Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that mostly affects the airways in our lungs. It's a chronic disease that many people in the United States and all across the world have to deal with. There are different types of asthma. Asthma is almost an umbrella...

Maria Brito, MD, Director of the Thyroid Center at Mount Sinai Union Square, discusses thyroid health and answers questions during a Q&A held for Thyroid Health Awareness Month. Dr. Brito is a board certified endocrinologist and an Assistant Professor of Medicine...

"Heel pain is typically caused by plantar fasciitis. Plantar fasciitis is a strain of a connective tissue that runs from the front of the foot to the rear foot, attaching in the heel. This is the most common part of the foot that ends up being painful with...

  “When we’re concerned about our sugar intake, we’re mostly concerned about our added sugar intake. Our added sugar intake should not be more than 10 percent of our total caloric intake for the day. Added sugars are present, mostly, in...

“CDC.gov is very helpful when travelling. It shows vaccinations required for different countries as well as malaria prophylaxis recommendations. Of course, routine vaccinations are recommended. These include MMR, polio, hepatitis B, as well, as...

  “Patients who come from families where there’s a history of diabetes on either side of the family can have a higher risk of developing diabetes, assuming that their dietary and exercise habits are not optimal. What we also find is that...

“Cataract surgery is the only treatment for cataracts, which is a very common condition causing clouding of the natural lens of the eye. What we do during the surgery is remove the lens, the natural lens of the eye, through a very small,...

"This is a question that I get asked often in my office these days. Platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, is a solution of plasma with a much higher concentration of platelets than normally found in your blood. The average human has about five liters,...

"BMI refers to Body Mass Index, which is derived from an equation by taking one’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of one’s height in meters. The normal BMI is anywhere from 18.5 to 24.9. Anything below 18.5 is referred to underweight, and a BMI of 25 to 29.9...

  "The pancreas is an essential organ. It has two functions: one function is a digestive function, which produces what are called exocrine enzymes, the exocrine function. These digestive enzymes allow us to process and adjust different types of foods, especially...

  "Tearing is a result of an imbalance between tear production and tear loss. Less commonly, tearing is a result of improper drainage of tears from the roof of the eye as a result of obstruction in the lacrimal drainage apparatus. This could be a result of...

  "How can you treat shoulder pain? Patients often ask me that question. Shoulder pain is very common. Studies have shown approximately 65 percent of people throughout their life will experience an episode of shoulder pain. Some of the treatments that we have for...

  "Flat feet are typically caused by a bone inside the foot that is hypermobile and comes out of alignment. It's called the talus bone. If you use the analogy of a stone bridge, you have stones that come up to the center of the bridge, and you pluck out that...

  "Blood-sugar is typically what we check when we identify those who are at risk for diabetes, and we do it as a screening test, as well. Generally we do a finger stick or blood serum analysis to determine what your blood sugar is, typically eight to ten hours...

  "Blurry vision is a common presentation of a wide variety of conditions. It starts with the surface of the eye, which is called the cornea, which is our largest refractive surface. This is where the majority of the blurry vision lies, as a result of conditions,...

  "Ice versus heat? It's a very common question I get in my office. Ice is for acute injuries. So if you injure yourself, within 48 hours and have swelling, ice is very effective. When you ice a joint or muscle, it should be 20 minutes of ice followed by 20...

  "There’s no particular best shoe for running for any one individual. What one needs to consider is, first of all, what kind of foot type are they? Do they have a foot type that is more of a flatter foot? Are they a foot type that’s more of a neutral foot, where...

  "Family Medicine is an essential aspect of medical care. Family Medicine doctors and providers tend to focus on the entire family. We apply a holistic, preventive approach. By that I mean we’ll look at, not just the children, but also the parents and even the...

  "Patients often ask - can I walk on an ankle sprain? The answer is it's really a case-by-case basis. First, you must differentiate an ankle sprain from a fracture. If you have difficulty bearing weight and have a lot of swelling and deformity, then you have to...

  "A bunion deformity is a prominence on the inner side of the foot that is created by an angular deformity between the first and the second metatarsals. So the first metatarsal drifts towards the inner side of the foot, where the great toe, which we call the...

  "Insulin is produced by the pancreas. It's an essential hormone that's used by our body to absorb glucose and utilize that, and store it as fats or essential lipids. The reason why insulin is important is because it's used for more than just glucose control -...

  "In order to correct a bunion, surgically, the bones in the fore foot have to be realigned. Because of the bunion, there’s an increase in the separation of the metatarsals, so in order to correct the bunion, the metatarsal has to be moved back inward. This can...

  "Cataracts are usually considered an age-related issue and, in fact, everyone, if they live long enough, will get cataracts. It's barely considered a disease or disorder because everyone gets them. However, it's not only age-related. Some babies can be born...

  "Bronchitis is an inflammation of the upper airways in the lungs that typically starts after a cold-like illness. Most colds last for three to five days. They, of course, have a lot of nasal congestion and cough, as well. When people get bronchitis, they get a...

  "Breast milk is the healthiest food for a baby, and therefore you should breastfeed as long as it works for you and your baby and your family. Ideally, you should breastfeed for at least the first six months. But you can breastfeed for the first year. However,...

"People typically get dehydrated when they're sick with gastroenteritis, which is usually a stomach virus or food poisoning that's causing them to vomit multiple times and have diarrhea and not be able to keep fluids down by mouth. After 6, 8, or 10 hours of symptoms...

"Urinary tract infections or UTIs are bacterial infections in the bladder and they typically cause a burning sensation when people urinate and also often urinary urgency, which means that people feel that they need to run to the bathroom - they can't wait - and...

  "There are many types of glaucoma. Babies can be born with glaucoma. Teenagers can get glaucoma and young adults can get glaucoma. But glaucoma is usually associated with people over the age of 40. There are many causes of glaucoma. But for the most common type...

"So is running the best form of exercise? The answer to that is definitely no. The best form of exercise is the exercise that you like, that is one that you'll do on a regular basis, that's safe for you. The bottom line is that exercise is a...

  "Strep is a bacterial infection that's unfortunately very common -- particularly in kids over three years old and then through adulthood - that causes sore throat and usually also causes fever and swollen lymph nodes in the neck and other symptoms as well such...

  "The frequency of eye examinations is usually age-dependent. We usually recommend that children get an eye examination before they start school. Most schools do a vision screening towards the start of the year to see if there are any visual problems. Young...

  "Urgent care centers are walk-in centers that take care of minor injuries and illnesses. If you think you need to see a doctor right away, and you don't think it's a real life-threatening emergency, then an urgent care center is probably the most convenient...

  "I have a lot of patients come to me with dry, tired, irritated eyes. There are many, many causes for these problems. They can be sometimes weather-related, environmentally related due to exposure. They can be work-related fumes and toxic types of fumes,...

  "The cause of droopy eyelids can be due to a number of factors. In fact, there are a few different types of droopiness that can occur. The muscle itself within the eyelid could become detached. There could be swelling or edema of the eyelids causing them to...