Diseases and Conditions

We often use the terms heart attack and cardiac arrest interchangeably. But these are two different conditions. How can you tell one from the other?

By Patty Rasmussen

Continuous monitoring of blood pressure instead of the static, one-time reading provided by a cuff is a medical holy grail and scientists have, for the first time, come up with a graphene tattoo that will provide it.

By Laurie L. Dove

Is polio making a comeback in the United States and, if so, are you at risk? We talk to a doctor, who says that vaccination is key.

By Jennifer Walker-Journey

The director-general of the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern July 23, 2022. So, what exactly does that mean?

By Kathryn H. Jacobsen

Viruses can alter a person's body odor to make it more attractive to mosquitoes, leading to more bites, which, in turn, allow a virus to spread.

By Penghua Wang

Friends often tell cancer patients to "stay positive" in order to beat the disease. But is there any scientific proof that positivity helps with cancer survival? And can positivity have a dark side?

By Alia Hoyt

If a friend or relative is undergoing chemotherapy, you want to help them but may not be sure of the best way to do so. Here are eight great ideas that almost any patient will appreciate.

By Alia Hoyt

Who gets long COVID and why still remains a mystery, but several new studies are showing it's much more widespread than we initially thought. So what is long COVID and how can it be treated?

By Joanna Thompson

What in the world is monkeypox, and should Americans be worried about another contagious virus spreading across the U.S. and Europe?

By Joanna Thompson

The wildly contagious delta coronavirus variant now accounts for more than 80 percent of cases in the United States. Does it pose a threat to eliminating COVID-19 across the globe?

By Jennifer Walker-Journey

Queen Elizabeth II's death certificate listed her cause of death as"old age." But what does that really mean? Can old age kill you?

By Alia Hoyt

It's been a year since the World Health Organization officially declared the novel coronavirus a global pandemic. The last 12 months have been truly historic and life-changing in ways that we may not even yet recognize.

By John Donovan

It might be OK for a Smurf to have blue fingers, but for the rest of us, it's something you don't want to see. Cyanosis is usually a sign of a bigger health problem.

By Alia Hoyt

New parents — especially new moms — are prone to an ailment known as mommy thumb. It's painful and real, but what is it and how is your baby causing it?

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

Many health experts are gravely concerned about how the massive protest crowds, chanting and especially use of tear gas could accelerate the spread of coronavirus.

By Patty Rasmussen

Learn the steps of contact tracing, one critical way that public health officials stop viruses like COVID-19 from spreading, in this HowStuffWorks video.

Wearing some sort of face mask is more important than ever now to protect you and others from coronavirus. But how do clean and safely store it?

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

Despite strict closing and mask orders, San Francisco was hit hard by the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. But some residents balked at the rules and that meant more people died.

By John Donovan

As COVID-19 rages around the world, distilleries quickly ramp up the switch from booze to hand sanitizer in an all-out effort to curb the spread.

By Jeremy Glass

When you were a kid, your mom probably told you not to go around barefoot because you could get worms. But are nematodes still a problem today?

By Alia Hoyt

Anosmia, or the loss of the ability to detect one or more smells, is a common symptom of upper respiratory viral infections. It might also be a way to tell if you have novel coronavirus.

By Jesslyn Shields

The World Health Organization just declared the coronavirus a full-blown pandemic. What does that even mean, and how is that different from an epidemic?

By Sarah Gleim

You've probably heard the word "quarantine" a lot in relation to the coronavirus. But how is it different from patient isolation?

By Patty Rasmussen

More than a year has passed since a new strain — SARS-CoV-2 — emerged in China and rapidly spread across the globe, infecting more than 90 million and killing more than 2 million. What has — and hasn't — changed since then?

By Sarah Gleim

It's called auto-brewery syndrome and, for some folks, it's a fact of life.

By Laurie L. Dove