If not handled carefully, coming off your medication can cause disturbing symptoms and set you up for a relapse of depression.

About 10% of women ages 18 and over take antidepressants. As many of us know, these medications can be a godsend when depression has robbed life of its joy and made it hard to muster the energy and concentration to complete everyday tasks. But as you begin to feel better and want to move on, how long should you keep taking the pills?

If you're doing well on antidepressants and not complaining of too many side effects, many ...

Simple activities like fastening a bra or taking a book off an overhead shelf can be impossible when you have a frozen shoulder.

Frozen shoulder (also called adhesive capsulitis) is a common disorder that causes pain, stiffness, and loss of normal range of motion in the shoulder. The resulting disability can be serious, and the condition tends to get worse with time if it's not treated. It affects mainly people ages 40 to 60 — women more often than men.

We don't fully understand the causes, but an inflammatory process is probably involved. Sometimes freezing occurs because the shoulder has ...

 

It's named after an octopus trap — and that's not all that's unusual about this reversible heart condition. It occurs almost exclusively in women.

Years of gender-based research have shown that in matters of the heart, sex differences abound. One striking example is the temporary heart condition known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy, first described in 1990 in Japan. More than 90% of reported cases are in women ages 58 to 75. Research suggests that at least 6% of women evaluated for a heart attack actually have this disorder, which has only recently been reported in the United States and may ...

Palliative care is pain relief and other measures taken to help patients cope with the physical and psychosocial effects of serious illness and difficult treatments like chemotherapy. Many people think of it as "comfort" care provided mostly in the last weeks of life, when nothing else can be done. But experts say it should be offered sooner, in conjunction with medical care focused on treatment and recovery. Now, a study has found that lung cancer patients who get palliative care early on, along with standard medical therapy aimed at treating their illness, are happier and more comfortable and live longer ...

Q. How much protein do I need every day? Does it matter what kind I eat?

A. Protein is essential. It forms the structure of the cells in our bodies and participates in almost every cell activity necessary for growth, development, and tissue repair. Protein also supplies fuel for meeting the body's energy needs. In the normal course of metabolism, the protein in our bodies is broken down into smaller molecules called amino acids. Some of these amino acids are used as fuel. Others are reassembled into protein molecules to replace the protein used each day by our cells.

The ...