Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

Endocrinologists are used to people not knowing what they do. Patients often assume that, for example, Dr. Rasa Kazlauskaite spends her days focused on the “love hormones,” like testosterone and estrogen. She reminds them that we all have a variety of hormones and hormone-producing glands with important jobs—including the pituitary gland, which oversees everything from growth to metabolism, and adrenal glands, which produce the stress hormone cortisol.

Plus, endocrinologists treat conditions like diabetes, thyroid disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, and even osteoporosis. “We also help people figure out the causes of increased weight and help them lose weight and improve their metabolism,” says Kazlauskaite, who’s the director of the diabetes technology program at Rush University Medical Center. In other words: Endocrinologists encounter a wide variety of symptoms all day, every day. Here are some surprising ones that concern them the most, even though patients don’t usually recognize..

Vaccine side effects like soreness, fever, and fatigue scare some people out of getting their shots. Ask a doctor, though, and they’ll tell you these unpleasant symptoms have a silver lining: they’re a signal that your immune system is firing up in response to the shot, doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.

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“If you feel bad after the vaccine, at least feel good about feeling bad,” says Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus, chief of infectious diseases at UConn Health and co-author of a 2023 study on COVID-19 vaccine side effects.

But is it a bad sign if you don’t get side effects after a shot? Does a pain-free next day mean the vaccine didn’t work?

Probably not. Here’s why.

Why do vaccines cause side effects?

Vaccines work by mimicking an infection. They introduce your body to a weakened or broken-down form of a particular pathogen so it can practice defending itself against the real thing. This involves creating antibodies, proteins that attack foreign invade..

Taking care of your cognitive health ought to be—well, a no-brainer. According to a survey published in March, 87% of Americans are concerned about age-related memory loss and a decline in brain function as they grow older, yet only 32% believe they can take action to help controlthat trajectory.

“All of us want to be cognitively intact for as long as possible,” says Dr. Seemant Chaturvedi, a neurologist and stroke specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The good news, he adds, is that “there are definitely risk factors that can be modified.” Prioritizing healthy behaviors can increase the likelihood that, when we reach our 70s and 80s, we’re still able to summon important memories, drive a car, and engage in a wide variety of activities, Chaturvedi says. And there’s no such thing as “too young” to start taking these steps.

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With that in mind, we asked four neurologists what we should all do every day for better brain health.

Manage ..

It’s no surprise that the skin care industry is having a moment. Instagram influencers are hawking expensive products left and right, and young TikTok users are continuously sharing their latest “must-have” products from Sephora.

Two terms that consistently get mentioned when people talk about their skin care routines online are “retinoids” and “retinol.” These products are touted for their ability to reduce fine lines and wrinkles and stimulate collagen production for younger looking skin. But are they as effective as everyone says?

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Below, we cover everything you need to know about retinoids and retinol so you can figure out if they’re a good addition to your skin care routine.

What are retinoids and retinol?

Retinoids are a class of prescription medications that are derived from vitamin A, says Dr. Alexis Livingston Young, a dermatologist at Hackensack University Medical Center. Retinol is a type of retinoid that is available over the counter…

You may have noticed your supermarket offering more types of vinegar lately. Sure, balsamic and apple cider vinegars are veterans of the condiments aisle, but new shelf neighbors, like coconut, champagne, pomegranate, and raspberry are moving in.

That’s probably at least in part due to recent research showing that small amounts of vinegar, consumed daily, could support your health in important ways. But which vinegars are evidence-backed to promote health, in addition to lending some zing to your cooking?

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Here’s what research says about vinegar’s effects on blood sugar, obesity, and fighting colds—and which kind to reach for.

A long-standing tonic

Since the Babylonians first made vinegar about 7,000 years ago, cultures around the world have used it for medicinal purposes. Hippocrates mixed apple cider vinegar with honey to treat ancient Greeks’ respiratory troubles. Europeans in the Middle Ages believed it protected against the plague, while the C..

Few things will leave you feeling quite so grossed out as returning from a jaunt outside and finding a tick clinging to your skin. Not only is the unwelcome parasite sucking the blood from your body, but it may also be leaving something behind: bacteria, viruses, or parasites that can cause at least 15 different diseases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lyme disease, Powassan virus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Heartland virus are just a few of them.

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Another, babesiosis, is causing particular concern. The disease is colloquially known as “American malaria,” partly because of its ever-widening spread and partly because of its clinical profile. Like malaria, the disease is caused by a parasite (carried by ticks instead of mosquitoes) that infects red blood cells. And like malaria, it can lead to headache, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, altered mental state, anemia, low blood pressure, respiratory distress, ..

Twenty-four years ago, the surgeon Santiago Horgan performed the first robotically assisted gastric-bypass surgery in the world, a major medical breakthrough. Now Horgan is working with a new tool that he argues could be even more transformative in operating rooms: the Apple Vision Pro.

Over the last month, Horgan and other surgeons at the University of California, San Diego have performed more than 20 minimally invasive operations while wearing Apple’s mixed-reality headsets. Apple released the headsets to the public in February, and they’ve largely been a commercial flop. But practitioners in some industries, including architecture and medicine, have been testing how they might serve particular needs.

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Horgan says that wearing headsets during surgeries has improved his effectiveness while lowering his risk of injury—and could have an enormous impact on hospitals across the country, especially those without the means to afford specialty equipment. ..

Beans are finally having their main-character moment—promoted from taco or chili accouterments to the starring role in salad bowls.

TikTok creator Violet Witchel, 24, popularized the “dense bean salad” earlier this year, and the concept has gone viral, embraced by meal-preppers and dietitians alike for its simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and nutritional punch. To make one, mix up the bean(s) of your choice, along with veggies, cheese, and a tasty dressing—no lettuce necessary. Witchel remembers thinking, “Oh, it’s dense” after filling up a bowl, which led to the catchy if curious name. “They have a little bit of everything you need,” she says. “You pretty much immediately feel full—and stay full.”

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These days, Witchel answers to “dense bean girl” and fields messages from dozens of internet strangers a day telling her the salad changed their life. She was recently recognized while out at a bar, and the woman she met referred to Witchel’s fiance as “Mr…

If there are two words Dr. James Findling, an endocrinologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin, dreads hearing, they’re probably “adrenal fatigue.”

Some of his patients recite claims they’ve read on social media: that adrenal fatigue happens when the adrenal glands, which produce the stress hormone cortisol, can’t keep up with the amount of stress they’re facing and underperform, leading to a long list of symptoms. But the mainstream medical community disagrees. “Adrenal fatigue is an illogical and illegitimate diagnosis that has no scientific basis,” Findling says, and endocrinologists are “fed up” that the idea hasn’t gone away.

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The Endocrine Society, of which Findling is a member, agrees that adrenal fatigue is not a legitimate medical diagnosis, and researchers have debunked the concept in studies. But the term persists on social media and among some alternative-medicine practitioners, so people continue to think they have it. “It takes a lot..

Have you ever slept a full eight hours but awakened feeling as tired as if you had pulled an all-nighter? If so, you may have experienced what’s known as unrefreshing sleep.

Unrefreshing sleep, also known as non-restorative sleep, is exactly what it sounds like: sleep that doesn’t recharge the body and brain enough to help you feel well-rested. People who experience it “feel just as tired as they were before they went to sleep,” says Thomas Roth, founder of the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Health in Michigan.

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Here’s what to know about unrefreshing sleep, and what to do if you experience it.

What is unrefreshing sleep, exactly?

People with insomnia struggle to fall or stay asleep and are often painfully aware of how long they’ve spent lying in bed wide awake. That’s not necessarily the case with unrefreshing sleep. Sufferers may wake up feeling fatigued even if they fell asleep quickly and didn’t get up at all during the night—i..