Research-based articles on weight management, joint health, gut health, and natural wellness to help you make informed health decisions.
No, you do not need to know your blood type to donate blood. Blood centers determine your type through a simple test on a small blood sample before or during your donation. You only need to be in good general health and meet the basic eligibility requirements. The blood center handles all the testing and … Read more
Squats are one of the most effective exercises you can do, but only if you perform them with proper form. To do a squat correctly, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, push your hips back, bend your knees, and lower yourself as if sitting into a chair, keeping your chest up and your weight in … Read more
Blood inside your body is always red. It is never blue, no matter what you may have heard. The color ranges from a bright cherry red to a deep, dark maroon, depending on how much oxygen it is carrying. This is true whether the blood is in your arteries, veins, or heart. Why Does Blood … Read more
Chest acne is acne that appears on the chest, and it happens for the same basic reasons acne appears anywhere else: pores become clogged with oil and dead skin cells, and bacteria multiply in the trapped material. Hormones are a major trigger because they increase oil production, but diet, friction from clothing, and certain skin … Read more
If your blood pressure spikes and you need to bring it down within a few minutes, the most effective first step is slow, deep breathing. Specifically, exhaling for longer than you inhale activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which signals your heart to slow down and your blood vessels to relax. This technique, along with moving … Read more
A single strand of hair is a fiber, and it is made almost entirely of a protein called keratin. Keratin is the same structural protein found in your skin and nails. Each hair fiber grows from a root inside the skin, and the part you see above the scalp is technically dead tissue made of … Read more
Yes, infection can cause elevated troponin levels, even in people without blocked heart arteries. Troponin is a protein released into the blood when heart muscle cells are damaged. Infections—especially severe ones like sepsis, pneumonia, or COVID-19—can stress the heart enough to cause this damage. The elevation does not always mean a classic heart attack, but … Read more
Exercise is supposed to make you feel better, not worse. But for many people, a pounding head right in the middle of a workout is a real and recurring problem. The most common cause is a spike in blood pressure inside your skull during exertion, which stretches the blood vessel walls and triggers pain receptors. … Read more
When your doctor orders blood work, the term eGFR can look like alphabet soup. It stands for estimated glomerular filtration rate. This number tells you how well your kidneys are filtering waste from your blood. Think of your kidneys as a coffee filter. The eGFR measures how much liquid passes through that filter each minute. … Read more
Your blood oxygen level measures how well your body delivers oxygen from your lungs to your bloodstream. For most healthy people, a normal reading on a pulse oximeter falls between 95% and 100%. If your level drops below 90%, that is a medical emergency requiring immediate attention. The most effective ways to increase your blood … Read more