In some ways, that moment feels like it happened only yesterday, and in other ways, it feels like forever ago. But it doesn’t feel like 21 years ago. My initial diagnosis was suspected by my primary care doctor, alluded to by the radiologist who did my first MRI, and confirmed by a local neurologist who referred me to an MS-specializing neurologist at one of several MS centers in nearby Seattle....

Eczema is a chronic condition that causes red and itchy skin that tends to flare periodically and may be accompanied by asthma or hay fever symptoms. All forms of eczema have been linked with mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, due at least in part to the often visible and annoying nature of the skin-related symptoms, according to Melissa Piliang, MD, a dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic. As a result, taking care of your mental health is incredibly important if you have a skin disorder, she says....

“We know people with diabetes have problems metabolizing sugar,” says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, a cardiologist, director of women’s heart health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “Insulin comes along to decrease sugar, but with type 2 diabetes, the body isn’t so sensitive to insulin, so blood sugar levels go up. Through a complex biochemical reaction, tea — especially green tea — helps sensitize cells so they are better able to metabolize sugar....

The first four steps to reduce cholesterol are usually: While these lifestyle changes are very important to help manage high cholesterol, they aren’t always enough for everyone. Plus, there may be some surprising culprits that are undermining your efforts. 12 Sneaky Causes of High Cholesterol If you’re doing all you can to lower your cholesterol, but your numbers are still high, know that you’re not alone. Here are some of the most common reasons....

Zeposia (ozanimod) was initially denied approval back in 2018 when the drugmaker Celgene (now part of Bristol Myers Squibb) submitted to the regulatory body. The grounds for denial lay in the company’s lack of sufficient pharmacology information in its original application. The medication acts as a sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator, which indirectly “antagonizes” these receptors’ function and keeps lymphocytes — white blood cells that appear to be associated with MS attacks — from leaving the lymph nodes....

“It clicked for me,” says Brown, now 40. “I was like, ‘Oh, you can actually go to the doctor for this, you can talk to somebody? Oh, my gosh!’ And also, ‘I’m not alone with this feeling? You’re feeling exactly what I’m feeling?’” he recalls. Unfortunately, Brown’s experience is not unusual. The majority of people with migraine never seek medical care for their pain, and more than half of people with migraine are never diagnosed, according to the Migraine Research Foundation....

1. Hepatitis C affects millions of Americans — some of them unknowingly. An estimated 3.5 million people in the United States may have chronic hepatitis C, and many of them are unaware that they have been infected, according to the CDC. “It is called the ‘silent epidemic’ because people can be infected for 30 or more years and have no idea,” says Camilla Graham, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston....

“The analysis of resilience-building strategies was inspired by the patient stories that I have had the chance to hear and study — first during my doctoral studies, and then with this study of burden of disease in rheumatoid arthritis,” says Yomei Shaw, PhD, research fellow at FORWARD, The National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases in Wichita, Kansas, and one of the authors of the study. “I was really inspired by the strength of these people and I wanted to understand how they developed their strength....

Possibly. What we eat can help influence our metabolic process and make it a little more or a little less efficient. But before you overhaul your diet, it’s necessary to understand how your metabolism functions. Metabolism consists of our resting metabolic rate (RMR), which is the energy our body uses to breathe, circulate blood, and perform other basic functions; activity thermogenesis, which is any type of activity or exercise; and the thermal effect of food....

These errors in diagnosis likely result from the fact that there is no single test that can determine an MS diagnosis conclusively. Also, not everyone has all of the common symptoms of MS, such as numbness, tingling, pain, fatigue, and heat sensitivity. And to complicate matters, the symptoms you do have may resemble those of some other conditions. To figure out what’s causing possible MS symptoms, doctors look at your medical history, the results of a neurological exam, and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan — and sometimes do a spinal tap (also called a lumbar puncture)....

Whether you visit the bathroom three times a day or three times a week, the symptoms of constipation are usually the same for everyone. If you aren’t having as many bowel movements as you normally do, or if your stool is hard, dry, or painful, you’re probably experiencing a bout of constipation, per the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Constipation is quite common, with about four million people in the United States experiencing frequent bouts, Johns Hopkins Medicine reports....

“There’s an intricate interplay between sleep disorders and heart failure. Undertreated or untreated sleep apnea, for example, can potentially cause heart failure, and those with heart failure may have undertreated sleep apnea,” says Andrew Freeman, MD, a cardiologist with National Jewish Health in Denver. If you wake up feeling not refreshed, you have daytime sleepiness or if you need to curtail your daytime activity because of lack of energy, these could be signs your heart failure isn’t being managed as well as it could be, Dr....

“Food is our body’s fuel,” says Rebecca Solomon, RD, CDN, director of clinical nutrition at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City. “If we don’t use high-grade fuel, we can’t expect high functioning.” Healthy eating not only helps you live longer by preventing chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, but it also boosts energy and mood, increasing overall quality of life, says Natalie Stephens, RDN, LD, a registered dietitian at Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus and president of the Ohio Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics....

Keys to a Pancreatic Insufficiency Diet Your diet may not look like your friend’s, and it likely won’t resemble the latest health craze on Instagram. Instead, you should eat a nutritious diet tailored to your specific needs, says Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RD, a former spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and author of Doctor’s Detox Diet: The Ultimate Weight Loss Prescription. In fact, your diet may even be different from those of other people with EPI, depending on what’s causing your condition and whether you’re malnourished....

But before you start piling on the pasta, remember that the portions Italians eat are much smaller than what’s seen on a dinner plate in the United States. And while the 23,000 study participants who ate pasta regularly were more likely to have a healthy body weight, they also followed a healthy Mediterranean diet. The good news is that if you’re following a healthy diet to begin with, then spaghetti and meatballs, penne primavera, and even lasagna can all be healthy options to add to your dinner rotation....

We asked dietitians about ways to beef up the nutrition at any BBQ. Try these suggestions at your next cookout: 1. Opt for the lowest-fat ground beef One of the biggest questions when buying ground beef for burgers or any other dish is how much fat you should choose, says Shena Jaramillo, RD, a dietitian in Ellensburg, Washington. That’s because fat causes the meat to hold more water during cooking, she adds, and that means more juiciness....

If you smoke, you’re damaging your body. Smokers are more susceptible to many life-threatening conditions, from cancer and lung disease to heart disease and diabetes. And tobacco smoke is more toxic to women than men because they have smaller lungs. “So the same level of smoking has a more negative impact on them,” says Zab Mosenifar, M.D., medical director of the Women’s Guild Lung Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles....

“A number of factors can worsen asthma, including prolonged exposure to dust, pollen, mold, pollution, and other irritants in the air,” says Sharon R. Rosenberg, MD, co-director of the asthma and COPD program at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. But for some people, asthma gradually worsens without any exposure to triggers. Symptoms get worse as inflammation builds over time, explains Guha Krishnaswamy, MD, director of allergy and clinical immunology at Wake Forest Baptist....

Ticks have become a growing concern for public health officials as tick bites and tick-borne diseases more than tripled in the United States between 2004 and 2016 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There were more than 70,000 cases of diseases spread by ticks in this country in 2016. The Asian longhorned tick is concerning because it can carry a virus that’s caused illness and even death in people in eastern Asian, says Mark J....

One such health issue that can interfere with your carefully laid plans: severe eczema, an inflammatory skin condition that causes dry, itchy skin; rashes; skin discoloration; and patches of skin that can ooze and crust over, according to the National Eczema Association (NEA). The Challenge of Severe Eczema While Traveling Traveling can present some issues that are especially tough for people with eczema. First, depending on where you’re going, there’s the potential for a drastic change in climate, which can aggravate your skin and trigger a flare....