Diseases & Conditions Archive

Q. I've been diagnosed with shingles. Is there anything I can take for the pain?

A. If you're over age 50 and you've had the shingles pain for less than three days, the current recommendation is that you take a medicine that kills the virus that causes shingles—varicella-zoster virus. The two medicines recommended most often are famciclovir and valacyclovir.

The easy fix that millions of people may be ignoring.

Each year millions of people struggle with painful, debilitating venous leg ulcers and the stages leading up to the condition. But prevention is simple. That's why doctors are now campaigning to reduce venous ulcers by 50%. "This is a longstanding problem that needs our attention," says Dr. Sherry Scovell, a vascular surgeon and instructor in surgery at Harvard Medical School.

People with celiac disease must avoid all foods that contain the protein gluten, found in wheat, barley, rye, and other grains. Those with nonceliac gluten sensitivity can also benefit from a gluten-free diet.

The Zostavax vaccine is safe for use by healthy adults to prevent shingles, a painful condition caused by previous infection with the chicken pox virus. It also helps prevents persistent shingles pain, known as post-herpetic neuralgia.

If you follow the basics, healthy eating can lower your blood pressure as much as a medication. But it takes work.

A healthy diet—along with regular exercise, stress control, and medications if needed—is a cornerstone of treatment for high blood pressure (hypertension). But what do you need to eat
to lower your pressure, and how much?

Q. I have chronic diarrhea because of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Should I take probiotics?

A. Probiotics are live microbes that are taken in capsule or powder form. They're also available in some yogurt products. Probiotics are thought to help with intestinal problems by restoring bacterial balance in the gut and possibly by affecting the immune system. Many strains of bacteria and a strain of yeast are used as probiotics, but they don't all have the same effectiveness.

Q. My doctor says my blood sugar is high, and that I may be at risk for prediabetes. What is prediabetes and how can I avoid it?

A. Prediabetes is a condition between normal health and full-blown diabetes, a condition that puts you at greater risk for developing diabetes. If you have been fasting for 8 hours or more, and you have a blood glucose (a kind of sugar) level of 100 to 125 mg/dL, you have prediabetes. If you have a level of 126 mg/dL or greater, you have full-blown diabetes. If you have prediabetes, particularly if your fasting blood glucose levels are in the upper part of the 100-125 mg/dL range, you are a considerably greater risk for developing the most common form of diabetes, type 2 diabetes. You can reduce your risk of getting both prediabetes and diabetes with the same strategies: regular moderate exercise and keeping a healthy weight. In fact, such lifestyle changes are more powerful in preventing diabetes or prediabetes than any medicine yet discovered. And regular moderate exercise—like 30 minutes of brisk walking at least 5 times a week—protects you against diabetes even if you don't lose weight.

The condition increases type 2 diabetes risk.

People with psoriasis suffer from chronic patches of irritated, flaky skin. A new study finds that psoriasis may also put people at risk for another chronic disease: type 2 diabetes. A recent study in Archives of Dermatology found a strong correlation between the two. "Both diseases are driven by inflammation," says Dr. Jeffrey Sobell, a dermatologist at Harvard-affiliated New England Baptist Hospital who's considered an international authority on psoriasis. "The same cells that trigger the inflammation of psoriasis are also associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes."

But psoriasis isn't just linked to diabetes. Because it's a systemwide inflammatory disease, Dr. Sobell says there's a correlation to other inflammation-sensitive conditions such as arthritis and cardiovascular disease.

Regular aspirin use may slightly increase the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which causes vision loss in the macula, the part of the eye that controls central vision. But that should not stop the use of aspirin for heart disease.

Q. Does chelation therapy work for heart disease? I have a friend who swears it will help him avoid having a second heart attack.

A. The benefits of chelation are unclear but the procedure has real risks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that over 100,000 Americans have used chelation in the past year (although not only for heart disease). The therapy involves intravenous infusions of a chemical called EDTA, which binds to minerals like calcium and removes them from the body. Proponents believe the chelation shrinks calcium-rich blockages, called plaques, found in the blood vessels of people with heart disease.