Better Health & Beyond

Many people living with sleep apnea may not realize they their breathing is being interrupted while they sleep.  Often family members might notice the signs and symptoms of sleep apnea first.  If left untreated, sleep apnea can increase the risk of developing other life threatening heath conditions such as hypertension, stroke, and heart disease.

The instructions on the pill bottle simply say "take once a day." Yet the specific time of day you take your medications may make an important difference. In fact, drugs labeled "take one a day" often work better when taken at night. 

Trouble sleeping? Over-the-counter sleep aids might help temporarily. However, there are some things that you need to know.

Gout is a particularly painful form of crystalline or inflammatory arthritis in which high levels of serum urate cause swollen, stiff joints. Often related to genetics, gout is not the lifestyle consequence it’s been portrayed as. Forget the stereotype of carousing, overindulgent men such as King Henry VIII ending up stricken with gout. “That’s just victim-blaming, While it does affect men more than women, and can be exacerbated by obesity and diet, genetics are a more important factor,” says John Fitzgerald, MD, with the department of rheumatology at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, and coauthor on the American College of Rheumatology’s recent guidelines...

While vaginal yeast infections are rarely serious, you can help prevent them from occurring in the first place. There's some evidence that sugar may help promote the growth of yeast. Yeast's affinity for sweets has prompted some experts to suggest that diet may be a risk factor for some women when it comes to developing yeast infections. In fact, some people follow a so-called yeast infection diet or candida diet (or anti-candida diet) on the theory that eliminating certain foods may eliminate or at least greatly reduce the risk of yeast overgrowth.