Healthy Living

If you have gastritis, the safest amount of alcohol to drink is none. Alcohol is a known irritant to the stomach lining, and no type of alcohol is proven safe for someone with an inflamed stomach. If you choose to drink anyway, lower-alcohol options and small amounts are less likely to cause symptoms than spirits … Read more

“Mic peptides” is a term that gets used in a few different ways, and that ambiguity matters before we go any further. Most often it refers to short chains of amino acids — typically fewer than about 50 — that are being studied or marketed for their effects on the immune system. Some of these … Read more

Waking up itchy is a common problem, and it usually happens for one of a few reasons. The most frequent causes are dry skin, a reaction to something in your bed, or a skin condition like eczema that flares at night. Less often, it can be a sign of an internal issue such as liver … Read more

At 22 weeks pregnant, you are in your fifth month of pregnancy. Pregnancy is counted in calendar months as roughly 4.3 weeks each, so 22 weeks lands you just past the five-month mark — about five months and one week, or into month six depending on how you count. Most people find it simplest to … Read more

Feeling winded on a flight of stairs that used to be easy is a signal worth paying attention to. Decreased endurance usually comes from one of a few places: a drop in aerobic fitness from less activity, a shortage of red blood cells or iron, a heart or lung condition that limits oxygen delivery, a … Read more

Feeling dizzy while eating is your body telling you something specific is happening with your blood flow, blood sugar, or nervous system regulation. The most common reason is a drop in blood pressure after a meal, a condition doctors call postprandial hypotension. Other causes include reactive hypoglycemia, swallowing-related nerve reflexes, and in some cases, an … Read more

Back-of-shoe wear almost always comes from one thing: your heel sliding up and down inside the shoe with every step. Fix the fit and the friction, and you fix the wear. The most effective steps are lacing your shoes with a heel-lock technique, choosing the right size, using a shoehorn, and unlacing before you take … Read more

Swallowing your own semen is not toxic. Semen is a body fluid your body produced, and it does not contain a poison that harms you when it enters your stomach. The real questions are about infection risk, allergies, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) — not poison. For most healthy people, the act itself is not … Read more

Green or yellow snot usually means your immune system is actively fighting an infection, and the color comes from a specific enzyme inside your white blood cells. That enzyme contains iron, and when those cells break down at the infection site, the iron gives mucus its green or yellow tint. It is not a reliable … Read more

Brown spots on watermelon are usually caused by a common soil-borne fungus that infects the fruit while it sits on wet ground. The organism is called Didymella bryoniae, and the disease it causes is known as gummy stem blight. The spots start small and dark, then spread into larger brown patches, often with black specks … Read more