Alzheimer disease is a chronic, incurable brain disorder characterized by progressive loss of brain tissue and function. The early stages of Alzheimer disease primarily affect intellectual functions. Late-stage Alzheimer disease directly or indirectly affects other body systems. The condition is ultimately fatal.
Read more →
Fatigue and a low-grade fever commonly occur with a lengthy list of illnesses and conditions. These nonspecific symptoms serve as a general immune system alert, signaling an abnormality somewhere in the body.
Read more →
The lining of your respiratory system, extending from your nose through the airways of your lungs, is coated with mucus. This clear, sticky substance helps keep the airways clean by capturing particles and chemicals from the air you breathe.
Read more →
Staphylococci--commonly called staph--cause a variety of human infections, including boils, skin infections (cellulitis), food poisoning, pneumonia, bone and blood stream infections and toxic shock syndrome. One species of staphylococci called Staphylococcus aureus, or S. aureus, causes most human infections.
Read more →
Whether you use them as a main ingredient, condiment and garnish, onions add flavor to a variety of dishes. Onions are a low-calorie, healthful food to include in your diabetic diet, providing you with fiber, iron, potassium, vitamin C and other micronutrients.
Read more →
It probably happened when you were just a kid -- the first time you noticed that corn looks remarkably similar passing from your body as it did going in.
Read more →
The ear nerve is known by several names including the vestibulocochlear nerve, the auditory nerve, the acoustic nerve, and the eighth cranial nerve. This nerve has two components. The cochlear nerve is responsible for hearing.
Read more →
Blood ammonia comes primarily from the bacterial breakdown of unabsorbed dietary protein in the intestine. Intestinal ammonia passes into the bloodstream and travels to the liver, which converts ammonia into urea. Urea subsequently passes from the body through the urine.
Read more →
The liver and spleen share common blood circulation pathways. Due to the circulatory link between the liver and spleen, many disease processes affect both organs.
Read more →
An intricate network of nerves in the arms and fingers carry signals between the brain and skin, enabling the perception of an array of sensations. The nerves of the arms, hands and fingers arise from the spinal cord in the neck.
Read more →
Headaches in the back of the head may be caused by a variety of ailments and injuries. Chronic headaches in the back of the head -- also known as occipital headaches -- are often variants of tension-type headaches or migraines. New-onset occipital headaches are a more urgent concern.
Read more →
The key to weight loss is simple when you consume fewer calories than you use. Although this fundamental tenet of weight loss is simple, the execution is difficult. Once your know how many calories you use daily, you can then determine how many calories to eat to lose weight.
Read more →
Metabolism refers to the collective chemical processes that convert food into energy. Similar to gas for your car, food is your body's fuel. If you have a fast metabolism, your body lacks fuel efficiency.
Read more →
Recognizing that you need to lose weight for your short- and long-term health is a significant accomplishment. Determining how you will go about losing weight, however, can be a challenging task. To lose weight, you need to consume fewer calories than your body burns each day.
Read more →
As your surface contact with the external environment, your skin is vulnerable to blisters, cuts, scrapes and other wounds. The complex cellular events involved in skin healing begin almost immediately after you sustain an injury.
Read more →
Puberty is a sequential series of physical changes that lead to sexual maturity. These changes are described by Tanner stages, named after British pediatrician Dr. James Tanner. The stages are based on the development of secondary sex characteristics.
Read more →
Sugar is akin to gold, metabolically speaking. Your body meticulously conserves blood sugar, or glucose, because your brain, muscles and many other tissues use it as their primary fuel. As the kidneys filter your blood, glucose flows with water into the filtrate.
Read more →
When you drink a glass of juice, you want it to be nutritious and free from disease-causing germs, such as E. coli and Salmonella. Pasteurization is the process of treating juice, milk and other foods to kill harmful germs, usually by heating.
Read more →
Prawns are a shrimp-like shellfish in the biological group of marine animals known as the decapods. Despite some anatomical differences between true shrimp and prawns, these closely related creatures are nearly identical from a nutritional perspective, due to similar feeding habits and body composition.
Read more →
Water accounts for roughly 60 to 70 percent your body weight. Your system requires a steady supply of fresh water to replenish losses in your urine, stool and sweat.
Read more →