Stress gets blamed for almost everything. Headaches, stomach pain, fatigue, high blood pressure — all of it often gets traced back to a rough month at work or a difficult family situation. That blame is sometimes fair. But it is not always fair, and treating every symptom as a stress problem can delay finding the … Read more
A normal blood alcohol level is zero. In the United States, the legal limit for driving is a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent for adults age 21 and older. Any alcohol in your bloodstream is alcohol your body has not yet cleared. There is no “safe” level above zero for driving, and no … Read more
You glance in the mirror and there it is — a small bump, a sore, or a patch of dry skin that wasn’t there yesterday. What is on your lip? Most lip bumps and spots fall into a short list of common causes: cold sores from the herpes simplex virus, canker sores, chapped or irritated … Read more
“King Baby Syndrome” is not a recognized medical or psychiatric diagnosis. It is a popular label used to describe adults who expect others to meet their needs, struggle to tolerate frustration, and react poorly when they do not get their way. The term is often applied to people who seem to have never outgrown the … Read more
Early eczema usually shows up as patches of dry, itchy, red or pink skin — often on the cheeks, the crooks of the elbows, the backs of the knees, or the hands. The skin may feel rough, look slightly swollen, and itch before any visible rash appears. In people with darker skin tones, the redness … Read more
Bone spurs in the foot form when the body lays down extra bone to shore up a joint or tendon that has been under repeated stress or pressure. The most common driver is osteoarthritis, the wear-and-tear form of joint disease that thins the cartilage cushioning your joints. When cartilage wears down, the joint becomes less … Read more
Muscle cramps have many causes, and no single vitamin or mineral deficiency explains most of them. That said, low levels of certain electrolytes and minerals — particularly magnesium, potassium, and calcium — are among the recognized contributors, and vitamin D deficiency can play an indirect role by affecting calcium balance. Which one matters most depends … Read more
Creatine does not dehydrate you, and the research on this is fairly clear. In fact, the opposite tends to happen. Creatine pulls water into your muscle cells, which is a normal part of how it works. The idea that it dries you out comes from a reasonable-sounding but incorrect assumption about how the body handles … Read more
That warm, heavy, settled feeling you get after a long exhale, a good meal, or a quiet moment on the porch isn’t random. It’s your parasympathetic nervous system doing its job. This branch of your nervous system slows your heart, relaxes your blood vessels, and tells your body it’s safe to rest and digest. When … Read more
No, chewing gum does not take seven years to digest. That claim has been repeated for decades, but it has no basis in anatomy or physiology. Your digestive system handles gum the same way it handles anything else you swallow that it cannot break down: it moves it through and passes it out. What makes … Read more