Colon Cancer Test Without Discomfort

Colon CancerMost of the time, a cancer of colon is rather detected later than the earlier stage; after those give rise to symptoms like; changes in habit of defecation, obstruction, bleeding per rectum, mass in the abdomen or distant metastasis.
Most common mode of final diagnosis rests on colonoscopy and biopsy from the lesion. Some benign diseases may also give rise to similar symptoms. Colonoscopy at present has not been taken as a screening test. It gives rise to some amount of discomfort.
A new test has been devised  basing on the DNA in stool. It tests for three genes those get altered to initiate a colorectal cancer.
As stool passes touching the tumour or the cancerous region of colon, it brings some of the cells from those and can be detected in the stool sample.
Thereafter a colonoscopy can be ordered to confirm the diagnosis and plan for the treatment.
In this way small early cancerous lesions and precancerous lesions can be detected earlier and appropriate treatment  can be initiated.

Related articles

• New Colon Cancer Screening Test in the Works (webmd.com)

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Tendon Pain gets better with Wait and Watch Policy than Steroid Injection

Pain in Tennis ElbowTendinitis at different points e.g. at elbow, tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow; at heel, Achilles tendinitis and many more places usually thought due to overuse injury.
Those are painful, but not incapacitating. Still patients want quick recovery and are unwilling for measures like physiotherapy, rest, simple analgesics, and simple wait and watch measures; those take long time to give them relief.
Doctors and patients both prefer to go for steroid injection at the site and get quick result. But, now it has been seen that the results are not long lasting. Recurrences are more seen in this group. Moreover, second and third sessions may be required.
Serious side effects can be rapture of the tendon; less serious side effects like local pain and local depigmentation of skin are also seen.
A study shows that though there is short term relief with steroid injection the long term results are no better than wait and watch; and physiotherapy policy.

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• Tennis elbow jabs 'make it worse' (bbc.co.uk)

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Genetic Testing to Predict early Menopause

Article first published as Timing Conception in Early Menopausal ladies be Possible on Technorati.





The reproductive life of a woman is more or less stipulated except some exceptions. Generally, fertility decreases towards the age of menopause. Menopause is commonly seen around the age of 45 years. But, sometimes early and late menopause are also noticed.
Early menopause is associated with decreased risk of breast cancer whereas late is associated with increased risk of the cancer. Early menopause is also associated with reduced reproductive life and other risks of menopause like; osteoporosis, post-menopausal symptoms and decreased sex drive.
In this age of late marriages and desire to have children a little later in the life may have to be addressed where a lady destined to have early menopause. This is not possible at the moment to predict who will menopause when.
In a recent study researchers found four genes are associated with menopause. They compared 2,000 women from the Breakthrough Generations Study who had experienced early menopause with a matched group of the same number. Each of the four genes independently contributed to early menopause. In combination, they had a larger impact, which goes towards explaining why some women experience early menopause.
This research may help women when to end their reproductive life and when to have children. Further, they may get prepared to tackle the post-menopausal problems.
The power to conceive decreases roughly ten years before the menopause begins. Ladies programmed for early menopause getting married late in 30s are more likely to face problem in conceiving.
Relatively inexpensive genetic testing can be developed to address this problem.

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• Genetic test to predict early menopause (eurekalert.org)
• Scientists move closer to early menopause test (independent.co.uk)

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Abdominal Pain In Children and Fructose

The study highlights fructose as a possible cause of unexplained abdominal pain. There is no harm in trying it once than to wander for guess work treatment for abdominal pain.

Amplify’d from www.medpagetoday.com

ACG: Abdominal Pain May Be Traced to Fructose

Fructose intolerance in children may be more common than previously thought, and recurrent, unexplained abdominal pain may resolve with a low-fructose diet, according to a study reported here.

Breath hydrogen tests after fructose dosing revealed that 132 of 245 patients were intolerant to the sugar, but adherence to a low-fructose diet helped to clear up abdominal pain in 88 of the 132 (67.7%) patients, investigators told the American College of Gastroenterology meeting.

An association between fructose intolerance or malabsorption and gastrointestinal symptoms goes back more than two decades in studies of adults with irritable bowel syndrome (Gastroenterology 1990; 1016-1020). Unexplained recurrent abdominal pain is a common complaint among children, added Abdullah.

Whether fructose intolerance or malabsorption plays a role had not been carefully studied, he continued. To examine the issue, investigators studied 245 children with unexplained abdominal pain, gas, bloating, constipation, or diarrhea. The children ranged in age from 2 to 18 years (median age 11); more than 60% were girls.

The patients consumed a 1 g/kg dose of fructose up to a maximum of 25 g, followed by a breath hydrogen test for fructose. Results showed that 53.9% of the children tested positive (≥20 ppm) for fructose intolerance/malabsorption. Read more at www.medpagetoday.com

 

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Weight Loss in Kids Unknowingly

Walking to school for some distance help kids to loose weight in a fun way. That also help parents to establish good rapport with kids while talking in walking; and also help to have some exercise for self.

Amplify’d from www.hhs.gov

Walk to School

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Some kids are walking to school already this year, and health experts say more should. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Arthur Wendel says walking one mile to and from school gives kids much of the minimum physical activity they need -- and they can talk with their friends.

But he says walking seems to have hit some rough road:

``In 1969, about 50 percent of kids walked or biked to school. But now that number has fallen to less than 15 percent of kids walking or biking to school.’’  (8 seconds)

Wendel says this is a good time to start – it being International Walk to School Month. He says parents can help – and get exercise also by walking with kids, starting a walking school bus program, and working with local Safe Routes to School programs. Read more at www.hhs.gov

 

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Newer Drugs for Prostate Cancer

At least three new drugs have been discovered for the treatment of prostate cancer. The recent one is abiraterone, a male hormone blocker; third in the series, after cabazitaxel, a chemotherapeutic agent; and Provenge, a vaccine to stimulate body to attack prostate cancer cells.
Among men, prostate cancer is the second-leading cancer killer, behind only lung cancer. Still, the overall improvement is modest for each therapy. Cabazitaxel increased survival by an average of 2.4 months compared with standard chemotherapy. Provenge added an average of 4.1 months of life. The 797 patients randomly assigned to abiraterone plus the steroid prednisone lived on average 14.8 months compared with 10.9 months for those treated with the steroid plus a placebo.
Abiraterone blocks testosterone from other sources where as conventional anti-androgens like finasterine blocks testosterone from testes. It does have some side effects like increase in blood pressure following water and salt retention but spares hair loss.

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Migraine Treated by Botox Injection

FDA has approved botox, a toxin from botulinium; used to treat wrinkles in face; for treatment of migraine.

Amplify’d from www.reuters.com

FDA approves Botox to treat chronic migraines

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Allergan Inc's anti-wrinkle injection Botox to treat chronic migraines.

Botox injections would be given to adult sufferers of chronic migraines around the head and neck every 12 weeks in an attempt to dull future headaches, said the FDA in a statement.

Chronic migraine sufferers have a headache on most days of the month. Botox has not been shown to work for people who suffer headaches 14 days or less per month, the FDA said.

The United Kingdom was the first country to approve the use of Botox for migraine treatment in July.

The approval comes just over a month after Allergan agreed to pay $600 million to settle a federal probe into its marketing practices for Botox.

Allergan Inc's shares rose 7 percent in after-hours trading to $73.90. Read more at www.reuters.com

 

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Newer Urine Tests for Prostate Cancer Coming Up

Prostate cancer is a major killer solid cancer in UK. Many tests have been devised, because of more false positive or false negative results. It is difficult to rule out possibility of malignancy of prostate in inconclusive cases or in case of boarder line values from tests. Many tests are invasive, be it prostate biopsy or a blood test.

At present prostate malignancy can be confirmed after a per rectal finger examination following symptoms of prostate enlargement if;

• Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of tissue becomes positive.
• High Prostate specific antigen (PSA) (more than 10 nanograms/milliliter).
• Urine tests for prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) is positive.
• Ratio of free PSA to total PSA less than 25%.
• Trans-rectal ultrasonogram shows abnormalities.

Bladder and Prostate
But difficulty arises when FNAC could not reach the target point in a small cancer tissue or PSA test remains in between 4 to 10 nanograms/ milliliter. It has also been seen that low PSA value does not entirely rule out prostate cancer.
Now researchers studied a protein called mocroseminoprotein-Beta (MSMB) which is normally found in abundance in normal prostate tissue, and is decreased in malignancy; thus the level in urine is reflected too.

They hope that this protein may work as a biomarker for evaluating prostate cancer risk, response to therapies and diagnosis. Besides it is easy, non-invasive and simple to perform.

 

 

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The Heart Stroke Patients may Do Well with Administration of Post Resuscitation Cold Saline

Palpating Carotid Pulse

There are standard resuscitation measures practiced by the emergency team reaching for a heart attack patient. First of all is cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). 

It has been seen by a group of researchers that after resuscitation of the patient from cardiac arrest if cold saline is infused to induce hypothermia the outcome is better. Better outcome has been seen in rhythm of heart, neurological function and above all the survival.

They studied 227 patients before adopting the protocol and 413 patients after implementation of the protocol and found that overall survival before the protocol was implemented was 17.2%, whereas after it was implemented, overall survival was 28.8%, with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.9 (95% confidence interval).

This was published in Medscape Medical News.

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Audit of Online Health Information

Online health information needs scrutiny. There are unlimited data available online. Some may actually mislead patients.

There is a voluntary organization "Health on Net Foundation", that gives quality certificate to medical web sites. Different Governments should support them for the cause and may launch some more watchdog mechanisms.

Amplify’d from www.reuters.com

Online health services "need tighter rules"

LONDON (Reuters) - Online health information and disease-risk tests can mislead, confuse and create needless anxiety, and governments should do more ensure the people who use them know what they are buying, UK experts said on Tuesday.

"The internet is now often the first port of call for people to find out more about their health. People need to know where they can get accurate health information, how to buy medicines online safely and how any personal information about their health posted online might be used," said Christopher Hood, one of the leading authors of the report. Read more at www.reuters.com

 

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Fat in Hip is Different from Abdominal Fat

Fat cellsIt has been seen that the pears are better than apples. That means increased hip circumference is better than increased waist circumference.
A new research says the mechanism of accumulation of fat in the waist and hip are different. In waist it is the fat cells that expand to accumulate fat whereas in hip the cells divide in number to accumulate the fat.
It is probably the mechanism of accumulation of fat that affects the quality of fat and make them different. One being deleterious and the other good for health.

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Overweight People Over Eat to Overcome Muted Pleasure from Eating

The mere utterance or smell of favorite dishes starts salivation. This is the normal after response from brain. After taking food one gets satisfaction and there is satiety. But, now researchers say that after gaining weight there is gradual loss of pleasure from eating the same food. Whereas, those who do not gain weight used to get same pleasure feeling from the food. The overweight people try eating more to get the same level of pleasure and go from overweight to obese.

 The researchers found less activity in the region of brain which is responsible for feeling of pleasure in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) . Obese people are known to have fewer pleasure receptors in the brain than thin people to start, according to the new study, whose findings suggest that overeating blunts the reward pathway further. New Scientist reports.
This tolerance or acclimatization let the overweight to chase after more food to get pleasure and in the long run accumulate more fat in body. This is something akin to a drug addict whose body getting accustomed to the drug wants higher doses to get same level of pleasure.



More research may be needed to find out whether losing weight will reverse the tolerance.

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Quitting Smoking Requires Strong Will Power and Some Support; Perhaps Not Laser

Laser used as acupuncture therapy is being promoted for $350. Is it scientific or some sort of placebo effect?

Smoking is not difficult if one wishes to leave it sincerely.

Amplify’d from www.reuters.com

Can lasers help you stop smoking? Check the data

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Could one hour be all you need to quit smoking, without cravings or side effects?

That's what Innovative Laser Therapy, a New Haven, Connecticut-based company, advertises on its website. The clinic uses low-level lasers - similar to those sometimes used to treat arthritis-related pain - to target specific acupuncture points on the body related to addiction, metabolism and stress, and claims that most patients can quit smoking after one session.

"When you smoke a cigarette, you artificially tell your brain to release endorphins," Frank Pinto, the owner of Innovative Laser Therapy, told Reuters Health. Therefore, quitting leads to a quick drop in endorphin levels, he said.

"The laser basically stimulates the nerve endings to tell the brain to release a flood of endorphins" to boost a patient over that initial 3-5 day hump of withdrawal symptoms, he said.

The treatment also targets other points that are thought to suppress appetite -- to prevent the weight gain that often comes with quitting smoking -- and promote relaxation, according to Innovative Laser Therapy.

But does it work?

'NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE' IN SCIENTIFIC TERMS

There's limited research showing that laser therapy might help some smokers quit. Innovative Laser Therapy cites one study, a 2008 paper published in the Journal of Chinese Medicine, available on their site at link.reuters.com/pus95p. A UK-based team found that smokers that had four laser treatments over two weeks were more likely to quit than smokers that had three treatments. Those in the three treatment group, in turn, had better success rates than a control group that was given fake laser treatments.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 5 Americans is a current cigarette smoker, and the majority of them smoke every day. The American Heart Association reports that more than 80 percent of smokers say they want to quit. But many smokers try more than one smoking cessation method or take years of trying before they do quit for good.

Pinto launched Innovative Laser Therapy after he successfully quit smoking with a round of laser therapy from a clinic in Florida. His company charges $350 for a one-time treatment that takes less than an hour, and offers free extra treatments to patients who are still struggling with quitting in the following 6 months. Other companies do a few shorter therapy sessions as part of their regular treatment plan. Read more at www.reuters.com

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Male Infertility Gene Found

Male Infertility Gene NR5A1 Discovered and Blamed in Some Cases

Author: Dr.Prahallad panda
Infertility is a social and financial burden on many families. It is responsible for domestic violence, divorce and polygamy and many more social evils. Couples spend a lot to get it corrected.
There is decreasing fertility in many societies, particularly in educated and working couples. Some tribes in India register higher number of infertile male.
Though there are several causes for male infertility, deficient or absent sperm production is a major cause in otherwise healthy males.
Normal sperm count is above 20 millions/ml. Less than that figure is oligospermia and no sperm is called as azospermia. Besides these; morphology, motility and some other factors may contribute to male infertility.
Now researchers have found that azospermia, oligospermia and morphological defects in less than 5% of cases may be due to defective NR5A1 gene in otherwise healthy males. This gene codes a protein which plays a crucial role for effective action of male sex hormone on testicular tissue.
Many genes are known to be essential for the production of sperm, but there are surprisingly few single gene changes that have been conclusively demonstrated to cause a failure of sperm production in humans.
The team sequenced the NR5A1 gene in 315 healthy men seeking infertility treatment, all of whom exhibited an unexplained failure to produce sperm. Of these, seven had mutations in NR5A1. It is most likely due to mutations in the affected key reproductive genes, altering the levels of the sex hormones.
Though this abnormality counts for small number of male infertility cases, researchers hope to unveil similar defects in the near future and target them.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/mens-health-articles/male-infertility-gene-nr5a1-discovered-and-blamed-in-some-cases-3389990.html
About the Author
Dr. Prahallad Panda, Surgeon, Paradip Port Trust, Paradip, Odisha, India. Author of free medical blog " From A Clinician's Bioscope can be accessed from here"
He authors ThePclinic and Clinician On Net

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Blood Test for Colorectal Cancer Developed

A blood test using only 1ml of blood for detecting MiRNA may predict where to go for colonoscopy screening for colorectal cancer, the second most cancer in developed countries.

Now, this test is found to be positive in already diagnosed cases/

Amplify’d from www.nlm.nih.gov

New Blood Test for Colon Cancer Developed

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Seeking to increase screenings for colorectal cancer, scientists say they have developed an inexpensive and effective method that uses less than one milliliter (mL) of a patient's blood.

In trials, the new approach -- referred to as a microRNA -- has successfully detected disease in patients already diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

Next, the research team will launch screening tests among a larger group of patients who show symptoms of the disease. These patients will also undergo colonoscopies, which will be used to confirm the new diagnostic tool's effectiveness.

"We envision that this type of miRNA profile, once developed and marketed as a screening kit, can be used to screen entire populations in order to facilitate a focused selection of individuals who should undergo colonoscopy," Nielsen added. Read more at www.nlm.nih.gov

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Physical Activities for Older Adults

With explosion of knowledge, most of the people are aware of the necessity of physical activity. We are, in most of the parts of world heading towards an aging population in the society; as life expectancy is steadily increasing.
Staying fit at that age is also important for healthy living. That defies age and keeps older people youthful. Many things and ways are described for physical activity. Every way of activity is good, may it be as simple as walking to the market, climbing the stairs to as hard as swimming and dancing. In this process, sometimes we either hurt ourselves or get less desired effect due to inappropriate adoption of planed physical activity. It may be excess or less for a person. Excess activity may cause harm and less may not help to achieve desired results.

Not doing any physical activity can be bad irrespective of age or health conditions. Some physical activity is even better than nothing at all. The more is the physical activity according to the capability of a person, the more is the benefits.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has given a detailed plan for physical activity of aged adults which are very nice and flexible in approach.
If you're 65 years of age or older, are generally fit, and have no limiting health conditions; you can follow the guidelines very nicely described in their site.

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