Health and Fitness

Overview Tendinitis is inflammation or irritation of a tendon — the thick fibrous cords that attach muscle to bone. The condition causes pain and tenderness just outside a joint. While tendinitis can occur in any of your tendons, it's most common around your shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees and heels. Some common names for various tendinitis problems are: 1. Tennis elbow 2. Golfer's elbow 3. Pitcher's shoulder 4. Swimmer's shoulder 5. Jumper's knee Most cases of tendinitis can be successfully treated with rest, physical therapy and medications to reduce pain. If tendinitis is severe and leads to the rupture of a tendon, you may need surgery. Symptoms Signs and symptoms of tendinitis tend to occur at the point where a tendon attaches to a bone and typically include: 1. Pain often described as a dull ache, especially when moving the affected limb or joint 2. Tenderness 3. Mild swelling Causes Although tendinitis can be caused by a sudden injury, the condition is much ...

Overview Frozen shoulder, also called adhesive capsulitis, involves stiffness and pain in the shoulder joint. Signs and symptoms typically begin slowly, then get worse. Over time, symptoms get better, usually within 1 to 3 years. Having to keep a shoulder still for a long period increases the risk of developing frozen shoulder. This might happen after having surgery or breaking an arm. Treatment for frozen shoulder involves range-of-motion exercises. Sometimes treatment involves corticosteroids and numbing medications injected into the joint. Rarely, arthroscopic surgery is needed to loosen the joint capsule so that it can move more freely. It's unusual for frozen shoulder to recur in the same shoulder. But some people can develop it in the other shoulder, usually within five years. Symptoms The main symptoms of a frozen shoulder are pain and stiffness that make it difficult or impossible to move it. If you have frozen shoulder, you’ll likely feel a dull or achy pain in one shoulde...

Overview A group of symptoms that occur in women, typically between ovulation and a period. The cause isn't fully understood but likely involves changes in hormones during the menstrual cycle. Symptoms include mood swings, tender breasts, food cravings, fatigue, irritability and depression. Lifestyle changes and medication may reduce symptoms. Symptoms  While PMS often involves mild or moderate symptoms that don’t majorly affect daily life, symptoms can be severe enough to impact your everyday activities and overall well-being. If you have PMS, you’ll experience symptoms consistently before each menstrual period. You might experience only some of the symptoms below, or several, but PMS typically involves at least a few different symptoms. Emotional and behavioral symptoms PMS-related changes in your mood, emotions, and behavior might include: anxiety, restlessness, or feeling on edge unusual anger and irritability changes in appetite, including increased food cravings, especially f...

Overview Coats disease is a telangiectatic neovascular disease of the retina of unknown etiology that frequently affects unilateral eyes of young males. George Coats in 1908 described the histopathological features of enucleated eyes with massive exudation. What is Coats disease? Coats disease is a rare eye disorder involving abnormal development of blood vessels in the retina. Located in the back of the eye, the retina sends light images to the brain and is essential to eyesight. In people with Coats disease, retinal capillaries break open and leak fluid into the back of the eye. As fluid builds up, the retina begins to swell. This can cause the partial or complete detachment of the retina, leading to decreased vision or blindness in the affected eye. Most of the time, the disease affects only one eye. It’s usually diagnosed in childhood. The exact cause isn’t known, but early intervention may help save your vision. What are the signs and symptoms? Signs and symptoms usually begin in ...

Overview INTRODUCTION Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) is a form of autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) in which cold agglutinins (IgM autoantibodies against red blood cell [RBC] antigens with an optimum temperature of 3 to 4°C) can cause clinical symptoms related to RBC agglutination in cooler parts of the body and hemolytic ... What Is Cold Agglutinin Disease? Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) is a condition that makes your body’s immune system attack your red blood cells and destroy them. It’s triggered by cold temperatures, and it can cause problems that range from dizziness to heart failure. It’s also called cold antibody hemolytic anemia. About 1 person in 300,000 gets cold agglutinin disease. It shows up most often in people over 60, and women are more likely to get it than men. How It Happens When you breathe in, your red blood cells carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. Then they carry carbon dioxide back to the lungs for you to breathe out. A typical red blood cell l...

Overview Colorado Tick Fever (CTF) is a rare viral disease spread by the bite of an infected Rocky Mountain wood tick found in the western United States and western Canada. There are no vaccines to prevent or medicines to treat CTF. You can reduce your risk of infection by avoiding ticks. Learn more about CTF virus. What Are the Symptoms of Colorado Tick Fever? Symptoms of Colorado tick fever most often start 1 to 14 days after the tick bite. A sudden fever continues for 3 days, goes away, then comes back 1 to 3 days later for another few days. Other symptoms include: fever up to 105°F chills severe headache light sensitivity muscle aches skin tenderness loss of appetite nausea vomiting abdominal pain weakness and fatigue faint rash It’s important to note that symptoms of Colorado tick fever take at least three days to develop. If you experience symptoms immediately after getting a tick bite, then your symptoms are likely being caused by another condition. You should speak with your do...

Overview Hypnic jerks or sleep starts are benign myoclonic jerks that everyone experiences sometimes in a lifetime. Although they resemble the jerks of myoclonic seizures, they occur on falling asleep and are just benign nonepileptic phenomena. Treatment There are ways to reduce hypnic jerks, including reducing consumption of stimulants such as nicotine or caffeine, avoiding physical exertion prior to sleep, and consuming sufficient magnesium. Some medication can also help to reduce or eliminate the hypnic jerks. For example, low-dose clonazepam at bedtime may make the twitches disappear over time. In addition, some people may develop a fixation on these hypnic jerks leading to increased anxiety, worrying about the disruptive experience. This increased anxiety and fatigue increases the likelihood of experiencing these jerks, resulting in a positive  Causes In most cases, there is no clear cause of a hypnic jerk. They occur in most people without any underlying explanation. However,...

Overview Hyperparathyroidism is when your parathyroid glands create high amounts of parathyroid hormone in the bloodstream. These glands, located behind the thyroid at the bottom of your neck, are about the size of a grain of rice. The parathyroid hormone produced by the thyroid glands helps maintain the right balance of calcium in the bloodstream and in tissues that depend on calcium for proper functioning. This is especially important for nerve and muscle function, as well as bone health. There are two types of hyperparathyroidism. In primary hyperparathyroidism, an enlargement of one or more of the parathyroid glands causes overproduction of parathyroid hormone. This causes high calcium levels in the blood, which can cause a variety of health problems. Surgery is the most common treatment for primary hyperparathyroidism. Secondary hyperparathyroidism occurs due to another disease that first causes low calcium levels in the body. Over time, increased parathyroid hormone levels occur ...