Archive for October, 2008

Hot flushes, night sweats or painful joints may be good news for women taking hormone-based drugs for breast cancer — it may mean their tumors are less likely to return, researchers said.

Women with any of these menopause-like symptoms after taking AstraZeneca’s breast cancer drug Arimidex or generic tamoxifen were 30 percent less likely to have their cancer return over the next nine years, they found.

“The treatment is designed to starve potential cancers of estrogen and these symptoms mean that there are lower levels of estrogen in the body,” said Jack Cuzick, an epidemiologist at Cancer Research UK, who led the study.

“But it is too early to say whether having these symptoms is essential for the treatment to be effective. At the moment all we can say is that the symptoms indicate the likely success of the treatment.”

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide, according to the American Cancer Society. The group estimates about 465,000 women died of breast cancer globally in 2007, and 1.3 million new cases were diagnosed.

Declining death rates from breast cancer in developed countries have been attributed to early detection through mammography screening and to improved treatment.

Are you aware of sexually transmitted diseases (STD)? How much do you know about STDs? Now-a-days, sex education has become widespread, so many of you no longer believe in certain misconceptions about STDs.

But there are few people who still fail to distinguish between the fact and fiction.

If you want to avoid the health consequences associated with sexually transmitted diseases, certainly you should have clear knowledge regarding STDs.

Here are few common myths about sexually transmitted diseases that you have to be essentially aware of.

You can’t be exposed to STD because you had oral sex!

Actually, there are 3 possible ways for the infectious micro organisms to transmit. These 3 ways mainly include vaginal or anal intercourse, oral sex or even through contact with infectious body fluids.

So, don’t deceive yourself that you are on safe side because you just had oral sex. Being sexually active orally can put you in risk of STDs. So, just be cautious with it.

Oral contraception protects you from STD!

This is the common misconception most of you can certainly have about sexually transmitted disease. But, actually birth control pills or oral contraception can protect you against unplanned pregnancy.

Often we consider testosterone as a male hormone. But, in fact, it also produces in low levels in the female body by the reproductive organs—the ovaries.

Normally, female body has three major sex hormones circulating in the blood — estrogen, testosterone and progesterone, which helps drive sexual activities in women.

The production of testosterone is usually by the adrenal glands as well as the hormones–DHEA and DHEAS—that are produced by the adrenal glands.

The ovarian hormone-testosterone-is an essential factor in maintaining woman’s health before and after menopause.

The role of testosterone in female body!

It plays a vital role in building up muscle mass and muscle tone, losing body fat, strengthening the bone density, increasing libido energy levels, and the frequency of coitus, and, for some, it enhances mood as well as metabolic activities.

It also provides relief from vasomotor symptoms of menopause, reduces breast tenderness and enhances orgasm.

Though the testosterone levels in the female body are only ten percent of the levels in male body, the testosterone levels decline rapidly as we age–especially during menopause.

These levels fall off, along with other ovarian hormones–estrogen and progesterone, due to the decline in the functioning of ovaries and adrenal glands.

A new study from the University of New Hampshire finds that elderly women can increase muscle strength as much as young women can, indicating that decline in muscle function is less a natural part of the aging process than due to a decline in physical activity.

The research compared strength gains of inactive elderly women and inactive young women after both groups participated in an eight-week training regime.

Yet while the two groups increased similar percentages of strength, the older group was far less effective in increasing power, which is more closely related to preventing falls.

“Power is more important than strength for recovery from loss of balance or walking ability,” says Dain LaRoche, assistant professor of exercise science at UNH and the lead author of the study.

Preventing falls, which occur in 40 percent of people over 65 and are the top reason for injury-related emergency room visits, is the driving force behind LaRoche’s research agenda.

LaRoche compared the initial strength of 25 young (18 – 33) and 24 old (65 – 84) inactive women then had both groups participate in resistance training on a machine that targeted knee extensor muscles, which are critical for walking, stair-climbing, or rising from a chair. “They’re what let you live on your own,” he says.

Pelvic floor mainly refers to group of muscles that form a sling or hammock across the opening of your pelvis.

These muscles, along with other surrounding tissues, keep your pelvic organs in place so that the organs function properly.

When these pelvic muscles and their connective tissues become weak or injured, it results in pelvic floor disorders.

It has been estimated that almost 1/3rd women across the world are suffering with some types of pelvic floor disorders at some point in their entire course of life.

Factors responsible for pelvic floor disorders!

These pelvic floor disorders may result from pelvic surgery, vaginal delivery of a child or pregnancy and also due to radiation treatments. So, it would be better for you, if you have better knowledge about these pelvic disorders to lead a healthy life.

Obesity, chronic coughing, heavy lifting, frequent straining during bowel movements can contribute to pelvic floor disorders.

Certain causes responsible for pelvic floor disorders include hysterectomy, nerve disorders, tumors, injuries. Some women who are born with weak pelvic muscles and tissues can surely experience pelvic floor disorders.

If you are suffering with irregular periods, it clearly indicates that your menstrual cycle has lost its balance.

Actually, most irregular periods are benign and don’t cause any complications for your health.

Too frequent periods, missed periods, spotting or bouts of heavy clotting and bleeding usually occur because of underlying hormonal imbalance in your body and this hormonal imbalance can be treated easily.

In early stages of menstrual cycle, it may take several years for the hormones to control the changes in your body and to reach a balance in your regular menstrual cycle.

You can also experience irregular menstrual periods even at the end of your menstrual cycle. So, irregular periods at these particular stages of your life are not at all a cause of concern for you.

Pregnancy is also one of the major causes of missed or irregular period. Other than this, certain other reasons that can make you to experience irregular periods mainly include:

1. Significant weight gain or weight loss is one of the reasons for irregular periods. Even though low body weight is the most common cause of irregular periods, obesity also causes various interruptions in your regular menstrual cycle.

In overweight or obese women, physical activity, even at light or moderate intensities, lowers the risk of cancer of the lining of the uterus (endometrial cancer), according to findings from the American Cancer Society’s prospective Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort study.

Dr. Alpa V. Patel and colleagues at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta identified 466 women who developed endometrial cancer between 1992 and 2003 among approximately 43,000 older “postmenopausal” women.

In the latest issue of the International Journal of Cancer, Patel and colleagues report that all measures of physical activity and “avoidance of sedentary behavior” were strongly associated with reduced risk of endometrial cancer in women who were overweight or obese.

Questionnaire responses showed that physically active women engaged primarily in low- to moderate-intensity activities, such as walking, biking, aerobics or dancing, equivalent to about 2 hours of moderately paced walking per week.

Patel’s team calls for more research into the link between light-intensity activity and endometrial cancer risk reduction in order to “strengthen public health recommendations in this regard.”

Source: Reuters

Women with endometriosis are at increased risk of also having irritable bowel syndrome or pelvic inflammatory disease, according to findings from a large study conducted in the UK.

Dr. Karen D. Ballard, identified 5,540 women aged 15 to 55 years who were diagnosed with endometriosis. They matched these “case” patients to 21,239 control women without endometriosis.

They found that women with endometriosis were at significantly greater risk of having a diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease before and after the date on which endometriosis was diagnosed.

Similarly, a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome was more likely before and after a diagnosis of endometriosis than among controls.

“If there is coexisting pelvic inflammatory disease, then this needs rigorous treatment to reduce the risk of even greater subfertility,” the researchers conclude.

“Appropriate management of irritable bowel syndrome may reduce endometriosis-related bowel symptoms,” the researchers say.

However, doctors “may not recognize that women with endometriosis get bowel symptoms,” Ballard told.

“We are currently working on further diagnostic markers for endometriosis,” she added. “Currently, endometriosis can only be diagnosed via surgery and we want to reduce the diagnostic delay by developing a way that GPs (general practitioners) can better identify the markers of endometriosis.”