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Everyone’s experience with ankylosing spondylitis is unique, so zeroing in on what will give you relief may take some detective work, says Delamo I. Bekele, MD, a rheumatologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “What works for one person might not work for others,” he says, so it’s smart to take a trial-and-error approach. But the payoff can be enormous. Dr. Bekele’s “prescription” for people with this inflammatory type of arthritis: “Be open to just trying things until you hit the spot for your kind of pain....

Though I’ve been known to write my own look back at what the previous 12 months have held for those of us in the multiple sclerosis (MS) club, I have to admit that I didn’t have much stomach for either the writing or the reading of one this year. Now, I admittedly did read the thing. There was good news in the form of a new oral disease-modifying therapy (DMT) — Ponvory (ponesimod) — for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis....

She’d been suffering from a persistent cough, and thought it might be bronchitis, a diagnosis with which her doctor initially agreed. When treatment for that failed to help, he thought it might be pneumonia. And when treatment for pneumonia didn’t help, he though perhaps it was asthma. The cough continued. Finally, her doctor sent her for an X-ray and a CT scan, which found a mass in her lung. Next he sent her for a positron emission tomography (PET) scan....

Never mind that he was a white guy, and that Harris is Black and female. Never mind that no one in her family was a doctor or had any idea how to become one. Welby was her role model, and she was determined to follow his path. “He not only took care of his patients inside the exam room but also outside,” says Dr. Harris, who grew up in Bluefield, West Virginia, and now lives outside Atlanta....

Middle schoolers and high schoolers may be able to monitor and manage their blood glucose levels mostly on their own, especially if they’ve had diabetes for a long time, but younger children, in preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school, will need more help with their diabetes care. Here’s how to manage your child’s condition while they’re away at school. How to Build Your Child’s School Diabetes Care Dream Team The first step to keeping your child safe and healthy at school is to establish good communication with the school’s staff and your child’s medical team, says Kristina Cossen, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta....

Kelsey Black, MD, in the first year of a fellowship training program in pulmonology critical care there, was tasked with the roles of determining which patients needed to go on ventilators and then helping her team intubate them. “We take care of the sickest of the sick with COVID-19,” Dr. Black says. “We saw people die and had people on ventilators for long periods of time.” Patients’ families were distraught....

My wife, Caryn, and I had been doing a version of this as a means of weight control, and we found it worked well, both in terms of outcome and convenience. When some early research done at the University of Southern California found that the diet was helpful in modulating the immune system and even appeared to improve quality of life for people with MS, it excited many, myself included....

“I think people are always interested in the next big thing in nutrition — that one swap in your routine that will give you an edge,” Christy Brissette, RDN, the Chicago-based founder of 80 Twenty Nutrition, says of why drinks like these end up trending. It’s obvious that press from big names like Gwyneth Paltrow, who drank mushroom tea on her Netflix series The Goop Lab, as CNBC reports, helps, too....

About 100 million Americans have acid reflux, a condition in which contents of the stomach back up to the esophagus or higher. But more than half don’t realize it, says Jamie Koufman, M.D., F.A.C.S., founder and director of the Voice Institute of New York, a treatment center for reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) and other conditions that affect the voice. One reason, says Koufman – an authority on acid reflux, as well as a sufferer – is that some experience atypical, “silent” symptoms, such as coughing or postnasal drip....

There are two main types of lung cancer: small-cell, and non-small-cell. Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type, accounting for roughly 85 percent of all cases. Smoking is the major cause of NSCLC, although this disease can affect nonsmokers, too. Non-small-cell lung cancer is a very serious illness. If caught early, though, there are effective therapies. For some people whose cancer has spread, new treatments, especially in the emerging fields of targeted therapy and immunotherapy, can slow disease progression and improve quality of life, according to the National Cancer Institute....

To answer some frequently asked questions about ovarian cancer, Everyday Health reviewed the most recent research and enlisted an expert to share her knowledge: Shannon Westin, MD, MPH, an associate professor of gynecologic oncology and reproductive medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. RELATED: Speaking Ovarian Cancer: A Glossary of Formal and Informal Terms Used to Describe Ovarian Cancer Tests, Treatment, Patients, and More...

The pharynx, also known as the throat, is a hollow, muscular tube lined by mucous membrane. It runs from the back of the nose down into the neck, ending at the top of the windpipe and esophagus. It contains three sections: the nasopharynx, the oropharynx, and the laryngopharynx, also called the hypopharynx. The pharynx is part of the digestive system, and as the common channel for swallowing and breathing, the food and air pathways in the pharynx cross each other....

Factors That Influence Flu Vulnerability “Psoriatic arthritis does increase the risk of getting the flu and COVID 19 — presumably because the immune system of someone with PsA is impaired because it is preoccupied with attacking itself,” says Stuart Kaplan, MD, chief of rheumatology at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, New York. Plus, because some people with moderate to severe PsA take medication that suppresses their overactive immune systems — such as disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and biologics — they’re at higher risk for flu infection, Dr....

Research suggests that the mood that workers are in at the start of the workday indeed affects the rest of their days. A study published in the Academy of Management Journal, for example, found that a more positive prework mood was linked with higher performance quality and productivity throughout the day. “Paying attention to your mood in the morning can have lasting impacts on the rest of your day,” says Rebekah Tennyson, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology and is a clinical psychologist for the National Health Service in Oxfordshire, England....

“A lot of people are embarrassed to go out when they have a flare and can get into the habit of just staying in,” adds Mio Nakamura, MD, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor. All in all, psoriasis can have a significant, and often negative, impact on your quality of life and happiness. One study published in July 2021 in the journal Dermatology notes there’s increasing evidence people with psoriasis often experience “insecurity, isolation, and stigmatization, which affects the quality of their lives....

The primary endpoint of the trial was defined by the proportion of participants who achieved a 75 percent or greater change from baseline in their eczema area and severity index (EASI-75) at week 16. An EASI score is a standardized way that doctors evaluate atopic dermatitis, dividing the skin into four regions and then rating the intensity of redness, thickness, scratching, and lichenification (meaning lined skin, furrowing, and prurigo nodules)....

If you’re unsure whether you want to include your partner in sessions, you can click the Not Sure Yet button and decide later. ReGain charges the same price for individual therapy sessions as it does for couples therapy sessions. Initial Questionnaire ReGain will ask questions during this assessment to understand your relationship and why you may be looking for relationship therapy or marriage counseling. For example, it will ask you about your relationship status, including options for polyamorous individuals or couples....

RELATED: RA Drug Methotrexate Tied to Higher Risk of Skin Cancer, Other Risks Certain Drugs May Increase Your Sunburn Risk If you don’t see yours here, be sure to ask your doctor; many other drugs, such as certain antibiotics, can cause photosensitivity, too. Here are some of the culprits that are used to treat autoimmune disease, listed from most likely to cause a reaction to least. Drugs That Often Cause Photosensitivity Trexall (methotrexate)Tetracyclines, antibiotics used for Lyme disease and occasionally as an anti-inflammatory...

People tend to think that sadness is always bad, says Meaghan Barlow, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, who studies self-regulation, emotion, and aging. “That’s absolutely not my view.” Distinct from depression — which the World Health Organization notes is a leading cause of disability worldwide — sadness is a common emotion. Dr. Barlow says that in the right context, sadness can even be helpful....

“The relationship between exercise and atrial fibrillation isn’t straightforward,” notes Ayman Hussein, MD, a cardiologist and heart rhythm disorder specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. While most forms of exercise are beneficial to heart health and protective against afib and its symptoms, “exercise is not always protective,” says Dr. Hussein. “Whereas mild- or moderate-intensity exercise is typically protective, intense exercise typically carries a higher risk of atrial fibrillation.” Here’s what you should know about the link between exercise and atrial fibrillation and what exercises are generally considered safe for people with the condition....