Diseases & Conditions Archive

Ask the doctors

Q. I've had endometriosis since I was in my 30s. I'm now approaching menopause. Will my symptoms get better or even go away after menopause?

A. Possibly, but not always. Endometriosis is a condition in which tissue that resembles the tissue that lines the uterus, called endometrial tissue, grows in other locations inside the body. Typically, it grows on structures and organs in the pelvis, such as the ovaries, fallopian tubes, bladder, or bowels. When a woman menstruates, this tissue behaves like the lining of the uterus and bleeds. But because this blood has no way to exit the body, it pools inside. This leads to pain, inflammation, and scarring.

Some men with an enlarged prostate gland (benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH for short) eventually start to experience urinary incontinence, the involuntary discharge of urine. The incontinence can be related to overactive bladder, one of the changes in bladder function caused by BPH.

Normally, the brain says "time to go" when your bladder is only partially full. That gives you a fair warning to find a place to relieve yourself. When you decide to let go, a valve called the urinary sphincter opens to allow the bladder to drain. Muscles in the bladder wall squeeze inward to empty the storage tank.

Don't ignore back pain, height loss, or osteoporosis. They could be signs of a compression fracture.

You didn't fall, and you didn't do anything strenuous. So it may come as a surprise when the bad back pain you've been experiencing turns out to be one or more broken bones in your back. "A common story is that someone bends down to put something in the dishwasher or steps off a curb a little hard and puts additional load on their spine. The weakened bone is not adequate to take that load, and it collapses," says Dr. Julia Charles, a rheumatologist and bone cell researcher at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

What weakens the spine?

Your spine contains about 30 bones called vertebrae, stacked on top of each other like a roll of quarters. Each vertebra consists of an external bone surface (like plaster), and an inside filled with a honeycomb of support rods called trabeculae.

Nerve damage might be causing everything from low blood pressure to gastrointestinal distress without your knowing it.

Doctors have long known peripheral neuropathy as a nerve condition that causes reduced sensation, tingling, weakness, or pain in the feet and hands. But those symptoms may be just the tip of the iceberg. Doctors are now learning that neuropathy can cause many more problems.

What is peripheral neuropathy?

Peripheral neuropathy refers to damage to the peripheral nerves throughout the body. These nerves carry messages to and from the brain.

Research we're watching

Eating ultra-processed foods — such as packaged snacks, sugary cereals and drinks, chicken nuggets, and instant soup — may leave people more prone to heart disease and an early death, two new studies suggest. Both were published May 29 in The BMJ.

One study followed more than 105,000 adults for just over five years. Researchers found that for every 10% increase in the amount of ultra-processed foods people ate, their risk of a heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular event was 12% higher. The other study tracked nearly 20,000 people over an average of 10 years. People who ate more than four servings of ultra-processed foods daily had a 62% higher risk of dying from all causes compared with those who ate only two servings per day.

Research we're watching

Infections — especially those in the urinary tract, known as UTIs — may raise the risk of a stroke, a new study finds.

Researchers examined the electronic medical records of more than 191,000 stroke patients to see if they'd been hospitalized or gone to an emergency room for an infection shortly before the stroke. They tracked infections of the abdomen, blood, respiratory tract, skin, or urinary tract.

Ask the doctors

Q. I understand that shingles is caused by a virus. Does that mean that shingles is contagious?

A. Yes and no. If you had chickenpox when you were a child, you are at risk for shingles. Shingles occurs when the varicella-zoster virus that caused your chickenpox re-emerges after lying dormant in your nerve cells from the time of your original illness. When this occurs, you are contagious, but you can't give someone shingles. You can, however, infect people with chickenpox if they haven't been exposed to the virus in the past and haven't been vaccinated against it. For this reason, it's important to take precautions, particularly if you are close to someone who has a weakened immune system.