Healthy Tips For Better Live

Archive for February, 2010

There are many types of cancer that people may suffer from but one thing that stays similar is the types of medication that they may be using. There are many forms of medication that you may be prescribed with various types of side effect to go with each. Your doctor will go over your particular case with you and determine which type of treatment is the best.

Your treatment may consist of such treatments as Chemotherapy, Hormone therapy, Biological therapy, Alternative and complimentary therapy and of course drug treatment. Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer drugs which are done intravenously, by mouth, Injectable and topical applications. They stop the growth of cancer cells as they destroy the cells. This type of treatment is usually done in cycles. They will usually alternate treatments with rest periods to allow the person to recuperate.

Some of the anti-cancer medications that your doctor may use may include such medications as: Hexalen, Elspar, Blenoxane, Xeloda, Idamycin and Doxil just to name a few. Most cancer medications come with a hefty list of side effects. Unfortunately the necessity of the medication makes it almost impossible to avoid side effects. If you suffer from severe side effects your doctor will most likely prescribe another medication to counter act the side effects.

Some of the side effects that you may or may not experience with cancer medications might be: Feeling very tired and weak, more susceptible to infections and they can bleed and bruise easily. Keep in mind that you can use other drugs to counteract the side effects and that makes it much easier for you to undergo the necessary cancer treatment.

Radiation therapy is the form of treatment where they use ionizing radiation. This type of treatment kills off the cell in the area that is being treated. This makes it impossible for the cells to grow back. Often times the area of cancer will be surgically removed and then the radiation and chemotherapy will start. If you choose to do the hormone therapy, this is where you will be given hormones to change the way your cells grow in your body.

Biological therapy is also known as Immunotherapy as it helps you make use of your immune system to help with your side effects from other medications as well as fighting off the cancer cells.

No matter which form of cancer you suffer from, be sure to keep a good line of communication open with your doctor. Educate yourself on all of your medications and be sure to know what side effects that you may or may not experience. Before starting any type of new treatment, be sure to discuss all of your options with your oncologist. He or she will be more than happy to go over your treatment plan in detail so you can be well informed on what to expect. If you find a medication that you are interested in then bring this up with your doctor as well so that he or she can consider it as a possibility or let you know why it is not a good choice.

It is estimated that one out of every ten Americans suffer from chronic insomnia. While we all experience sleeplessness from time to time, not every sleepless night can be attributed to insomnia. Because insomnia can be such a debilitating condition, it is important that you are able to recognize the difference between a sleepless night caused by any number of things like heartburn or a bit too much to drink – and the insomnia symptoms that could be a sign of something more serious.

Once you understand what the insomnia symptoms are, if you believe you are suffering from insomnia, you should talk to your doctor immediately. There are many prescription remedies for insomnia, as well as herbal remedies, available today. It is vital that you first consult your physician if you are pregnant or nursing, however, as many of these remedies can be damaging to your unborn child.

Signs And Symptoms That It Could Be Insomnia

Insomnia symptoms run the full gamut from weight gain, to anxiety disorders, to simply waking up a few times throughout the night. What we are going to cover here are the more common signs that your trouble sleeping may be insomnia. Remember, if there is any question in your mind about an insomnia symptom we may not list here, talk to your doctor immediately.

One of the most common insomnia symptoms is simply having trouble falling asleep at night. This usually occurs more than one or two nights a week, every week. You may lie in bed for several hours, or feel restless and need to get up and walk around. Either way, it is one of the more common signs of insomnia.

Other common insomnia symptoms include having difficulty staying asleep for any real length of time. If you find yourself waking up after only an hour or two of sleep, chances are good that you are suffering from insomnia.

More serious insomnia symptoms include metal and behavioral disorders. If you, or someone you love, suddenly begins exhibiting severe anxiety, mood swings, or other behavioral shifts, it may be a sign of a more serious, chronic insomnia condition. These insomnia symptoms are often misdiagnosed as being due to depression, and anti-depressants are prescribed without the root of the problem being discovered. If you have been suffering from these symptoms, talk to your doctor about whether or not they may be attributed to chronic insomnia.

These are the most common insomnia symptoms that people experience. If you have noticed trouble in any of these areas, it is important that you talk to your doctor immediately, to see if you may be suffering from insomnia. Insomnia and insomnia symptoms are more treatable today than ever before.

Lower back pain is both common and debilitating. You try to enjoy life, get out and exercise, play with the kids… but your low back pain stops you. You can’t even lie in bed in the morning and relax. You have to get up and get going to try and ease your lower back pain.

By now, even a few of you reading this may have to get out of your chair to try and ease the stiffness or pain in your lower back.

What can you do? Are there some simple things you can do right now to ease your lower back pain? To remove your lower back pain you need to address 3 essential ingredients. Fail to do this and lower back pain will not disappear completely or it will return again soon. And then you are back to suffering from that horrible, frustrating lower back pain.

What you need to do is…

Strengthen your Abdominals – the abdominal muscle group supports the lower back. If they weaken your lower back will increase in its’ curvature. This places extra strain on the joints and muscles of the lower back and leads to low back pain. To increase the strength of the abdominals, it is pointless doing sit-ups, crunches or other exercises if the nerve or blood supply is not 100%. The first stage in increasing the abdominal strength is to stimulate reflexes relating to improving the nerve and blood supply. Fail to do this and your abdominal will not gain the strength they need to support your lower back.

Stretch your Hip Flexors – the hip flexor muscle attaches into the front of your spine and then travels to the top of your femur (where your leg meets the pelvis). If it is tight it also allows the curve of your lower back to increase. This places strain on the lower back leading to lower back pain. Stretching the hip flexors along with increasing abdominal strength is the main muscular component to remove lower back pain. Stretching the hip flexors is important, knowing how and when to stretch is the essential ingredient though. If you stretch 3 times in the day, especially just prior to going to bed, flexibility will increase quicker and maintain easier.

Re-Align your Pelvis – the pelvis is like a foundation to your house. If it is solid, balanced and strong, then your house will be also. The pelvis if out of alignment, if it is unbalanced allows lower back pain to occur. To permanently remove lower back pain, the pelvis must be working well and then the abdominals and hip flexors will be easier to re-balance also.

There is not enough scope in this article to teach you to re-balance your pelvis. It can be done easily and simply with painless, gentle self help techniques. Combine this with stretches and strengthening techniques and lower back pain can disappear quickly and best of all … permanently!

Well, many women in America are diagnosed with pre-ovarian cancer. Pre-ovarian cancer back pain is a common symptom of the disease which is many-a-time treated as a normal back pain mistakenly in the initial stage of cancer. Yes, your doctor can miss it, so you need to be cautious if suffering from chronic and stubborn back pain problem.
Just look at some statistics now. According to a recent study, close to 30,000 women of US will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the year 2006. It is also stated that between 15,000 to 16,000 deaths due to ovarian cancer are likely to happen this year. It accounts for 5 % of all the types of cancer deaths.

What encourages this silent killer to go on mercilessly? What are the doctors doing? How is that, that by the time this disease is detected, it is too late! Why it could not be detected at the first stage?

There is dispute among the researchers. British doctors did not make the correct survey when they arrived at the conclusion that symptoms came to the fore at the late stages of the ovarian cancer. So, when they detected the cancer, it was too late.

But, contrary were the findings of the University of California researchers. They concluded that some definite symptoms could be detected four months before and some even before one year. Hence, better treatment was possible.

“The most common symptom is back pain, followed by fatigue, bloating, constipation, abdominal pain and urinary urgency. These symptoms tend to occur very frequently and become more severe with time. Most women with ovarian cancer have at least two of these symptoms.”

-American Cancer Society

Most of the back pain treatments are frustrating. They provide temporary relief here and there. So, you get fed up with the treatment that does not work.

Can Ovarian Cancer be found early? Why ovarian cancer? Every disease tends to cause some symptoms- some specific and some vague. In case of ovarian cancer, it could be abdominal swelling, vaginal bleeding on a high scale, pressure in the pelvic region, leg pain, problems related to digestion–gas trouble, continuous bloating, chronic indigestion and recurring stomach pain and most importantly, the back pain! So, if you take disease by disease treatment, without knowing about the root cause- ovarian cancer will take control slowly, steadily but firmly. After some months, your doctor will find the situation out of control as it is a belated diagnosis!

One of the biggest complaints my clients present during their sessions is a lack of flexibility. With the high number of professional computer jockeys in today’s modern world, the common complaints are limited range of motion in the hips and shoulders, pain in the neck, back, and feet.

Sitting all day, especially at an ergonomically challenging computer set up, creates a shortening in your hip flexors (the muscles along the front of your hip and thigh that pull you down into a chair). These muscles in turn pull your lumbar spine forward, causing tension and stiffness in the low back and bracing in your hips.

Additionally, 99.9% of everyone I see in my office sits incorrectly. I attribute this to a lifetime spent on soft, cushy couches and overstuffed easy chairs. Unfortunately, while plush seating may feel nice for a while, it has the effect of rolling your sacrum under so that your weight isn’t centered over your ischial tuberosities (sitting bones) but rather on the last vertebra of your spine (i.e. your sacrum).

Once your sacrum is jammed, your entire spine compensates. This is why a headache or sore neck is actually located in your pelvis, and why work around the hips and low back will generally result in greater shoulder mobility.

Here are 7 easy tips to increase your flexibility and range of motion while reducing pain and stiffness:

1. When sitting for prolonged periods, make sure your hips are higher than your knees. If your knees are higher than your hips, all of your weight falls into your pelvis while the job of holding you upright falls to your hip flexors and the postural stabilizers of your low back.

Instead of bracing your torso to stay upright, place your feet flat on the floor, one foot a few inches in front of the other. By pressing into the ground, you should feel support travel up through your legs and into your low back. Taking the strain off your back is the first step in allowing greater mobility.

2. Do squats* – full on, all the way to your heels squats! Squats force you to mobilize your ankles, knees, hips, and the facet joints in your spine. Most people who haven’t ever trained for this kind of movement find even a basic squat with no weight to be challenging.

When performing the maneuver, make sure your torso doesn’t pitch forward. Holding a small weight, a weighted bar, or a wooden dowel in front of your chest, as in a traditional front squat position, can help you stay upright.

If you are not flexible enough to keep your feet relatively parallel, start with your legs wider apart, feet turned out at 45 degrees. The more you practice squatting, the more willing your body will be to go all the way to the ground.

3. Practice sitting down on the ground and getting up without using your hands*. This is especially helpful for lubricating the hip joints, and it erases the fear that people develop as they age that they will fall and not be able to get back up. It has the added bonus of loosening the lateral rotators of the hip – the muscles that are implicated in sciatica.

Start by finding a way to bring yourself to a seated position on the floor, hands free. Then, get up, also without using your hands. Repeat the exercise several times, finding as many different ways to sit down and stand up as you can.

When the exercise becomes too easy, add a weight. Hold 10-25lbs (or more, if you’re comfortable) at chest height while sitting and standing. This not only mobilizes but also strengthens the joints.

4. When choosing a chair for your computer desk set up, select a firm, flat surface over any padded and contoured seats. Most chairs are designed for an “average” or “standard” body, and anyone who has ever shopped for the perfect pair of jeans knows that one size does not fit all!

Flat surfaces make it easier for you to sit forward on your sitting bones – your ischial tuberosities. You should feel equal weight on both your right and left tuberosities. If not, try to center yourself as best you can without contorting your body. Just relax down onto the chair.

Sitting on your ischial tuberosities is much more stable than sitting on your sacrum. Your postural stabilizing muscles can easily relax and reduce the bracing along your spine, creating instant mobility for your back (this is absolutely key in resolving back and neck pain!).

5. Take extra deep breaths. With all the stimulus coming at us from all directions – television, internet, books, MP3 players, digital advertising, children, pets…. – it’s easy to forget to breathe.

When you cease breathing deeply, your diaphragm becomes tight. Anatomically, the fascia of your diaphragm connects directly to your hip flexors, so if your diaphragm is constricted, your hip flexors will be, too.

Take time each and every day to lie quietly on your back. Breathe deeply, relaxing your rib cage, spine, and abdominal muscles. Allow your internal organs to rest heavily into your back. As you become more relaxed, direct your breathing down deeper and deeper into your pelvis, relaxing all of the tension in your low back, sacrum, gluteus muscles, and thighs. As you become more skilled at conscious breathing, you can begin to direct your breath all the way out the bottoms of your feet.

6. Practice dynamic joint mobility – taking each hip joint through a series of repetitive movements designed to increase the range of motion. This kind of movement increases the flow of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints. It also provides excellent neurological feedback. Range of motion is a use it or lose it proposition; the more your remind your body that you need to be able to make large, open movements, the more willing your nervous system will be to allow you to do just that.

7. Stretch your hip flexors, especially after long car or airplane trips. As mentioned previously, sitting shortens the anterior muscles of your hip and thigh. To keep them long and limber, stretch daily, or at least several times a week.

Any maneuver that causes a lengthening along the front of your hip and thigh will lengthen the hip flexors. Some of my favorites include lunges* (keep your torso upright – do not allow yourself to fall forward over your front knee) and bridges* (a full back bend with hands and feet on the floor – modify this to a shoulder bridge if you aren’t quite ready for this pose).

Anemia is a condition in which the hemoglobin content of the blood is below normal. Hemoglobin is the vital component of red blood cells (RBC). Red blood cells are responsible in the transport of oxygen, a vital substance for red cells’ survival. Without hemoglobin therefore, the biochemical and physiologic processes in the body would not be able to occur. This would result to cell death, tissue death and then eventually organ death.

There are several causes of anemia. This may be due to chronic or acute blood loss, blood dyscrasia, or as a secondary result of another condition like in hookworm anemia, which is the result of parasitism with Ancylostoma doudenale and Necatur americanus.

There are also several types of anemia, hemolytic anemia, pernicious anemia, iron-deficiency anemia to name some. The following are the general overview of anemia.
What are the physical symptoms of Anemia?

1. Pallor of the skin, mucosal lining of the eyes and palms are some physical indication that a person is anemic.

2. Dyspnea or difficulty of breathing. There is also shortness of breath.

3. Headache or light-headedness, because of the lack of oxygen in the brain.

4. Easy fatigability. The person gets exhausted very easily even upon light, physical exertion.

5. Nausea and dizziness. The person feels dizzy very often.

6. Amenorrhea/absence or scanty menstruation.

What are the laboratory diagnostic symptoms of anemia?

1. Hemoglobin values are below normal. Normal values for female = 12- 16 gm/dL (120 g/L- 160 g/L), male = 12.5 – 18 mg/dL (125 g/L – 180 g/L)

2. Hematocrit values are below normal. Normal values for female = 42