#DiverticularDisease is characterized by chronic, low-grade inflammation mediated by neuropeptides, which might trigger visceral hypersensitivity in some patients https://t.co/5PQJTDn2US #Diverticulitis pic.twitter.com/aLW7EMGqbs
— Nature Reviews Disease Primers (@DiseasePrimers) May 18, 2022
Category Archives: Infographics
Health: How To Recover From An Ankle Sprain
Infographic: Causes And Treatments Of Lupus
Lupus is a disease that occurs when your body’s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs (autoimmune disease). Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems — including your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.
Infographic: What Is Contact Dermatitis?
Contact dermatitis happens when the skin becomes irritated or inflamed after coming in contact with a substance that triggers an allergic reaction. It bears some of the same symptoms as the six other types of eczema. But unlike atopic dermatitis — the most common and difficult-to-treat form of eczema — it doesn’t run in families and isn’t linked to other allergic conditions such as hay fever or asthma.
Medical Trials: Cancer-Preventing Vaccines
The idea is to deliver into the body bits of proteins, or antigens, from cancer cells to stimulate the immune system to attack any incipient tumors. The concept isn’t new, and it has faced skepticism. A decade ago, a Nature editorial dismissed a prominent breast cancer advocacy group’s goal of developing a preventive vaccine by 2020 as “misguided,” in part because of the genetic complexity of tumors. The editorial called the goal an “objective that science cannot yet deliver.” But now, a few teams—including one funded by the same advocacy group, the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC)—are poised to test preventive vaccines, in some cases in healthy people at high genetic risk for breast and other cancers.
Dr. C’s Journal: Care Of Hand Osteoarthritis
I started having hand pain about 20 years ago, and booked a visit with the rheumatologist in my medical building. He looked at my hands and immediately knew that I had osteoarthritis.
The thumb musculature (the thenar eminence) was angled with respect to the plane of the rest of my hand and wasn’t flat like normal. Some of my joints were slightly swollen and even warm to the touch, and many of my fingers were beginning to get crooked.
He ordered a rheumatoid panel, uric acid and inflammatory markers. The normal results confirmed his diagnosis of osteoarthritis.
The middle and index fingers have taken a lot of trauma over the years. They are also the crookedest, for the same reason. With the thinning of my skin or you can see the outline of my tendons on the palm of my hand, and some are a little bit bumpy and irregular. I am unable to make a tight fist anymore, although my fingers will flex to some degree.
I practice exercises on my wrist, hands and fingers, such as rotating my wrist and thumb in a circular fashion, touching my thumb to the tips of my fingers in sequence, squeezing a rubber ball, and flattening out my hand against the back of my head. Recently, I have noticed a little resistance when I try to straighten out my ring fingers after flexing them, and worried about developing trigger finger. On further reading I found that trigger finger is not more common in people who have osteoarthritis.
I do a lot of swimming, and am worried that the irritative force of the water regularly acting up on my hand might be making the hand pain worse. But my hands seem to be a little bit better with the hand exercises. There seems to be less pain, although maybe I have the same amount of pain but tolerate it better since I’m doing something about it. One never knows about a preventative program, since you’re an experiment of one. You have to have faith that what you are doing is beneficial, and in harmony with medical studies. Perhaps my anti-inflammatory diet and turmeric, as well as my good sleep and aerobic exercise is also helping.
—Dr. C.
Chronic Conditions: Allergic Rhinitis (Nature)
Infographic: How Heart Rhythm Monitors Work
Infographic: What Are Bone Stress Injuries?
A bone stress injury (BSI) means that the bones cannot tolerate repeated mechanical loads, resulting in structural fatigue and local bone pain. A delay in BSI diagnosis can lead to more serious injuries, such as stress fractures that require longer treatment periods.
Doctors Without Waiting Rooms 