Chafing is a skin condition that causes redness, inflammation and itching. It is usually caused by friction on the skin. It’s a common condition that can occur in anyone – particularly if you are highly active and experience a lot of skin-on-skin, or clothing-on-skin friction. For example, athletes and hikers will be all too aware of chafing after a hard day of activity. Chafing is not normally dangerous but can be seriously irritating. Don’t let it rub you the wrong way, we answer all of your questions about chafing, as well as how to prevent and treat it in this article.

Disk herniation, also known as a slipped or ruptured disk, occurs when the soft cushion-like disks between the vertebrae in the spine get damaged or shift out of place. Symptoms are characterized by a sudden onset of pain (usually back pain or neck pain. Cervical disk herniation describes a disk prolapse in one of the intervertebral disks in the neck. This can cause pain in the neck along with numbness, tingling or weakness in the arms. Cervical disk herniation can also cause severe symptoms of weakness of the legs and even affect the ability to walk properly. In this guide, we explore cervical disk herniation to help you understand what it is, causes, its symptoms, treatment options, and prevention strategies.

The cervix is known as the neck of the womb and is a narrow muscular opening connecting the vagina to the womb (uterus). Cancer can affect any part of the cervix. Cervical cancer is most commonly caused by certain strains of a virus called the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). The risk of cervical cancer has been much reduced with both the US’s cervical screening program and the HPV vaccination program. It's a relatively uncommon cancer but receives a lot of attention as it is so easily prevented if early cell changes are caught and because it affects young women who are otherwise healthy and at low risk of other cancers.

Cellulitis is a common bacterial skin infection that affects many people worldwide. It occurs when bacteria invade the skin and underlying tissues, leading to inflammation and discomfort. This infection typically starts in the lower layers of the skin and can spread rapidly if not treated promptly. Cellulitis is important to understand because it can significantly impact daily life by causing pain, swelling, and other distressing symptoms. For some individuals, especially those with weakened immune systems or chronic conditions, cellulitis can lead to more serious complications. This infection can affect individuals of all ages, from young children to the elderly. It often starts from minor injuries or skin conditions but can escalate if not properly addressed. By understanding cellulitis, its causes, symptoms, and treatments, individuals can take proactive steps to prevent and manage the infection, ensuring better health. This problem can affect almost any part of the body but it occurs most commonly in areas that have been damaged or inflamed. Anyone, at any age, can develop cellulitis but you are at increased risk of developing it if you smoke, have lowered immunity, or have diabetes or poor circulation.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition where you react to eating gluten. Gluten provokes an immune response, causing damage to the bowel and causing tummy pain, bloating and other symptoms. Along with ongoing symptoms, if you keep eating gluten, this can have long-term implications such as anemia and osteoporosis as you will have difficulty absorbing essential nutrients.

A cataract is when part of the eye called the lens, which is normally clear, becomes cloudy and affects your vision. It tends to affect older people – up to half of people in the US will have been affected by cataracts by the time they are 80. There are other rarer types of cataracts, such as congenital cataracts, that develop from birth, and this is checked at your baby's regular screenings with your doctor. People with a cataract usually complain of blurred vision. As the condition progresses over the years, vision can worsen, colors look less vibrant, spots appear in their vision, halos appear around lights, lights seem too bright, and they have difficulty seeing in poor light or at night. Pain isn't usually a symptom. Cataract symptoms usually develop slowly over a few years, so people may not notice at first, but it will be picked up at a routine eye test.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by the compression of one of the nerves in your hand (the median nerve) that helps you move your thumb. It also gives a particular area of skin the sensation of touch, pain, and temperature - this is the skin over the thumb and parts of the first two fingers. The median nerve runs through something called the carpal tunnel as it navigates through your wrist into your hand. The carpal tunnel, which is a gap formed from the bones in your wrist and a big ligament, can swell up and squash the nerve. This usually causes pins and needles, numbness, and pain in your thumb, index finger, and middle finger, and sufferers typically say symptoms are worse at night. Sometimes, if you’ve suffered from this for a long time, the muscle at the bottom of the thumb loses power as the muscle wastes away. There is no one specific cause of carpal tunnel syndrome, but it is more common in women, the elderly, and during pregnancy or menopause. Swelling of the carpal tunnel can occur from injury to your hand or wrist, joint conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, and from diabetes or obesity. You may be at higher risk if your job or hobby involves a lot of manual work, such as bending the wrist or gripping things for a long time, or using work tools that vibrate, such as a pneumatic drill. It is thought to be more common in pregnancy and menopause as there is often increased water retention, so the tissues in the wrists and hands may be more swollen, causing the carpal tunnel to narrow and put pressure on the nerve.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the collective name for conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels. It is a leading cause of death in the US. It is caused by a build-up of plaque in the arteries of the heart, as well as arteries delivering blood and oxygen to the brain, kidneys, and eyes. Plaque build-up puts these vessels at increased risk of obstruction as well as increased risk of clots within the blood.

Flu is common, and just over 1 in every 10 people suffer from it each year, typically in autumn and winter. Influenza is the name of the virus that causes flu and its symptoms. There are three main types of influenza virus, called A, B and C, although it is usually the type A virus that causes the worst epidemics. Type C influenza is mild to the extent that it is often indistinguishable from a common cold. Type A influenza is usually more debilitating than type B. Symptoms begin after an incubation period of one to four days and include a high temperature up to 103F, headache, loss of appetite, muscular aches and pains, weakness and marked exhaustion or fatigue. Symptoms often continue for about a week unless there are complications, in which case new symptoms may commence in the second week. Symptoms tend to come on quite fast, as opposed to the gradual onset the common cold brings – different viruses are responsible for colds. For most people, the flu will lead to some days spent in bed feeling rotten. For the elderly, young children, or people with other serious medical problems it can be serious, and a number of people die from the flu each year. The flu virus typically hits in winter, while the flu vaccine is offered in the autumn run-up to flu season. The virus can change in nature from year to year, but flu shots keep up with this ever-changing virus, and that’s why we need a booster every year. The symptoms of the flu are similar to the symptoms of COVID-19 so it is important if you have a continuous cough, fever or a loss of taste or smell, to follow the current government guidelines in your area.

Folliculitis is a common condition, where one or several hair follicles become inflamed, presenting as painful red raised bumps that may have a white head (pustule). As you might expect, these occur in hairy areas, such as the scalp, beard, chest, back, buttocks and genital area. They can be deep or superficial.

If you've ever run a hand over your baby's head and found sunken bits that feel soft against parts of the skull, you are not alone. These are called fontanelles, and there are several, but the two most defined are at the front of the top of the head (the anterior fontanelle) and at the back of the top of the head (posterior fontanelle). In newborns, the skull is composed of fairly soft bone plates that can squish together and overlap to get the head through the birth canal during labor. They are flexible for the skull to expand for the developing brain. Given time, these skull plates will fuse, eventually forming the hard protective shell that we know as the skull in adults. Before then, fontanelles are little gaps between the skull plates. They are soft because they are made up of membranes rather than bone. They are entirely normal, and can be helpful on occasion in our medical assessment.

Frozen shoulder is a condition characterized by pain and loss of movement of the shoulder. Otherwise known as adhesive capsulitis, frozen shoulder is a disorder affecting the lining of the shoulder joint which becomes inflamed and tightens. What causes a frozen shoulder? The exact cause is unclear but because it becomes more common as we get older, it’s thought to be due to some form of irritation to the shoulder joint and surrounding capsule of the shoulder. This irritation causes inflammation, which then causes small adhesions or scarring between folds of the shoulder capsule. This is why it’s also sometimes called ‘adhesive capsulitis’.