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Your body may be telling you that it’s time to con­sid­er mak­ing changes in your every­day rou­tine to pre­serve your spine health. Edu­cate your­self on sim­ple lifestyle mod­i­fi­ca­tions such as pil­low choice and opti­mal sleep­ing posi­tions, work­sta­tion point­ers and more com­fort­able dri­ving pos­ture so you can begin to see a dif­fer­ence in your pain lev­els. In addi­tion to tried and true approach­es such as weight loss and smok­ing ces­sa­tion, you can reclaim func­tion and range of motion by avoid­ing cer­tain move­ments at the wrong time of the day and using light exer­cise to ease the inflam­ma­tion that leads to chron­ic pain.

Basal cell car­ci­no­ma (BCC) is a skin can­cer that aris­es from basal cells. Basal cells are found in the low­er lay­ers of the skin. The prog­no­sis for patients with BCC is excel­lent, but if the lesion is left untreat­ed, it can cause sig­nif­i­cant dis­ease pro­gres­sion. BCC occurs pri­mar­i­ly on the face, head, scalp, neck, and hands.

Cataracts are the lead­ing cause of visu­al loss in adults 55 and over. A cataract is a cloud­ing of the nat­ur­al lens inside your eye. This lens, locat­ed behind the iris, works just like the lens of a cam­era — focus­ing light images on the reti­na, which sends images to the brain. The human lens can become so cloud­ed it pre­vents light and images from reach­ing the reti­na. A cataract can be the rea­son sharp objects become blurred, bright col­ors become dull, or see­ing at night is more dif­fi­cult. It may also be why read­ing glass­es or bifo­cals that used to help you no longer seem to be effective.

This con­di­tion can devel­op as a nat­ur­al part of the aging process, but it may also result from injury to the back. Degen­er­a­tive disc dis­ease gen­er­al­ly begins when small tears appear in the disc wall, called the annu­lus. These tears can cause pain. The tears heal, cre­at­ing scar tis­sue that is not as strong as the orig­i­nal disc wall. If the back is repeat­ed­ly injured, the process of tear­ing and scar­ring may con­tin­ue, weak­en­ing the disc wall. Over time, the nucle­us (cen­ter) of the disc becomes dam­aged and los­es some of its water con­tent. This cen­ter is called the pul­po­sus, and its water con­tent is need­ed to keep the disc func­tion­ing as a shock absorber for the spine. Unable to act as a cush­ion, the nucle­us col­laps­es. The ver­te­brae above and below this dam­aged disc slide clos­er togeth­er. This improp­er align­ment caus­es the fact joints-the areas where the ver­te­bral bones tough- to twist into an unnat­ur­al posi­tion. In time, this awk­ward posi­tion­ing of the ver­te­brae may cre­ate bone spurs. If these spurs grow into the spinal canal, they may pinch the spinal cord and nerves (a con­di­tion called spinal stenosis).

You should­n’t feel guilty for indulging around the hol­i­days, espe­cial­ly if you stock the dessert table with health-con­scious treats.

This hol­i­day sea­son, try sub­sti­tut­ing bak­ing recipes that are high in refined sug­ar and heavy creams with recipes that use nat­ur­al ingre­di­ents such as fresh fruit, Greek yogurt, hon­ey and spices. Your desserts will be just as deli­cious and have a healthy, hol­i­day sweet­ness that won’t upset the gut.

There are many chal­lenges can­cer patients face through­out their treat­ment includ­ing appear­ance relat­ed side effects. These sim­ple do’s and don’ts can help you deal with any hair, skin, or nail changes you might experience.

Swal­low­ing is a com­plex process and some­times there are com­pli­ca­tions, such as dys­pha­gia. Our ENT depart­ment dis­cuss­es how dys­pha­gia occurs and how it can be treated.

Your rela­tion­ship with your OB/GYNE is an impor­tant one and many women con­tin­ue their rela­tion­ship with their physi­cian through­out adult­hood. Devel­op­ing a rela­tion­ship with an OB/GYNE that you are com­fort­able with can play a vital role in your long-term health.

Obe­si­ty is a chron­ic, neu­robe­hav­ioral dis­ease that affects over 30 per­cent of adults in the Unit­ed States today. You are con­sid­ered obese if your Body Mass Index (BMI) score, which com­pares your height to weight ratio, is 30 or high­er. Over­time, car­ry­ing excess weight increas­es your risk of devel­op­ing oth­er health con­di­tions like dia­betes, high blood pres­sure and sleep apnea.