Natural Health July 2017

HEALTH & Wellness
6Walking- or stair-climbing-induced leg cramps
Any athlete will tell you leg cramps are just the name of the game. But if the pain
is tied to walking, relieved by rest and hits consistently when you stride or climb
stairs, don’t brush it off as soreness – those cramps could be caused by peripheral
artery disease, or when blood flow to the legs gets impinged due to clogged arteries,
says Bove, a member of the American College of Cardiology Patient-Centered Care
Committee. If the condition goes undiagnosed, the cramps can get more painful and
even lead to the loss of your leg, according to the American Heart Association. “When
symptoms persist or recur,” Bove says, “a medical checkup will help to find the answer.”
7
New or changing moles
It’s springtime in Southern California, and Tobin, who’s fair-skinned, is on high
alert for moles. “Ninety-nine times out of 100, it’s nothing,” he says, but if the
mole is asymmetrical, has funky borders, different colors or is larger than a
pencil eraser, visit a dermatologist who can determine whether it’s melanoma.
If it is and it’s caught early, it’s usually relatively simple to “cut out,” Tobin says.
Brown adds that African-Americans are particularly at risk for overlooking cancerous moles,
which can even hide under toenails. “There’s certain things you don’t want to miss,” he says,
“and skin cancer is one of them because it’s so aggressive.”
8
Super
dry
skin
Maybe it’s winter
– or maybe it’s a
thyroid hormone
abnormality, says
Dr. Chris Adigun,
a dermatologist in
Chapel Hill, North
Carolina, who notes
that thinning hair
often accompanies this symptom when it’s linked to a thyroid issue. Dry
skin paired with seriously peeling nails, meantime, can be a sign of
zinc deficiency. In either case, visit your primary care physician, who
can identify the cause and a solution, be it supplements or simply lotion.
9
Breast changes
Puberty has passed (thank goodness),
you’re not breast-feeding and there’s no other
clear reason for your breast changes – think
nipple discharge, different-looking skin, pain or a
lump – so why not visit your gynecologist? “You
would think people would seek care for these
things, and often they do,” Romero says, “but I’ve
had patients show up with advanced-stage breast
cancer who then recall having some of these
changes for years.” In these cases and others,
better safe than sorry.
10
An unproductive cough
Coughs are annoying but harmless, right? Not quite.
Patients who are on a breed of blood pressure
medications called ACE inhibitors can develop
“a persistent, non-productive cough that keeps them up at night,”
Brown says, and yet many “let it go on and on and on.” It’s just one
example of a medication side effect that patients ignore – and of a
condition that, in many cases, could have been prevented through
lifestyle changes, Brown says. Tobin takes a similar stance: “Diet and
exercise,” he says, “is the key to a healthy and happy life.”
References: http://health.usnews.com
Natural Health * July 2017 VOL 82
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