Multiple sclerosis (MS), is a disease of the central nervous system. It occurs due to damage to a tissue called myelin, which protects nerve fibers. When myelin gets damaged, it can affect the functioning of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. The World Health...
As an increasing number of people are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, research into new treatments has accelerated. Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological condition, is the fastest-growing brain disorder in the world. About 8.5 million people around the world have Parkinson’s, according to the World Health Organization. The...
Prostate cancer is a tumor that occurs in the prostate, the walnut-sized gland in men that’s located just below the bladder. It’s the most common cancer diagnosis in men followed by lung, colorectal and bladder cancers, and the World Health Organization estimates that about 1.5...
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disorder. As an autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis causes the immune system to attack healthy cells throughout the body. This, in turn, leads to inflammation which then causes joint pain. Sometimes, however, it can damage organs, too, including the...
Pancreatitis is a condition where the pancreas becomes inflamed and irritated. Lifestyle factors that increase the risk of pancreatitis include heavy alcohol use, smoking, obesity, diabetes, and a diet high in processed or fatty foods. Rates of pancreatitis have increased over the past 50 years in most...
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease that can cause thyroid levels to dip to unhealthy levels. A healthy immune system targets disease to keep the body healthy, but with this condition, the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells in the thyroid gland. This affects the...
Here’s what you need to know about advanced kidney disease, which affects millions of people each year. Renal failure is the fifth and most severe stage of chronic kidney disease. It occurs when the kidneys can only function at 10-15% of their normal rate, which is...
Ben Smith, a 25-year-old resident of New South Wales, Australia, was concerned about a hard lump on his left testicle in December of 2017, when his general practitioner told him that the swelling and pain was probably just hormonal and that the lump did not...
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have discovered that genetically engineered bacteria show promise as a new treatment for constipation, after a study in mice was conducted at the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine and published in Cell Host & Microbe. The gut microbiome, the community of...
Louise Gleadell, a 38-year-old mother of three from Leicester, United Kingdom, was pregnant with her son Jude in late 2015 when she first presented with serious health concerns that were repeatedly dismissed by her doctors. She had a “strange dizziness” and an aching pelvis, which...
In November 2016, Jacqueline Dibb and her husband Rob were told by consultants at Hull Royal Infirmary in the United Kingdom that Jacqueline had frontotemporal dementia, a neurodegenerative disease classified as the “worst” type of dementia that “makes you violent” and “lose recognition of the...
Fibromyalgia is a complex chronic pain disorder that affects an estimated 10 million people in the U.S. and an estimated three to six percent of the world population. The disorder causes widespread pain and tenderness to touch that can occur body-wide or migrate over the body....