Lymphedema is swelling, often in only one arm or leg, that occurs when fluid cannot circulate properly and builds up in the tissues instead of being flushed out of the body. It is commonly a side effect of cancer or its treatment.

After someone has been diagnosed with cancer, current or anticipated losses such as control over daily living, health, and even life itself can contribute to grieving.

The phrase “flesh-eating bacteria” refers to a rare but potentially life-threatening infection, which affects the skin and soft tissues down to the muscles. The medical term for a flesh-eating bacterial infection is necrotizing fasciitis (NF).

A cancer diagnosis can be one of the scariest moments of a person’s life. Many people take comfort in being able to rely on the best doctors in the best hospitals around the world. U.S.

A colostomy is a surgical procedure that creates a hole or stoma on the abdomen and brings out one end of the colon through the stoma for the purposes of stool expulsion. A colostomy bag is attached to the stoma for stool collection.

The world often seems suddenly strange and unfamiliar when a loved one is dying of cancer. In addition to a flood of emotions and practical concerns, uncertainty about what to expect in the final few days causes more anxiety.

Dry gangrene describes localized tissue death caused by loss of blood supply. The body tissues are kept alive by a constant supply of oxygen and nutrients delivered by the blood, which also carries away tissue waste products.

Cancer is a category of diseases that occur throughout the body. These tumors grow rapidly at the original site and are capable of spreading metastatic tumors to other parts of the body.

Your body naturally harbors a certain amount of bacteria that do not cause health problems. Instead, these bacteria have adapted to help the human body.

The limbic system represents the part of your brain devoted to the most basic survival structures that protect and regulate emotions and reactive states. Interconnecting pathways link the limbic system, located deep within your brain, to the hypothalamus, which controls thinking, behavior and hormonal functions.

Inflammatory breast cancer is an uncommon, aggressive form of the illness that can quickly spread to other parts of the body. This form of breast cancer accounts for approximately 1 to 5 percent of breast cancers in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute.

If you are a smoker and find that you get dead skin inside your mouth, you should not be surprised. Mouth changes with tobacco use. The lining of the oral cavity is composed of layers of flat scale-like cells called squamous epithelium.