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Jock itch is an annoying and itchy rash common in people who sweat a lot, such as athletes. The rash is often found in the genital, buttock, and thigh regions. Although uncomfortable, jock itch is not serious and can be treated and prevented very easily.

Jock itch is an infection caused by a mold like fungus or yeast. It causes a rash on the areas around the groin. The red, ring-shaped rash is very itchy and thrives in these warm, moist areas of the body.

 

The rash is caused by the same fungus that causes athlete's foot, tinea cruris.

Patients with Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes abdominal pain and diarrhea, can also experience joint pain. In Crohn's disease, which affects about 800,000 Americans, the immune system can attack not only the bowels, but the musculoskeletal system as well, leading to spondyloarthritis, a painful condition that affects the spine and joints. Now new research, published in Science Translational Medicine, helps explain the connection between these seemingly unrelated symptoms, and could help physicians identify Crohn's disease patients who are more likely to develop spondyloarthritis, enabling them to prescribe more effective therapies for both conditions.

Traumatic brain injury in a serious health concern, especially among children and adolescents. New research uncovers the long-term effects of traumatic brain injury on children.

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is any injury to the head that interferes with the normal functioning of the brain. This can be a violent blow or bump, which can result in a sudden jolt, or a penetrating injury that pierces the skull and the brain tissue.

In a study of hip fracture patients, men displayed greater levels of cognitive impairment within the first 22 days of fracture than women, and cognitive limitations increased the risk of dying within six months in both men and women.

"While men make up only about 25 percent of all hip fractures, the number of men who fracture their hip is increasing and we know men are more likely to die than women after a hip fracture," said Dr. Ann Gruber-Baldini, lead author of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society study. "It is also known that those with cognitive impairments, typically due to delirium and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia, are more likely than women to do poorly after the fracture.

In a study of patients with Paget's disease of bone - a common skeletal disorder that can lead to bone deformity, fractures, osteoarthritis, and bone pain - long-term intensive bisphosphonate therapy conferred no clinical benefit over giving bisphosphonates only when patients felt bone pain.

Also, long-term bisphosphonate therapy was linked with a non-significant increase in the risk of fractures and serious adverse events.

Although bisphosphonates are effective at suppressing the elevated bone turnover and bone pain that are characteristic of Paget's disease of bone, the study's results suggest that the drugs should be used to control symptoms rather than to suppress bone turnover.

A new study has found that poor strength in the thigh muscles may increase the risk of knee osteoarthritis in women but not men. This relationship was confounded by body mass index (BMI), which itself is known as a risk factor for knee osteoarthritis.

The study's investigators noted that there may be more contractile tissue (and strength) present in men with greater BMI and more non-contractile (fat) tissue in women with greater BMI. The sex-specific relationship between muscle strength and BMI provides a possible explanation for why women with muscle strength deficits typically have a poorer prognosis than men with similar deficits.