May is National High Blood Pressure Education Month, a reminder to focus on understanding and managing this common condition. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, often has no symptoms, making it a silent threat to your health.

Living with chronic neck and arm pain can be debilitating. It can affect your sleep, work, and your overall quality of life. But there's good news: if you've tried various treatments for your pain and are still struggling, a cervical disc replacement procedure may be an option for you.

Dr. Michael Cluck, with Dignity Health Medical Group — Merced, specializes in spinal surgery and minimally invasive cervical disc replacement. This procedure can relieve pain, improve your ability to move, and help you get back to doing the things you love. Dr. Cluck performs this procedure at Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center in Merced. We spoke with Dr. Cluck to get answers to common questions about the procedure below.

A good night's sleep is one of the most crucial factors for a long, healthy life. An inability to get a restful slumber can sometimes lead to dangerous health complications. Approximately 30 million American adults have sleep apnea, a sleep disorder in which your breathing can repeatedly start and stop, inhibiting one’s ability to get a good night’s rest.

For Dignity Health's Hello Healthy podcast, Eric Peck, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon with Dignity Health Medical Group — Bakersfield discusses recent research that explains a rise of lung cancer in women under 50 years of age and the surgical treatment options available for lung cancer patients. Read the interview transcript below.

Lung cancer claims more lives than colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined. Historically, lung cancer has been more common in older adults and diagnosed at an advanced stage. Younger women, however, are getting lung cancer at higher rates than men younger than 50, according to a report published in JAMA Oncology.

Costanzo DiPerna, MD a thoracic surgeon with Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group, shares insight and resources to help people understand risks, prevention, treatment options and the dangerous long-term effects of using modern “e-cigarettes.”