Recent

“I was scared, but I knew it had to be done.”

When you are going through can­cer treat­ment, and more specif­i­cal­ly chemother­a­py, your health care team is there to make sure you are com­fort­able. You will have the lux­u­ry of your own pri­vate reclin­ing chair along with med­ica­tions to help man­age side effects but bring­ing a favorite book, movie, blan­ket or friend can also pro­vide com­fort dur­ing your treat­ments. The num­ber of chemother­a­py ses­sions and dura­tion of each treat­ment will vary from patient to patient and even vis­it to vis­it, but it is help­ful if you bring some things to help pass the time and keep you com­fort­able while receiv­ing treatment.

As tem­per­a­tures drop and sea­sons change, it’s not uncom­mon to devel­op symp­toms such as nasal con­ges­tion, sneez­ing, itchy eyes, cough­ing, facial pres­sure and body aches. You may shrug off these symp­toms as noth­ing more than a head cold, but they may be caused by sea­son­al aller­gies or a sinus infec­tion which may require dif­fer­ent treat­ments to resolve. To help you deter­mine what’s behind your symp­toms, board-cer­ti­fied oto­laryn­gol­o­gist (ENT), Feodor Ung, MD, shares dif­fer­ences between colds, aller­gies and sinus infec­tions and how you can get symp­tom relief.

Exter­nal beam radi­a­tion ther­a­py, the most wide­ly used type of radi­a­tion ther­a­py, comes from a machine (lin­ear accel­er­a­tor) that aims radi­a­tion at the spe­cif­ic spot that is affect­ed with can­cer. The machine is large and may be noisy. It does not touch you, but rotates around you, send­ing radi­a­tion to your body from many directions.

Every­day life can seem like a bal­anc­ing act. The demands that come from our fam­i­ly and work often make putting our own health last on our pri­or­i­ty list.

Sleep is increas­ing­ly being rec­og­nized as an impor­tant health fac­tor, as sleep insuf­fi­cien­cy has been linked to motor vehi­cle crash­es, indus­tri­al acci­dents and oth­er work relat­ed errors. While some sleep issues are caused by chron­ic dis­eases such as hyper­ten­sion, dia­betes, depres­sion and obe­si­ty, oth­ers are caused by sleep dis­or­ders such as insom­nia and sleep apnea.

Select­ing the right health insur­ance plan is an impor­tant deci­sion and at times can feel like a daunt­ing task. Cov­er­age is con­tin­u­al­ly chang­ing and there are more con­fus­ing health insur­ance terms out there than ever before. DMG enables you to crack the health insur­ance code and pro­vide sim­ple steps to allow you to pick a plan based on the total costs of care.

Many peo­ple expe­ri­ence joint pain, espe­cial­ly in the hands. Joint pain becomes par­tic­u­lar­ly more preva­lent as we age. It is impor­tant to dis­tin­guish pain that is due to inflam­ma­tion in the joints, from pain that is due to degen­er­a­tion of bone and cartilage.

Anx­i­ety is your body’s nat­ur­al reac­tion to stress­ful and uncer­tain sit­u­a­tions, it is your body telling you to stay alert and pro­tect your­self. Every­body expe­ri­ences some form of every­day anx­i­ety but when it gets out-of-hand you could be suf­fer­ing from anx­i­ety disorder. 

Heart dis­ease remains the No. 1 cause of death in the US and kills near­ly 380,000 peo­ple a year. While this mor­tal­i­ty rate has fall­en dra­mat­i­cal­ly over the last 10 years, risk fac­tors are still alarm­ing­ly high. Pre­ven­tion is an essen­tial ele­ment in the fight against heart dis­ease — much of which can be man­aged through diet.