5 timeless habits for better health
What are the symptoms of prostate cancer?
Is your breakfast cereal healthy?
When pain signals an emergency: Symptoms you should never ignore
Does exercise give you energy?
Acupuncture for pain relief: How it works and what to expect
How to avoid jet lag: Tips for staying alert when you travel
Biofeedback therapy: How it works and how it can help relieve pain
Best vitamins and minerals for energy
Should you take probiotics with antibiotics?
Medications Archive
Articles
Should I take blood pressure medications at night?
Ask the doctor
Q. I've taken blood pressure medicines every morning for many years, and they keep my pressure under control. Recently, my doctor recommended taking them at bedtime, instead. Does that make sense?
A. It actually does make sense — based on recent research. For many years, there have been at least three theoretical reasons for taking blood pressure medicines before bedtime. First, a body system that strongly affects blood pressure, called the renin-angiotensin system, has its peak activity during sleep. Second, circadian rhythms cause differences in the body chemistry at night compared with daytime. Third, most heart attacks occur in the morning, before medicines taken in the morning have a chance to "kick in."
Giving steroid injections a shot
They can offer temporary pain relief, but are they right for you?
If you're battling with a flare-up of arthritis, bursitis, or tendinitis, you may find relief from an injection of cortisone (a type of steroid).
"People turn to injections when conservative treatments like over-the-counter and prescription pain medication or physical therapy no longer work, and their pain begins to interfere with quality of life," says Dr. Rob Shmerling, clinical chief of rheumatology at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Is osteoarthritis reversible?
Ask the doctors
Q. I recently started experiencing a lot of pain in my hand from osteoarthritis. Can I reverse this condition?
A. You can't reverse osteoarthritis, but there are things you can do to manage your pain and improve your symptoms. Osteoarthritis occurs when the protective cartilage that acts as cushioning between your bones starts to fray and wear down over time. Eventually this enables the bones to rub together, which causes the pain you are experiencing as well as swelling and stiffness that makes it difficult to move your hand freely. Typically, when you have arthritis, the pain and symptoms will be worse at some times than at others. You may experience a flare-up one day and feel better the next. To help reduce the discomfort of a flare-up, talk to your doctor about medication to relieve pain. She or he may recommend an over-the-counter pain reliever. Some people also get symptom relief using a topical pain reliever that is rubbed into the skin. Other strategies that can ease pain are splints or braces, heat or cold therapy, activity modification, and exercises or physical therapy to increase flexibility and strengthen your hand muscles.
Are polypills and population-based treatment the next big things?
Low LDL and stroke: A closer look
When it comes to understanding this link, the devil is in the details.
When we talk about LDL cholesterol, it's always described as bad or harmful — and with good reason. High blood levels of this artery-clogging substance boost the risk of heart disease, the nation's leading cause of death. The more you can lower your LDL cholesterol (through diet, exercise, or medications), the lower your risk of a heart attack. For heart attack survivors, national guidelines recommend aiming for an LDL cholesterol level of less than 70 milligrams per deciliter to prevent a second heart attack.
In the past year, however, two studies in the journal Neurology reported a higher risk of hemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke in people with LDL levels of 70 and lower. While that sounds worrisome, a closer look at the findings can put these results into perspective.
Gout drug may help prevent repeat heart attacks
Research we're watching
A drug long used to treat a painful form of arthritis called gout may also benefit heart attack survivors, according to a new study.
Derived from the autumn crocus, colchicine (Colcrys, Mitigare) helps to ease the joint inflammation and pain that characterize gout. Because mounting evidence suggests that inflammation plays a role in heart disease, researchers have tested various anti-inflammatory drugs in heart patients. The latest study, published online Nov. 16, 2019, by The New England Journal of Medicine, tested colchicine against a placebo in 4,745 people who had experienced a heart attack within the previous month. All the participants also took standard drugs to treat heart disease, including statins, aspirin, and other clot-preventing drugs.
Marijuana use linked to higher risk of stroke in younger adults
Research we're watching
Younger adults who use marijuana appear to face a higher risk of stroke compared with those who don't use the drug, according to a report published Nov. 11, 2019, in the journal Stroke.
Researchers pooled data from a nationally representative survey from the CDC that included nearly 44,000 participants ages 18 to 44. About 14% reported using marijuana within the past month. Young adults who recently used marijuana were 1.8 times more likely to experience a stroke compared with nonusers. The risk was 2.5 times higher among frequent users (more than 10 days a month). Frequent marijuana users who also smoked regular cigarettes had three times the risk for nonusers.
How long does a drug stay in my system?
On call
Q. I started having side effects from a prescribed drug. I stopped taking it, but the side effects are still there. How long does it take for a drug to be out of your system?
A. Most drugs will be out of your system quite quickly, but the symptoms of side effects may remain for some time. It depends on the medication and what kind of side effect has developed. The majority of prescription drugs are cleared out of your body rapidly by your kidneys and liver. Trace levels of a medicine may remain in the system while the liver and kidneys finish their filtering job. But these levels are often too low to have any noticeable effect. Patients with kidney or liver disease, however, can continue to have elevated blood levels of a drug even after stopping it.
Taking blood pressure medication at bedtime instead of the morning can reap greater health benefits
In the journals
People with high blood pressure may benefit from taking their antihypertension medication at bedtime instead of the morning, according to a study published online Oct. 22, 2019, by the European Heart Journal.
The researchers looked at about 19,000 people (most of them men) who took blood pressure medication. Participants took their daily dose either upon waking or before going to bed. Everyone's blood pressure was checked over 48 hours once a year for six years.
The growing problem of drug-resistant UTIs
Urinary tract infections can be dangerous. Here's how to recognize, treat, and prevent them.
More than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections now occur in the United States each year, according to a CDC report published in November 2019. Among them are a growing number of urinary tract infections (UTIs) that can no longer be treated with the most common antibiotics.
"Antimicrobial-resistant UTIs are on the rise and have been since the early 2000s," says Dr. Lisa Bebell, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and an infectious diseases specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. This trend is especially concerning for women because UTIs are so common: one of every two women will have a UTI in her lifetime.
5 timeless habits for better health
What are the symptoms of prostate cancer?
Is your breakfast cereal healthy?
When pain signals an emergency: Symptoms you should never ignore
Does exercise give you energy?
Acupuncture for pain relief: How it works and what to expect
How to avoid jet lag: Tips for staying alert when you travel
Biofeedback therapy: How it works and how it can help relieve pain
Best vitamins and minerals for energy
Should you take probiotics with antibiotics?
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