Understanding Your Blood Pressure Readings
Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps. It’s measured using two numbers:Systolic pressure is the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats. It’s represented by the top number in a blood pressure reading.Diastolic pressure is the pressure in your arteries when your heart is resting between beats....
How Body Weight Influences Migraine Risk and Management
Your susceptibility to migraine may be largely genetic: You’re more likely to have migraine if your family members live with it. Age and sex can also increase your risk, while factors in the environment like stress and certain foods, drinks, and food additives may act as triggers for migraine attacks.Researchers are now looking at body weight as another possible...
Tariffs Will Likely Raise Food Prices for Americans
President Trump announced a 10 percent across the board tariff effective immediately today — essentially extra taxes on products imported into the United States — for most countries except China, for which he imposed a 125 percent tariff.Tariffs for the other countries could still go higher, but the president said he has paused these higher tariffs for the next...
Adam’s Apple: What It Does and Possible Problems and Treatments
The Adam’s apple is the bump you see on the front of the neck near the throat, known medically as a “laryngeal prominence.”e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976298807fedc-3a18-4622-aeb6-37227b8db43d The colloquial term “Adam’s apple” likely comes from the biblical story of Adam and Eve, in which Adam ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and a chunk got stuck in his throat. While...
Wet Cough: Causes and Treatment
A wet cough is one that produces mucus or phlegm. It’s also sometimes called a productive or chesty cough. An occasional cough is usually nothing to be worried about — it’s a normal reflex that helps rid the body of irritants. Producing a small amount of mucus can even be useful for lubricating the airways.e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976297f5a7296-e8a5-43dc-b985-927b659ec62a But a wet cough...
Cabot Creamery Butter Recalled for Possible Fecal Contamination
Agri-Mark, the parent company of Cabot Creamery, has voluntarily recalled about 1,700 lb of butter due to contamination with coliform bacteria, according to an enforcement report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Elevated levels of coliform bacteria can suggest sanitation failures during production.Agri-Mark recalled 189 cases of “Cabot Creamery 8 oz Extra Creamy Premium Butter, Sea Salted.”...
The Link Between Epstein-Barr Virus and Multiple Sclerosis
While the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS) is still unknown, it is generally believed that genetic susceptibility and environmental factors both play a role. Among of the environmental factors that have been studied at some length are certain kinds of infection, particularly infection by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which is part of the human herpesvirus family of infectious diseases....
The Leading Cause of Cervical Cancer
A persistent infection with some types of HPV can lead to various types of cancer in women.Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are caused by HPV, and most of these cases are tied specifically to HPV types 16 and 18. HPV causes approximately 10,800 cases of cervical cancer each year in the United States.Early stages of vaginal and cervical cancers...
Alcohol’s Impact on Your Health
Beth Biggee, MD, is medical director and an integrative rheumatologist at Rheumission, a virtual integrative rheumatology practice for people residing in California and Pennsylvania. This first-of-its-kind company offers whole person autoimmune care by a team of integrative rheumatologists, lifestyle medicine practitioners, autoimmune dietitians, psychologists, and care coordinators.Dr. Biggee also works as a healthcare wellness consultant for Synergy Wellness Center in...
What to Know About the ‘Suicide Tree’ From ‘The White Lotus’
In the Season 3 premiere of The White Lotus, the jovial hotel employee Pam warns the Ratliff family not to eat the fruit of the “mighty pong pong tree,” because its seeds are toxic — so toxic, in fact, they could kill you.The family patriarch Tim later asks Pam again about the tree, and she explains that the Thai...
