Healthcare | California & Nevada Hospitals

What is Lupus?

Last updated 3 days ago

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can affect every organ in the body and leads to inflammation of the skin, blood vessels, joints, tendons, and other connective tissues. The cause of this disease is unknown, but medical scientists believe that it may have a genetic or environmental component.

This video is a brief introduction to lupus and how it can affect patients and their families. Historically, awareness and physician knowledge of this disease has been low—fortunately, this paradigm is changing to promote increased support and research. Watch the video to learn more.

According to the Lupus Foundation of America, an estimated 1.4 million Americans are suffering from some form of lupus. For more information about this disease and how it can affect your health, contact the HCA Far West staff by calling our Consult-A-Nurse healthcare referral line at (855) 422-9378.

Happy Mother's Day! from HCA Far West

Last updated 7 days ago

In celebration of Mother’s Day, we’ve put together a list of quotes honoring mothers and motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society:

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. --Tenneva Jordan
Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love. --Mildred B. Vermont
Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. --Author Unknown
Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother. --Oprah Winfrey
A mom's hug lasts long after she lets go. --Author Unknown
A mother's heart is a patchwork of love. --Author Unknown
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. --Marcel Proust
Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. --Elizabeth Stone
Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother. --Lin Yutang, Chinese writer
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. --Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895
Nobody knows of the work it makes
To keep the home together.
Nobody knows of the steps it takes,
Nobody knows-but Mother. -- Anonymous
Mother - that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries. --T. DeWitt Talmage
There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. --Chinese Proverb
When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. --Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty
A mother understands what a child does not say. --Jewish Proverb
A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. --Washington Irving (1783-1859)
Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. --Marion C. Garretty
All I am or can be I owe to my angel Mother. --Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President

My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her. --George Washington, U.S. President
There never was a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and brave as a lioness... The memory of my mother and her teachings were, after all, the only capital I had to start life with, and on that capital I have made my way. --Andrew Jackson, U.S. President
To the world you might just be one person, but to your mother you are the world. --Author Unknown
There is no velvet so soft as a mother's lap, no rose as lovely as her smile, no path so flowery as that imprinted with her footsteps. --Archibald Thompson
Mothers can look through a child's eyes and see tomorrow.
Mothers deserve the credit for raising value-based leaders who accept responsibility; who possess physical, mental, and spiritual strength; who possess courage and confidence; and look with optimism to the future.
Great mothers help their children to recognize that they can achieve the impossible.
Great mothers bring the arms of comfort to an insecure child in a world of uncertainty. --Reed Markham, American Educator
There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one. --Jill Churchill
Mother's love is peace. It need not be acquired; it need not be deserved. --Erich Fromm, psychologist
Woman knows what man has long forgotten, that the ultimate economic and spiritual unit of any civilization is still the family. --Clare Boothe Luce
The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. --Honore de Balzac
A mighty power and stronger Man from his throne has hurled, for the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world. --William Ross Wallace
A mother is person who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take. --Elizabeth Marie
Children and mothers never truly part. They're bound in the beating of each other's heart. --Elizabeth Marie

Can Cracking Your Knuckles Lead To Arthritis?

Last updated 12 days ago

The knuckles, or the joints that allow your fingers and toes to articulate, are protected and cushioned by layers of a flexible tissue called cartilage. To promote the smooth movement of the joint, synovial fluid bathes the joint between the layers of cartilage. The “pop” of a cracked knuckle is caused by the rupture of one of the small bubbles of gas that can form within the synovial fluid.

If you have ever cracked your knuckles in the presence of another, you may have been curtly warned that doing so will contribute to the development arthritis later in life. While various scientific studies have provided evidence that this is probably not the case, there is published evidence for both sides of the argument.

Osteoarthritis is an inflammatory condition of the joints that can lead to swelling, pain, and even mobility problems. It is extremely common in older adults in the United States, affecting approximately 12.4 million men and women over the age of 65 according to the National Institutes of Health. It is caused by the progressive breakdown of cartilage between the joints and can eventually lead to painful bone-against-bone articulation in the joint.

Supporting the claim that knuckle cracking leads to arthritis, some medical researchers have suggested that the continuous stress on the cartilage of the joint eventually wears down the tissue and leads to the pain and inflammation of osteoarthritis. A study published in the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, for example, claimed that the energy produced by the crack of a knuckle could be high enough to potentially harm the cartilage of the joint.

Many more studies, on the other hand, claim that there is no correlation between knuckle cracking and arthritis. One such study, published in Annals of Rheumatic Disease, examined 300 men and women who were known to have a knuckle-cracking habit. These individuals were not affected by osteoarthritis any more than the rest of the population. However, the individuals did appear to have increased hand swelling and reduced grip strength.

Located in California and Las Vegas, HCA Far West Division is committed to quality patient care and advanced, compassionate medical practice. Contact HCA today by calling our 24-hour Consult-A-Nurse healthcare referral line at (855) 422-9378.