Do you remember the scene in Finding Nemo where the fish jam up their aquarium filter to get their dentist owner to clean the tank? That scene always makes me think of kidneys – because without them, our bodies would become rapidly overloaded with waste products, just like that dirty aquarium water! Most of us…...

The spleen has been the target of much ridicule, made fun of by medical students and dismissed as nothing more than a "graveyard for red blood cells." In the Middle Ages, the spleen was associated with melancholy, and in more modern times, anger (perhaps you've heard the expression "vent your spleen" – which means to…...

When I think about the liver, I’m often reminded of a comedy sketch from a Monty Python movie. In the sketch, organ donor nurses arrive at a patient’s home, requesting her liver before she is deceased. When the patient complains that she “hasn’t finished with it yet” the nurses launch into a whimsical song about…...

Most non-medical people don't know the difference between an artery and a vein, and the confusion is quite understandable. The truth is, arteries and veins connect to each other and are part of a circuit that transports blood from the heart to the rest of the body (arteries) and back to the heart again (veins).…...

In my last health tip I described how blood is circulated around the body. I mentioned that poor circulation can cause leg swelling, and promised to provide a fuller review of this very common problem. I'd venture to say that almost 100% of adults have noticed puffiness or swelling in their legs at some point…...

The thyroid gland is responsible for controlling our metabolism, and as such, it is often blamed for causing all manner of weight loss difficulties. Heck, I had my own thyroid hormone levels checked a few years back when my dieting wasn't producing the results I expected. In reality, though, only about 10% of women (and…...

Just as most people don't know much about their spleens, they also know very little about their lymphatic system. Perhaps it's no surprise that the two are related? Both the spleen and the lymphatic system (with its vessels and nodes) play an important role in our immune response to disease and infections. Not to…...

The term "anemia" is quite broad, and simply means that there is a problem with a person's red blood cells (sometimes there are too few, sometimes they are malformed). Red blood cells are manufactured in the bone marrow and are basically tiny sacks of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin molecules (centered around an iron atom) that circulate through…...