A sprain is the tearing of the ligaments, fibrous structures which support the joints. The most common sprains occur on the limbs, such as sprained ankles, wrists and thumbs, but can affect almost any joint if the ligaments are suddenly or excessively stretched beyond the normal range of movement. ‘Whiplash’, for example is the spraining [...]

There are essentially two main ways of reducing stress:

To identify the sources of your stress and where possible seek either to reduce or eliminate these; and/or

To find ways to enable you to cope better with those sources of stress you can neither reduce nor avoid.

The most effective way to get your stress level down is [...]

Before the development of CT scanning, simple skull X-rays or air-encephalograms (in which the structure of the brain was outlined by injected air) were the only techniques available. These have been superseded entirely. Another technique, angiography, is still used in some patients with epilepsy due to a structural cause. In this technique, an iodine-containing solution [...]

Minerals are also considered extremely important in the treatment of arthritis. Disturbance in the body’s mineral metabolism is usually indicated in arthritis. Therefore, the restoration of proper mineral balance in the tissues is imperative for effective and fast recovery.

Various mineral supplements are used by different practitioners. For the United States, the mineral supplements most useful [...]

While there is a direct correlation between your sleeping pattern and back pain and sciatica, how well you sleep is also likely to have a major effect on your overall health and stress levels, which in turn may also affect your back problems. Here are some extra facts about sleep that underline the importance of [...]

If your depression is severe, I recommend that you start treatment with a conventional anti-depressant as opposed to St John’s Wort.

I would regard depression as being severe if it disrupts important functions, such as personal relationships or work to a major degree, if it is seriously interfering with physical functions such as sleeping or eating, [...]

Although the above seems like a simple enough question that should evoke an equally simple answer, the truth is that, as is so often the case, experts do have widely differing views. What’s more, what is a good and comfortable bed for one person is not necessarily so for the next, as what suits best [...]

How well you sleep and what kind of bed you sleep on can affect your sciatica or back pain in several important ways:

As we’ve already seen, posture affects the spine – and that also applies to the posture you adopt when you’re in bed. It stands to reason that lying for hours on end in [...]

A recent study reported the annual cost of depression in the US to be approximately $43 billion a year. This amount includes the cost of treating the condition and the loss of productivity and positive contribution to the economy resulting from the illness. Even without taking into account the human suffering involved in the condition, [...]

A 50-year-old American woman writes to me as follows:

I first heard about St John’s Wort as a treatment for depression when I was reading about natural remedies for menopausal symptoms. I began taking 300 mg but did not find it all that helpful. This past summer my husband suggested I up the dosage to 600 [...]