Conditions & Diseases

When check­ing your skin for melanoma, per­haps you think of the dark mole on your back or the asym­met­ri­cal freck­le on your chest. By assess­ing sus­pi­cious spots on your skin, you’re tak­ing the first step to melanoma pre­ven­tion and ear­ly detec­tion. Whether you’re using the Ugly Duck­ling method or the ABC’s tech­nique, it is impor­tant that you and your der­ma­tol­o­gist per­form a thor­ough skin exam­i­na­tion, includ­ing places that might not nor­mal­ly come to mind.

Melanoma is the most dan­ger­ous form of skin can­cer and devel­ops when unre­paired DNA dam­age to skin cells (usu­al­ly from sun­shine or tan­ning beds) trig­gers muta­tions that lead to skin cells mul­ti­ply­ing rapid­ly to form tumors. While melanoma is not the most com­mon skin can­cer, it is the most dead­ly since it can spread to oth­er parts of the body where it is hard­er to treat.

May is Nation­al Osteo­poro­sis Month, a great time to set the record straight about this debil­i­tat­ing and poten­tial­ly dead­ly dis­ease. While it’s the most com­mon type of bone dis­ease, mis­un­der­stand­ing exists about who can suf­fer from it and what can be done to pre­vent it.

Sores in and around the mouth can be a source of embar­rass­ment for many peo­ple. How­ev­er not all sores are the same. Pri­mar­i­ly there are three dif­fer­ent types of sores that can occur in the mouth; canker sores, cold sores and oral can­cer lesions. Under­stand­ing the dif­fer­ence between these three types can help you make wise deci­sions and stay healthy.

When feel­ing under the weath­er, how can you tell if you’re expe­ri­enc­ing envi­ron­men­tal aller­gies or a com­mon cold? Our Cold vs. Aller­gies Guide can help you sort through the symp­toms to clar­i­fy your con­di­tion and find treat­ment options that offer relief.

Chron­ic cough is usu­al­ly defined as a cough that lasts for three weeks or longer. It is a very com­mon prob­lem and is the fifth most com­mon symp­tom for which out­pa­tient care is sought.

The Inspire treat­ment is an FDA approved treat­ment for obstruc­tive sleep apnea. Learn more about obstruc­tive sleep apnea (OSA) and how this new treat­ment can pro­vide com­fort­able relief of OSA symptoms. 

Oti­tis Media, also known as an ear infec­tion, is one of the most com­mon con­di­tions for which chil­dren require med­ical treat­ment. This con­di­tion also affects adults, but to a much less­er degree.

Her­ni­a’s are not imme­di­ate­ly life-threat­en­ing, but they don’t resolve on their own and surgery is need­ed to repair the defect to pre­vent poten­tial­ly seri­ous com­pli­ca­tions. Learn more about a her­nia, com­mon symp­toms and who typ­i­cal­ly expe­ri­ences hernias. 

Accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety, 1 in 8 women will be diag­nosed with breast can­cer in their life­time. While the biggest risk fac­tors of devel­op­ing breast can­cer are your age and gen­der — oth­er fac­tors that can also increase your risk include genet­ic make­up, personal/​family his­to­ry, dense breast tis­sue and more.