Social isolation and feeling very lonely, trapped and hopeless are some of the most common warning signs that someone could be heading toward having suicidal thoughts. Every year, in the U.S. alone, there are more than 40,000 completed suicides and many more partial attempts. Millions of family members, friends, teachers and therapists are left behind…
For a country obsessed with losing weight, spending more than $60 billion a year trying to shed pounds, Americans are failing miserably. Even though we know the health risks that come with being too overweight, almost 78 million adults and 13 million children are obese — that’s one in three adults. (1, 2) It’s obvious…
The terms narcissist and narcissistic personality disorder are thrown around rather loosely today. While a touch of self-centeredness, need for admiration or difficulty being criticized may seem narcissistic, it doesn't necessarily warrant a diagnosis of true narcissistic personality disorder. (And here's an important point to remember: Narcissism is not the same as confidence.) But when…
Never heard of homocysteine before and wondering what causes someone to have elevated homocysteine levels? Homocysteine is a specific type of amino acid that's created in the body during metabolic processes, as opposed to consumed in food. It's produced in the body as a byproduct of methylation, the process of producing an essential protein called…
A fungus may trigger Crohn's disease, a devastating inflammatory bowel disease that often requires heavy-duty drugs, surgery or a combination of both to keep at bay. The new finding, published in the September 2016 edition journal mBio, opens the door to more probiotic-based treatment options that could more gently treat and possibly even cure the digestive disease Crohn's…
Asthma is a common problem that affects more than 25 million Americans, especially children and teens. Rates of asthma have been increasing steadily over the past several decades as well — today one in 12 people has asthma, or 8 percent of the U.S. population, compared to about one in 14 people less than 10 years…
Everyone wants to get rid of blackheads. Not only are they unsightly, but they could be an indication of a food allergy or some other problem like leaky gut. What are blackheads exactly? The American Academy of Dermatology tells us that oil that collects on the surface of the skin combined with dead skin cells and…
As I’m sure you’re well aware, an estimated 52.5 million U.S. adults suffer from some sort of arthritis, and one common form is rheumatoid arthritis (RA). (1) How wide does this disease cast its net? Rhematoid arthritis affects a staggering 1.3 million to 1.5 million Americans at any given time. Thus the question arises: Is…
You may have heard of lupus, but do you know the most common lupus symptoms to look out for? You should, because this autoimmune disease affects at least 1.5 million Americans and more than 5 million people worldwide. (1) Even more alarming, more than 16,000 new cases of lupus are reported each year in the…
Symptoms of this uncomfortable condition account for more than 2 million visits to the doctor each year in the U.S. alone. This is because gastritis symptoms can wreak all kinds of havoc on people’s digestive tracts, leaving them in all sorts of pain and discomfort. What is gastritis, you ask? It's an uncomfortable digestive problem caused by…
