Almost every medical student learns about the old adage Dr. Theodore Woodward coined in the late 1940s that says, "When you hear hoofbeats , think of horses not zebras." The intent is to teach medical students to look for the most common explanation for a patient's illness. Most people with high blood pressure consume too much salt, do not exercise...

February is American Heart Month, which makes it the perfect time to reduce your risk for heart disease, heart attacks and stroke. American Heart Month has been around for decades. President Lyndon B. Johnson was the first American president to recognize the event when he issued Proclamation 3566 on December 30, 1963. The first American Heart Month...

The good news is that lung cancer rates are dropping. The bad news is that lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer deaths. Screenings can help doctors detect signs of lung cancer early, while the disease is most responsive to treatment. Lung cancer is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in one or both cells. As areas of abnormal cells...

According to the CDC , heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for almost one in every four deaths. Although heart disease is sometimes thought of as a "man's disease," around the same number of women and men die each year of heart disease in the U.S. Yet, many Americans don't know that. Our recent survey found that many...

February is the month that hearts shine all over the world and it is also when health care professionals work to raise awareness about all things coronary. In other words, February is American Heart Health Month and a good time for you to look closely at your lifestyle to see what you can do to be heart smart this year. Part of your plan may includ...

Claustrophobia is an irrational fear of being enclosed and having no way to escape. Unfortunately, that is the very essence of the traditional MRI, which slides a patient into a tube, so strong magnetic fields and radio waves can create images of the internal structures of the body. HealthResearchFunding.org reports that while only about 13 percent...

Unless you are a diagnostic imaging specialist, you may find all that radiology mumbo-jumbo a little confusing. One question many patients ask is, "What's the difference between a CT scan and MRI scans?"  Maybe you watch a lot of medical television shows, or maybe you have been to the hospital with a friend or family member.  Either way, ...

Whether we like it or not, certain medical conditions require testing and scans that can be uncomfortable or sometimes invasive. If a doctor is unable to make a diagnosis with just blood tests and a physical, they may ask you to come to the radiology department for X-ray testing, a CAT scan, or an MRI. Know your tests so you can be prepared for wha...