Congestive heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to manage blood volume, forcing blood to collect in other areas of your body, such as the lower extremities (feet and legs) and lungs. Heart failure becomes worse over time—starting with irregular heart rate and collection of blood and fluid in the lungs, and progressing to more serious health issues like kidney and liver damage, pulmonary hypertension, and sudden cardiac arrest without therapy for chronic heart failure. Read on for the common symptoms as well as for the most common heart failure treatment options: 1. Shortness of breath Breathlessness or dyspnea often occurs early on as the heart begins to fail. This shortness of breath and chest tightness will present as blood backs up in the veins, as the heart is unable to transport oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart. As fluid collects in the lungs, normal breathing will become strained and difficult. Patients experiencing early stage heart failure may also become breathless when exerting themselves. 2. Swelling or edema It is common for edema to occur during heart failure as one or both of the heart’s lower chambers cease pumping blood efficiently. With nowhere to go, blood will collect in the ankles, legs, and feet, causing noticeable swelling in the extremities.

Vitiligo is known as a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes the discoloration of skin and mucous membranes. Causes of vitiligo include the body’s immune system attacking the melanocytes (the cells that determine skin pigmentation). Fortunately, there are several effective treatments of vitiligo and they are as follows: 1. Inflammation medications According to the National Institutes of Health, the FDA has approved a topical Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor to treat vitiligo. This new JAK inhibitor oral medication has proven effective for reducing the overactive immune system response, which triggers vitiligo flare ups. JAK inhibitors are taken orally to cease the destruction of melanocytes, the color-producing skin and hair cells that vitiligo specifically and mistakenly attacks. Medications that reduce inflammation such as corticosteroid cream, pills, or injections are taken orally or applied to the areas affected by depigmentation in order to try and get the original pigmentation back. This is most effective when used during the earliest stages of vitiligo. This type of treatment is effective but results may not be seen for several months. 2. Immune system medications An alternate type of medication that can be used is medications such as calcineurin inhibitor ointments that affect the immune system. This is most effective when used by people who have limited depigmentation especially on the face and/or neck.

According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, clinical trials are ongoing research studies that are stringently overseen by doctors to develop and improve therapies for certain types of cancer. Treatments and therapy innovations made during lymphoma and leukemia clinical trials aim to better fight these cancers of the bone marrow (i.e., multiple myeloma) and lymph systems, while ensuring patients experience fewer negative side effects. The following therapies, if proven safe and successful in the clinical trial stage, will face approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in standard treatment of leukemia and lymphoma patients: 1. CAR T-cell therapy CAR T-cell therapy entails genetically modifying a patient’s own immune cells to fight their cancer. To date, one CAR T-cell treatment has been approved by the FDA to treat children and young adults with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Further clinical trials are underway to find a CAR T-cell therapy to treat older adults fighting B-cell ALL. Findings from this trial will utilize CAR T-cell therapy to delay or totally replace the need for stem-cell transplantation in senior patients unable to withstand transplant surgery. 2. Targeted therapies While the standard treatment for many types of leukemia have been chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and stem cell transplantation, clinical trials for less-toxic targeted therapies are being studied in order to avoid the more serious side effects of chemo and radiation that many older patients wouldn’t live through.

Vitiligo is a type of chronic autoimmune disorder that causes the discoloration of skin and mucous membranes. Vitiligo occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the melanocytes—the cells that determine skin pigmentation.

Hemophilia B is a rare genetic bleeding disorder occurs in patients who don’t produce adequate IX proteins, needed for blood clot formation to stop bleeding. This deficiency in factor IX clotting activity results in prolonged oozing after injuries, tooth extractions, or surgeries, and also may cause delayed or recurrent bleeding prior to wound healing. Most patients with hemophilia are born with it, as the disease is almost always inherited (or passed down) from a parent to their child.