Natural Health and Herbal Remedies Blog

Description and Possible Medical Problems

Out nails reveal a lot about our health. It’s not uncommon for the nail to become affected by a serious disease. In fact, a good medical detective will be able to tell when you become sick and for how long you’ve been suffering just by looking at your nails.

When horizontal grooves appear across your nails, it’s a common sign that a person is recovering from a severe illness. You see, when a person is sick for an extended period of time, the body seems to cut down on the amount of nutrients it sends to nonvital areas such as nails so that it can put its resources into boosting the immune system and/or ridding the body of the illness. And so the growth of the nails slows down, which results in the grooves.

Treatment

If grooves appear across your nails, you don’t have to do a thing. When you recover from your illness and your nails begin to grow again, the grooves will disappear, though it may take several months for the nail to grow out.

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Description and Possible Medical Problems

Of the countless medical conditions throughout the years, some can be of the foot problems I see won’t occur if you wear shoes that fit properly.

This includes heel pain. The tough pad that comprises your heel serves as a shock absorber for your entire foot as well as the rest of your body. If you feel a pain in your heel every time you take a step, the pad of your heel is probably inflamed, which may be caused by absorbing too much shock. Though some people may call your condition a heel spur, this is a misnomer, since a heel spur is a problem with the bone of the heel, in which part of it becomes calcified. A heel spur is excruciatingly painful, since a bone is digging directly into your skin.

Heel pain is usually due—again!—to wearing shoes that don’t fit properly or pounding on your heel while walking or running. Women are also prone to heel pain when they switch from high heels to flat shoes. High heels force you to walk on your toes, whereas if you start to wear flats, there will be more weight on your heel than it’s accustomed to.

Treatment

If you think you have an inflamed heel pad, try changing the shoes you wear to comfortable, flat shoes that have a lot of padding in the heel. While the pain remains, however, you can take aspirin and apply ice to reduce the swelling. This is all most people need. Others, however, will need to see their doctor, who may decide to inject corticosteroids into the heel for instant relief.

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There have been hundreds of books written on this topic, and it’s likely that hundreds more will be written in the years to come. Then why is the public still generally confused about cholesterol and what— if anything—should be done to bring down an elevated cholesterol level?

These are the facts: A normal cholesterol reading will be 200 milligrams or less. If your cholesterol tests above 200, it’s necessary to check all of your blood lipid levels with a series of blood tests, taken after fasting at least six hours.

I feel a cholesterol test should be performed by a reputable lab and interpreted by your physician. The result of a test done with a finger prick at work or at home should be used only as a screening. If the number is elevated, you should then make an appointment with your doctor.

The spotlight has turned on cholesterol because even in people of normal weight, an elevated cholesterol level increases the risk for devel-oping premature aging of the blood vessels, which leads to heart and kidney disease, cerebral stroke, and other vascular diseases. Diabetes, some forms of liver disease, and some of the medications that are used to treat acne and high blood pressure can also cause your cholesterol levels to go up. Elevated cholesterol levels may also be due to genetics, but most often it’s due to the high amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat people include in their diets.

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As I’ve mentioned, the major problem with high blood pressure is that most of the time you won’t have any symptoms. Unfortunately, once you start taking medication to treat your condition, you may experience adverse reactions such as headaches and dizziness, until your doctor finds the medication right for you. At this point, many people stop taking the medication before it even has a chance to work. Or else, you may want to start taking other medications to treat your side effects, which in turn can cause more side effects. Before you know it, you can spend a significant part of your day opening bottles and swallowing pills. That’s why when I first start a person on blood pressure medication, I strongly recommend that in the beginning she visit me in my office at least once a week so I can assess the effectiveness of the medication and her adverse reactions, if any. It’s important for you, as a patient, to feel like an integral part of the medical treatment team with whom you are working.

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Description and Possible Medical Problems

When I was a kid and my aunts used to sit around complaining about their corns, I always thought of that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where an ear of corn sprang full blown from somebody’s foot. I looked at my aunts’ clunky orthopedic shoes, but they didn’t look as though they could hold something that big.

After 4 years of medical school and 20 years of practice, I know a little bit more about corns. A corn usually appears on a toe where the skin has become thickened, usually by the pressure and/or friction of shoes that don’t fit right. A callus is a close, thick-skinned relative of a corn— except that it usually appears on the sole of the foot and over a wider area.

Though corns and calluses are annoying and corns are sometimes painful, they probably won’t prevent you from staying on your feet.

Treatment

If you get a corn or callus, you should first soak it in warm water for about 10 minutes. Then you can rub it away with a pumice stone or use a special over-the-counter cream that softens the skin. There are also special corn pads you can buy that will reduce the friction between your shoe and your foot.

But the best way to treat a corn as well as to prevent it in the future is wearing shoes that fit properly. It might also help to choose shoes with a leather upper that will easily mold to your feet instead of fighting against them.

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