Mesothelioma Symptoms,Treatment Options,mesothelioma treatment options

What is Mesothelioma? Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that can arise in the mesothelial lining of the lungs, heart or abdomen. Some cases have even been reported to develop in the lining of the testicles as well. These four types of mesothelioma are called pleural mesothelioma (lung), pericardial mesothelioma (heart), peritoneal mesothelioma (abdomen) and testicular mesothelioma. Combined, these cancers affect 2,000 to 3,000 people in the United States each year. 

Receiving a diagnosis can be difficult due to the similarity of symptoms to other, more common conditions and doctors may overlook mesothelioma as a diagnosis. Another contributing factor that makes these cancers difficult to diagnose is the severe latency period of symptoms. From the time of someone's initial exposure to asbestos, the primary cause of mesothelioma, signs of development may take as long as 20 to 50 years to arise. In an effort to help patients understand mesothelioma, 

Asbestos.com offers a complimentary packet that contains treatment options and other helpful resources tailored to your specific diagnosis. The packet also covers the nation's top mesothelioma doctors and cancer centers, as well as financial assistance options to help cover medical costs. To receive your packet in the mail, please enter your information below. Asbestos and the Development of Mesothelioma Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that was incorporated into thousands of productsthroughout the majority of the 20th century. Common items that contained the hazardous substance included insulation, roofing materials, drywall, ceiling and flooring tiles, cements, valves, seals and other construction products. Asbestos was primarily used because it was cheap, fire-resistant and had insulating capabilities. Mesothelioma may develop after someone has either inhaled or ingested asbestos fibers. 

This most often occurs when asbestos-containing materials are damaged or disturbed and those in the area fail to wear protective equipment. Once the microscopic fibers that make up asbestos have entered the body, they typically attach to the lining of the lungs and become lodged. Overtime, these fibers create enough irritation and inflammation to cause tumors to develop. Unfortunately, these tumors do not cause symptoms until they have reached an advanced stage of development, leaving a person with limited treatment options and a poor mesothelioma prognosis. Unfortunately, there are no early symptoms of mesothelioma. A patient's best chance of detecting mesothelioma at an early stage of development is through receiving regular checkups for signs of asbestos exposure with a qualified physician. Symptoms of pleural mesothelioma may include shortness of breath, difficulty while swallowing, or having a persistent raspy cough. Pericardial mesothelioma symptoms may include chest pain, coughing, fatigue or having an irregular heartbeat. Peritoneal mesothelioma may carry symptoms involving fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain or swelling and the development of lumps under the skin on the abdomen. Due to the rarity of the cancer, very little information has been reported concerning symptoms of testicular mesothelioma. Although a cure for mesothelioma does not exist, many patients elect to undergo alternative therapies or clinical trials that test experimental treatments. Some of the more common methods of mesothelioma treatment options for patients include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, which are designed to relieve symptoms and improve their overall quality of life. In some cases, such treatments may cause the cancer to go into remission and will prolong a patient's life. Asbestos.com offers additional information about mesothelioma, asbestos and treatment options through a complimentary packet. Click here to receive your free copy overnight.

Burns,What causes them?

Burns on a child What causes them? Scalds are the damage caused by contact with hot fluids. The cause of a burn may be: Direct heat - flames, hot surfaces, hot liquids or gases Electrical - faulty wiring, old plugs, lightning Chemical - strong acids or alkalis, cleaning fluids, old batteries What are the symptoms? There may be obvious and immediate damage to the skin, which can be very painful. With partial thickness burns, the skin may be pink, red or mottled. Blistering may also be seen. With full thickness burns, the top layer of skin is destroyed and may look white or black, and charred. Full thickness burns are painless, as the nerves carrying pain signals have been destroyed. Who's affected? Burns are common among young children. Scalds are particularly common among toddlers, who are energetic explorers with little sense of potential danger - knocking over hot cups of tea, grabbing at pans on the cooker or getting into hot baths. What's the treatment? Cool small burns immediately under cold running water for at least ten minutes. Rinse chemical burns for 20 minutes. Briefly rinse larger burns, avoiding excessive cooling. Remove clothes in the area of the burn where possible, without causing further damage to the skin. Then either wrap the burned area in a clean clear plastic bag or place a clean smooth material, such as cling film, over the burn to prevent infection. Minor burns can be treated at home with painkillers and sterile dressings (don't pop blisters). Deep or extensive burns, or burns to the face, hands or across joints, need to be assessed and treated in hospital. The extent of burns can be estimated using special charts. More than ten per cent burns need hospital treatment (including intravenous fluids). Burns to more than 50 per cent of the body's surface carry a poor chance of survival. Severe burns need specialised long-term management, which may include skin grafts or treatments to prevent contractures, as well as psychological support to deal with scarring. How can they be prevented? Prevent burns from happening by making your home safe. For example, install smoke detectors, check wiring and remove chemicals. Disclaimer All content within BBC Health is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. The BBC is not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based on the content of the BBC Health website. The BBC is not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites. See our Links Policy for more information. Always consult your own GP if you're in any way concerned about your health.

Eating healthily when pregnant

Find out how your unborn baby is changing from week to week, and get advice on your health and what to expect. Simply enter your details and let us provide you with your own personalised pregnancy calendar. Eating well A good diet can help you stay fit, get in good condition for the birth and maintain your energy levels. Aim to include in your daily diet: Fresh fruit and vegetables, especially citrus fruits and dark green vegetables, which contain folic acid Carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, grains, potatoes and cereals Milk and other dairy produce such as yoghurt, fromage frais and cheese - choose lower fat options where possible Lean meat or fish, which has high levels of essential fatty acids Research indicates that mothers who eat fish once a week are less likely to give birth prematurely. Oily fish, which includes fresh tuna, mackerel, sardines and trout, eaten in pregnancy also helps children's eyesight. But don't have more than two portions of oily fish a week. Avoid eating shark, swordfish and marlin, and limit tuna to no more than two tuna steaks a week (weighing about 140g cooked or 170g raw) or four medium-size cans of tuna a week (with a drained weight of about 140g per can). This is because of the levels of mercury in these fish. High levels of mercury can harm a baby's developing nervous system. Keep up your fluid levels, with regular glasses of water or diluted fruit or vegetable juices throughout the day. This will help keep you hydrated, which can prevent tiredness and headaches, and helps bladder and kidney health. Can I follow a vegetarian or vegan diet during pregnancy? If you eat a well-balanced vegetarian or vegan diet, you'll get all the nutrients you need. But if your diet isn't balanced you may need extra vitamins, for example, B12, which can be found in some manufactured goods, such as soya products, or in supplements. You may also require a vitamin D supplement. Make sure you get enough iron in your diet as well. There's a list of iron-rich foods below. Eating safely Cook meat thoroughly and wash all fruit and vegetables before eating to avoid infection with toxoplasmosis, an organism that can affect your baby. Avoid mould-ripened soft cheeses such as brie or camembert, and blue-veined cheeses such as stilton. All are associated with listeria, which can lead to premature birth and miscarriage. You should also avoid mould-ripened goat's and sheep's milk cheeses, such as chèvre. Avoid pâté, for the same reason. Make sure all ready-made foods are piping hot throughout before eating, as they are also a listeria risk. Drink only pasteurised or UHT milk, which has had harmful germs destroyed. Only eat eggs if they're hard-boiled or scrambled, to avoid salmonella infection. Don't eat liver and liver products while pregnant, as they contain high levels of vitamin A, which can be harmful to your baby. There's some evidence that it might be safer to avoid peanuts in pregnancy and breastfeeding if your partner has a peanut allergy (if you have one you won't be eating them anyway). There's much less evidence for avoiding peanuts if you're concerned about eczema, asthma, or other allergies. For up-to-date information about this, ask your midwife. Folic acid Folic acid, also called folate, is a B vitamin found in a number of foods. Folic acid has been shown to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in babies, when development of the spine or brain are incomplete. Such defects include spina bifida and anencephaly. Because it's virtually impossible to get the recommended amount of folic acid from diet alone, current advice is for all women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant to take a 400mcg folic acid supplement until the 12th week of pregnancy. You can continue taking it after this date, but talk to your midwife or doctor about dosage. Foods that contain folic acid include: Dark green vegetables Cereals, especially wholegrain - some breads and cereal products are fortified with folic acid (read the packet's nutritional label) Oranges, grapefruit, bananas Beans and pulses Milk and yoghurt Yeast or malt extracts (as drinks or spreads) Folic acid supplements can be prescribed by your GP and are also widely available to buy from pharmacies and supermarkets. Iron Most people get all the iron they need from a balanced and varied diet but when you're pregnant, you can become deficient in iron. Iron-rich foods are: Meat (thoroughly cooked) Dark green vegetables such as broccoli, watercress, spinach and kale Nuts (although you may need to avoid peanuts) - almonds and brazil nuts are a good source Pulses such as chick-peas and lentils Wholegrains such as wholemeal bread, brown rice and breakfast cereals Dried fruit Eggs Is caffeine harmful? The Food Standards Agency suggests pregnant women limit their intake of coffee to no more than four cups a day. Remember cola drinks also contain caffeine. Switch to non-caffeine alternatives where possible. Drinking, smoking and other substances Pregnant women should avoid alcohol completely, the government advises, although the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says there's no evidence a couple of units once or twice a week will harm the baby. Binges (for example, getting drunk) are definitely to be avoided. Continuous, heavy drinking, can cause permanent brain and developmental damage in the foetus. The greatest risk is probably in the early stages of the pregnancy, when rapid growth by the baby may be disrupted and abnormal features may develop. If you smoke, get help to give up. Smoking raises the carbon monoxide levels in your blood and reduces the amount of oxygen your baby gets, affecting growth and making him vulnerable to infection. It also puts him at higher risk of stillbirth or being born early. After the birth there's an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS or cot death). Your partner should stop smoking too, and you should avoid smoky atmospheres. Drugs, including cannabis and ecstasy, are risky during pregnancy as they reach the baby's bloodstream as well as yours. Heroin and cocaine can create serious dependency problems in babies. Ask your midwife or doctor for help if you need it. Infectious diseases can be risky, too. Most women in the UK are vaccinated against rubella, so this is no longer a major issue, but you should avoid people with chickenpox, as it can cause developmental problems or stillbirth. Your employer is legally obliged to change your job if your health is at risk because you work with poisonous chemicals or risky procedures such as x-rays. Weight gain Healthy eating is a priority. Don't try to lose weight while you're pregnant without medical advice. If you're pregnant, you'll gain weight.

Deliberate sex infections atrocity

Unethical use of humans as research guinea pigs has long darkened medicine’s history.
Most famous are the experiments carried out on large numbers of prisoners by the German Nazi regime in extermination camps during World War II.
Sadly, a new example has recently come to light – the deliberate infection of hundreds of people in Guatemala with sexual diseases like gonorrhoea and syphilis in medical tests that started the year after the war ended.

Evidence of the programme was unearthed by Professor Susan Reverby at Wellesley College, reports the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Its aim was to find a better treatment for venereal diseases.
With troops having returned from the war field incapacitated by venereal diseases rather than battle-wounds, the US government was acutely aware of the dangers of soldiers indulging in sex with prostitutes.
Although they had the drug penicillin to fight syphilis – as well as the calomel-sulpha-thiazole ointment provided in soldier’s survival kit to apply “just in case” – experts wanted to look for useful alternatives.
So with a grant from government officials at the National Institute of Health, doctors at a research unit that 10 years later became part of the country’s Centers for Disease Control, set out to investigate.
For trial subjects, Dr John Cutler and his team turned to prisoners in Guatemala’s national penitentiary.
With the sanction of officials at the Ministry of Justice and the warden of the prison, which housed nearly 1,500 inmates, prostitutes who tested positive for either syphilis or gonorrhoea were allowed to offer their services to the incarcerated men, paid for by US taxpayers through the funds of the Public Health Service.
Disappointed with their early results – not enough of the men seemed to be getting syphilis, even when regularly “serviced” – the researchers began to question the diagnostic tests they were using.
They decided to re-focus their efforts on finding a suitable blood test for syphilis.
For these studies they enlisted the help of 438 children in the national orphanage. Repeated needling of the children revealed that new kinds of blood tests would be necessary to spot true infections and not false ones.

To gather more data, the doctors next studied patients in Guatemala’s only mental hospital.

After gaining the cooperation of the institution, in exchange for the promise of much-needed medical supplies as well as cigarettes and a motion picture projector for the inmates, the doctors began their studies.
Rather than use prostitutes to spread the infections, the scientists gathered the purulent discharge from those already infected with syphilis and smeared it on to others using, at best, “uncomfortable and intimate” procedures that lasted for hours.
The patients, who were unaware of what the research for which they had “volunteered” was for, were then treated for the disease. But it is unclear whether everyone was cured.
Keeping track of the hundreds of subjects proved complicated, especially in the asylum when patient’s names were forgotten, or the staff called them, for example, “The mute of St Marcos”, archived papers of medical officer John Cutler reveal.
By this time, Dr Cultler’s supervisor, a physician called RC Arnold, was beginning to question the ethics of the project.
He confided to Cutler: “I am a bit, in fact more than a bit, leery of the experiment with the insane people. They can not give consent, do not know what is going on, and if some goody organization got wind of the work, they would raise a lot of smoke.”
Meanwhile, there were debates within the US National Research Council over the ethics of a similar study into gonorrhoea at the Terre Haute prison in Indiana.
Cutler had already begun his own research on gonorrhoea infections in Guatemalan soldiers, again using prostitutes and inoculations with pus from infected boils.
But by 1948, opposition mounted and Cutler was told to finish up his work and return home to the US.
Six decades on, the US is apologising for the acts, saying they run contrary to American values.

Surgeons creating new ears for girl from Trinidad

A team of medics in Scotland is creating new ears for a 15-year-old girl from Trinidad.
Kade Romain was born without ears and missing part of her ear canal, leaving her partially deaf and facing a future begging for a living.
The medical team from the Spire Murrayfield hospital in Edinburgh has given its time for free to construct new ears so that she faces a brighter future.
Kade came to Scotland after meeting Robina Addison, a Scottish dance teacher, who was visiting the orphanage Kade was living in.

I fell in love with her the first time I saw her because she was such a character,” Ms Addison said.

Because she was born without ears, Kade couldn’t go to mainstream school and was attending a day care unit for children who are mentally handicapped.
“I would liken it to a sanatorium here 40 or 50 years ago,” Ms Addison added.
Inspired to act, she organised a temporary visa for Kade to come to Scotland for a very unusual operation.
Ken Stewart, one of the UK’ s top experts in ear reconstruction, said: “We’re hoping to produce an ear which is a very reasonable image of a natural human ear.
“At a conversational distance it wouldn’t be obvious that it’s a reconstructed ear.”
Rib cartilage
Mr Stewart will construct two new ears for Kade, and she’ll be fitted with a hearing aid to restore her hearing.
“One in 6,000 children are born with at least one missing ear,” he said. “We also do it regularly for people who lose their ears through trauma or through skin cancer.”
The surgery is normally carried out on the NHS but as Kade is a foreign national she doesn’t qualify for free healthcare.

Instead the Spire Murrayfield hospital offered its facilities and the surgical team worked for free.

In a seven-hour operation, Mr Stewart constructed the first ear, with cartilage taken from Kade’s rib-cage.
He trimmed this into the shape of an ear to insert under a flap of skin where her ear should be.
Unused cartilage was chopped up and inserted back into the cavity in Kade’s ribcage, where it will re-form into its original shape.
In a few months the other ear will be constructed. A week after the first procedure Kade was already having the stitches taken out.
“She took it all in her stride,” said Robina. “It has gone through my mind, am I doing the right thing, but Kade so desperately wanted ears.
“She’s the one who made the decision and this time next year she’ll be a new person.”
In between her visits to hospital Kade is going to school and learning to read and write.
When she returns to Trinidad she hopes to become a hairdresser or work in a bank. She’s already bought her first pair of earrings.

The Challenge of Accurately Diagnosing Bipolar Disorde

You’ve read up on bipolar disorder and think it may be causing your intense mood swings and problems with relationships at school or work.

But you aren’t sure. Your symptoms—or those of the spouse, child, or friend you’re worried about—also resemble those of other mental disorders, such as depression, borderline personality disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Your confusion is understandable. Bipolar disorder can be difficult even for mental health professionals to diagnose, because many of the symptoms overlap with those of other mental illnesses, says S. Nassir Ghaemi, MD, the director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.

Roughly half of people with bipolar disorder see at least three mental health professionals before getting a correct diagnosis, according to a 1994 survey by the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (then known as the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association). According to the same survey, about one-third of those with bipolar disorder received their diagnosis more than a decade after they sought treatment.

Here are some of the symptoms and treatments for other disorders that are sometimes mistaken for—or occur alongside—bipolar.

Depression
Bipolar disorder is marked by extreme shifts in mood that can vary between deep depression and mania, an abnormally elevated mood.

About 40% of patients with bipolar disorder are initially diagnosed with major (or unipolar) depression, which does not involve mood swings or mania, Dr. Ghaemi says.

There are several reasons for the confusion. Most people with bipolar disorder experience an episode of depression before an episode of mania. Often it’s the depression that drives people to seek medical treatment. And sometimes the person has never actually experienced a manic episode when he or she seeks treatment for depression.

In addition, studies show that about half of those experiencing mania don’t realize they’re manic. “The patients often don’t have insight into their manic symptoms. They either don’t remember it, or they deny it,” Dr. Ghaemi says. To diagnose bipolar disorder, psychiatrists may enlist the assistance of family members who will share details about suspected mania or hypomania, a milder form of mania that’s much less noticeable.

Symptoms of depression include a loss of interest in normal daily activities, feeling sad or down for an extended period, feeling hopeless or worthless, crying spells for no reason, sleep problems, trouble focusing or concentrating, unexplained weight gain or weight loss, irritability, and fatigue.

People who go on to receive a diagnosis of bipolar disorder are more likely to have postpartum depression, psychosis during their depression, and recurrent episodes of depression, Dr. Ghaemi says.

In addition, about 60% of those who go on to receive a diagnosis of bipolar also have some symptoms that mimic mania during their depressive episodes. This is called a “mixed” episode.

Symptoms of a “mixed” episode may include agitation, irritability, racing thoughts, hyperactivity, and anxiety. Only about 20% of those with major depression have such “mixed” episodes.

Complicating diagnosis even further, more than 40% of those with bipolar disorder experience what’s known as a mixed episode, in which the symptoms of mania and depression occur simultaneously. And studies have shown that about a quarter of those with major depression experience a form of agitation that can resemble a mixed episode.

Depression is treated with prescription talk therapy, antidepressant drugs, or both. Antidepressants may bring on a manic episode, which is why it’s critical to tell your doctor about any unusual “up” periods that might suggest a manic or hypomanic episode.