You may not have realized it, but chances are you've consumed something called butyric acid before, and believe it or not, your body produces it as well. It's true — butyric acid, also known as butanoic acid or BTA, is a saturated short-chain fatty acid found in butter, ghee, raw milk, animal fats and plant oils. It's also formed in…
Did you know that your liver is your largest internal organ (roughly the size of a football!)? Your hard-working liver, weighing roughly three to four pounds in total, sits just under your rib cage on the right side of your abdomen. It's responsible for crucial functions like digesting your food, storing energy, and removing toxins…
Strep throat can be a painful and frustrating respiratory condition, making it hard to swallow, eat and sleep. Although the conventional treatment for strep throat is antibiotics, research shows that they only reduce the length of the illness by about half a day. They also don't seem to affect time off from school or work. Because antibiotic-resistant…
Acute throat infections are among the most common infectious diseases seen by family physicians — they are responsible for 2 to 4 percent of all visits to a family doctor. Strep throat is the most common cause of a sore throat among children between the ages of 5 and 15. (1) Be aware of specific strep throat…
In one way or another, gallbladder pain is almost always caused by one particular gallbladder problem: gallstones. Around 10 percent to 20 percent of the total adult population (up to 40 percent in some age groups) is believed to have at least mild to moderate gallstones. The incidence of gallbladder symptoms rises with age, so those…
There is a lot of information out there about hyperplasia — some accurate and some not so accurate. It sure sounds like a scary term, but does that mean it actually is in all cases? Well, it certainly can be. Hyperplasia, also sometimes called hypergenesis, is a condition characterized by an abnormal overgrowth of cells, which…
Uterine fibroids (also called uterine leiomyomas) are extremely common. In fact, about 75 percent of women experience them at some point in their lives. (1) Ranging in size from a few millimeters, or about the size of a pea, to the size of a grapefruit, fibroids are "the most frequent indication for major gynecologic surgery," according to a report…
Getting the best nutrition for your baby is so important, and the best way to do this from day 1 is through breast-feeding. Breast-feeding is an important and special occurrence between a mother and her child. It leaves the child and mother healthier and happier. However, it also can lead to certain complications for the mother, like mastitis.…
Although we tend to think of them as a woman's problem, both men and women develop varicose veins — those bulgy veins that appear lumpy and dark in color (usually blue or purple). In fact, according to the Department of Health and Human Science, about 50 percent to 55 percent of women and 40 percent to 45…
