For women, the symptoms of Crohn’s can include pain during sex, fertility problems, missed periods, and a host of other issues. Here are a few things to be aware of. 1. Crohn’s disease in women tends to fluctuate along with hormone levels. A rise and fall in hormone levels appears to affect Crohn’s symptoms. For example, “Women with Crohn’s disease may report more bowel movements and cramping around the time of their period,” says Marla Dubinsky, MD, codirector of the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and the president and cofounder of We Care; the organization is devoted to improving the quality of care for all women with IBD at every stage of motherhood, from planning to post pregnancy....

Your chances of developing atherosclerosis are based on several different risk factors. Some of these can’t be changed, like your age and your personal and family medical history. But other factors that influence the onset of atherosclerosis are either partially or fully under your control. Chief among these are your eating habits, how much exercise you get, and whether you smoke. (1) Certain risk factors for atherosclerosis are measured values that can’t be changed on their own — things like your body weight, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol and glucose levels....

“Newer medications, especially GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors, have been shown in clinical trials to reduce diabetes complications,” particularly lower risks of heart attack, stroke, and progression to kidney disease, says Scott Pilla, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Lutherville, Maryland. “Newer medications also have a much lower risk of hypoglycemia [low blood sugar episodes], which is a common and potentially severe side effect....

Matsuno says that identifying as a biracial Asian and white person growing up in Laramie, Wyoming, they felt like they didn’t belong among their majority-white peers. “I struggled a lot with my race,” they say. When they lived in Japan briefly at age six, they felt like they didn’t belong there, either. “I’ve had a similar struggle with gender,” Matsuno says. “My experiences didn’t match up with other trans people I knew, but they also didn’t match up with cis people either....

A 2019 study by the U.S. Travel Association found that a record 768 million vacation days went unused in the previous year, with 55 percent of workers reporting they didn’t take all the paid time off their job offered. In 2018, the average American earned 23.9 days of paid time off, but took only 17.4 days, according to the data. The total value of forfeited vacation days was estimated at $65....

However, sometimes hand pain can strike when you’re not near your specially purchased gadgets. Or maybe you just don’t want to spend money on an item you might not use too often. That’s where “hacks” come in. Hacks are a clever way of repurposing tools you already have in new and useful ways. “You can transform things that are on hand in a way that’s helpful, especially if the specially made items aren’t handy,” says Genie Lieberman, director of the physical rehabilitation institute at the Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida....

Published this month in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the study — which was supported by the National Institutes of Health — confirmed that low levels of HDL cholesterol indicated a greater risk of heart attacks or related deaths among white adults — although that did not prove to be the case for Black adults. In addition, the investigation noted that higher HDL cholesterol levels did not appear to be associated with any cardiovascular benefit in either white or Black participants....

But blood sugar testing isn’t always easy — and an array of mistakes can affect your results. In fact, it can be hard to fully understand the guidelines on managing blood sugar testing, according to a study published in the May 2015 issue of the Journal of Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders. The good news: A little practice can help you get blood sugar testing right. Start by learning how to avoid these common mistakes....

Experts say it’s vital to be prepared for hurricanes, which can be “dangerous and destructive,” as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts it. Here are 10 tips for safety preparation. 1. Pay Close Attention to Weather Reports This will help you know what steps to take to secure your home and when to evacuate, says Irwin Redlener, MD, the founding director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University in New York City....

The COVID-19 pandemic halted programs to train and recertify lifeguards for two straight years, resulting in a loss of about one million lifeguards who would otherwise be working this summer, says Bernard J. Fisher II, the director of health and safety for the American Lifeguard Association in Vienna, Virginia. This shortage, combined with a pandemic pause in temporary work visas for foreign lifeguards, has forced countless pools and beaches to open with fewer lifeguards, reduce their hours, or close altogether this summer, he says....

And new research indicates that your caffeine addiction may well be genetic: Scientists recently discovered that people with certain gene variations drank about 40 extra milligrams of coffee a day — the amount in an 8-ounce can of Diet Coke — compared to people with different versions of the genes. Whether in coffee, tea, soda, or chocolate, caffeine helps improve alertness and can help you feel more awake by increasing adrenaline levels while lowering the chemicals that encourage sleep....

Dry air in the home is a common culprit behind many uncomfortable conditions, including itchy skin and chapped lips, plus it can make respiratory conditions like asthma even worse, or increase susceptibility to catching cold and flu. Reintroducing moisture into your home by using a humidifier — especially during the winter season — is one way to increase your comfort, and can help prevent dry skin, coughs and congestion, and even reduce static electricity....

That doesn’t stop many of us from enjoying it, though. In fact, the global cake industry was valued at a whopping 42.94 billion dollars in 2019, according to Grand View Research, and is only projected to grow further. Believe it or not, though, you can truly have your cake and eat it, too. Doing so requires some simple, nutritious ingredient swaps for unhealthy staples such as olive oil, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and dark chocolate (yum!...

The practice of yoga, which originated in India thousands of years ago, has been the focus of a number of clinical studies, and evidence shows that all those Sun Salutations and Downward-Facing Dogs may contribute to a healthier heart. For example, a trial published in March 2022 in the International Journal of Yoga found that after 12 weeks of practicing yoga — performing breathing exercises and yoga postures, also called asanas — roughly 60 minutes every day, patients with stable heart failure who were also on standard medical therapy experienced significant improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction, which measures how well the left ventricle chamber of the heart can pump blood with each heart beat....

Mental Health: 5 Signs of Clinical Depression “You determine clinical depression by two measures. One is by time and one is by severity — impact on function. When you have severe symptoms that last at least two weeks and are interfering with fundamental basic functions, it falls into the realm of clinical depression,” explains psychiatrist Jill RachBeisel, MD, associate professor of psychiatry of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore....

And it doesn’t just apply to your closets. People can really benefit from spring cleaning their self-care routines, too, says Silvi Saxena, a licensed social worker and a clinical trauma professional based in Philadelphia. Our self-care needs change over time because we change and things around us change — like what responsibilities and obligations we have, our schedules, and the weather. “You can say you are doing self-care, but if you don’t feel any different, it’s important to think about why you keep doing the same things,” Saxena says....

RELATED: Is the Keto Diet Good for People With Type 2 Diabetes? Approaching this fad diet fully informed may better set you up for success: When you go on a keto diet, you enter ketosis, a metabolic state where your body uses fat for fuel (rather than glucose, its preferred energy source). During this process, the body breaks down fat and converts it into ketone bodies. This is not the same thing as diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes that happens when your body does not get enough insulin and ketone levels are simultaneously high, according to the Mayo Clinic....

Diet is a major issue in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and patients have been telling doctors for years that certain foods trigger their flares. Indeed, a study published in September 2020 in BMC Gastroenterology found a correlation between eating pro-inflammatory foods — dairy products and spicy food — and an increase in disease activity. Also, the researchers reported people were more likely to avoid specific foods than taking in foods that have beneficial in managing Crohn’s disease symptoms....

Meanwhile, other areas can harbor germs from our gastrointestinal tract and respiratory system anytime we use the bathroom, cough, sneeze, and wash our mouth in the sink, Banjoko adds. These germs have the potential to contribute to sickness, too. The moral of the story: Good health begins at home. So start the season on a healthy note by making sure to include these often-neglected areas in your spring-cleaning routine....

“Hyperhidrosis can be socially stigmatizing. Many patients feel very alone,” says New York City–based Amy Wechsler, MD, who is board-certified in both dermatology and psychiatry. In the United States, 15 million people have hyperhidrosis, according to a study published in October 2016 in the Archives of Dermatological Research — that’s about 4.8 percent of the population. If you sweat excessively and are embarrassed or ashamed about it, you aren’t alone....