No one likes the look of varicose veins. They leave trails of purple, blue, or red lines on your legs, feet, and ankles, often bulging out from the surface, giving them a 3D effect in addition to the discoloration.  Most often, varicose veins are nothing more than a cosmetic issue, which means you have a choice […]

When you feel pain in your chest, your whole body goes on alert. And, of course, your mind starts racing with thoughts of heart attacks and hospitals. Add extreme fatigue to the mix and you know something’s wrong — but what? If you’re thinking pectus excavatum, you might be right. Getting to the bottom of these alarming […]

It’s easy to imagine what would happen if your throat was blocked and you suddenly couldn’t get any air in your lungs. If you’ve ever choked on a piece of food, you know this terrifying sensation. It’s the same with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), except it’s your arteries that are blocked. Responsible for carrying blood from your […]

Ideally, every time you swallow, food and liquid go down your esophagus, the long tube that leads to your stomach.  The muscles of the esophagus move the food downward, and when it reaches the bottom of the tube, it meets a sphincter, which is normally in the closed position to prevent stomach acid from bubbling […]

You can hear and feel your heartbeat, and you can see your chest rise and fall when your lungs fill with air, but kidneys fall into that dismissive category of “out of sight, out of mind” — until something goes wrong.  Kidney failure can happen gradually or all at once depending on what’s causing it, […]

You may think of emphysema as a smoker’s disease, and you’d be largely right. Most cases of this lung condition are directly related to smoke from cigarettes, cigars, marijuana, pipes, and other similar sources. But just because smoking accounts for the lion’s share of emphysema cases, doesn’t mean that abstaining from cigarettes makes you immune.  Our team […]

Think of your lungs as two balloons. When they’re healthy, they expand just like latex balloons at a birthday party. But diseased lungs lose their elasticity and can’t function at their peak performance.  Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the name for that condition, and it comes in two varieties. Chronic bronchitis is when your […]

Your aorta is a long vessel that transports blood from your heart to the rest of your body. It travels from your chest to your abdomen and branches off from there. If your aorta becomes weakened by disease, injury, or infection, it can develop an aneurism or balloon-like bulge. If the aneurysm bursts, it bleeds out quickly […]

Approximately every 2.3 minutes, someone is diagnosed with lung cancer. As with any illness, early detection is the best way to stop cancer in its tracks. If you’re concerned that you or a loved one has developed lung cancer or you simply want to learn more about detecting the warning signs, keep reading to get our […]

Your body is a miracle machine that works diligently each day to keep you alive. Your heart, which supplies blood throughout your body, lies at the center of all the actions your body performs to keep you healthy. Think of your heart as your body’s motor. But, like every machine, the motor requires many other […]