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Showing posts with label genetic health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genetic health. Show all posts

Monday, January 02, 2012

Top Ten Facts About Prostate Cancer

prostate cancer
Prostate Cancer
  • Prostate cancer is one of the most controversial cancers in both diagnosis and treatment.
  • If you’re cursed with a cancer - this is the one to ask for!!
  • Prostate cancer is more aggressive in a black person than a white person
  • This is the second commonest cancer that affect men after lung cancer
  • The risk of developing prostate cancer increases after the age of 50 years. Majority of prostate cancer are diagnosed in men over 65 years.
  • There are over 2 million American men currently living with prostate cancer.
  • Charles B. Huggins in 1941 was awarded a Nobel prize for understanding that prostate cancer was dependent on testosterone for its growth and spread and this could be reversed by giving estrogens, the so called ‘Chemical Castration’.
  • Prostate Specific Antigen - a marker to diagnose prostate cancer was first used in forensic investigation to determine if a stain on the undergarment was due to semen or not.
  • The use of ‘robotics in surgery’ is most commonly deployed for removing a malignant prostate cancer from the pelvis.
  • Prostate cancer is a relatively slow-growing cancer. For all stages of the cancer the average 5-year survival rate is 98% and the 10-year survival rate is 84%. Remember - Most people die with this cancer and not of it.
News By Medindia

Read current news at http://bbc-cnn-worldnews.blogspot.com



Thursday, October 13, 2011

6 Top Health Threats in Men


Statistically, more males are born than females every year. Surprisingly, women are healthier than men. Men take the lead for all known diseases in the medical field except for Alzheimer's Disease. 

The top 6 health threats in men are:
Prostate Cancer
Lung Cancer
Suicide/Depression
Cardiovascular Disease
Diabetes
Erectile Dysfunction
Prostate Cancer

It is predicted that about 200,000 American men will develop prostate cancer this year. Although one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his epoch, studies indicate that only one in 35 will die from it. One in 10,000 men under the age of 40 will develop prostate cancer, whereas, one in eight men between the ages of 60 and 80 will suffer from it. These figures suggest that prostate cancer is likely to impact the lives of a substantial proportion of men.

Prostate cancer is diagnosed through the biopsy of the prostate gland. An early diagnosis of the PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) level being abnormal will require further testing to see if there is cancer. Aside from the PSA levels, there are other less common symptoms of prostate cancer that men should watch out for:

Blood in the urine
Blood in the semen
New-onset erectile dysfunction (impotence)
Bone pain (especially in the lower back, hips or ribs)
Loss of bladder control
Quick Facts about Prostate Cancer:

Many men die with prostate cancer, but not from it.
Early baldness may be a sign of high prostate cancer risk.
Men whose mothers or sisters have developed breast cancer are also at increased risk for prostate cancer.

Lung Cancer

Attributed mainly to the use of tobacco, lung cancer has plagued approximately 170,000 Americans every year. Lung cancer, most of the time, does not manifest symptoms until its advanced stage, making it difficult to diagnose early.

Quick Facts about Lung Cancer:

Recently, there has been a decline in cases amongst men but the ailment is becoming more common amongst women.
The reason for the hike in cases amongst women is the increase in the number of women who began to smoke in recent years.
Cancer may form in the lungs or in the bronchi (the air passageways leading into the lungs).
There are two major types of lung cancer; small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. This is determined by the way the cells appear under a microscope.

Suicide / Depression

Depression is an emotional disturbance that affects the entire body and overall health.

According to a study done in 2010, approximately 5 million men were treated for depression. The actual figure is likely to be greater because men simply refuse to admit being depressed. They usually resort to alcohol and drugs to overcome their depression instead of seeking professional help.

Developed countries have the worst rates of depression. 15 percent of men in these countries suffer from severe depression. Just 20 percent of these severe cases receive treatment and 15 percent are likely to attempt suicide.

Top Causes of Suicide / Depression:

Divorce
Unemployment
Forced retirement
Separation from close family members
Bankruptcy
Quick Facts on Suicide / Depression:

Those with depression have four times the risks of a heart attack compared to those who do not have depression.
Depression is hereditary.
Depression affects 121 million people throughout the world. Less than 25 percent of those affected have access to effective treatment options.
Although depression is recognized as a mental illness, it certainly affects the physical part of the body. It weakens the immune system, increasing the risks for other diseases to develop.


Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease is the world's top killer, claiming at least 17.1 million lives every year.

Since 1900, Americans have been plagued by cardiovascular disease. Doctors have concluded that men experience heart attacks approximately 10 years earlier in life than women do.

Quick Facts on Cardiovascular Disease:

More than 2,500 Americans die from heart disease each day.
About 250,000 people die of heart attacks each year before they reach a hospital.
Almost 6 million hospitalizations are due to cardiovascular disease each year.
The risk of cardiovascular disease can be reduced by avoiding tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and alcohol.


Diabetes

According to the World Health Organization, there are 246 million people in the world living with diabetes.

Most men experienced the typical symptoms of frequent urination and thirst before finally seeing the doctor. Excess glucose becomes toxic to blood vessels and nerves in the entire body.

Quick Facts on Diabetes:

3.9 billion dollars in emergency room costs are attributed to diabetes.
Approximately 71,000 lower limb amputations per year are due to diabetes.
Americans lose about 1,600 gallons of blood every year as a result of glucose monitoring blood tests.
Besides amputation, diabetes can lead to other complications like blindness, gangrene, and end-stage renal disease.
To learn more about healthy blood sugar maintenance, visit ayurgold.com.

Erectile Dysfunction (ED)

This disease has plagued approximately 20 million American men and about 1 in 10 adult males suffers from long-term ED.

Men with diabetes tend to develop erectile dysfunction 10 to 15 years earlier than men without diabetes. Erectile dysfunction is also believed to be caused by atherosclerosis, the same process known to cause heart attacks and strokes.

Quick Facts on Erectile Dysfunction:

Long hours of cycling increase the risk of developing ED.
Obese men are more likely to have ED.
Stress and anxiety are leading causes of temporary ED.
Every man at least once in his life has a problem with attaining erection.
Men with diabetes are likely to have ED.
NEWS BY vholistics

Killing Your Sex Life with Too Much Sweets


Did you know that uncontrollable consumption of sugar can eventually kill your sex life? Indeed, researchers have determined that high concentration of sugar in your bloodstream can switch off the gene that controls your sex hormones. Excess glucose and fructose are stored as fat lipids after they are metabolized in the liver. The synthesis of these excess fats deactivates the SHBG genes (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin) which control your testosterone and estrogen levels. 

The bioavailability of the sex hormones is greatly influenced by the levels of SHBG. The imbalance in these hormones may lead to deterioration of your sexual function. This also increases the chances of acne, polycystic ovaries, uterine cancer, heart disease, and infertility. Research also found that sugar can negatively impact your lipid profile. Anything that disrupts your lipid profile can lead to impotence and erectile dysfunction.

Aside from this harmful impact, sugar also has a negative effect on your eating habits. It provides a sudden boost of endorphin production, stimulating you to eat more than you should. The extra calories will make you put on extra pounds which are directly associated with lower testosterone and increased risks of erectile dysfunction. 

Most men are completely oblivious to the food that they are eating. Either they are aware of the sugar content and pretend to not know or they assume they know the content but because the numbers are not known to them, they continue to eat foods high in sugar content. 

Here is a list of foods with high sugar content that might be quietly killing your sex life: 

1. Original glazed doughnut - 10 grams

2. Vanilla ice cream - 17 grams

3. Starbucks caffe latte grande - 17 grams

4. Subway 6" sweet onion teriyaki chicken sandwich - 17 grams

5. Sweetened yogurt - 27 grams

6. Vitamin water - 33 grams

7. Coca-Cola Classic - 39 grams

8. Starbucks caffe vanilla frappucino grande - 58 grams

NEWS BY vholistics

Gene therapy and stem cells unite


Two of the holy grails of medicine - stem cell technology and precision gene therapy - have been united for the first time in humans, say scientists.

It means patients with a genetic disease could, one day, be treated with their own cells.

A study in Nature corrected a mutation in stem cells made from a patient with a liver disease.

Researchers said this was a "critical step" towards devising treatments, but safety tests were still needed.

At the moment, stem cells created from a patient with a genetic illness cannot be used to cure the disease as those cells would also contain the corrupted genetic code.

Scientists, at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge, were working on cirrhotic liver disease.

It is caused by a change to a single pair of letters, out of the six billion which make up the genetic code.


As a result, a protein which protects the body from damage, antitrypsin, cannot escape from the liver where it is made.

The illness is one of the most common genetic diseases, affecting one in 2,000 people in Europe.

The only solution is a liver transplant, but this requires a lifetime of drugs to prevent organ rejection.

The research group took a skin cell from a patient and converted it to a stem cell.

A molecular scalpel was used to cut out the single mutation and insert the right letter - correcting the genetic fault.

The stem cells were then turned into liver cells. One of the lead researchers, Prof David Lomas, said: "They functioned beautifully with normal secretion and function".

When the cells were placed into mice, they were still working correctly six weeks later.

'Enormous potential'

Prof Lomas said if this could be developed into a therapy it would be preferable to liver transplant as the patient would not need to take immunosuppressant drugs.

He told the BBC that the technique was "ridiculously hard," yet "the potential is enormous, but only time will tell".

Further animal studies and human clinical trials would be needed before any treatment as "the key thing is safety".

For example, concerns have been raised about "induced" stem cells being prone to expressing cancer causing genes.

Prof Robin Ali, from University College London and the Medical Research Council's stem cell translational research committee, said: "It's very interesting.

"Most gene therapy is not correcting the gene, it's introducing a new copy of the gene, what's exciting is that this corrects.

"The big problem with individualised medicine is the cost - that is one of the major barriers."

News by BBC