Are Weekend Migraines a Myth?
Some people experience weekend migraines; experts theorize this phenomenon may be due in part to changes in sleep and diet patterns, stress levels, and caffeine. But some studies suggest it’s a myth — and...
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Liver Failure Life Support
When a kidney fails, patients can stay alive with dialysis machines. For failed hearts, there are pacemakers; for lungs, ventilators. For people whose livers fail each year, there is no mechanical life support, and...
Multiple Sclerosis Drug
Researchers believe they may have found a drug that reduces the number and severity of attacks in multiple sclerosis patients. The new drug slows the progression of the disease which leads to crippling disabilities....
Treatment Effective for Binge Eating Disorder
A new study shows a shorter treatment program is just as effective as a more intense program for treating binge eating disorder. Binge eating disorder affects approximately 2 percent of the general population. It...
Herb not Effective for Depression
The herb St. John’s wort is commonly used as an anti-depressant, but new research shows it is not as effective for moderately severe depression as once thought. Researchers from Duke University studied 340 patients...
MENTAL DISORDERS IN YOUNG PEOPLE
According to the Center for Mental Health Services, “At least 1 in 10″ or as many as 6 million young people — may have a ‘serious emotional disturbance.’ This term refers to a mental...
Trends in Treating Depression
Though the number of people using antidepressant medication is increasing, the number of those using psychotherapy to help battle depression is going down. In 1987, the federal government started a health campaign to teach...
Cyberspace for Medical Answers Juvenile Arthritis
Nine-year-old Alana has a lot of fun playing computer games. Computers also give her father, Gerold the latest medical research to fight Alana’s juvenile arthritis. Gerold found what he needed in the world’s largest...
Muscular dystrophy awareness
THE MUSCULAR Dystrophy Association (MDA) has enlisted the support of firefighters nationwide for the 57th annual Fill the Boot summer fundraising campaign. Watch for intersection collection activities in your community in June, July and...
Pain-relief primer
YOU’VE GOT a headache. Or you twisted your ankle. Perhaps you’re feverish. Different pains and ailments require different treatments. However, choosing the right painkiller off the shelf can be a headache-inspiring experience of its...
Easing Back Pain With Electricity
How debilitating can back pain be? Dr. Shaff: Back pain is, I believe, the number two cause of missed work days in the United States. The only one that’s superior to that is the...
What are some of these non-drug behaviors to treating insomnia?
Dr. Stepanski: The behavioral treatments encompass a whole lot of changes. One of the biggest changes that we focus on is trying to limit the amount of time people spend in bed. When people...
The Mystery of Sleep: Insomnia
What exactly is insomnia? Dr. Stepanski: Well, insomnia is by far the most common type of sleep disorder in that it occurs anytime someone cannot get to sleep when they want to, they can’t...
Melatonin
In the middle of the night 5 million people in the U-S are on the job. . . awake at 3 a-m — running our hospitals, our factories — we depend on them to...
Arsenic Linked to Atherosclerosis
A new study reveals long-term ingestion of inorganic arsenic, a contaminant often found in some well water, may be linked to heart attacks, strokes and diseased arteries. For the first time, researchers report a...
A Pain in the Neck
Your neck has a big job to do, supporting the weight of your head through a wide range of motion during everyday activity — and inactivity. Almost everyone experiences neck pain at some point....
Shoulder Therapy
A Norweigan approach to healing an injured shoulder has become the preferred treatment at a hospital in the American southwest. Alphonse had shoulder pain: “I couldn’t hardly move the left arm at all. I...
Chronic Pain Drugs
Six to 10 million Americans — most of them women — spend every waking moment in pain. Their condition known as fibromyalgia has been difficult to treat because its exact cause is unknown. Two...
Uneven Limbs
You could go your whole life and never know that you had one leg shorter than the other one. And if it doesn’t cause you any problems, why should you care? Well, what a...
Is It Life or Fibromyalgia?
Almost everyone experiences occasional aches, pains, and fatigue. But if such symptoms increase in frequency or severity, or are accompanied by other indicators, they could point to a chronic illness such as fibromyalgia. One...
A Good Night’s Rest
It’s estimated about 40 million people snore. Snoring can mean sleepless nights for the other person and is responsible for landing many married couples in separate rooms. A natural remedy may mean quieter nights....
Treating Crohn’s Disease
Patients who have surgery for inflammatory bowel disorders such as Crohn’s disease recover quicker and have shorter hospital stays if they have laparoscopic surgery rather than traditional surgery. Doctors have been using laparoscopic surgery,...
Possible Link Between Mono and Hodgkin’s
While doctors say there is an association between infectious mononucleosis and Hodgkin’s disease, they have been unsure whether the risk is causal. A new study sheds some light on the development of the issue....
Nausea Wristband
Many people get an upset stomach now and then. For some people, nausea is a constant torment. A new device helps soothe even the worst upset stomach. Janice, Nausea Sufferer: “The nausea in the...
Meningitis Treatment
A study hopes to speed up therapy for possible meningitis patients by identifying symptoms that indicate whether treatment will be well received. Lumbar puncture is the common treatment for suspected meningitis patients; however, because...
Filtering Blood
Imagine being able to clean blood by putting it through a filter. That’s what blood banks around the country are doing to make blood transfusions safe for patients with weak immune systems. Donated blood...
Graves’ Disease
About 13 million people in the United States have a thyroid condition. Although many are not as mysterious as Graves’ disease, they still go misdiagnosed. Graves’ disease is not as frightening as it sounds....
Drug Helps Kids with Gastroenteritis
Given intravenously, the drug ondansetron decreases vomiting in children with gastroenteritis, according to the research. Gastroenteritis affects about 30 million children in the United States every year. It’s an acute infection in the stomach...
Protecting Epileptics Behind the Wheel
Six states in the country require doctors to report any loss of consciousness during a seizure of one of their patients. While the law was designed to protect the public from car accidents caused...
Socioeconomic Status and Epilepsy
British investigators have linked epilepsy to socioeconomic factors. In the British Medical Journal, researchers report people suffering the greatest socioeconomic disadvantages are significantly more likely to develop the condition than those suffering the least....