Plain-language, sourced reference documents on each condition Nurse Joy supports.
This is general, educational information — not individualized medical advice, and not a substitute for your care team. For decisions about your own health, or in an emergency, contact your doctor or local emergency services.
A progressive neurodegenerative condition best known for movement symptoms (slowness, stiffness, tremor, balance), but now understood as a whole-body disorder that also affects sleep, mood, thinking, the gut, and blood pressure.
The most common cause of dementia — a progressive loss of memory, thinking, and independence driven by changes in the brain, with care spanning diagnosis, day-to-day support, behaviour, and planning.
A progressive disease of the motor neurons that control voluntary muscles, gradually affecting movement, speech, swallowing, and breathing, while thinking is often — though not always — preserved.
An inherited, progressive condition caused by a single gene change, affecting movement (chorea), thinking, and mood, with a well-defined genetics and a long pre-symptomatic phase.
An immune-mediated condition in which the protective covering of nerves in the brain and spinal cord is damaged, producing a wide range of symptoms that vary by person and follow several distinct disease courses.
A group of conditions marked by high blood glucose from impaired insulin production, insulin resistance, or both — spanning type 1, type 2, gestational, and the less-common monogenic and LADA forms.
An umbrella of conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels — coronary artery disease, heart failure (reduced and preserved ejection fraction), arrhythmias including atrial fibrillation, valvular disease, and hypertension.
A long-term condition in which the kidneys are damaged or filter less well than they should — defined and tracked by eGFR and albuminuria (ACR), staged G1–G5 — spanning early, often silent disease through kidney failure treated with dialysis or transplant.
A chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues, causing inflammation that can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, blood, heart, lungs, and brain — spanning systemic (SLE), cutaneous, drug-induced, and neonatal forms, and marked by an unpredictable flare-and-remission course.
A chronic, systemic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the lining of the joints, causing symmetric inflammatory polyarthritis that can damage joints and affect organs beyond them — managed with disease-modifying drugs and best treated early.
Pain that persists or recurs for more than three months — understood today through a biopsychosocial lens and classified by mechanism (nociceptive, neuropathic, and nociplastic/central sensitization) — spanning common conditions such as chronic low back pain, neuropathy, fibromyalgia, and arthritis pain.
A common, treatable mood disorder marked by persistent low mood and/or loss of interest with other symptoms that affect how a person feels, thinks, and functions — spanning major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia), perinatal/postpartum, seasonal, and treatment-resistant forms. Supportive, educational information — not a substitute for professional mental-health care.
A mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, marked by four symptom clusters — intrusion, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in arousal and reactivity — and including related patterns such as complex PTSD and acute stress disorder. PTSD is common and treatable. This is supportive, educational information, not a substitute for professional, trauma-informed care.
A treatable, brain-based mood condition marked by episodes of mania or hypomania and, usually, depression — spanning bipolar I, bipolar II, and cyclothymia, with features such as mixed states and rapid cycling. Educational and supportive, not a substitute for professional mental-health care.