Archive for July, 2008

An international team of researchers reported that obese women who carry most of their extra weight around the stomach are 70 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. It accounts for only about 2 percent of the cancers diagnosed each year but the first-year survival rate is less than 5 percent, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Until now, smoking and chronic pancreatitis were the most well established risk factors for the disease in men and women, with much of the evidence also pointing to a stronger obesity link for men.

The findings suggest that the link between obesity and pancreatic cancer is as strong in women as in men, Juhua Luo of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and colleagues reported in the British Journal of Cancer.

“We found that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer was significantly raised in obese postmenopausal women who carry most of their excess weight around the stomach,” she said in a statement.

“Obesity is a growing and largely preventable problem, so it’s important that women are aware of this major increase in risk.”

Are you worried about your infertility problem? Gamete intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT) is considered as the most assertive method, recommended for those couples who have not been able to conceive through normal conventional methods.

Whenever you have any ovulation or cervical problems or even if your partner has a very low sperm count, then your doctor can recommend you gamete intra-fallopian transfer in order to increase your chances to become pregnant.

What is the exact procedure involved in GIFT?

Gamete intra-fallopian transfer is one of the most assertive methods involved in assisted reproductive procedure. The most crucial steps involved in GIFT essentially include:

• As a first step, the ovaries present in your body are essentially stimulated with certain medications in order to produce more number of eggs in your body.
• These eggs are mainly collected through an aspiration method for fertilization.
• During the procedure, at least 3 to 4 eggs are immediately mixed with about 200,000 mobile sperms and this mixture is carefully placed in a special catheter.
• Now this mixture of eggs from your body and sperms from your partner is transferred into your body through a laparoscopic procedure.

According to a study, patients with a rare type of breast cancer may benefit from receiving radiation therapy in addition to surgery to prevent recurrence.

Phyllodes tumors are rare breast tumors that develop in the connective tissue of the breast, as opposed to more common carcinomas, which develop in the ducts or lobules of the breast.

Most patients are treated for phyllodes tumors with either a lumpectomy or mastectomy, with only a small fraction of patients receiving radiation therapy.

Traditionally, adjuvant radiation therapy is recommended for cancer patients with local recurrence risks of 15 percent or greater, but the value of adjuvant radiation therapy has not been extensively studied for phyllodes tumors because they are so rare.

Researchers sought to determine the local recurrence rates of phyllodes tumors based on tumor size and the type of surgery performed and whether adjuvant radiation therapy should be considered as a treatment for some phyllodes tumor patients to reduce their local recurrence rate.

“Typically these tumors are treated well by surgery alone. However, local recurrences are not uncommon,” Richard Pezner, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., said.

Womb or uterus is the major organ in a woman’s body which plays a vital role in your pregnancy.

It is the major part which carries the implantation and development of fertilized egg.

So, maintaining a healthy uterus is very essential in order to become a successful mother in your life.

Any abnormal or undesirable growth in the lining of the uterus can pose many adverse health conditions for you [Uterus cancer].

One of the most common conditions which can mainly interfere in the normal functioning of uterus is endometrial hyperplasia.

Hyperplasia is the condition in which the protective lining of your uterus becomes too thick and accordingly leads to abnormal bleeding. In a much similar way, endometrial hyperplasia is a condition in which the inner lining of uterus or simply endometrium is influenced by the excessive proliferation of the undesirable cells.

Role of estrogen levels in developing endometrial hyperplasia!

In most of the cases, endometrial hyperplasia mainly results from higher levels of estrogens in your body. These excessive levels of estrogen are generally associated with insufficient levels of progesterone. Progesterone is the major hormone which can potentially work against on estrogens’ proliferative effects on the major tissues of your body.

It’s an inevitable truth: as we get older, our muscles deteriorate and we become weaker.

Not only can this be an immensely frustrating change, but it can also have many other, more serious implications.

We become clumsier and begin to have more falls, often resulting in broken bones or even more severe injuries.

Now one study, led by Dr Alexandra Sanger from the University of Salzburg, is taking a new approach: scientists are examining the effects of different exercise regimes in menopausal women, with the aim of developing new strategies for delaying and reducing the initial onset of age related muscle deterioration.

Dr Sanger’s research group has investigated two particular methods of physical training.

Hypertrophy resistance training is a traditional approach designed to induce muscle growth whereas ‘SuperSlow’ is a more recently devised system which involves much slower movement and fewer repetitions of exercises, and was originally introduced especially for beginners and for rehabilitation.

“Our results indicate that both methods increase muscle mass at the expense of connective and fatty tissue, but contrary to expectations, the SuperSlow method appears to have the greatest effect,” reveals Dr Sanger.

It is quite common for girls to develop their primary and secondary sexual characters when they reach particular stage of their life.

Normally the average age of girl to develop puberty is between 9-15 years.

The term delayed puberty or delayed sexual development in girls is mainly referred to the absence of development in breasts or lack of their ability to menstruate even after attaining their primary sexual characters.

The actual onset of sexual maturation in girls takes place when the hypothalamus present in their brain, sends a chemical signal to the pituitary gland.

When your pituitary gland receives this specific chemical signal, it starts in production of certain hormones called gonadrophins and releases them into your blood stream.

Gonadrophins play a vital role in the sexual development of females!

Gonadrophins mainly helps you in stimulating the growth of essential sexual organs of your body. So, because of these gonadrophins, your body is mainly stimulated to grow or to develop essential sexual organs in your body.

So, these major growing sexual organs like ovaries tend to secrete the essential sex hormones like estrogens. These sex hormones are significantly considered as the major sources for your body in developing essential sexual characteristics, including breast development and growth of pubic hair.

Breast reconstruction after cancer surgery can have lasting benefits for women’s psychological well-being and body image, a new study suggests.

Research has shown that for women who have a mastectomy to treat breast cancer, reconstructive surgery can provide a psychological lift, helping to improve self-esteem and body image.

But whether those benefits last — and whether they differ based on the type of breast reconstruction — has been less clear.

In the current study, of 173 breast reconstruction patients, researchers found that many of the psychological gains women had shortly after the surgery were still apparent two years later.

On average, the women were still reporting improvements in energy, anxiety and ability to work and enjoy social activities.

And the type of reconstruction had “surprisingly limited effect,” according to the researchers, led by Dr. Dunya Atisha of the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.

The study included 173 women who had undergone breast reconstruction at one of 12 U.S. medical centers. The majority had immediate reconstruction, done at the time of their mastectomy, but some waited to have the procedure.

More information at Reuters

Can you imagine your bladder can fall into vagina? Whenever the protective wall between your bladder and vagina weakens by any means, then it will possibly allow your bladder to droop into the vagina.

This particular condition of prolapsed bladder is commonly known as cystocele and it can cause severe discomfort for you and you can often face various problems with this emptying of bladder.

A bladder which has drooped from its original position can majorly cause two different problems.

One is unwanted leakage of urine and the other can be incomplete emptying of the bladder.

For some women, a fallen bladder typically stretches the opening into urethra and leads to urine leakage whenever they sneeze or cough or even when they laugh.

Pregnancy and child birth can possibly cause cystocele!

The pelvic floor of women mainly consists with a sheet of muscles and ligaments which can actually acts as support for your bladder, colon, uterus and all other organs which will mainly cover your pelvic cavity. When these supporting muscles or tissues stretches or becomes weak, certain internal organs of your pelvic cavity tend to sink lower into your vagina.