Blog Archive
Many people neatly divide the two main types of diabetes — type 1 and type 2 — into childhood and adult conditions, respectively. In reality, this oversimplification doesn’t paint the correct picture when it comes to the millions of Americans who have diabetes. Not by a long shot. For starters,...
The weight problem in the United States is significant — 74% of adults are overweight, including 43% who have obesity. And the future isn’t looking all that great, either — experts predict that, by 2030, nearly half of adults will have obesity. As an endocrinologist and internal medicine specialist who...
We’ve scheduled you for a thyroid nodule biopsy, and you have some concerns about the upcoming procedure. That’s perfectly normal — this is new territory for many of our patients. To put your mind at ease, board-certified endocrinologist Dr. Sean P. Nikravan and our team are using this month’s blog...
The United States, and the rest of the world, has a weight problem. Its side effects cast a very wide net and include your metabolic health. To put some numbers to this problem, a new study predicts that 260 million Americans will be overweight or have obesity by 2050. While...
The word “surgery” is rarely met with enthusiasm, and for good reason — it’s no small undertaking. While surgery is still an effective and necessary tool in healthcare, new technologies are allowing doctors to offer far less invasive options, which is the case with thyroid radiofrequency ablation (RFA). As a...
November ushers in the holiday season, that time of year when people gather with friends and family to eat, drink, and be merry. If you’re trying to mind your weight and your health, the eating portion of holiday festivities can be problematic as you encounter tables where yummy foods and...
You’re not thrilled with the extra weight you’re carrying and the effects that these excess pounds are having on your physical, mental, and emotional health. Like millions of others, you’ve embarked on different weight loss efforts, but you keep coming up short. Studies have shown that 80% of people who...
Long ago, having too little to eat and being underweight was one of the biggest problems that humans faced — and many still do in underdeveloped countries. For people living in developed countries such as the United States, the opposite is true — people are more in danger of being overweight...
Your eyes are itchy or painful, you’re seeing double, and your eyes even seem to be growing larger and popping out of your head. While this may sound cartoonish, these side effects are very real if you have thyroid eye disease (TED). As a leading expert in all things thyroid-related,...
Each year in the United States, 1.2 million people are diagnosed with diabetes — mostly type 2 diabetes. Mixed in there in smaller numbers are those diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which shares some similarities with its more common type 2 cousin, with a few key differences. If you or...
People take a lot of things for granted when it comes to their health, such as the fact that hormones are working quietly behind the scenes to regulate everything from your sexual health to your metabolism. And this state of hormonal balance is incredibly important for your overall health and...
Cholesterol has been singled out as one of the primary culprits behind cardiovascular disease, and for good reason. Having high cholesterol — which applies to 86 million American adults age 20 and older — places you at higher risk for serious heart disease, such as heart attack and stroke. As...
It might surprise you to learn that, by age 60, about half of people will have a thyroid nodule. The growths are benign in 90% of these cases, and most don’t cause symptoms. If you’re reading this, however, you may have thyroid nodules that are causing symptoms and you’re exploring...
America has a weight problem, and it's having a devastating effect on the nation’s collective health. Nearly one in three Americans is overweight, and more than two out of five have obesity. From heart disease and diabetes to low testosterone and sleep apnea, carrying excess pounds can wreak havoc on...
When something is referred to as “master” anything, you know that it plays an important role. Well, a tiny gland in your brain called your pituitary gland has this honor: Doctors call it the “master gland” because it oversees the function of all of the other hormone-producing glands in your...
After you exit puberty, typically between the ages of 16 and 18, your testosterone levels are probably at their peak, and they usually maintain this high level through your 20s. Once you hit your 30s, however, testosterone production can slowly decrease, by about 1% a year. As a result, issues...
The first thing to understand about hypothyroidism — a condition in which your body produces too few thyroid hormones — is that it’s fairly common. Still, despite the fact that nearly 5% of Americans age 12 or older have hypothyroidism, many don’t know the condition exists because side effects are...
November is National Diabetes Month in the United States, so Dr. Sean P. Nikravan and our team are addressing this important health topic in this month's blog post. For the 37.3 million Americans — more than 11% of the population — who are living with diabetes, the threat of complications...
We’re going to kick this off by getting straight to the question the title poses about whether thyroid nodules are common — yes, they are. The American Thyroid Association reports that about 50% of people have a thyroid nodule by age 60. Given this prevalence, it makes sense to understand...
Hyperlipidemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia — these are all lipid imbalances grouped under what’s commonly referred to as high cholesterol. For the 86 million Americans who qualify as having high cholesterol, managing these lipids is critical for avoiding serious cardiovascular disease. Lipids play no small role in your hormone health, which is...
The glucose levels in your blood are high, but you’ve dodged a bullet and you don’t have diabetes. Before you sigh with relief, however, understand that if you don’t take action, it's only a matter of time before that bullet hits home and you cross over into diabetes, which is...
Early intervention and preventive care — these two concepts form a solid foundation of great health, and we take them very seriously here at our practice. As specialists in endocrinology, including the thyroid gland, Dr. Sean P. Nikravan understands the many ways in which thyroid disease can affect your health....
While we certainly don’t want to add to your worries, there are a lot of health issues people should be more aware of. When you consider that an estimated 20 million people in the United States have a thyroid disorder, yet up to 60% are unaware of the issue, there's...
It’s often not until something is missing that you understand the large influence it had, which can certainly be said of testosterone. This reproductive hormone plays a vital role in a man’s health and wellness and, when levels dip below normal, you can feel the effects in many different ways....
Thyroid nodules are very common and may affect up to 50% of people, but most are unaware of the growth. Of those thyroid nodules that are identified, about 90% are clinically insignificant benign lesions. That leaves a small number of problematic thyroid nodules — those that are large enough to...
When you receive a diabetes diagnosis, it’s just the start of a journey that will require you to pay closer attention to your health. More than 11% of people in the United States are on this same journey, and many lead happy, healthy lives despite this chronic condition that can seriously threaten...
You’ve joined the large number of people who have thyroid nodules — half of people over age 60 develop the growths. Unfortunately, your thyroid nodule has become problematic, whether in terms of comfort or thyroid function, and you need to take action. One great approach for problematic thyroid nodules is...
Your thyroid and the role your thyroid hormones play in your body aren’t taught in depth at school, nor does the thyroid come up in conversation much. As a result, you likely don’t know much about this small gland and you have questions. Board-certified endocrinologist Dr. Sean P. Nikravan values...
Thyroid nodules are far from uncommon — by the time people reach age 60, about half will have a thyroid nodule — and most of these people are unaware of its presence. If circumstances have led us to discover a thyroid nodule in your neck, our next step is to evaluate the...
There are more than 50 hormones in the human body, and they act as chemical messengers that manage a wide number of functions, from regulating hunger to governing reproduction. When you have a hormone disorder, it affects very specific areas of your health. But there is potential for crossover, which...
You learn that your daughter has Turner syndrome, and the news seems to come out of nowhere. This condition — which affects about one in every 2,500 female babies born each year around the world — isn’t one that’s inherited; rather, it’s a random genetic disorder. To help with your abrupt initiation...
About 96 million American adults — more than one in three — have prediabetes. Unfortunately, 80% of them are unaware of this very serious condition. This lack of awareness puts millions of people at risk for developing full-blown Type 2 diabetes, which, in most cases, is a lifelong diagnosis. Recognizing...
Did you know that it requires an average of 24 days for a new patient to be able to schedule an appointment with a physician in the United States? And, when you do get in the door, your appointment lasts only 15 minutes or so. At our practice, Dr. Sean P. Nikravan wants to...
Let’s start this blog with an important point — thyroid nodules are incredibly common, and about half of people in the United States develop at least one by the time they reach age 60. While most nodules don’t present any danger, it’s important to have them checked out, especially if you’ve developed...
You likely never paid much attention to your thyroid gland until something went wrong and you needed to find the best treatment. While some thyroid issues — such as nodules, goiter, and cancer — often required surgery, we now have a minimally invasive tool in our arsenal: radiofrequency ablation (RFA)....
Almost half of adults in the United States have hypertension, which places them at great risk for developing some very serious cardiovascular issues. In fact, hypertension is often referred to as a silent killer, which gives you some idea about just how serious these complications can be. To illustrate the...
If you do an internet search for the term “weight loss,” a whopping 1.86 billion results pop up in under a second. Unfortunately, most of these results are long on promises and short on results, adding another hurdle to your weight loss journey. At our practice, Dr. Sean Nikravan and our team understand the...
You’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, and you want to do everything you can to prevent the disease from overshadowing your life and your health. You’re not alone. Approximately one in 10 people in the United States has some form of diabetes, leaving them vulnerable to serious complications that range from...
For both men and women, the effects that their reproductive hormones have on their overall health and wellness can be surprising. In fact, it’s usually only when these hormones are in decline that you appreciate their influence. Such is typically the case with hypogonadism, or low testosterone, which affects between...
About half of people in the United States develop a thyroid nodule (or several) by the time they reach 60 years of age, but many are unaware of the issue because the growths don’t lead to symptoms. More encouraging is the fact that more than 90% of thyroid nodules are...
Thyroid growths don’t always require intervention. However, when they do, it often means an open surgery with an incision large enough to expose the entire located gland at the base of your neck. While surgery offers highly effective solutions, it’s still surgery, which comes with pain, scarring, and lengthy recovery...
Have you ever wondered how come your local grocery store almost always has all the fruits and vegetables in stock regardless of the season! Thanks to ethylene oxide, a flammable colorless gas with a sweet odor used primarily to produce other chemicals, including antifreeze. In smaller amounts, ethylene oxide is used as...
We are fortunate enough to live in an era of medical online information, but is it really helpful? How do you verify the information is valid or written by an expert in the field? Do you trust or follow everything you read? Do you find contradicting information during your searches?...