Ankylosing Spondylitis: Symptoms of This Overlooked Type
When most people picture arthritis, they think of aching knees or swollen finger joints, not a dull ache in the lower back that shows up in someone’s twenties or thirties. That gap in perception is part of why ankylosing spondylitis is one of the most overlooked forms of arthritis. It is often mistaken for […]
Limb Salvage Surgery: How Vascular Surgeons Help Prevent Amputation
Roughly 80 percent of lower limb amputations in the United States happen because of complications from diabetes. Most of them trace back to the same root problem, blood flow to the leg or foot has dropped so low that tissue starts to die. What a lot of patients don’t realize is that amputation is […]
Varicose Veins During Pregnancy: Causes, Risks and When to See a Vascular Surgeon
Close to 40 percent of pregnant women develop varicose veins at some point during pregnancy. For most, the swollen, twisted veins that show up on the legs are an uncomfortable side effect of carrying a baby, not a medical emergency. But pregnancy also raises the risk of a much more serious vein problem, deep […]
Charcot Foot: Warning Signs Every Diabetic Should Know
Charcot foot is one of the more dangerous complications of diabetes precisely because it doesn’t announce itself the way you’d expect. There’s often little pain, sometimes none at all, even while bones and joints inside the foot are being damaged. By the time most people realize something is seriously wrong, real structural harm has […]
Does Humidity Affect Arthritis Pain in South Florida?
Ask almost anyone with arthritis in South Florida whether humidity affects their joints, and most will say yes without hesitating. It turns out they’re not imagining it. Researchers have actually studied this question, and the honest answer sits somewhere between “it’s all in your head” and “humidity is destroying your joints.” The real research […]
Compression Stockings for Varicose Veins: Do They Work or not?
Compression stockings are usually the first thing anyone hears about when they’re told they have varicose veins. Buy a pair, wear them daily, and the problem gets managed. That advice isn’t wrong, but it isn’t the whole story either. Stockings genuinely help a lot of patients feel better. They don’t fix the underlying vein. […]
PAD vs. Neuropathy: Is Your Leg Pain Vascular or Nerve?
Leg and foot pain sends people to very different specialists depending on what’s actually causing it, and two conditions get confused with each other more than almost any other pair. Peripheral artery disease, or PAD, and peripheral neuropathy can both cause aching, burning, or numb legs and feet. They come from completely different problems […]
Heel Spur or Plantar Fasciitis? How to Tell the Difference
Heel pain sends more people to a podiatrist than almost any other foot complaint, and two conditions get blamed for it more than anything else: plantar fasciitis and heel spurs. Patients often use the terms as if they mean the same thing. They don’t. Plantar fasciitis is a soft tissue problem. A heel spur […]
Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis: Why a Negative Blood Test Doesn’t Rule It Out
A blood test comes back negative, and the assumption that follows is almost automatic: no rheumatoid factor, no rheumatoid arthritis. That assumption is wrong often enough that it has its own name in medicine: seronegative rheumatoid arthritis, a real, damaging form of the disease that simply doesn’t show up on the standard antibody tests. […]
Osteoarthritis vs Rheumatoid Arthritis: How to Tell the Difference
Both conditions cause joint pain. Both can make it harder to get through an ordinary day, from opening a jar to climbing a flight of stairs. And both get lumped together under the single word “arthritis” so often that a lot of people assume they’re basically the same disease with different names. They aren’t, […]
