The qualities of your voice result from the movement of air across the vocal folds – commonly called the vocal cords – and the larynx, or voice box. When you speak or sing, the vocal folds come together and vibrate in the rush of air leaving the lungs. This vibration produces sounds. Any changes in the vocal folds, such as swelling, irritation or lumps, can result in changes in the quality, pitch or volume of your voice. Spicy foods don’t directly alter your voice, but they can induce acid reflux or coughing, which can...
It can be the result of many different causes and is usually easily treatable. There are several key symptoms to observe with hypernatremia, but they may not be quite as obvious in patients with limited or impaired mental state...
Personality characteristics have been a common focal point in psychological research studies through the years, and there has always been discussion as to how many family influences play a role in personality development. When...
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, schizophrenia affects around 1.1 percent of the general population. Several factors, such as genetics and environments, can exacerbate symptoms of schizophrenia, but the exa...
Your hypothalamus regulates many of your bodily functions, including hormonal release. Long-term overtraining may result in hypothalamic dysfunction, where your hypothalamus fails to properly regulate your hormones, sex drive a...
If you experience diarrhea, vomiting or cramps in your stomach after eating rare beef, you may have an intestinal disorder, also known as food poisoning. Many cases clear up on their own, but contact your doctor if symptoms per...
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects you for life, and the cause is unknown. Symptoms of hallucinations, hearing voices and illogical thinking or believing people are reading your mind can start in the late teens to 2...
The vestibular system helps to maintain a sense of balance and spatial orientation, provides information about the position of the head and fixates images upon the retina. Vestibular disorders can cause dizziness, vertigo, conf...
Pressure to perform, a short window of career opportunity and relentless public scrutiny often combine to render the athlete unable to recognize or admit emotional suffering. While physical injury is pinpointed and addressed, m...
In addition to its emotional nuances, verbal communication provides a means of conveying information efficiently and effectively. Voice disorders put a considerable hindrance on a person's ability to communicate thoughts and f...
Ammonia is toxic to cells and requires conversion to a non-toxic product called urea, which can be excreted by the kidneys. This is an important process since the accumulation of ammonia in the blood, known as hyperammonemia,...
It can leave him waking in the morning feeling exhausted, taking a toll on their energy through the day and having an adverse effect on his mood, as HelpGuide.org explains. A variety of causes are responsible for this, and once...
Delusions are beliefs that are false, illogical and fixed. The deluded person is convinced that his delusion is real, and he cannot be persuaded otherwise. Although the term "deluded" is often tossed around by healthy people in...
Other causes of repeated or intense eye twitching include alcohol and drugs that slow down the neurological system via the so-called GABA pathway. Alcohol and benzodiazepines, a group of drugs that include Valium and Xanax, cau...
Lithium orotate is a dietary supplement used for the treatment of many ailments and medical conditions by alternative healers. According to LithiumOrotate.com, this supplement is an organic form of lithium, which is an essenti...
Bipolar disorder is a psychological disorder that is thought to have a biological basis. Common symptoms between the two disorders are low energy, irritability, appetite disturbance and depression. Some significant differences ...
adults ages 18 and older suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder each year, with almost half who suffer from two or more disorders. Psychiatrists use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder
Skin picking generally co-exists with other common psychiatric conditions, such as depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, according to the DermNet website. Solutions are available to help with skin picking, but ...
Although many mental disorders have a genetic root that causes chemical imbalances in the brain, mental disorders or symptoms resembling mental disorders can also result from environmental stressors, including certain ingested ...
It can be very difficult to overcome pathological gambling. If you or someone you love is struggling with a gambling addiction, knowing the underlying causes that contribute to pathological gambling is an important first step o...
When a child has a learning disorder, she can have a problem with language, mathematics, memory or behavior. The Merck Manual Professional Edition notes that in the United States, about 5 percent of children in school attend sp...
Psychotropic medications include antidepressants, stimulants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and medications used to treat movement disorders such as epilepsy. Due to a lack of safety studies, the FDA approves few psychotropi...
However, scientists have made great progress in discovering the biological roots of schizophrenia, now characterized more accurately as a brain disorder, not an emotional illness.
Three areas of research interest represent the...
Persistent itching can be a stubbornly distressing symptom. Many skin and systemic disorders can precipitate itching, which is caused by stimulation of specialized nerve fibers found only in the skin. Although the precise mecha...
Narcissism or narcissistic personality disorder is a diagnosis under the classification of personality disorders. Narcissistic rage occurs when the person with narcissism perceives he's being attacked by another. To understand ...
Often these are criminal in nature. The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition" (DSM-IV) describes some of these behaviors as failing to conform to society's rules, deceitfulness, impulsiveness, ...
Daytime sleepiness can often be attributed to taking certain types of medications or ingesting chemicals such as caffeine or nicotine. The cause of daytime sleepiness may not always be this simple, however. Because daytime slee...
The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" states that these behaviors cause impairments in school and social functioning and occur more frequently than in other children of the same age. The typical age for th...
Unlike many physical disorders, determining the cause of mental health disorders is not easy. For one thing, each psychological disorder has its own causes. Secondly, psychological disorders rarely ever appear for just one reas...
For example, an individual may think someone is following him. Sometimes, paranoia can be a sign of an underlying mental disorder. The causes of paranoia can be managed effectively.
It is a mental illness that causes extreme shifts in moods---one day a person may be in a state of euphoria, and a few days later find themselves suffering from severe depression. Although the exact cause of this disorder is no...
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) notes that 1 to 3 percent of the population is mentally challenged, though the cause is only known in 25 percent of cases.
It states that these erratic eye movements are due to an abnormality in the brain that control eye movement. Fortunately, the disorders that cause intermittent uncontrolled eye movements have specific management options.
Mental disorders usually are caused by a combination of genetic and biological factors (nature) and environmental factors (nurture). Substance use and other medical conditions also can play a role in mental health problems. Al...
Random genetic abnormalities, heredity, lifestyle or environment can cause non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, asthma, hypertension and osteoporosis. Autoimmune diseases, trauma, fractures, mental disorders, ma...
population is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia has no exact known cause but is categorized as a brain disorder affecting the balance in neurotransmitter concentration of dopamine, glutamate and serotonin systems. Sym...
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 5.7 million Americans are affected by bipolar disorder, which causes a person to experiences drastic mood swings. The individual could be elated one day and se...
Some ethnic groups are at higher risk for some genetic diseases than others, but the diseases can occur in any group, according to the Genetic Disease Foundation. Different genetic conditions cause clusters of different symptom...
Paranoid schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that can cause individuals to lose touch with reality and behave abnormally. According to the Mayo Clinic, there are many types of schizophrenia (see Resources for information...
Alzheimer's disease is a condition that causes mental dysfunction. It most commonly affects the elderly but can, in some cases, affect people in their 40s. In some cases this condition is hereditary but for some people there is
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) refers to a disruptive behavior disorder in children and teenagers that involves a persistent pattern of defiant, disobedient, uncooperative and hostile behaviors toward authority figures tha...
It's an old expression that seems to suit the situation. People who have trichotillomania actually do pull their hair out, and it doesn't have be from frustration. Trichotillomania is a disorder that causes a person to pull out...
It is a challenging proposition to live with bipolar disorder. This condition is mental illness also commonly know as manic depression. It is a brain disorder that causes such problems as severe shifts in mood with periods of d...
A new book is poised to shatter beliefs about the underlying causes of mental or behavioral health related disorders. Written by Mark Hyman, MD, it's called "The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body F...
A new book is poised to shatter beliefs about the underlying causes of mental or behavioral health related disorders. Written by Mark Hyman, MD, it's called "The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body F...