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Archive for the ‘Diseases’ Category

Cancer is a disease that affects cells of the body. Cells are extremely small units that build together and form all living things, which include human beings. In any given person’s body, you will find billions of cells.

Cancer occurs when unusual and abnormal cells grow and spread very quickly. Normal cells in the body divide, grow to a certain size and then stop. Over the course of time, cells will even die. Cancer cells do not follow this normal pattern of division and growth, however. They divide very quickly and just continue to grow. Normally, cancer cells do not die and they clump together in groups to form what are called tumors.

The cancer cells in a tumor can damage and destroy surrounding healthy body tissues. When these healthy tissues are damaged and destroyed, the person with the tumor can become very sick.

Cancer is capable to spreading to other parts of the body, as well. It is not unusual for part of a tumor to break off and travel to a distant area. Once that piece of the tumor comes to a stop in another area of the body, it will continue to grow and can create a new tumor. When cancer spreads like this, it is called metastasis.

When in the body, cancer can cause a person to feel very sick. Since early detection is a big factor in treatment, it is good to be aware of the signs of this disease. Some signs of cancer include:

· A lump in the breast or testicles
· A change in the skin, a wart or a mole
· Persistent sore throat that doesn’t heal
· A significant change in bladder and bowel movements
· Coughing blood or a persistent cough that won’t stop
· Indigestion and trouble swallowing
· Unusual bleeding or vaginal discharge
· Chronic fatigue

Many of these symptoms can be from other illnesses which are not as serious as cancer. However, if you are ever faced with any of the symptoms above, it might be a good idea to see your family physician right away. Although the exact cause of cancer is still somewhat of a mystery, it is known that cancer is not contagious. You cannot catch cancer like you can the common cold. Unhealthy habits like smoking and excess drinking can increase your chances of getting cancer, but doctors aren’t sure why some people get this serious disease and others do not.

Rheumatoid arthritis is the second major type of arthritis – exceeded in number of cases only by osteoarthritis. It is a very serious ailment caused by inflammation of the joints. The pain associated with the disease is at times so severe that it almost completely disables sufferers. It affects women more often than men.

Rheumatoid arthritis advances in three stages starting with painful swelling and stiffness of the joints. In the second stage the pain aggravates and the bones and cartilage are severely affected thereby restricting the movement of the person altogether. By this time the diseases becomes chronic and just defies all treatment.

It is in your best interest to immediately consult a doctor as soon as you have pain in the joints. This means that don’t wait for any other symptom appear. Also, you should never try treating the disease by taking over the counter medicines. Chances are that you may aggravate the ailment.

It is important that you ask your doctor to diagnose whether you are actually afflicted with Rheumatoid arthritis and if so, start taking the treatment that he prescribes. If you go by your doctor’s advice you can save yourself a lot of damage by reducing the severity of the attack of the disease. Any delay in diagnosing and treating the disease may aggravate to an extent that you may have to undergo surgery. This will not only entail great pain, but also require huge costs of treatment.

Besides seeking a doctor’s advice early, you may take general precautions like protecting your affected areas from stress of exertion. You should also try to reduce your weight if you are obese. Also contact your physiotherapist. Seek his or her advice about certain kind of exercises that may be specific to your kind of rheumatoid arthritis and take these exercises regularly as per the expert’s advice.

Eating disorders are among those modern conditions which aren’t always taken seriously by the wider population, but which can have very serious effects for its victims. Indeed, far from being a minor problem which sufferers can solve simply by ‘pulling themselves together’, many of the eating disorders commonly seen are recognized psychological conditions which if left untreated can even turn out to be fatal. For this reason it’s very important to spot any early signs of eating disorders in yourself, your family, or friends and colleagues, so that treatment can be started while the problem remains relatively easily coped with.

No one knows for sure how many people are affected by the main disorders, namely anorexia and bulimia, as the official figures inevitably under report the true extent of the problem. One of the features of these conditions, and anorexia in particular, is a lack of awareness in the sufferer that they actually have a problem, and so they naturally don’t seek help. In the case of bulimia (binge eating compulsive eating), there is also often an element of guilt over what the sufferer acknowledges is inappropriate and uncontrolled behavior, again leading to an avoidance of treatment.

Bulimia is far more common than anorexia, with around 10% of women suffering from the former compared to 1% the latter. Among anorexics, around 10% of sufferers will eventually die as a result of the condition, and so should you spot any of the warning signs then medical advice should be urgently sought.

What is for sure is that eating disorders are more common than might be expected, and many consider the problem to be increasing in scope partly because of today’s mass media promotion of attaining perfect body images.

Anorexia Nervosa, or plain anorexia as it’s usually referred to as, is characterized by an unrealistic perception of ones own body. Sufferers will look into the mirror and see an overweight person looking back at them, however slim they may actually be. This constant desire to be thinner can lead to extreme dieting, excessive and obsessive exercise, and a preoccupation with food and avoiding it that can really take over a person’s life. In extreme cases, the self starvation will continue unchecked until it proves fatal, even when the physical evidence that the sufferer is seriously underweight should be overwhelmingly obvious.

The effects of bulimia, on the other hand, may not be visible to outside observers. This disorder is characterized by bouts of hugely excessive eating, followed by purging activities to rid the body of the excess calories. Sufferers will lose control of their eating completely during these periods, gorging themselves way beyond any level of food intake necessary for health. Common methods of purging include self-induced vomiting and overuse of laxatives, and this is usually followed by a sense of self loathing and repulsion at the lack of control shown. The sufferer may also self-starve as both a form of atonement for their behavior and as a self imposed punishment.

While bulimia is not as physically harmful as anorexia, the psychological effects can be devastating, leading to depression and even more serious outcomes including suicide in the worst of cases. The physical signs of bulimia which can be observed tend to be related to the purging methods used, and include regularly bloodshot eyes, swollen glands, and dental erosion. In the long term, the dangers include digestive system problems such as ulcers, weakness and exhaustion, and even heart problems.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a slow-growing, life-threatening cancer of the immune system that develops when white blood cells grow uncontrollably in the lymph nodes. Each year in the U.S. alone, 55,000 new cases are diagnosed. Fortunately, novel, highly personalized treatments are being produced. With a recent medical breakthrough, patients can now receive individualized treatment that kills cancerous cells while sparing normal, healthy cells.

Traditional treatments usually consist of chemotherapy and monoclonal antibody drugs, which, along with targeting cancerous B-cells, kill healthy white blood cells that comprise a major component of the immune system.

Biovest International is one of a few companies working on patient-specific cancer vaccines. Biovest’s personalized therapeutic, BiovaxID, is currently being tested as a treatment for indolent (slow-growing) follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which affects 12,500 new patients in the U.S. each year. The vaccine could eventually be used to treat other cancers.

Personalizing BiovaxID begins with a sampling of cancerous cells from a patient’s lymph nodes. On the surface of these cells are unique proteins, or antigens, detectable by the immune system. The doctor sends this sample of the patient’s cancer cells to Biovest’s laboratory in Worcester, Mass. Here, researchers mix the cells with another line of cells licensed from Stanford University. The cells fuse, releasing the antigen proteins.

As the patient undergoes chemotherapy to kill most of the cancer cells, Biovest collects and purifies the patient’s antigen proteins, which, after chemical modification, form the active ingredient of the custom vaccine. The individualized vaccine is then sent back to the doctor, who injects it into the patient five times over six months.

“Typical treatments for non-Hodgkin’s do not specifically target the tumor,” explains Dr. Carl M. Cohen, Biovest Chief Operating Officer. “Our vaccine trains the patient’s immune system to target a specific protein on the tumor cells-one found only on the tumor cells. BiovaxID only kills cancer cells. If you think of chemotherapy as a blunt instrument, our treatment is like tweezers.”

Results from a Biovest study of 20 patients, begun at the National Cancer Institute a decade ago, show a 95 percent survival rate. Forty-five percent are still in remission. According to historical data, only about half the patients would have survived with conventional treatments. None would still be in remission. (The Biovest-treated patients remained disease-free for a median of eight years.)

Currently, Biovest is enrolling patients for a large-scale study to be held at several major U.S. and European medical institutions. The trial will include 460 patients. Company officials hope to obtain FDA approval for the vaccine by 2009.