News and Articles on Health. Medical research topics.

If you think you might have anemia but are not sure here are a few guidelines to follow so that you can pinpoint what you have.

The most obvious recommendation I would and should give is to go to the doctor to find out if you have anemia. They will do a red blood cell count and determine quickly if you are suffering from low energy as a result of low red blood cells or another source problem.

Other signs to look out for:

Looking Pale or more pale than usual

Felling listless or dull

Consistent nagging Fatigue

Constantly chewing on ice?

Hair falling out?

Always being cold?

Weakness…

Shortness of breath

Light-headedness

Palpitations (feeling of the heart racing or beating irregularly)

Dizziness

Chest pain

A weird feeling of wanting to eat ice?

As you may know anemia already anemia is a disease of the blood.

The lack of Iron or decreased oxygen carrying capacity of your blood is causing some or all of the symptoms above.

However if you have some of these symptoms it does not mean that you have anemia. The only sure way to know is to go to your local doctor.

Your Past:

If you have had a history of internal bleeding or hemorrhoids then this could be the cause.
A black or darker stool can often be a tell tale sign of internal bleeding leading to your anemia.
If you work will or in a factory close to heavy metals this may be the reason for your anemia.
If you have had chemotherapy in the past it is very likely that this is the cause of your anemia.

Cutaneous lymphoma is a type of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma involving the lymphocytes within the skin, specifically T-cells and B-Cells. This is a rare type of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma where the tumor growths are seen mostly as numerous lumps beneath the skin’s surface and not in just a lymph node.

The lumps formed beneath the skin cutaneous lymphoma are due to a collection of the malignant cells in the skin. In an attempt to purge the system of the mutated cells, the body pushes the clustered malignant cells towards the surface of the skin. The most common type of cutaneous lymphoma is the cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. The disease manifests itself in several stages:

• Pre-tumor stage – the skin is presented with raised, red patches that appear on the breasts or buttocks and somewhat mimics the appearance of other skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis. ?>
• Plaque stage – the patches are now irregularly shaped and can appear anywhere in the body. Hair loss in the affected skin area is also noted, and can be permanent if the condition is not treated.
• Tumor stage – the incidence of people progressing to this stag is quite small. The plaques can now form lumps and even ulcerate. Lymph nodes are also affected. The liver, lungs, and spleen is also at risk of being affected by the cutaneous lymphoma, but the cases are quite rare.
• Sezary syndrome – this is when the malignancy has spread and covers a large skin area. The malignant cells have also metastasized in the blood stream. Some patients have no plaques or tumors, but the entire integumentary system may be swollen, red and sore (l’homme rouge). The skin can also manifest desquamation or peeling off of skin.

Cutaneous lymphoma of T-cell origin is treated through a specific or a combination of treatment modalities that can range from topical or local to systemic. PUVA treatment is a combination of psoralen and UVA. After taking psoralen, the patient enters an enclosed room where rays of UVA is applied on the skin. However, extra care must be given for it is known that exposure to UV rays can predispose a person to skin cancer. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy is also done to help cure cutaneous lymphoma.

Cutaneous lymphoma can be hard to deal with for it can cause some severe changes in your appearance. A support group can help you combat the disease both in its physical and psychological aspects. Talk to your friends and family during hard times, and ask your doctor to refer you to a cancer support group to help you understand and cope with the effects of cutaneous lymphoma.

It begins with the uninhibited expansion of epithelial cells that line the inner surface of the colon. The colon in most mammals is the final portion of the gastrointestinal tract. Its chief task is to get hold of water and other materials from solid waste products before these are eliminated from the body.

It has been established that majority of colon cancer cases begun with polyps which are hyperplastic masses. But these small balloon structures may undergo a succession of alterations into pre-tumorigenic (e.g. Tubular adenoma) and finally tumorous metastatic (e.g. Colorectal adenocarcinoma) growth.

For many years, colorectal cancer still remains as one of most regularly diagnosed cancers throughout the world with hundred of thousands of newly diagnosed cases each year. The elevated cancer incidence is often accompanied by high mortality rates. Colon cancer is among the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide.

There are a variety of risk factors linked to the dvelopment of colorectal cancer. Age being one of them. Cancer risk rises proportionally with age. And males constitute a higher risk group than females. A further group at great risk of getting colon cancer are people with personal or family history of Hereditary genetic mutations (HNPCC: Hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer or FAP: Familial adenomatous polyposis). People with inflammatory bowel disease have greater risks of developing colon cancer as well.

Further major risk factors included

• obesity
• extreme consumption of red meat
• elevated fat diet
• diet low in calcium, vitamin D, selenium and folate
• inadequate uptake of vegetables and fruits,
• inadequate exercise
• smoking
• aging of the immune system

Conversely, studies have found that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and ibuprofen, estrogen-containing medications and cholesterol reducing drugs may protect against colon cancer.

These drugs are however not endorsed at this point in time as alternative prevention.

While several symptoms may indicate the presence of this cancer, many of these symptoms are not unique to colon malignancy and are in fact, quite analogous to other ordinary illnesses and diseases. These symptoms may possibly appear suddenly or may grow little by little over a period of time. Symptoms include bowel movement alterations; continuous diarrhea; constipation; total bowel blockage (with extreme pain); bloody stools; sudden or chronic abdominal cramping and pain, just to name a few.

Surgical intervention is still the most effectual treatment if the tumor have not become invasive and metastasize. This is done by eliminating the tumor along with a portion of normal colonic tissues and adjacent lymph nodes.

Other types of treatments also include chemotherapy, radiation therapy and immunotherapy. Individual or combinatorial therapies may take place depending on patient’s physical condition and stage of disease.

Mesothelioma is a serious disease that mainly affects those who have been exposed to asbestos. At the early stage, it is very difficult to identify mesothelioma disease, this disease only identified only when its symptoms appear. This can be more to whom those are not aware of its symptoms.

Mesothelioma can affect important parts of body such as organs, including the heart, abdomen and lungs. This disease can cause cancer of these parts if proper treatment is not taken on time. Malignant tumor is one of such mesothelioma disease which can obstruct body’s normal functioning. As a result, pleural mesothelioma might cause a tumor to obstruct the air passage causing difficulty breathing. Pleural mesothelioma might cause fluid to build in the lungs which not only makes it hard to breathe but can also cause significant chest pain.

If any symptom of mesothelioma is found in you then it is necessary to check up yourself to a doctor to be sure. A doctor has a number of tools to correctly diagnose mesothelioma or determine if your symptoms are due to another condition. In the diagnosis stage of mesothelioma, your doctor will start by examining the affected area with a MRI, CT-scan or even just an X-ray. If mesothelioma is found after the preliminary treatment, a medical oncologist will then perform a biopsy to make sure. A biopsy is performed in order to collect a small tissue-sample which does involve minor surgery.

There are two major factors on which mesothelioma treatmentis dependent: where the cancer is located and how far it has progressed. The types of mesothelioma treatment can, generally, be classified into the three categories of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

• Surgery for mesothelioma involves removing all or part of the affected organs along with the lining that surrounds them.
• Radiation therapy is another common treatment for mesothelioma. The cancer is exposed to radiation either from a machine that radiates high-energy rays or from radioactive materials that are encased and inserted next to cancerous tissue in order to shrink it. This is often combined with chemotherapy. When treating mesothelioma, chemotherapy is generally administered by way of an IV. However, researchers are looking into the effectiveness of injecting directly into the affected area.
• Chemotherapy is almost never the sole treatment for mesothelioma. Instead, it is often combined with both radiation therapy and surgery to help control the cancerous cells from multiplying and spreading. Treatment that combines chemotherapy, radiation and surgery is called tri-modality therapy and is the most effective, as well as the most invasive, care available today for those who suffer from mesothelioma.

Occupational hazards have always existed in many industries. In the years dating back to the 1940′s asbestos was considered a miracle discovery due to the insulation values. Asbestos was used in the retention of heat in ship building, construction, and equipment manufacturing.
Today however, asbestos has been recognized as a highly dangerous airborne fiber that lodges in the pleura area of the chest cavity. This fiber bonds with normally healthy cells and corrupts the ongoing natural mutation of cell reproduction. The resulting disease is known as asbestos lung cancer or Mesothelioma. There is little known about asbestos lung cancer or mesothelioma cancer treatment. The standard cancer treatments have had little or no long term success. The three most common types of treatment available are surgical removal of the cancerous tumor, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. The use of radiation therapy consists of placing concentrations of high intensity x-rays directly to the affected area to shrink tumors and or to kill cancer cells.
Up until this last year, the use of radiation therapy has been the norm in combating this terrible disease. Chemotherapy is becoming more popular in the health care field as a treatment for mesothelioma. Chemotherapy is defined as a use of drugs to kill the cancer cells in one particular area. Chemotherapy drugs are general ingested in pill form or are injected into a vein or directly into the affected area. When chemotherapy is applied by injection the most popular method is to deliver the medication straight to the chest cavity or tumor. Chemotherapy has some downsides or side affects. Generally the patient suffers from extreme nausea, hair loss, and exhaustion. Due to the extreme side effects this treatment it is not recommended for extremely ill or physically weak patients.
The most invasive form of mesothelioma cancer treatment is surgical removal of the tumor or the entire affected lung.
The procedure known as pleurectomy decortication is the removal of the abdominal lining and the tissue that surrounds it. This is done to relieve pain and avoid the fluid build up between the lung and the chest cavity. A more invasive form of surgery is referred to as extrapleural pneumonectomy. This procedure is designed to remove the lung and the lining along with the diaphragm. Health care professionals have found that a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy have increased success by a larger percentage. The combination of different chemotherapy drug types and experimenting with dosages have also increased the survival rate to 9 to 12 month longer that with out the treatment. We all know that as with many forms of cancer there is no cure for this dreaded disease.

The health care professionals mentioned in this article are fighting an uphill battle in an attempt to bring a cure to this disease. Many health care professionals believe that any cure that may be derived will come from research and development in the DNA make up of a single human cell.

Chemotherapy is the procedure to treat cancer cells by using chemicals. Cancer cells have the ability to divide rapidly. But in this procedure, both the good and bad cells are being killed although it is really aimed at killing the cancerous ones. There are a number of ways chemotherapy drugs are taken. It may be by mouth, by injection on the muscle or vein, by catheter inserted into our bladder, abdomen, chest cavity, spinal cord, liver and brain.

When oral chemotherapy is done, a patient is given a certain dosage to take.

It may be daily, weekly or monthly.

Most medications are advised to be taken on an empty stomach. There are times drinking juice is also recommended after taking in a medicine. The downside of an oral therapy is the possibility of a patient not to follow the prescribed dosage and time of medication. If done so, it may result to a less effective treatment or more severe consequences.

• Intravenous chemotherapy is done through inserting a catheter. It may be inserted on any one of his body parts such as bladder, abdomen or chest. Every time a patient visits the clinic/hospital for treatment, the device where the medicine is placed is just inserted into the opening of the catheter. This enables the medicine to efficiently flow to the bloodstream of the body.
• Injection chemotherapy is done usually after doing the intravenous chemotherapy. The patient undergoes a series of injection of medicines. Depending on the dosing cycle instructions, it is done a number of times in a day. The patient can do this procedure either at home or in a clinic.
• Topical chemotherapy is done when a patient has skin cancer. The patient is advised to apply cream chemotherapy drugs on a cancerous area. Again, the frequency and dosage is determined by the oncologist. The patient is also advised not to be in direct contact with anybody/anything within the first hour of application. Some cream dries up faster but others take around an hour.

Doctors usually recommend full cycle chemotherapy. A full cycle is taken six times.

But this is still dependent on the advice of the oncologist. Some of them may only recommend that some patients may only have three.

Though this only happens when the patient’s cancer cell isn’t that fast-growing. The most common side effect of chemotherapy known to us is hair loss. There are other side effects of chemo. This includes nausea or vomiting, appetite loss, anemia, weakened immune system, easy bruising or bleeding, kidney and heart muscle damage, infertility and stop of menstrual cycle. The number of these after-effects is the reason why cancer patients sometimes want a partial chemo instead. Some of them think that the reaction of their body to the treatment is just unbearable.

One chemo treatment can actually cost close to $50,000. This doesn’t include several tests yet such as MRIs and PET Scan. And of course, a daily dose of medicine is still required. There are citizens who depend on their health insurance. However, to undergo chemotherapy treatment is just too expensive for many American cancer patients.