Ovarian cancer is a stealthy killer, creeping up without warning and murdering thousands of women every year. So creepy is this monster that there’s still no way to effectively screen for its presence. The Pap [...]
The coronary calcium score test is an excellent screening tool for heart disease. The calcium score number closely correlates to the likelihood of having coronary heart disease: mild, moderate or severe. It also closely correlates [...]
If you’ve been diagnosed with insulin resistance, you’re on a collision course with type 2 diabetes. Make no mistake, insulin resistance – though it may sound rather benign – is a setup for the No. [...]
Okay, you know it happens, but here’s WHY you’re freaking starving the day after a badass leg workout! You thrashed your legs in the gym, and usually a grueling leg workout includes at least one [...]
If you suspect you just had a transient ischemic attack (TIA), get to the ER stat (have someone drive you) so that a doctor can make a diagnosis. It's interesting to wonder just how a [...]
If you’ve ever had cloudy urine, you’ve no doubt wondered what’s causing the cloudiness and may have even been troubled by this odd symptom. After all, is cloudy urine a sign of cancer or some [...]
Yes, it CAN be safe to lose more than two pounds a week as long as you understand some really simple math. And the keyword is "can." Certainly, a "starvation" or "crash" approach to dieting [...]
Few gym-goers realize how wicked their workout breath smells to other exercisers. Yes, you read that right: Before stepping foot into your health club or gym, you should thoroughly brush your teeth. After all, you’re [...]
It's actually possible to be a ticking time bomb with severe coronary heart disease while also having a "normal" cholesterol (lipid) profile. This is why you shouldn't assume you're automatically out of the woods just [...]
Just one crumb of gluten may as well be an entire loaf of bread to someone with celiac disease. Celiac patients can't even have a tiny crumb; that's all it takes to trigger their immune [...]
What if the blood test for celiac disease is negative, but a stool sample is positive for elevated antigliadins? Was your celiac blood test negative, but a stool sample positive for elevated antibodies for gluten? [...]
An elevated resting heart rate is associated with an increased risk of death from all causes. This includes cardiovascular disease. Are you familiar with what your pulse normally is when you're at rest? If not, you'd [...]
If you have high cholesterol, statin drugs may come to mind as something you must necessarily take. As to whether or not high cholesterol is an automatic green light for taking statins: “Absolutely not! Since [...]
You know what an MRA is, but what exactly happens during an MRA – here is my firsthand account. I had an MRA – no, not MRI, but MRA, as in magnetic resonance angiogram. An [...]
Can drinking huge amounts of juice daily lead to insulin resistance? Are you a big juice drinker and wondering if this might cause insulin resistance, a harbinger of type 2 diabetes? We grow up hearing [...]
Have these 19 shoulder arthroscopy questions ready for your surgeon. Don’t wait until the day of your shoulder arthroscopy to ask these crucial questions to the surgeon. If you’re suffering from shoulder pain and have [...]
Find out what likely will happen with your knee if you don’t have revision surgery for a failed total replacement. You’ve had a total knee replacement and, over time, things have gotten worse, leading to [...]
Will insulin resistance make you gain weight? It’s easy to conclude that insulin resistance will lead to weight gain. Insulin resistance is when the body’s cells no longer utilize this hormone efficiently, resulting in blood [...]
One more reason to lift weights is that it will prove a mighty defense against insulin resistance. And you do not want insulin resistance. This is a precursor to type 2 diabetes. Normal fasting blood [...]
Some “diabetes hypochondriacs” test their blood sugar repeatedly with home tests, wondering what really is the right reading range right after eating. “It is not uncommon to have a one to two hour postprandial blood [...]
How young is too young to have measurable plaque buildup in the coronary arteries? A coronary artery calcium score exam has been proven to be very reliable at predicting the likelihood of a coronary event [...]
Here are the causes and solutions to that intense and insane hunger you feel after eating sugary junk foods or highly processed snacks. It's just so amazing that such crazy hunger follows wolfing down a [...]
Reactive hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, can indeed be triggered by processed foods. Reactive hypoglycemia (low blood sugar that can cause deep hunger) and processed foods are tightly linked. “Much of the ‘food’ that surrounds [...]
You know that shoveling snow can be dangerous for poorly conditioned adults, but are kids prone to any dangers from this kind of activity? Yes, they are. But not in the same way [...]
Insulin resistance or prediabetes can be successfully treated or reversed with T3, a bioidentical hormone, says Dr. Kent Holtorf, MD, thyroidologist and founder of Holtorf Medical Group in California. Though a diagnosis of insulin resistance [...]
Is it really true that intense exercise can prevent you from ever getting insulin resistance? IR is when the body’s cells can no longer efficiently “take” the glucose molecules that are delivered to them via the [...]
Who’d ever think that poor sleep or insomnia can actually cause insulin resistance? But it can. Insulin resistance is associated with obesity, even being moderately overweight, lack of exercise and poor diet. It can lead [...]
Wondering if insulin resistance can kill a person? Can you actually die, directly, from insulin resistance? This is a fair question, because insulin resistance is a precursor to type 2 diabetes, and type 2 diabetes [...]
It's possible that low thyroid can cause weight loss -- but wait till you find out how this can happen. Hypothyroidism (the medical term for "low thyroid") is often blamed on gaining weight. Hypothyroidism is [...]
Should people with the celiac disease gene avoid gluten even if they have no symptoms of gluten intolerance? About 30 percent of the American population has the gene associated with celiac disease. According to the [...]
If you have the celiac gene but not the disease, should you eliminate gluten? The short answer is: No. Even if celiac disease only develops in people who have the genes for it, having the [...]
Why must one wait eight weeks between adjustments for low thyroid medication? The eight-week wait between thyroid medication adjustments can be hairy if the last adjustment wasn’t sufficient to correct the hormonal imbalance. Typically, the [...]
Ever wonder why, at the annual physical exam, your primary care doctor doesn't do a genetic screening for celiac disease? Since celiac disease takes an average of nine years to be diagnosed in a symptomatic [...]
The day OF total knee replacement surgery -- after the surgery, that is -- is not always the same as the day AFTER total knee replacement surgery. Are you worried about a loved-one who just [...]
Can these two supplements actually reverse buildup of plaque in coronary arteries (heart disease)? Yes -- according to a very interesting study. But there are things you need to consider about the study. “This study [...]
Do you think you're too old to improve your diet for your cholesterol because it'll take too long to kick in? Guess what: you're wrong. "Any blood work that is obtained on an individual can [...]
Do you fear that the green in your vomit means cancer? Perhaps you've upchucked lately and couldn't help notice that the color of your vomit was actually green. Now that can sure be unsettling. However, [...]
The cost of treating a dog's injuries--the kind from exercise -- is not the least bit cheap. It's advised that you have a "dog injury fund" in a second bank account! When it comes to [...]
Which is better for knee arthroscopy: local anesthesia or general? We all know that general anesthesia comes with far more risks than local, but there are circumstances that call for general anesthesia over local for [...]
Have you experienced a burning sensation in your stomach during or right after exercise? What can cause a burning feeling in your abdomen when you exercise? “Sit-ups can aggravate a hiatus hernia and lead to [...]
