Internal Medicine

A chronic disease that inflames and narrows your lungs’ airways, making breathing difficult, asthma varies in severity. There different types and each kind had different causes and triggers. Depending on symptoms, medicine use and lung function, asthma is classified by severity levels, ranging from mild to intermediate to severe.

Bronchitis is an inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes, which carry air to and from the lungs. Typically, those with the respiratory condition cough up thickened, discolored mucus. The condition may be either acute, lasting only a brief period, or chronic. It often stems from a cold or other respiratory infection. Acute bronchitis is very common. Chronic bronchitis is a more concerning condition, where constant inflammation is present, often due to smoking.

A chronic health condition, diabetes affects how the body transfers food into energy. Food is broken down into sugars (glucose) in the digestive process. When blood sugar increase, it signals the body to release insulin. Insulin allows blood sugar into the body’s cells for use as energy. With diabetes, the body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use the insulin it makes properly. When there isn’t enough insulin or cells stop responding to insulin, too much blood sugar remains in the bloodstream. Over time, that can cause serious health problems, such as heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease.

An eye infection is caused by an allergy, bacteria or a virus. Symptoms may include redness, irritation, tearing, and itchiness. They may also include a crust at the margins of the lids making it difficult to open the eyes upon waking. Viral or bacterial eye infections are highly contagious.

The medical community considers a fever a body temperature of 100.4 or greater. A fever is a temporary increase in body temperature commonly due to an illness the body has recognized and to which the immune system is responding. Other indicators of a fever may be sweating, chills, muscle soreness, irritability, general malaise, lethargy or weakness, and headache.

Only about 50 percent of all fungi are harmful. They are organisms that lives in air, in soil, on plants and in water. Some also live in the human body. People with weakened immune systems or those taking antibiotics are more likely to get a fungal infection. Fungi can be difficult to kill. There are topical and oral treatments.

Headaches happen for a wide variety of reasons and have different sets of symptoms. There are over 150 kinds of headaches, but the most common are tension headaches, which cause mild to moderate pain and are sporadic; migraine headaches, which cause extreme throbbing pain, nausea and vomiting, and, light sensitivity. These may last for hours or days; and, cluster headaches, which are the most severe type. These are generally accompanied with intense burning or piercing pain behind or around a single eye. The term cluster refers to their tendency to happen in groups at a time.

Also known as hypertension, high blood pressure refers to a condition in which, the force of a person’s blood pushing against the walls of the blood vessels, is consistently too high. The main harm caused by high blood pressure is creating an increased workload of the heart and blood vessels, rendering them less efficient. Over time, the force and abrasion damage the delicate lining of the arteries.

Twelve months past the end of a woman’s menstrual cycles marks the beginning of menopause. A natural part of aging, menopause generally occurs between 40s or 50s, but the average age is 51 in American women. Symptoms common in menopause include hot flashes, chills, lower than normal energy, night sweats, vaginal dryness, thinning hair, weight gain, and moodiness.

A migraine is a type of severe headache. It generally involves throbbing pain or an intense pulsing sensation on one side of the head. Other symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. These attacks can last for hours to days, and often prevent normal daily activities like working, going to school, driving, and shopping. For some warning signs come days before an onset including, constipation, mood swings, cravings, frequent yawning, and increased thirst.

Sexually transmitted diseases are also known as STDs are typically contracted through sexual activity. They are caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites transferring person to person in blood, semen, or other body fluids. In some cases, however, STDs are transmitted non-sexually, such as from mother to infant during pregnancy or childbirth, or through blood transfusions or shared needles. STDs do not always carry symptoms which fosters the spread. Symptoms may arise days or even years after contracting the STD. When symptoms are present, they may include sores or bumps on the genitals or in the oral or rectal area, odd smelling discharge, unusual bleeding, swollen glands, lower abdominal pain, rash, fever, and burning urination.

Sinusitis is the inflammation of the tissue that lines the sinus cavities, the hollow air spaces that surround the nose. These flare ups can range in people from occasional to chronic.

Skin is the body’s largest organ. Anything that irritates, clogs, or inflames skin can cause symptoms such as rashes, bumps, acne, redness, swelling, burning, or itching. Allergies, irritants, genetics, medication, and certain diseases and immune system problems can cause an irregular skin condition.

The difference between sprains and fractures is confusing to many people. However, a fracture is simply a broken bone. The term sprain refers to a stretched or torn tendon or ligament.