Shingles, or herpes zoster, happens when the dormant chickenpox virus, varicella zoster, is reactivated in your nerve tissues. Early signs of shingles include tingling and localized pain. Most, but not all, people with shingles start to develop a blistering rash. You may also experience itching, bumping or deep pain. Usually, the shingles rash lasts two…
Tremor is an unintentional, rhythmic muscle movement involving to-and-fro movements (oscillations) of one or more parts of the body. It’s the most common of all involuntary movements and can affect the hands, arms, head, face, voice, trunk and legs. Most tremors happen in the hands. In some people, tremor is a symptom of a neurological…
Scurvy is the official name given to the lack of vitamin C. It can lead to anemia, debility, exhaustion, spontaneous bleeding, pain in the limbs, and especially the legs, swelling in some parts of the body, and sometimes ulceration of the gums and loss of teeth. Scurvy has been known since ancient Greek and Egyptian…
Sciatica is the pain in the lower extremity resulting from irritation of the sciatic nerve. The pain of sciatica is usually felt from the lower back (the lumbar area) to behind the thigh and can radiate down below the knee. The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body and starts from nerve roots…
Scarring is the process by which your wounds are being repaired. Damage to the deeper layer of the skin, the dermis, is required to produce a scar. Damage to only the epidermis, the most superficial layer of skin, will not always produce a scar. Scars are known to produce a structural change in the deeper…
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system — which normally protects its health by attacking foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses — mistakenly attacks the joints. This creates inflammation that can cause the tissue that lines the inside of joints (the synovium) to thicken, resulting in swelling and…
Rheumatic diseases can affect your joints tendons, ligaments, bones and muscles. Among them are a couple of different kinds of arthritis, a term used for conditions that affect your joints. Sometimes they’re referred to as musculoskeletal diseases. Some of the most common symptoms include: joint pain loss of motion in joint/s inflammation — swelling, redness,…
In humans, the anatomical features of the respiratory system include airways, lungs as well as the respiratory muscles. Molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide are passively exchanged, by diffusion, between the gaseous external environment and the blood. This exchange process happens in the alveolar region of the lungs. Respiratory disease is a medical term that…
Chest congestion is a common symptom of respiratory tract infections such as the common cold. It’s what happens when the mucus membranes (mucosa) that line your airways jump into overdrive. WHAT CAUSES CHEST CONGESTION? When you breathe, you inhale particles that are floating around in the air like dust, allergens, bacteria or viruses. Usually, these…
Psoriasis is a noncontagious, chronic skin condition that produces plaques of thickened, scaling skin. The dry flakes of skin scales results from the excessively rapid proliferation of skin cells. The proliferation of skin cells is triggered by inflammatory chemicals produced by specialized white blood cells referred to as T-lymphocytes. Psoriasis usually affects the skin of…