Health Information Center

As you age, chronic pain can occur seemingly overnight. Joint pain symptoms can erode not only your active lifestyle but quality of life overall. Arthritis based diseases target the tissue and cartilage that cushions your knee, wrist and other joints causing inflammation and ongoing soreness.

If you are among the millions of aging women across the country, you are dealing with daily health issues with chronic joint pain being at the top of the list. Certainly, physical activity and sports related injuries can cause stiffness and lack of mobility in your knees, ankles and toes. But your feet can also be affected by age related diseases like gout, which can target the same areas and be excruciatingly painful.

In addition, many women can look to their footwear as a direct reason why they are having issues with their feet and toes. Overuse of these types of shoes may cause a woman to experience tenderness and pain resulting in conditions such as bunions or corns. Bunions, corns and calluses are caused or aggravated by poor fitting footwear that do not allow the feet to position themselves naturally when standing or walking. Continue reading ‘Is Your Joint Pain a Symptom of Old Age Or Your High Heels?’ »

Aging is an inevitable process and everyone has to go thorough it regardless of the state of health they possess. For some it is a pleasurable experience as they lead healthy lives and age with grace without bearing too many health issues, but for others it is the most difficult phase of life when they are faced with health challenges, medications and treatments that hinder their lifestyles. Regular yoga practice can aid in leading a healthy life and if started early in life can also slow down the process of aging. Regardless of age, yoga is a practice that can immensely improve the overall well being of an individual at any age, and as you grow older, you have more free time to start taking better care of yourself, so it is never too late to begin a yoga program.

Yoga is a wonderful art that possesses the ability to adapt to each individual’s specific needs. Just like yoga during pregnancy concentrates on factors that will aid in a healthy prenatal period, yoga for old age takes into account the health and physical conditions of its practitioner. Senior citizens can benefit from yoga in terms of reducing or eliminating certain health conditions such as arthritis, incontinence, high blood pressure and osteoporosis and also encountering an overall sense of well being. Regular yoga practice increases flexibility, stamina, energy levels and at the same time helps to conquer a number of ailments. Continue reading ‘Is it Safe to Start Yoga in Old Age?’ »

Skin cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, affecting millions of people yearly. Like many cancers, however, it comes in multiple varieties. Of the three primary skin cancers-basal-cell carcinoma, squamous-cell carcinoma, and melanoma-only melanoma is typically lethal. Knowing what type of skin cancer is crucial both for treatment and for paying for your medical bills.

The most common skin cancer is also the least deadly: basal-cell carcinoma. It rarely spreads or causes serious health issues, but doctors remove it to be on the safe side. The removal procedure is far less complex and expensive than treatment for serious cancers. If you have insurance, your insurance will likely cover the treatment. If you do not, and if you are eligible for health or retirement benefits from Social Security, you may be able to receive help for your medical expenses. Continue reading ‘Skin Cancer – Different Types, Different Coverage’ »

If your doctor has told you that you need to be keeping a closer eye on your blood pressure, or if you’re curious about the effects that medication, exercise, pregnancy or other health issues are having on your blood pressure, then it might be a good idea to check out a high quality home-use blood pressure monitor, like those from Omron.

If you’re budgeting these days, you can try the Omron wrist monitor, which starts at $40. Reading at the wrist is risky, because it isn’t the best spot to take your pressure. However, if you put the monitor on and position it properly, you can get a pretty accurate reading. This is a tiny, monitor so it is excellent for taking places. Continue reading ‘Omron Blood Pressure Monitors’ »

One of the most important health issues I stress to my patients is creating, or maintaining, heart health. The best ways to ensure heart health and its all-important job of developing nourishing blood to every part of your body is to prevent plaque buildup and reduced blood flow in arteries. Diet, exercise, lifestyle changes, and certain supplements can work together to accomplish this goal!

In this first of a two-part series, I would like to explain to you a little about what coronary artery disease and blocked arteries can mean. Then we’ll talk about the proactive things you can do to avoid these conditions naturally without drugs or surgery.

Part II will deal with a controversial subject chelation therapy. Chelation methods of detoxing arteries with natural supplements have been an alternative medicine approach to arterial plaque for several years now. Continue reading ‘Heart Health and Clean Arteries – Part 1’ »