Archive for August, 2007

Breast cancer is a malignant (cancerous) tumor that occurs when cells in the breast becomes so over-active that they won’t stop multiplying.

All women are at risk for getting breast cancer.

So, it is better to have breast cancer information for right treatment. Breast cancer refers to a wide variety of cancers that occurs in the breast.

The most common types of breast cancer are ductal carcinoma (occur in milk ducts of the breasts) and Lobular carcinoma (occur in the lobules where breast milk is made).

Breast cancer information on in situ breast cancer

This refers to a cancer where the breast cancer cells that remains within their place of origin and do not attack breast tissue around the duct or lobule.

Breast cancer information on ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS): This is early-stage breast cancer that some experts consider as a “precancerous” condition. If left untreated, it may eventually become invasive breast cancer.

Breast cancer information on lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS): This type remained a point of controversy in the medical community whether to consider it as an early form of breast cancer or just a marker for the future development of cancer.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that infects the cells of the human immune system, thus permitting opportunistic infections to eventually cause fatal diseases.

Actually, most of the people consider HIV as the “AIDS virus.”

But HIV is a very tiny that is not easy to catch but once it enters the human body, it automatically generates millions of its copies daily and finally devastates the body’s immune system.

Thus, the immune system finds difficulty in fighting against infectious diseases.

Ways HIV Is Transmitted:

Normally, HIV resides in blood and in other body fluids that contain blood or white blood cells, responsible for attacking and destroying the foreign cells in the body and it can be easily transmitted through several causes such as

Unprotected Sexual Intercourse: You will be infected with HIV virus when you have vaginal, anal or oral sex with an infected person and if you don’t use a condom or other barrier because that person’s blood, semen or vaginal secretions will directly enter your body.

When you are planning to have sex, even if it is for the first time, you need to think about contraception. Contraception is also known as birth control or family planning.

Contraceptives are the methods used for preventing pregnancy and other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, genital warts, syphilis, pelvic inflammatory diseases (PID) and so on.

Contraception can be done through medication, device, or by blocking the process of reproduction

Several different contraceptive methods are available, including the cervical cap, condom (male and female), contraceptive diaphragm, implants, injection, Intrauterine System (IUS), Intrauterine Device (IUD), natural family planning (’rhythm’) method, oral contraceptives, spermicides, and sterilization.

Some contraceptives are more effective than others and also have advantages and disadvantages. So, before making a choice, you should consider the facts about the methods and the proper way of using them.

Pills: When you choose to take birth control pills, then it is good to consult your health care provider. As there are different doses of hormones in different pills, a doctor can suggest you an appropriate dosage.

With birth control, you not only prevent pregnancy but also gain few medical benefits. The birth control pills are nearly 100% effective, if taken continuously and as prescribed, but are ineffective against sexually transmitted diseases.

In a female body, there will be a pair of organs in the reproductive system called ovaries, which you can find in the pelvis, each on either sides of the uterus.

Once in a month, during your normal menstrual cycle, a cystic structure known as a follicle forms.

Actually, the follicle produces hormones such as estrogen and progesterone that helps release a mature egg from your ovary through the fallopian tube and finally to the uterus.

In some cases, the follicle persists to grow and turn into what is known as an ovarian cyst. The ovarian cyst is a sac with liquid, solid material or both contained in it, which you can find on the surface of the ovary or inside of it.

Ovarian cysts are quite common in all women who experience regular menstruation. It is found that ovarian cysts are also common in all pre-menopausal women, and up to 14.8% in postmenopausal women.

Mostly, ovarian cysts are asymptomatic where you will not experience any symptoms. Thus, you will not aware of the fact that you have a cyst. Most of the times, without any treatment, these ovarian cysts will disappear on its own after one or two menstrual cycles.

Hepatitis A is a serious viral infection of the liver caused by the virus called Hepatitis A Virus (HAV). It is also known as infectious hepatitis.

It is a most common viral hepatitis type all over the world. It generally causes temporary liver inflammation (to swell) and stops functioning of the liver properly.

Liver is an essential part of the body to transform food into energy and produce bile for easy food digestion.

It also helps kill the germs that enter your body. It removes poisons from your blood.

It can spread easily from person to person through oral contacts (hand to mouth). In an infected person, this virus type can be found in the bowel movements and is passed in the stool (feces).

This virus can easily spread when an infected person go to the bathroom and doesn’t wash his hands properly and prepares food or make oral (hand/mouth) contacts. So, when you keep something into your mouth that is contaminated can easily infect with the hepatitis A virus.

The virus can also be transmitted through sexual activities with an infected person where feces may enter your body through mouth and by sharing the cigarette or injecting equipment.

Lupus is also referred to as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects your immune system, which fights against the organisms that cause infections to your body.

It has been found that about nine out of ten people who have lupus are women.

If you are with lupus disease, then it slowly develops with lupus symptoms, which usually come and go.

In some rare cases, lupus can cause serious as well as life-threatening problems.

Actually, with lupus, your immune system loses its ability to differentiate the foreign substances with the body’s own cells and makes the mistake of attacking your body’s healthy cells.

Therefore, lupus can damage nearly any part of your body including your joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and brain. However, the lupus symptoms will vary from individual to individual where no two persons experience identical lupus symptoms. [Lupus type]

The lupus symptoms can range from mild to severe and can vary over time. The common lupus symptoms include muscle pain, strange fever, chest pain upon deep breathing, skin rashes, hair loss, sensitivity to the sun, swelling in legs or around eyes, painful joints, swollen glands, pale or purple fingers, fatigue, mouth ulcers, and weight loss.

Chemotherapy is the use of anti cancer drugs for the treatment of cancer.

Chemotherapy usually comes in many forms including: pill, injection, or catheter.

Chemotherapy drugs enter the bloodstream and passes through the body targeting the most quickly dividing cells.

Although chemotherapy for treating cancer is often successful in killing the malignant cancer cells, it often causes intense side effects in the body.

It is because the anti-cancer drugs pass throughout the body affects all cells - cancer cells as well as normal healthy cells. So, any damage to these normal, healthy cells results in adverse chemotherapy side effects.

Chemotherapy affects those areas where the normal cells actively divide and grow. The major areas of your body where these anti cancer drugs affect are your hair, skin, the lining of the mouth, your digestive system, and bone marrow.

So, when your doctor recommends you for chemotherapy, it is good to know about chemotherapy side effects, its severity, how long the side effects last, and the need for medical attention.

Remember that chemotherapy side effects vary from drug to drug. The severity of chemotherapy side effects depends on the type of drug, its dosage, the method used, and the way your body reacts to the drug.

With the discovery of the X-ray by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (A German physicist), the powerful rays were being used effectively in treating cancer.

However, today, you can get treated successfully and effectively, with very little side effects and protecting normal tissue, by means of radiation therapy.

Radiation therapy is one of the treatments used to treat cancer. It can be used as a single treatment or along with other types of treatment, mostly surgery or chemotherapy.

Radiation therapy is also known as radiotherapy. More than half of all cancer patients receive radiation therapy as part of their treatment.

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the division and growth of abnormal cells uncontrollably. It can spread from its own site to the nearby parts of the body.

Radiation therapy in high-doses kills these cancer cells and keeps them from growing and reproducing, because the cancer cells grow and divide more quickly than normal cells around them.

Even the normal cells are also affected, but most of these cells get recuperate with the radiation effects.

The radiation can be given to you (cancer patient) either externally by means of external beam radiation, or through internal radiation, also called brachytherapy.