Conditions & Diseases

Cataracts are the lead­ing cause of visu­al loss in adults 55 and over. A cataract is a cloud­ing of the nat­ur­al lens inside your eye. This lens, locat­ed behind the iris, works just like the lens of a cam­era — focus­ing light images on the reti­na, which sends images to the brain. The human lens can become so cloud­ed it pre­vents light and images from reach­ing the reti­na. A cataract can be the rea­son sharp objects become blurred, bright col­ors become dull, or see­ing at night is more dif­fi­cult. It may also be why read­ing glass­es or bifo­cals that used to help you no longer seem to be effective.

This con­di­tion can devel­op as a nat­ur­al part of the aging process, but it may also result from injury to the back. Degen­er­a­tive disc dis­ease gen­er­al­ly begins when small tears appear in the disc wall, called the annu­lus. These tears can cause pain. The tears heal, cre­at­ing scar tis­sue that is not as strong as the orig­i­nal disc wall. If the back is repeat­ed­ly injured, the process of tear­ing and scar­ring may con­tin­ue, weak­en­ing the disc wall. Over time, the nucle­us (cen­ter) of the disc becomes dam­aged and los­es some of its water con­tent. This cen­ter is called the pul­po­sus, and its water con­tent is need­ed to keep the disc func­tion­ing as a shock absorber for the spine. Unable to act as a cush­ion, the nucle­us col­laps­es. The ver­te­brae above and below this dam­aged disc slide clos­er togeth­er. This improp­er align­ment caus­es the fact joints-the areas where the ver­te­bral bones tough- to twist into an unnat­ur­al posi­tion. In time, this awk­ward posi­tion­ing of the ver­te­brae may cre­ate bone spurs. If these spurs grow into the spinal canal, they may pinch the spinal cord and nerves (a con­di­tion called spinal stenosis).

There are many chal­lenges can­cer patients face through­out their treat­ment includ­ing appear­ance relat­ed side effects. These sim­ple do’s and don’ts can help you deal with any hair, skin, or nail changes you might experience.

Swal­low­ing is a com­plex process and some­times there are com­pli­ca­tions, such as dys­pha­gia. Our ENT depart­ment dis­cuss­es how dys­pha­gia occurs and how it can be treated.

The but­ter­fly shaped gland locat­ed in the front and base of your neck is your thy­roid. The thy­roid gland is part of the endocrine sys­tem and it pro­duces hor­mones that reg­u­late the body’s metab­o­lism. The thy­roid hor­mones help to reg­u­late the fol­low­ing func­tions: weight con­trol, body tem­per­a­ture, heart rate, bow­el move­ments, cho­les­terol, men­stru­al cycles, mus­cle strength and the cen­tral and periph­er­al ner­vous systems.

Ker­ato­sis Pilaris (KP) is a skin con­di­tion that caus­es rough patch­es accom­pa­nied by small, acne-like bumps. The bumps are usu­al­ly white, but can be red and gen­er­al­ly don’t hurt or itch. KP is found on the arms, thighs, cheeks, and but­tocks. KP isn’t seri­ous, but can be frus­trat­ing to treat; how­ev­er, KP nor­mal­ly dis­ap­pears by age 30.

Kid­ney and ureter­al stones are com­mon, in fact, 1 in every 10 peo­ple will devel­op a stone at some point in their life­time. These stones form when urine becomes too con­cen­trat­ed, caus­ing salts and min­er­als to build up in your kid­neys and form hard deposits.

Your eyes play an impor­tant role in your over­all health, but are often over­looked until a prob­lem occurs. Just like oth­er parts of your body, when not prop­er­ly cared for, your eyes can devel­op a vari­ety of con­di­tions includ­ing arthri­tis, cel­luli­tis or sun­burn. Board-cer­ti­fied oph­thal­mol­o­gist, Lisa Wohl, MD, shares some of the sur­pris­ing con­di­tions that can impact your eyes and what you can do to keep your eyes healthy.