Archive for August, 2008

Sometimes, you experience irregular or missed periods for several months at the ages of 20s, 30s and 40s. This can be the symptom of premature ovarian failure.

Premature ovarian failure (POF) is the condition used to illustrate the dysfunction of the ovaries or reduction of the follicles in your body before the age of 40.

In medical terms, this condition is also called as primary ovarian insufficiency. This condition affects 1-4% of the women.

What are the conditions you experience with premature ovarian failure?

The first and the most common issue that you experience due to premature ovarian failure are missed or irregular menstrual periods. But, some of you experience the symptoms same as the women experience during their menopause state. These conditions include:

• Infertility
• Irritability
• Poor concentration
• Lack of interest in sexual intercourse
• Experiencing pain during the intercourse
• Vaginal dryness
• Night sweats
• Mood swings
• Bladder control problems
• Sleeping disorders
• Hot flashes

Premature ovarian failure keeps you at the risk of some more serious health related conditions such as:

Improper functioning of thyroid: This condition affects metabolism and leads to very low energy. Replacement of the thyroid hormone is only the treatment option.

A new promising enzyme target for a specific type of breast cancer, Brk, has been identified in research.

In a specific subset of breast cancer patients, the tumor cells produce high levels of the protein ErbB2 (also called HER2) which pushes the cells to proliferate without limit, a characteristic common of all cancers.

Approximately one in four patients are in this group, and their clinical prognoses are considerably worse than other patients.

While Herceptin and Lapatinib, concomitantly administered with other chemotherapic agents, have improved the prognosis for many of these patients, there is significant potential for development in this area.

In particular, they are able to suppress ErbB2, but are not effective against all tumors that secrete it. Additionally, when patients’ tumors do respond, they usually become resistant over time.

According to the authors of this study, this suggested that another element might factor into the progression of these tumors.

According to the authors “The limited success of existing therapy suggested to us that factors besides ErbB2, or proteins that collude with ErbB2, might nullify the effects of Herceptin and Lapatinib.”

Traditionally, the effective treatment for fibroid tumors is removing the entire uterus in a surgical procedure called as hysterectomy.

Most of the physicians continue to suggest hysterectomy as a standard technique for treating uterine fibroid tumors.

But, there are some potential drawbacks associated with hysterectomy. They include:

• General anesthesia that is given at the time of the surgery has various side effects and can cause various health problems.
• There is a two percent risk of post operative bleeding, 15-38% risk of postoperative fever and 0.5% risk of injury to the nearby pelvic region.
• The occurrence of cardiovascular disease raises three fold in a premenopausal woman who is undergoing hysterectomy procedure.
• 15-30% of women who had undergone hysterectomy reported that there is decreased sexual function after the treatment and there is increased incidence of depression after the surgery.

Hysterectomy is the only procedure that helps to remove the uterine fibroids completely. Permanent removal of uterus is necessary because most of the fibroid tumors are attached to the uterus.

Hysterectomy is generally considered as the procedure of choice for fibroid tumors when:

• There are extensive or especially large tumors.

The cost-effectiveness of vaccination in the United States against human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually-transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, will be optimized by achieving universal vaccine coverage in young adolescent girls, by targeting initial “catch-up” efforts to vaccinate women younger than 21 years of age, and by revising current screening policies, according to an analysis by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

In the U.S. in 2007, cervical cancer developed in more than 11,000 women and killed 3,600 women. Cervical cancer is caused by infection with high-risk “oncogenic” types of HPV, also associated with other cancers.

Worldwide, HPV types 16 (HPV-16) and 18 (HPV-18) cause approximately 70% of cervical cancer cases. Vaccines against HPV-16 and HPV-18 appear to be highly efficacious in preventing HPV-16 and HPV-18 infections and cervical disease in females who have not previously been infected with these types.

The quadrivalent vaccine currently licensed in the U.S. also prevents low-risk HPV types 6 and 11 (HPV-6 and HPV-11) infections, which are responsible for most genital warts and juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (JORRP), a rare but severe respiratory condition usually diagnosed in infancy that may be related to a mother’s infection with genital warts.

Have you decided to have a baby? The most important thing which you have to know is how to take good care of yourself when you are pregnant.

Taking good care of yourself can help you a lot in giving birth to a healthy baby.

Pregnancy is an ideal time for you to take good care of yourself both mentally and physically.

If you worry how to take better care of yourself, here are certain tips that can greatly help you to have a healthy pregnancy.

Employ these ways in your regular routine and enjoy the success in delivering healthy offspring.

Tips for healthy pregnancy

Take folic acid supplements and include fish in your normal diet!

Folic acid is the only supplement that can truly prevent various neural tube defects in babies, including spina bifida. Some studies have proven that fish oils, which are the main sources for omega-3 fatty acids, can have significant benefit on new born baby’s weight.

So, include fish oils in your normal diet that mainly contain proteins, vitamin-D, minerals and omega-3 fatty acids to help in healthy growth of your baby.

Don’t go on diet!

Women at elevated risk for breast cancer - or a recurrence of the disease - increasingly are choosing double mastectomies as a protective measure against cancer’s rebound, doctors said.

Emmy Award-winning actress Christina Applegate, who underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer earlier this month, announced yesterday that she also chose a preventive mastectomy, commonly called a prophylactic mastectomy, on the opposite side.

Applegate, 36, said she carries the BRCA 1 gene mutation. Over a lifetime, BRCA 1 can increase the risk of the disease by as much as 85 percent.

She said her choice of a prophylactic mastectomy was to pre-empt the possibility of developing breast cancer in the future.

Genomic testing in recent years not only allows women to learn whether they’re carriers of a mutation, but a positive test can pave the way for making an excruciatingly difficult decision, said Dr. Brian O’Hea, medical director of the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Care Center.

In addition to BRCA 1, the gene carried by Applegate, another, BRCA 2, also can increase the risk of breast cancer.

Carriers of BRCA 1 and 2 also have elevated ovarian cancer risks. The genes can be transmitted by either parent, and are a leading cause of breast cancer that occurs before the age of 40.

As a woman, it is very essential for you to maintain proper body fitness to resist many health conditions that you face further in your life.

Lack of proper fitness mainly interferes with your healthy lifestyle and makes your life a mess.

If you don’t have exact idea about how to maintain proper fitness in your routine life, these are certain fitness tips which can greatly help you to achieve your fitness goals successfully.

Understand your body!

When you are training your body, it becomes very easy for you to have a grip with the repetitions you are doing.

Whenever you experience any sort of trouble, try to decrease your repetitions and at the same time do not be afraid to push yourself to practice more reps.

Your gym should not be a leisure walk in a park. If you really want to achieve proper fitness, you have to essentially understand your body thoroughly.

Be thorough with the techniques!

When you are trying any new technique, try to know more about it and be thorough with it before you practice. By doing this, you can ensure that you can avoid injuries and possibly maximize your desired results. When you have any queries or if you don’t have any clear idea about it, consult your physical trainer and seek better help.

Younger women who smoke have more than double the risk of stroke compared to nonsmokers, with the heaviest smokers among them having nine times the risk, according to a U.S. study.

The research assessed stroke risk in women 15 to 49 years old who smoked cigarettes. Current smokers were 2.6 times as likely to have a stroke than women who never smoked, according to researchers led by Dr. John Cole of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Women who smoked the most faced the highest increased risk, said the study, published in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.

For example, women who smoked 21 to 39 cigarettes a day had a risk of stroke 4.3 times higher than a nonsmoker, while those who puffed at least two packs a day — 40 cigarettes — had a stroke risk 9.1 times higher than a nonsmoker.

It has been known for a long time that smoking increases the risk of stroke, along with many other health dangers such as lung and other types of cancer, lung disease and heart disease.

But Cole said less was known about how stroke risk was affected by the number of cigarettes a person smokes.