What is Gum Disease by Carly Weis
Gum disease, also known as gingivitis or periodontal disease, starts off as bacterial growth in your mouth, and if it is not treated can lead to tooth loss and damage to the surrounding tissue. The first stage is known as gingivitis, and this is when the gums become inflamed due to plaque buildup and causes […]
What is Melanoma Skin Cancer by Carissa Hoffman
Melanoma is a form of skin cancer that originates in cells that are found in the skin called melanocytes. These melanocytes give the pigment or color to people’s skin. This is one of the three kinds of skin cancer and the most life-threatening. Not only can this type of cancer be very aggressive but it […]
What Causes Dwarfism by Emily Mulchek
Dwarfism is defined as a person whose adult height does not exceed four feet ten inches resulting from a genetic or medical condition. The term dwarf, little person, or a person of short stature are socially acceptable terms for people with this condition. There are two different categories of dwarfism disproportionate dwarfism and proportionate dwarfism. […]
What is Diabetes by Bijal Shah
Commonly referred to as the “slow killer,” diabetes has been affecting people’s lives for so many years. About 30 million people in the United States are diagnosed with diabetes. That is almost a tenth of the U.S. population! But what really is diabetes? Insulin is produced by your pancreas to get the glucose from your […]
What is Kidney Disease by Brittany Klann
Your Kidneys are the organ that produces urine and cleanses your body of waste. Chronic kidney disease occurs when waste starts to build up in the body and the kidneys are not filtering as they should. Most people who are affected by chronic kidney disease are older adults, but it may occur at any age. […]
What is Asperger’s Syndrome by Debbie Gorman
One out of 300 births a year, a child is born with Asperger’s Syndrome. A form of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), also categorized as Pervasive development disorder (PPD). At birth, there are no signs, symptoms, or tests that can be run to detect this disorder. The signs do not begin to show until around the […]
A Look at Cancer by Madeline Sosa
Cancer by definition is the “disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of a body,” according to Google definitions. It affects millions of people in the U.S. yearly whether through genetics from family or from other cases due to smoking, second-hand smoke, or from exposure to radiation, just to name […]
What is Coronary Artery Disease by Brendan Nahn
Coronary artery disease, commonly abbreviated as CAD, is when the arteries of the heart have partial or complete blockage of blood flow to the muscles of the heart. How this happens is from a series of contributing factors that start the build of plaque along the walls of the arteries which is called arteriosclerosis. Plaque […]
Alzheimer’s Disease: Signs, Symptoms, and Causes by Jacob Dawson
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 5 million people in the United States are afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and it is the sixth leading cause of death in the country. My own life became personally impacted by Alzheimer’s when my grandmother was diagnosed. She began forgetting the names of relatives, leaving food in the […]
What is Necrotizing Fasciitis by Jessica Chandler
I choose to write about Necrotizing Fasciitis because of an article on CNN.com that I read last year about a college student, Aimee Copeland, who was zip-lining and injured herself. The injury sent her to the hospital where she received 22 stitches to close up a gash she got on her calf. She was sent […]