused by a treatable medical condtion....

Comfrey cream is a natural substance made from Symphytum officinale, an herb in the borage family. Also known as comfrey ointment, salve, or gel, it’s said to reduce inflammation (swelling) and alleviate pain when applied to the skin. Proponents claim that comfrey cream can treat a variety of health conditions and injuries. Comfrey cream contains several substances thought to have health benefits. These include anti-inflammatory compounds and allantoin, which is thought to speed up wound healing by stimulating new cell growth....

When you’re dehydrated, you’re losing more fluid than you’re taking in, which affects how well your body functions. Dehydration is common in people with diabetes, a chronic condition of high blood sugar. As a result, you may feel extremely thirsty and urinate less frequently, and severe dehydration can be dangerous. This article will explain the connection between dehydration and diabetes, why it happens, what to do about it, and when it’s critical to see a healthcare provider....

Diabetes is a chronic disease that causes a disruption in the metabolism of sugar (glucose), resulting in high blood sugar. In the U.S., 11.3% or 37.3 million people have diabetes, and 23% or 8.5 million people are undiagnosed. Taking care of your diabetes means addressing behaviors that can contribute to blood sugar control, such as managing stress, eating healthy, and exercising regularly. Adequate sleep is also important. On average, adults need roughly seven to nine hours of sleep, and kids need even more....

Erectile dysfunction (ED) becomes more common as people get older because testosterone levels drop over time. In fact, age is the variable most strongly associated with ED. Approximately 40% of people with penises have some experience of ED by age 40, and by age 70, nearly 70% of people with penises are impacted to some degree. At age 40, 5% of males are diagnosed with complete ED, but this number increases to 15% by age 70....

Gluten is a protein in various kinds of grains. It helps food keep its shape, basically acting like a kind of glue to keep the food together. But some people can’t eat anything that has gluten. And if you’re a diabetic, that means you need to eat foods that are gluten-free as well as foods that help keep blood sugar levels steady. It’s not easy to follow a gluten-free diet that also works for diabetes....

To thoroughly understand what happens the day of gallbladder surgery, it’s important to know which type of surgery you will be having and why. In most circumstances, when the gallbladder is diseased, it is the result of gallstones. But there are other underlying conditions that may warrant gallbladder surgery, such as cancer of the gallbladder or inflammation of the gallbladder (cholecystitis). Usually, the treatment of choice for various conditions of the gallbladder is a cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder)....

Range of motion (ROM) measures the distance and direction that a joint can stretch. This varies from person to person. Think back to gym class. Some people could touch their toes, even palm the floor. Others couldn’t reach their ankles. Knowing what your ROM is can protect you from overdoing things and getting hurt. Read on to learn more about the ranges of motion that are typically considered normal for various joints throughout the body....

Hemophilia A is a bleeding disorder that can range in severity. Mild hemophilia A can cause slightly increased bleeding and bruises after an injury without dangerous consequences. But severe disease can cause extensive bleeding that could be life-threatening. The most common type of hemophilia A is caused by a genetic defect that results in faulty production of clotting factor VIII. This is usually hereditary, but some people can have the mutation without inheriting it....

Many people can diagnose acne on their own, particularly in mild cases; most people recognize the symptoms of this very common skin condition. But while you may be familiar with what an occasional zit looks like, there is actually a wide range of severity. Seeing a dermatologist to formally diagnose acne can be very helpful, as different grades of acne usually require different types of treatments. There are also several other skin conditions that mimic acne, which may need a different approach entirely....

In order to diagnose epilepsy, your healthcare provider will need to verify that you’ve had two or more unprovoked seizures and then figure out what type of seizures they were. This can involve a neurological exam and a variety of tests, the most common of which is an electroencephalogram (EEG). Other tests may include blood tests, a computerized tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and a positron emission tomography (PET)....

Organ weight is a complex subject. There are many factors—including body weight, height, lean body mass, and race—that cause organ weights to vary widely. To figure out accurate ranges for organ weights, a lot more data need to be collected. Furthermore, this data needs to come from different types of people. Right now, such data are not routinely collected. Organ weights used for reference need to come from forensic autopsies, which are usually performed in cases of suspicious, sudden, or traumatic death where a dead person’s organs are otherwise healthy....

What Is Janumet? Janumet is a combination of the anti-diabetes medicines, metformin and sitagliptin. Metformin and sitagliptin, along with diet and exercise, help improve blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Metformin is a biguanide, a medicine that decreases glucose (sugar) production in the liver and decreases its absorption by the intestines. Sitagliptin is a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor. It works by regulating the amounts of insulin to control your blood sugar after you eat....

What Is Januvia? Januvia (sitagliptin phosphate) is a prescription medication used with diet and exercise to improve blood sugar (glucose) control in adults with type 2 diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, your body develops heightened resistance against the hormone insulin. The pancreas produces insulin to help move glucose into the cells. When you develop insulin resistance, the body needs more insulin to stabilize glucose levels. Over time, the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to keep up....

Ophthalmologists and optometrists diagnose macular degeneration as part of a comprehensive eye exam. Accurate diagnosis is made through a combination of a clinical exam and specific tests. These can include retinal photography, angiography, and optical coherence tomography. Macular degeneration is usually classified as atrophic (dry) or exudative (wet) forms. In this article, you’ll learn when to get tested for macular degeneration, which tests diagnose it, and early symptoms to watch out for....

While many people with MS experience numbness and tingling at some point, you may or may not have heard of or experienced numbness and tingling of the mouth—a particularly unpleasant sensation. In multiple sclerosis, mouth numbness, like other sensory disturbances, is associated with damage to myelin, the fatty sheath that insulates nerve fibers. It generally occurs from a lesion in the brainstem and may affect the face as well. Like other MS symptoms, a healthcare provider can diagnose new numbness using an MRI....

When nerves in your body get damaged, it’s called neuropathy. The condition causes chronic pain. If you have numbness, burning, or tingling in your hands or feet, it’s called peripheral neuropathy. The means that occurs in a part of your body away from the center (peripheral), like your limbs. Many diseases cause neuropathic pain. One of the most common is diabetes. There are several ways to treat neuropathy. You might take a pill by mouth....