The thyroid is a small but powerful gland in the body that is responsible for almost all of the body’s hormone functions. The thyroid controls the hormones that affect your breathing, heart rate, body temperature and digestion. This butterfly-shaped gland is located at the base of the throat in the front of the neck. Most…
Located in our throats, tonsils are one of those parts of the body that go fairly unnoticed until something is wrong. These lumps of tissue are located in the back of the throat, one on each side. The tonsils are part of the lymphatic system of our bodies, the system that fights infection and keeps…
As we age, our bones and joints start to break down, a natural part of the aging process. We become weaker than we were before and more easily fatigued due to the stress that our bodies have been under for decades. However, some aging populations develop osteoporosis—a bone disease that occurs when the body loses…
Arthritis is a blanket term for the hundreds of different conditions that make up joint pain or joint disease. Arthritis is a very common condition, with more than 50 million American adults and 300,000 children developing some sort of the condition in their lifetimes. People of all ages, sexes and races can develop arthritis, but…
Digestive disorders can be tricky to diagnose, because we have no way to “reset” our digestive systems. They’ve been operating since before we were born, turning nutrients and calories that we consume into essential nutrients and building blocks for our bodies. The digestive system may look simple from the outside—we eat food, it gets processed,…
All new moms and breastfeeding moms know that providing the proper nutrition to your growing baby is extremely important. Receiving adequate nutrition in the first few years of life is essential for building strong bones, healthy immune systems and robust minds in babies and toddlers. Luckily, breastmilk is the gold standard of infant nutrition. This…
On the back of any official nutrition label– below the federally required information about calories, fat, sodium and sugar– are a list of vitamins and minerals that the food contains, as well as their Daily Recommended Amounts. Vitamins and minerals are essential elements that our bodies require to develop and function. The more recognizable vitamins…
The human body’s immune system is a complex system of cells and organs that defend the body from germs and outside harm. When the body senses an intrusion, like cold and flu germs infiltrating the body, it makes antibodies—cells that attack the foreign intruder to destroy it—therefore healing the body from the inside out. The…
Out of all the health issues that affect men annually, cancer is in the top ten. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men, and almost 200,000 new cases are diagnosed annually and more than 30,000 men die from it each year. Annual physicals screen for this type of cancer so it can…
Temperatures are climbing this summer, and before we know it each day’s forecast will top 100 degrees. While we can’t do much about the temperature outside, our bodies have ways of keeping our internal temperatures regulated. The biggest organ in our bodies, our skin, may seem like simply a thing that keeps our skeletons in…
