Yes, many forms of deafness and hearing loss are genetic — and inherited hearing loss is more common than most people realize. Roughly half of all cases of congenital hearing loss (hearing loss present at birth) are caused by changes in a person’s genes. The other half come from environmental causes like infections during pregnancy, … Read more
Your body already has a system for getting rid of waste, and it runs every minute of every day. Your liver processes toxins and drugs, your kidneys filter blood and make urine, your lungs clear carbon dioxide, and your colon removes what’s left after digestion. There is no single drink, tea, or supplement that “flushes” … Read more
Your menstrual cycle is not controlled by willpower, and no single food or pill can reset it on command. The menstrual cycle is driven by a hormonal loop involving the brain, pituitary gland, and ovaries, and it can be disrupted by many things — stress, weight change, thyroid problems, and more. Diet and supplements can … Read more
Your thyroid is a small gland in your neck that controls how fast your body uses energy. When it works properly, it makes just the right amount of hormones to keep your heart, brain, muscles, and metabolism running smoothly. A normal thyroid level usually means a TSH between about 0.4 and 4.0 milli-international units per … Read more
Dating someone with anxiety is not a rescue mission, and it is not a sentence to a life of tiptoeing around someone else’s feelings. It is a relationship like any other, with one specific difference: your partner’s nervous system reacts to perceived threat more intensely and more often than most people’s. You can love someone … Read more
A bald spot on the back of a baby’s head is almost always caused by friction, not by anything wrong with your baby’s health. You cannot fully prevent it, but you can reduce it by giving your baby regular supervised tummy time while awake, changing the direction your baby’s head faces during sleep, and holding … Read more
Constipation is one of the most common digestive complaints in the United States, and for many people the fix is not a pill. It is what sits on the plate and how the day is structured around eating, drinking, and moving. Diet and daily habits are the first things clinicians look at, because the colon … Read more
Nicotine gum costs so much because you are paying for a regulated medicine, not a piece of candy. In the US, nicotine gum is sold as an FDA-regulated over-the-counter product, which means every piece carries costs for drug manufacturing standards, packaging, testing, and retail markup. The brand-name version is the most expensive, generics cost less, … Read more
Yes — most men can have sex after prostate removal, but the experience usually changes. Orgasms remain possible for the large majority of men. Erections often become harder to achieve without help. And ejaculation no longer happens, because the prostate and seminal vesicles, which make most of the seminal fluid, are gone. Those three facts … Read more
Burping — doctors call it belching — is your body’s way of releasing swallowed air from your stomach. Everyone does it, usually a few times a day, especially after eating or drinking. But if it feels like you’re burping constantly, or more than the people around you, there’s usually a reason. Most of the time … Read more