Blood pressure is a key indicator of your health. This is why it is checked at every visit with a healthcare professional. Understanding this measurement will help you make sense of both your blood pressure and your healthcare professional’s advice. This article series will explain what blood pressure is, how to correctly measure it, and […]
In our introduction to cholesterol article, we discussed the basics of cholesterol and blood test interpretation. We also covered the major factors that influence blood cholesterol levels to build a strategy for managing high blood cholesterol. Our discussion has been highly simplified for practical purposes, but the relationship between diet, blood cholesterol levels, and the […]
Note: This was a 2-part series (Part 1 & 2) that we merged together. The concluding article (Part 3) can be found here: Cholesterol: Myths & Misconceptions. Cholesterol is a substance that plays many essential roles in the body. It is involved in things like the structure of our cells, brain and nerve function, and […]
A doctor has just diagnosed you or a family member with osteoporosis. What does this mean, and what should you do about it? In this article we will address these basic questions. Bone Basics To begin, we must learn a bit about our bones. The bones of our skeleton are made up of many different […]
Collagen is a protein found in many tissues in animals and humans, ultimately making up about 30% of the entire body’s protein content. Di Lullo 2002 While there are over 20 different types of collagen, the main types found in humans are I, II, and III. Type I is the most common and is found […]
Cancer is among the leading causes of disease and death in the U.S. and contributes to a substantial burden of disease in the world [CDC, WHO]. Enormous amounts of resources are spent on treatment as well as research into new treatment approaches (e.g., chemotherapeutics, immunotherapies, and other emerging treatments) that often provide small, incremental survival […]
The increase in women’s involvement in sports has increased interest in the influences of women’s unique physiology on athletic performance. The effect of the menstrual cycle on athletic performance, is of particular interest. Socially, the menstrual cycle is construed as a time of weakness or inability and often symptoms are dismissed or ignored. Mainstream media […]
Today we’ll be wrapping up our hip pain series with the familiar topic of osteoarthritis, and summarize some practical take-home points at the end (see previous parts 1 ,2, 3, and 4). For an in-depth discussion on osteoarthritis in general, we have a full-length article here, but this article will focus specifically on the hip. […]
In our last article we discussed how to manage muscle injuries of the hamstrings, groin (adductors), hip flexors, and quadriceps. Today we’ll move on to discuss hip pain that is attributed to the “Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome”. Background Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome (FAIS) is a common diagnosis given to individuals with hip pain. While the diagnosis has […]
In the first two installments of this article series we discussed the science of hip pain and management strategies. In this article, we’ll discuss the topic of muscle injuries – these are colloquially known as a “muscle strains”, but that term is a better description of the mechanism of the injury than a description of […]