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Mom was right: Good personal hygiene is essential to promoting good health.

Personal hygiene habits such as washing your hands and brushing and flossing your teeth will help keep bacteria, viruses, and illnesses at bay. And there are mental as well as physical benefits. “Practicing good body hygiene helps you feel good about yourself, which is important for your mental health,” notes Donald Novey, MD, an integrative medicine physician with the Advocate Medical Group in Park Ridge, Ill. People who have poor hygiene — disheveled hair and clothes, body odor, bad breath, missing teeth, and the like — often are seen as unhealthy and may face discrimination.

Personal Hygiene: Healthy Habits Include Good Grooming

If you want to minimize your risk of infection and also enhance your overall health, follow these basic personal hygiene habits:

Bathe regularly. Wash your body and your hair often. “I’m not saying that you need to shower or bathe every day,” remarks Dr. Novey. “But you should clean your body and shampoo your hair at regular intervals that work for you.” Your body is constantly shedding skin. Novey explains, “That skin needs to come off. Otherwise, it will cake up and can cause illnesses.”
Trim your nails. Keeping your finger and toenails trimmed and in good shape will prevent problems such as hang nails and infected nail beds. Feet that are clean and dry are less likely to contract athlete’s foot, Novey says.
Brush and floss. Ideally, you should brush your teeth after every meal. At the very least, brush your teeth twice a day and floss daily. Brushing minimizes the accumulation of bacteria in your mouth, which can cause tooth decay and gum disease, Novey says. Flossing, too, helps maintain strong, healthy gums. “The bacteria that builds up and causes gum disease can go straight to the heart and cause very serious valve problems,” Novey explains. Unhealthy gums also can cause your teeth to loosen, which makes it difficult to chew and to eat properly, he adds. To maintain a healthy smile, visit the dentist at six-month intervals for checkups and cleanings.
Wash your hands. Washing your hands before preparing or eating food, after going to the bathroom, after coughing or sneezing, and after handling garbage, goes a long way toward preventing the spread of bacteria and viruses. Keep a hygiene product, like an alcohol-based sanitizing gel, handy for when soap and water isn’t available.
Sleep tight. Get plenty of rest — 8 to 10 hours a night — so that you are refreshed and are ready to take on the day every morning. Lack of sleep can leave you feeling run down and can compromise your body's natural defenses, your immune system, Novey says.
Personal Hygiene: Poor Hygiene Hints at Other Issues

If someone you know hasn’t bathed or appears unkempt, it could be a sign that he or she is depressed. “When people are sad or depressed, they neglect themselves,” Novey says. Talking about the importance of proper personal hygiene for preventing illnesses and providing personal hygiene items may help some people. Be candid but sensitive and understanding in your discussions, Novey says. Despite your best efforts, your friend or loved one may need professional help. You should encourage them to see a counselor or doctor if their personal hygiene doesn’t improve.

Personal Hygiene: Good Habits Help Keep You Healthy

For most people, good hygiene is so much a part of their daily routines that they think little about it. They bathe, they brush their teeth, visit the dentist and doctor for regular checkups, and wash their hands when preparing or eating food and handling unsanitary items. To keep those you care about healthy and safe, help them learn, and be sure that they are practicing, good personal hygiene.

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Diabetes: Diabetes Basics

Introduction
Diabetes is a number of diseases that involve problems with the hormone insulin. Normally, the pancreas (an organ behind the stomach) releases insulin to help your body store and use the sugar and fat from the food you eat. Diabetes when one of the following occurs:

When the pancreas does not produce any insulin.
When the pancreas produces very little insulin.
When the body does not respond appropriately to insulin, a condition called "insulin resistance."
Diabetes is a lifelong disease. Approximately 18.2 million Americans have the disease and almost one third ( or approximately 5.2 million) are unaware that they have it. An additional 41 million people have pre-diabetes. As yet, there is no cure. People with diabetes need to manage their disease to stay healthy.

The Role of Insulin in Diabetes
To understand why insulin is important, it helps to know more about how the body uses food for energy. Your body is made up of millions of cells. To make energy, these cells need food in a very simple form. When you eat or drink, much of your food is broken down into a simple sugar called "glucose." Then, glucose is transported through the bloodstream to the cells of your body where it can be used to provide some of the energy your body needs for daily activities.

The amount of glucose in your bloodstream is tightly regulated by the hormone insulin. Insulin is always being released in small amounts by the pancreas. When the amount of glucose in your blood rises to a certain level, the pancreas will release more insulin to push more glucose into the cells. This causes the glucose levels in your blood (blood glucose levels) to drop.

To keep your blood glucose levels from getting too low (hypoglycemia or low blood sugar), your body signals you to eat and releases some glucose from the stores kept in the liver.

People with diabetes either don't make insulin or their body's cells no longer are able to recognize insulin, leading to high blood sugars. By definition, diabetes is having a blood glucose level of 126 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or more after an overnight fast (not eating anything).

Types of Diabetes

Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes occurs because the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (called beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. People with type 1 diabetes produce no insulin and must use insulin injections to control their blood glucose.

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes most commonly starts in people under the age of 20, but may occur at any age.

Type 2 Diabetes
Unlike people with type 1 diabetes, people with type 2 diabetes produce insulin. However, the insulin their pancreas secretes is either not enough or the body is unable to recognize the insulin and use it properly. When there isn't enough insulin or the insulin is not used as it should be, glucose can't get into the body's cells.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, affecting almost 18 million Americans. While most of these cases can be prevented, it remains for adults the leading cause of diabetes-related complications such as blindness, non-traumatic amputations and chronic kidney failure requiring dialysis. Type 2 diabetes usually occurs in people over age 40 who are overweight, but can occur in people who are not overweight. Sometimes referred to as "adult-onset diabetes," type 2 diabetes has started to appear more often in children because of the rise in obesity in young people.

Some people can manage their type 2 diabetes by controlling their weight, watching their diet, and exercising regularly. Others may also need to take a pill that helps their body use insulin better, or take insulin injections.

Often, doctors are able to detect the likelihood of type 2 diabetes before the condition actually occurs. Commonly referred to as pre-diabetes, this condition occurs when a person's blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is triggered by pregnancy. Hormone changes during pregnancy can affect insulin's ability to work properly. The condition occurs in approximately 4% of all pregnancies.

Pregnant women who have an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes are those who are over 25 years old, are above their normal body weight before pregnancy, have a family history of diabetes or are Hispanic, black, Native American, or Asian.

Screening for gestational diabetes is performed during pregnancy. Left untreated, gestational diabetes increases the risk of complications to both the mother and her unborn child.

Usually, blood glucose levels return to normal within six weeks of childbirth. However, women who have had gestational diabetes have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes later-in-life.

What Are the Symptoms of Diabetes?
The symptoms of type 1 diabetes often occur suddenly and can be severe. They include:

Increased thirst.
Increased hunger (especially after eating).
Dry mouth.
Frequent urination.
Unexplained weight loss (even though you are eating and feel hungry).
Fatigue (weak, tired feeling).
Blurred vision.
Labored, heavy breathing (Kussmaul respirations).
Loss of consciousness (rare).
The symptoms of type 2 diabetes may be the same as those listed above. Most often, there are no symptoms or a very gradual development of the above symptoms. Other symptoms may include:

Slow-healing sores or cuts.
Itching of the skin (usually in the vaginal or groin area).
Yeast infections.
Recent weight gain.
Numbness or tingling of the hands and feet.
Impotence or erectile dysfunction.

How Is Diabetes Managed?
At the present time, diabetes can't be cured, but it can be treated and controlled. The goals of managing diabetes are to:

Keep your blood glucose levels as near to normal as possible by balancing food intake with medication and activity.
Maintain your blood cholesterol and triglyceride (lipid) levels as near their normal ranges as possible by decreasing the total amount of fat to 30% or less of your total daily calories and by reducing saturated fat and cholesterol.
Control your blood pressure. Your blood pressure should not go over 130/80.
Slow or possibly prevent the development of diabetes-related health problems.
You hold the key to managing your diabetes by:

Planning what you eat and following a balanced meal plan
Exercising regularly
Taking medicine, if prescribed, and closely following the guidelines on how and when to take it
Monitoring your blood glucose and blood pressure levels at home
Keeping your appointments with your health care providers and having laboratory tests as ordered by your doctor
Remember: What you do at home every day affects your blood glucose more than what your doctor can do every few months during your checkups.

Reviewed by Certified Diabetes Educators in the Department of Patient Education and Health Information and by physicians in the Department of Endocrinology at The Cleveland Clinic.
Edited by Cynthia Haines, MD, WebMD, September 2005.

7 Facts About Fibroid Tumors Every Woman Should Know

1. You’re not alone if you have fibroids.
The National Institutes of Health estimates that 80% of all women will develop uterine fibroids at some point during their lives. Because many women don’t experience any symptoms, it’s possible the incidence of uterine fibroids is even higher. Fibroids are considered benign or noncancerous, but can make life painful.

2. There’s only one kind of uterine fibroid.
You may hear them referred to as:

Leiomyomas
Myomas
Uterine myomas
Fibromas
These terms are all just different names for a uterine fibroid, which is a rubbery mass of tissue that arises out of the muscular portion of your uterus.

3. Fibroids come in different shapes and sizes.
Fibroids may be tiny and described as “seedlings” or grow large enough to alter the shape and size of your uterus. Those that grow on the outer wall of your uterus, which is called the serosa, can develop on a narrow stem that supports the larger growth. We call these pedunculated fibroids.

We also classify uterine fibroids according to their location in your uterus. Those that grow within the uterine wall are called intramural fibroids. Submucosal fibroids protrude into the uterine cavity, and subserosal fibroids project outward from the uterus.

4. Your fibroids may or may not cause symptoms.
Some women have no symptoms with their fibroids and are surprised when they’re discovered during a routine gynecological exam. Depending on the location of the growth, we can sometimes feel a fibroid during a pelvic exam.

Many women, however, seek our care for relief of symptoms that they may not connect to fibroids. These symptoms can include:

Heavy bleeding during your menstrual period
Periods that last more than a week
Pain or pressure in the pelvic region
Frequent urination and difficulty emptying your bladder
Constipation
Back or leg pain
Fibroids can cause such heavy bleeding that you may be at risk for developing anemia. A large fibroid that pushes your uterus out of shape can also make it difficult to maintain a pregnancy. You may have trouble becoming pregnant when a fibroid blocks a fallopian tube or otherwise interferes with your reproductive cycle.

5. We recommend diagnostic studies to confirm the diagnosis and further evaluate your fibroids.
We may recommend an ultrasound or other advanced imaging studies, including:

A hysterosalpingography, during which we use a dye to highlight the uterine cavity and fallopian tubes on X-ray images
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which can show the size and location of fibroids and identify different types of tumors
Hysterosonography, also called a saline infusion sonogram, during which we expand the uterine cavity with a saline solution to makes it easier to obtain images of submucosal fibroids
Hysteroscopy, for which we insert a small telescope (hysteroscope) through your cervix and into your uterus so we can carefully examine the walls of your uterus
6. Experts still don’t know what causes fibroids.
It’s not clear yet what causes fibroids, but we can point to a few factors that can increase your risk of developing these growths, which may include:

Family history of fibroids
Early menarche (onset of menstruation)
Obesity
A diet which includes a high amount of red meat and few green vegetables
Alcohol use
While they develop from the muscular tissue of your uterus, fibroids have a very different genetic profile than normal uterine muscle tissue, and they contain more estrogen and progesterone receptors. These two hormones stimulate your uterine lining to prepare for pregnancy during your menstrual cycle each month and seem to promote uterine fibroid growth.

7. Fibroid growth patterns can vary greatly, or not.
Uterine fibroids can grow very slowly or enlarge quite rapidly. They may remain the same size for years. They can also shrink on their own, and those that are present during pregnancy often disappear afterward. Your risk of developing new fibroids typically decreases with menopause and tumors already present may shrink.