May 20, 2012

Treating Cancer with Radiation Therapy

Treating Cancer with Radiation Therapy

Over 50% of the world population that suffers from cancer is being treated with the use of radiation therapy. This is one kind of cancer treatment where tumors are shrunk in order to put an end to growth and spreading of cancerous cells. Read on to get the right facts about radiation therapy, exactly what it is, and more.

The disease of cancer is one that basically causes abnormal cell growth in an uncontrolled manner. Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill these cancer cells, prevent their growth, and prevent their multiplication.

The rays are directed in a manner to focus on the cancer tissues rather than the healthy tissues surrounding them. This is because as the radiation kills out the cancer, there is a possibility that it will harm normal cells too.  The plus side is that regular cells are very likely to recover from radiation side effects. However, doctors still make it a point to protect the good cells while treating a patient with radiotherapy.

The majority of normal people have been exposed to X-ray radiation before at least once in their live. This is usually in the form of X-rays at a dentist’s office. As you can tell from that experience, radiotherapy is a painless procedure. The only difference with cancer radiotherapy is that the radiation is delivered in much higher doses to actually kill out the cancer cells and shrink the tumors.

A doctor that specializes in use of radiation for cancer treatment is called a radiation oncologist. The oncologist works together with other professionals in the health care field to decide upon the recommended dose and type of radiation therapy that will treat the specific patient’s cancer best.

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Frostbite Basics

Frostbite Basics

It is always useful to have knowledge of first aid for emergency situations. One such condition you should be able to effectively handle if stuck in compromising conditions is frostbites. We try to briefly introduce you to the basics of frostbite first aid.

Frostbites basically refer to the freezing up of tissues in the body, typically skin. This results in contraction of blood vessels, oxygen loss, and damage to the body parts under attack. Numbness and color change of these tissues is common. Usually, this happens in locations farther away from the body centre where blood flow is less. Such body parts include the ears, nose, hands, and feet.

There are 3 types of cold injuries, classified by the extent of damage. These are

· Frostsnip

· Superficial Frostbite

· Deep Frostbite

Although most children, elderly, and patients with circulation problems are at the highest risk of developing frostbites, the majority of cases occur in adults aged between thirty and forty-nine. When someone gets frostbite, he or she may not even realize that something wrong at first. This is because the area affected is fully numb. However, if urgent medical attention is sought, most humans fully recover from frostbite. In cases where severe frostbite takes place, there is a potential for permanent harm. This depends on how deeply and how long the human tissue has been in a frozen state. In such cases, there may be a stop in blood flow to the tissue affected. There might be a need to amputate the affected area if the frozen tissue eventually dies.

Frostbite is mainly caused by exposure to very low temperatures over a prolonged period of time. This is especially true when it is accompanied by a weak wind-chill or by a more succinct bout of exposure to deep and cold weather.

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Medical Physics & Innovations in Medicine

Medical Physics & Innovations in Medicine

The study of antimatter and matter collision imaging is one that is rapidly evolving into a technique used by scientists for disease detection in people at all ages. This is more formally known as PET, or positron emission tomography. In this method, short-lived radio nuclides are produced within a cyclotron.  The nuclides are then labeled for compounds like glucose, amino acids, and testosterone. Physiological factors like glucose metabolism and blood flow are then monitored. The images produced are significant in detection of seizures, ischemia, and coronary heart disease. PET imaging is used in cancer care for detection of tumors and monitoring of success with courses of treatment. It’s also used for early detection of recurrent conditions.

The imaging technique itself might sound somewhat like a science fiction flick to you as it does involve the antimatter and matter ‘annihilating’ each other. These short-lived radio nuclides decompose, decay and give off particles that are known as positrons. This is equal to electrons from the antimatter perspective.  What happens then is that the positrons speedily encounter other electrons, collide with them, annihilate them, and then produce photon pairs that move off in opposite directions. Special crystals can be used to capture these photons. The images can then be produced using computerized methods.

Radioimmunoassay is one of those other methods that utilize the decay of materials that are radioactive in the study of various physiological conditions using chemical methods or imaging.

A large number of the most significant inventions of modern medicine have been developed by medical physicists that imported in technologies like X-rays, ultrasound, particle accelerators, radioisotopes, and nuclear magnetic resonance. Radioisotopes are used in tagging and detecting in the medical field.

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Ways to Make your Pregnancy Healthy, Memorable, and Fun

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 16: Pregnancy cam...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

It seems now that you are pregnant everyone has appointed themselves as your primary health care provider. Co-workers, friends, family, and sometimes strangers will try and offer you advice that will help you along on your pregnancy.  Although it is fun to see that everyone cares, staying healthy for yourself should be your number one concern, and it depends on you. It is vital that you equip yourself with information on ways to keep healthy for you and the baby. One very important element for protecting the health of the baby is to attend regular prenatal meetings. Even if you only suspect that you are pregnant, you should go in for an examination by your doctor.

Taking in proper amounts of nutrition and supplements are also very important during pregnancy. Eating your proper share of vegetables, fruits, lean meats, whole-grain breads, and low-fat dairy products are essential for proper development and growth of the baby. Eating healthy foods ensures that you are getting the nutrients you need, but you will also need more servings of essential nutrients such as folic acid, iron, and calcium than what was needed prior to the pregnancy.

Many women have found that it lifts their moods and they become even more bonded with their babies when they learn how the baby is growing during the pregnancy week by week. There they find information such as the length of the baby in a particular week and how the baby is developing.

A woman should also take every opportunity to create precious memories during pregnancy, and one way to do this is to tell your loved ones of this exciting news in a creative and unique way. There are many great ideas to help you break the news in a manner that is both memorable and fun.

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Medical Physics and Fighting Cancer

Medical Physics and Fighting Cancer

The study of medical physics has contributed significantly to the treatment procedures and diagnosis used in fighting cancer. Use of a particle accelerator is one of these means. Within the past fifty years, medical physicists have hit the bulls’ eye with application and development of particle accelerators in the context of cancer treatment. Something that once was limited to physics labs only, linear accelerators are high tech machinery that are capable of delivering energetic electron beams or X-rays particularly to malignant tumors. This is, of course, done in doses that have the ability to kill cancerous cells as well as prevent further growth of the tumor.

In the past few years, a new and more advanced technique for treatment has risen. It enhances the ability of the radiations to control tumors and is known as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Computer programs are used to specifically shape the field for the treatment as well as control the beams from the accelerator so that the maximum possible radiation dose gets to the tumor. At the same time, it is important that minimized doses are delivered to the healthy tissues surrounding the cancer cells. IMRT keeps this fact in consideration. IMRT has already begun to be used in treatment of brain cancer, prostate cancer, neck and head and other cancerous diseases, both in adults and children.

Use of medical physics and technology has also helped improve prevention of breast cancer. Scientists have come a long way from the original film methods were introduced. Breast imaging techniques are now substantially advanced. Earlier used emulsion films have been replaced with a more responsive stock of films. Eventually, these have gone out of use as well, and digital imaging is currently being used in its place.

MRI breast imaging has proven to be very useful in the locating of cancerous growths in women, especially in young ladies and at an earlier stage.

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Great Moments in the History of Medical Physics

Great Moments in the History of Medical Physics

Some of the biggest moments in medical history have taken place over the past century. Medical advancements have been made. These often came from minds of highly experienced and passionate physicist laboratories. We highlight a few of these advancements.

1. Magnetic Resonance

In spite of Edward M Purcell and Felix Bloch having shared the Physics Nobel Prize in 1952, only a few years post discovery of the magnetic resonance occurrence, it took them much longer before this discovery resulted in MRI development – a few decades. Today, MRI is regularly used in imaging of human bodies. Peter Mansfield and Paul Lauterbur were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 2003 owing to their work in the MRI field.

2. Computer Assisted Tomography (CAT)

Godfrey Newbold and Allan M Cormack were awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology owing to their development of CT. This has brought in a complete revolution in terms of medical imaging. CT technology produces images very high in clarity.

3. X-Rays

This one was discovered in 1895 by Willhem Conrad. The industry immediately recognized the importance of this discovery and embraced it straight away. It changed how rays were applied in medical imaging. After the establishment of Nobel Prizes in 1902 (around the century turn), Roengten was the first one to win a Nobel Prize in Physics due to his achievements in discovering X-rays.

4. Radio – Immunoassays

A member of the AAPM, Rosalyn Yalow, was awarded a Novel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1977. She developed radio-immunoassays. These are highly sensitive techniques for diagnosis. They can quantify very small amounts of organic substances within the body through use of materials labeled using radioactive substances.

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Getting Cheaper Drugs in Canada

If you are offended by the idea of a single payer system of health care, you should not read this article because it discusses one of the perks it provides for people. While Canadians probably do not like having to pay an additional tax for their health care, if does benefit both them and their more wily neighbors to the south. See, plenty of Americans travel to Canada on a fairly regular basis, so that they can get less expensive prescription medicines than they could if they stayed in the States. After all, getting your meds in the United States is very often a horribly expensive process, and the single payer system would appear to be helping out a lot of cash strapped Americans with this important (but often crippling and stressful) area of their budgets.

The United States is just coming out of the most major recession it has seen in decades. Because of this, many Americans are looking for any way they can save some money. While some folks are cutting out the more expensive stuff like going to movies and expensive meals, or downsizing their living arrangements, some people have already done that and it is still not enough. Therefore, they are taking the next step, and buying their prescription medications in Canada, where it is known to be far cheaper in a lot of cases.

What is very interesting about this is that Canada can sell medicines more cheaply because of their single payer, government based medical care establishment. Because Canada’s government is involved in the process, they can buy drugs in massive bulk, and control the entire national supply, which gives them a lot of negotiating power with the pharmaceutical companies. This, in turn, gets them preferential pricing that they can pass on to the public, especially since the government doesn’t need to make a profit. You can use Canada 411 to find where to get prescription medicines in Canada.

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Medical Physicists & Purchase of Medical Technology

Medical Physicists & Purchase of Medical Technology

Often, at large scientific organizations, you’ll fins medical physicists being hired solely for the duty of selecting and evaluation expensive equipment. These professionals become involved in the process of negotiating purchases on high tech machines that cost in the millions. They make sure that the best value for money is always chosen. As part of this task, they will also write out specifications that guarantee you that your hospital or laboratory is only purchasing the equipment needed. It is common to find service contracts and machine prices to be significantly reducible. This is important when buying an expensive item. In fact, figures show the servicing contracts for CT scanners to be around $100,000 every year. Many of the available options on costly equipment are going to be capable of being added for free when you are negotiating with a variety of different providers.

Value for Money

After the purchase of the equipment, a medical physicist will evaluate the effectiveness of the equipment in performance according to specifications. This is done using a challenging test and commission before acceptance. Sometimes, institutions lose their money by scheduling for machines to be replaced regularly in spite of the equipment operating correctly.

Getting a medical physicist involved in the continued maintenance and improvement of your machine will result in an extended lifeline and reliable operations on the equipment. Apart from aiding in purchase of high quality medical technology, you’ll find medical physicists concerned with general medical research as well. Often, this involved application of computers into medicine and of information and theory into diagnostic issues. They also process, store, and recover medical images, measure radioactive quantities within foods and human bodies, and research the temporal and anatomical distribution of radioactive items within the body. Furthermore, they also get involved in the actual creation and development of novel instruments and technology to be used in diagnostic radiology.

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Change Your Life Through Cialis

There are commercials and magazine ads all over the place for the prescription medication Cialis. Despite the fact that it has achieved massive media attention many people do not know much about the prescription drug.

Cialis is a prescription medication that is intended to cure the symptoms of erectile dysfunction. The way that Cialis works is through the widening of blood vessels in the body. The narrowing of blood vessels is the number one cause of erectile dysfunction.

Cialis was primarily invented with the intention of curing erectile dysfunction and offering those that did not wish to take Viagra — another prescription medication. Cialis has also made it possible for those that had to forego a sexual relationship due to the symptoms of erectile dysfunction to be able to lead a happy and healthy sexual relationship.

With all the benefits that come with Cialis many people wonder where exactly they can get this prescription medication. You can buy Cialis at any local pharmacy. All that is required is a doctor’s prescription for the medication.

When purchasing Cialis many people might prefer a more discrete method of receiving the medication. There are multiple websites that are available online for those people to purchase Cialis. The medication will be delivered directly to your door in a plain package so that no one will have to know that you may suffer from erectile dysfunction.

Should you go with purchasing your medication online remember to purchase from a safe website to ensure that you are getting the medication that you really want. It is also a good idea to consult with a healthcare professional to make sure that you are healthy enough to take Cialis.

Cialis has really changed the way that people live their lives. It has allowed males to cure their erectile dysfunction in a safe, discrete way.

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Healthy Nutrition for Children

Full course dinner

Image via Wikipedia

Healthy Nutrition for Children

Parents to young and adolescent children often worry about providing them with healthy and nutritious meals that will promote their strong growth and development. Nutritionists and doctors will offer you advice on healthy eating, but at the end of the day, it’s what is fed to them at home that help shape their future eating habits. For those mothers to fussy children, this can often be a task. We explore some of the common guidelines derived from the food pyramid you should follow as a rule of thumb for preparation of any meal.

1.    Offer your child a minimum of 1 fruit serving, 1 vegetable serving.

2.    Incorporate into the meals at least 1milk serving daily. The milk type should preferably be low-fat or non-fat (skim). Low-fat milk can be 2 percent or 1 percent. Substitutes for this serving can be food rich in calcium such as cheese made from low-fat milk.

3.    Restrict intake of fruit juice, even if it’s 100%, to a single serving daily at the most.

4.    Make an effort to be at home and gather up the whole family for the majority of your meals.

5.    Make use of cooking methods like grilling, baking, or even roasting as frequently as you can. Avoid frying on most occasions.

6.    When indulging in snacks and mini-meals, offer your child portion sizes appropriate to his or her age.

7.    Try to include at least 1 whole grain item daily. This can be oatmeal, wheat bread, or even breakfast cereals that are ‘whole-grain’.

8.    Serve meals that are whole food as often as you can. Avoid packaged meals for kids from fast food restaurants and supermarkets. Also avoid processed foods. These are usually high in salt, calories, and fat, but still low in fiber content.
As your kids start to develop a habit of consuming healthy food and making healthy decisions at every meal, they will naturally start to eat well. Then, you can proceed to following the food pyramid more closely, such as incorporating one and a half serving of vegetables every day.

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