You don't need us to tell you that smoking is bad for you. It causes tremendous damage to your lungs and heart, and cigarette smoke is also dangerous for the people around you. But what's the connection between smoking and reproductive health, specifically? If you're a smoker but quit before trying to get pregnant, can you still experience fertility problems?

Have you been trying to conceive for the last several years but, frustratingly, it's not going anywhere? You and your partner may be thinking of starting fertility testing. But when is the right time? How soon is too soon? In this blog, learn more about when you might want to start considering fertility testing, how it works, what the results can tell you, and what some of your fertility treatment options are.

Does one of your parents have heart disease? Or perhaps the problem has occurred somewhere else in your family tree. Whether you have distant or immediate family members who have experienced some sort of heart disorder, you're probably wondering, "What are my chances of eventually living with hereditary heart disease?"

Maybe it's a peanut allergy that makes your face swell up. Perhaps, if you eat tree nuts, your throat starts to feel itchy. Or it could be an egg allergy that makes brunch a real drag. Are you stuck with these symptoms forever, or is it possible to outgrow allergies?

Your eating habits impact your health both mentally and physically. A healthy diet is vital for whole-body wellness. Your nutrition isn't solely about your body weight, either—what you consume affects all of your body's processes.

In a single year, about 805,000 Americans will have a heart attack. Around 200,000 of those people will have already had a heart attack in their lives. You might know that a heart attack can commonly manifest as pain in the left arm, but what else is happening at that moment?

Whether due to age or health issues, many people experience a loss of sexual desire in their lives—up to one in five men and even more so for women. A loss of libido can affect us as individuals, as well as cause significant relationship problems. In this blog, let's talk about what can lead to a low sex drive and what you can do to improve your sex drive.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection marked by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and it mostly affects the lungs. While TB isn't yet eradicated in the United States, we have one of the lowest rates of TB disease in the world. Still, that doesn't mean that TB infection isn't a threat to your health — especially if you travel to other parts of the world where it's more prominent. In this blog, learn whether or not TB disease is fully curable, how it's treated, what the recovery process looks like, and more.

Sexually transmitted infections can spread more easily than you think. You can even catch an STD from kissing! Before you engage in any sexual activity, especially if you're doing so with someone for the first time, it helps to know how you can best look after your own sexual health and that of your partner(s).

The World Health Organization says that fertility problems impact one in six people. There are many potential variables and causes of infertility. Are genes one of them? In this blog, we consider if and how genetic factors and family history affect fertility.

With 2024 quickly coming to a close, many of us are considering our resolutions for 2025. Frequently at the top of the list are health goals like losing weight, quitting smoking, and cutting back on drinking alcohol. Those are all excellent ways to improve both your mental and physical health, but we're going to suggest a few additional health goals that might be overlooked but are still equally important for your overall well-being.

There are all sorts of misconceptions and myths about STDs. A lot of people don't know that yes, you can get a sexually transmitted infection from kissing. There's also confusion about what type of protection, exactly, condoms provide. In this blog, we're answering one common question: Can you pick up an STD from a toilet seat?

According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, about one of every 100 people in the world has celiac disease. This includes about three million Americans, and many more remain undiagnosed — 60% to 70% who indeed have celiac disease.

We've talked before about the role of the thyroid and how great of an impact it can have on your health and well-being. All sorts of symptoms can arise if your thyroid hormones are thrown off. Your energy levels can change, your body temperature can fluctuate, and you might even experience hair loss. As another example, many people with a malfunctioning thyroid gland, whether it's an overactive or underactive thyroid, notice a change in their body weight.

You might know that the thyroid, a butterfly-shaped gland in the neck, produces several important hormones. But that's not all it does. It's a small gland with a big job, and it can impact everything from your metabolism and body weight to your temperature. In this blog, let's focus on the relationship between the thyroid gland and blood sugar.

There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding sexually transmitted infections, one of which is that you need to have genital sex to spread STDs. However, skin-to-skin contact of various kinds can lead to the transfer of bacterial and viral infections. What about kissing? Is this type of sexual contact enough to infect an individual?

If you have diabetes mellitus or pre-diabetes, or your healthcare provider believes you're at a higher risk, you might have been instructed to get your hemoglobin A1c checked.

You might know that allergies have something to do with your immune system. Does this automatically mean that allergies are autoimmune diseases?

The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2024 in the United States, there will be around 106,590 new cases of colon cancer (54,210 for men and 52,380 for women) and approximately 46,220 new cases of rectal cancer (27,330 for men and 18,890 for women). Colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, leading many of us to ask: Does a family history put you at an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer?

When used properly and under the guidance of a healthcare provider, birth control can be a powerful ally to prevent pregnancy and get menstruation under control. However, over the years, we've questioned its safety and side effects — as we should with any medication. Of note, many women have wondered if birth control can increase the odds of infertility.

Roughly 68% of the world's population cannot digest lactose properly. If you're one of them, you might be wondering what lactose intolerance even is. What does it mean to have a lactose intolerance issue? What symptoms of lactose intolerance should you look out for? If you can't comfortably consume dairy foods, is there anything you can do about it?