HEMORRHOIDS
Published July 28, 2024 | 
WHAT IS IT?
Hemorrhoids-swollen veins inside or outside the anus-often called “varicose veins of the anus and rectum”-are one of the most common health problems. Fifty to 75 percent of all Americans get hemorrhoids in their lifetimes. Although hemorrhoids can appear at any age, people usually tend to get them after age 30. They are also more common among pregnant women. Continue reading
HEARTBURN
Published July 28, 2024 | WHAT IS IT?
Heartburn has nothing to do with your heart. Instead, it’s a problem with your stomach and esophagus-the tube that carries food from your throat to your stomach. When stomach acid leaks up, or refluxes, into the tube, you get a burning feeling above your stomach that can rise into your chest, just beneath your breastbone. That’s heartburn. Continue reading
GOUT
Published July 28, 2024 | WHAT IS IT?
Gout is a form of arthritis that comes on quickly and causes intense pain and swelling in a joint. It can affect any joint but usually shows up in the big toe, hand, ankle, or knee.
Each year, gout strikes more than one million Americans, most of them middle-aged men. Continue reading
GALLSTONES
Published July 28, 2024 | WHAT IS IT?
Gallstones are hard lumps that form in the gallbladder, a small, pear-shaped organ under your liver that stores a digestive juice called bile. Gallstones can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball.
About 80 percent of gallstones are made mostly of cholesterol, a fatty substance found throughout the body. The other 20 percent-called pigment stones-are made of calcium salts and bilirubin-a reddish-yellow pigment found in bile and blood. Continue reading
ERECTION PROBLEMS
Published July 28, 2024 | WHAT IS IT?
Most men have a hard time now and then getting or keeping an erection long enough to have sex. While such problems can be upsetting, they’re quite normal. If you often have trouble, though, you may have what doctors call impotence, or “erectile dysfunction.”
What’s “often”? Not even the experts can say exactly. The answer depends largely on what you expect or want. But if erection problems make you worry a lot, strain your relationship with your partner, or make it hard for you to father a child, then they are happening too often. Continue reading
DIVERTICULAR DISEASE
Published July 28, 2024 | WHAT IS IT?
Diverticular disease affects the walls of your large intestine, or colon. It takes two forms-diverticulosis and diverticulitis.
You have diverticulosis when small pouches called diverticula form at weak points along the inside of the intestine wall, usually where blood vessels enter the wall. These pouches rarely cause problems, and most people who have them don’t even know it. Continue reading
DIARRHEA
Published July 28, 2024 | WHAT IS IT?
Diarrhea is the passage of many loose or watery stools. It’s not a disease in itself, but rather a common symptom of illness in both children and adults. Many things can throw your digestive system off balance, including viruses, bacteria, stress, medicines, and parasites.
In some cases, diarrhea can signal a serious disease that needs medical care. But most often it lasts just a few days and clears up on its own with home treatment. Continue reading
DIABETES, TYPE 2
Published July 28, 2024 | WHAT IS IT?
Diabetes is a flaw in the way your body handles the sugars it takes from food. The body turns them into glucose-also called blood sugar-which it uses for energy. Glucose can serve as fuel only after it moves into your cells, and that’s where diabetes gets in the way. Continue reading