Harvard Health Content API

Intermittent fasting involves restricting calories a few days a week or limiting eating to a shortened "eating window" each day.  In addition to weight loss, the body can experience numerous benefits from being in a fasted state. In a fully fasted state, your metabolism switches its primary source of fuel from glucose to ketones, which triggers a host of positive cellular responses. Repeated exposure to a fasted state induces cellular adaptations that, at least in the short term, improve markers of metabolic and cardiovascular health. On the downside, the risks are feeling unwell, rebound overeating, losing too much weight, and potentially dangerous if you are taking certain medications.

Lumbago is an old term for “low back pain.” It is a symptom and may be caused by numerous conditions. In many cases, no cause can be found and no findings (signs) suggestive of a specific disorder are present.
The symptoms of lumbago include pain in the lower back that may:
•    be chronic or intermittent
•    worsen in certain positions or with movement
•    be located on one or both sides
•    radiate down one or both legs
•    be worse standing up and improve leaning forward or sitting down
Signs that may accompany lumbago include:
•    pain when pressure is applied to certain areas of the lower back (especially various muscle groups or the area of the buttock through which the sciatic nerve travels)
•    worsened pain when a leg is raised by the examiner
•    abnormal or asymmetric reflexes
•    loss of sensation in one or both legs
•    weakness of one or both legs

The best ways to manage knee pain depend on why the pain is there, though in many cases, the cause of knee pain isn’t immediately clear. For non-urgent situations, acetaminophen, rest, and a cool compress are good first steps. When the knee pain represents an emergency (such as following major trauma, when there’s knee swelling and fever, or there’s an inability to bear weight) the person with knee pain should seek medical attention right away. 
Some of the more common causes and initial treatments of knee pain include:
•    Osteoarthritis – exercise, loss of excess weight, topical anti-inflammatory pain relievers or capsaicin
•    Noninfectious bursitis – exercise, loss of excess weight, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, cortisone injection
•    Tendinitis – rest and ice, followed by exercise, physical therapy, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication or acetaminophen
•    Rheumatoid arthritis – anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive medications, exercise, physical therapy, cortisone injections 
•    Gout – anti-inflammatory medications (when gout attack begins), cortisone injection, long-term medication to lower uric acid (such as allopurinol)

A seizure is a sudden change in the brain's normal electrical activity. During a seizure, brain cells "fire" uncontrollably at up to four times their normal rate, temporarily affecting the way a person behaves, moves, thinks or feels. Most seizures come on abruptly with minimal or no warning signs. There may be a several seconds when the person stops communicating before other seizure activity starts.

Dystonia (or dystonic reaction) to a disorder of muscle tone, which generally appears as an overactivity of muscle, leading to twisting motions and abnormal body positions. The symptoms of a dystonic reaction can come on suddenly and be quite alarming. They include abnormal movements of the eyes, slurred speech, and twisting of the neck that can progress to a severe type of muscle spasm in which the head, neck, and back are locked in a muscle spasm. Some patients develop chronic dystonia, in which these symptoms persist for an extended period.

Dystonic reactions can be caused by medications, including prochlorperazine and metoclopramide used for nausea and vomiting and psychiatric drugs such as haloperidol. Other causes of dystonia include Parkinson’s disease, stroke, brain injury and birth injury. Dystonia can be inherited, but often no underlying problem is identified.

Cervicalgia is a medical term that refers to pain in and around the neck. Given the number of structures that make up and support the neck, there is a long list of possibilities. Common causes of neck pain are muscle strain, muscle spasm, degenerative disc disease and arthritis. For these conditions, conservative measures should be tried first unless there is evidence of ongoing nerve dysfunction causing extreme pain or muscle weakness. Treatment might be warm or cold compresses, temporary intermittent use of a soft cervical collar, physical therapy, anti-inflammatory drugs and pain relievers.

As few as three bowel movements per week is considered normal. That does not mean that even going once or twice per week is harmful, as long as there is no abdominal discomfort and a person is regularly passing gas. However, new constipation that persists for more than a couple weeks should prompt a call for medical advice. Constipation with abdominal pain, not passing gas or vomiting needs immediate attention because there could be a bowel obstruction.

Malaise is the medical term for a general feeling of being unwell. Fatigue is a relative term, meaning each of us evaluate our current energy level based upon how we feel most of the time. For example, people who are very energetic and go nonstop from early morning to late at night might say they have fatigue if they felt like most of us do every day. While they can occur separately, fatigue and malaise often go together.

Nystagmus is uncontrolled jerky eye movements. Nystagmus is most often side to side (horizontal nystagmus), but it can also be up and down (vertical nystagmus) or circular (rotary nystagmus). People with nystagmus might have a sense that stationary objects are moving. Horizontal nystagmus is usually due to a problem in the balance system of the inner ear and is typically associated with dizziness, vertigo and imbalance.