Q: How much exercise do I need each week? 
Uterine fibroids are benign (noncancerous) tumors that grow on or within the muscle tissue of the uterus. Approximately 20-40% of women 35 years and older have fibroids. Fibroids are more common among women of African-American descent. Some statistics indicate that up to 80% of African-American women will develop fibroids. While some women do not experience any symptoms, the location and size of fibroids can cause symptoms that can affect a woman’s quality of life.
Many women who suffer from symptomatic fibroids underestimate the severity of their symptoms as they have become accustomed to excessive bleeding, pain, and the pressure fibroids can cause. However, if the fibroid symptoms are so severe that they affect your ability to maintain your day to day activities, it is a good time to discuss with your physician all of the alernatives available to help you manage these symptoms. Common symptoms of fibroids are excessive menstrual bleeding, pelvic pain and pressure, and urinary incontinence.
Wellbutrin is a leading anti-depressant drug from GlaxoSmithKline. Wellbutrin differs from many anti-depressants because it does not have the side effect of reducing sexual appetite (although if you are having sex you should regularly have an HIV test). In fact, Wellbutrin patients commonly report an increased libido. Wellbutrin was first approved by the FDA in 1985, and is still commonly used today.
Simply put, diabetes is when the body cannot convert foods properly into energy. When the body doesn’t make enough insulin or the insulin doesn’t work correctly, the glucose can’t get into your cells. Instead the glucose stays in your blood. When this level in your blood gets too high you have diabetes, and you may want to wear a diabetic wristband. Diabetes may be passed on genetically but is not limited only to genetics. Until a cure is found, diabetics who must keep their insulin in control must do so with injections. Repeated injections is a major problem for diabetics many of whom develop a needle phobia due to this need to continually inject themselves with insulin.
Insulin patches and insulin pumps are being researched but it appears that inhaling insulin has the most promise. The concept of inhaling insulin began in 1925 but only recently has this started to become a viable option.
Pfizer is researching a product they have named Exubera. It is a short acting insulin preparation for type 1 and type 2 diabetes. In clinical trials worldwide over 2,000 patients have used Exubera for as long as five years. Phase III of these trials suggests that Exubera may be as effective as injected insulin. Research is still underway and this product has not been approved for general use.
Diabetes is rapidly reaching epidemic proportions, affecting 150 million people worldwide and projected to double in prevalence by 2025. The hope is that a better delivery method than daily injections will be developed to deliver insulin to the body of diabetics.
Breast Cancer chemotherapy is known as a therapy of brutalizing proportions. Highly toxic drugs are still given in high doses through chemotherapy but there is a difference. Fat coated droplets are released. These droplets must be heated to 102 degrees before the toxins can be released. The breast is gently warmed until the cell killing compounds are released only in the breast. This brutalizing treatment actually becomes relatively pleasant. Each year there are 215,000 cases and 40,000 deaths, but slowly, incrementally, new approaches for combating this cancer in a more humane way are being developed. One of the most important advances is gene profiling. Gene profiling determines what treatments will be effective based on the particular female patient’s genetic profile.
Genomic Health Inc. of Redwood City can assess 21 key genes in a tumor-tissue sample. A score is then developed from zero to 100. To determine the effectiveness of the drug taxmoxifen a score is given to that particular woman with a high score being a determent that taxmoxifen will not do the job alone. The cost is $3,400 which is high but not as high as the costs of chemotherapy.
Taxmoxifen has been the most successful drug to combat breast cancer but is not effective after five years of treatment. Disease free survival can now be extended by three aromatise inhibitors named Femara, Aromasin and Armidex. These are only effective in post menopausal women.
The one weapon with the most promise is one that will literally vaporize the tumor without surgery. Pilot studies are being done at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Victoria General Hospital in British Columbia. Instead of surgically removing the cancerous breast tumors they are shot with radio frequency waves. This is useful for only small tumors in older women. Inserted in the breast is a radio probe that is guided to the tumor site by ultrasound. The power radio frequency waves are turned on and it literally shrivels and kills these small tumors.
Nearly two million people are affected by macular degeneration and this is the leading cause of blindness for those over 65. One fifth of all 80 year-olds suffer from this age-related disease.. There is a central region of the retina where an image must be recorded which is on a tiny piece of tissue that is only about two millimeters in diameter. When that small piece of tissue dysfunctions, we have macular degeneration.
A test to determine if this is the disease that is robbing a patient of his sight is to inject a fluorescent die into the blood stream. In a normal eye the fluorescent compound is clearly seen within twelve seconds in the fine blood vessels of the retina. But if macular degeneration has begun the tiny vessels remain dark.
With this disease new blood vessels grow, which is also a problem. Laser beams can cauterize these vessels but additional problems can occur. The laser however shows promise in aiding those who have this progressive eye disease. Micro surgical removal of the blood vessels may be possible and another method is to rotate the retina which is complicated and has its own problems to resolve.
We do know this disease, which has the potential to blind its recipient, has some contributing factors. Cigarette smoking and heredity are factors as well as free radical damage.
Of course not smoking again becomes a better health choice. Studies have not been conclusive as to the effect vitamins would have to prevent radical damage. However vitamin E has shown to aid in preventing radical damage in other cells of the body. Vegetables also can be assumed to help although tests of them have been inconclusive.
For more info on macular degeneration, you could consult a health directory.
