Fact about anti wrinkle creams.

April 30th, 2009 by Sandy Hussman

There are many types of anti aging wrinkle creams available on the market. Most of these creams do not work as effectively as they are supposed to. After all, manufacturers create a huge build up while advertising their anti aging and other skin care products, so people do try these products out. But why do they not work? This is because these products merely contain synthetic substances and sometimes even harmful ingredients that are not good for our long-term skin health.

The least expensive and most commonly used form of wrinkle reduction is the use of anti-wrinkle creams. There are many types of cosmetic creams on the market today. These products work by peeling off the outer layer of your skin to expose the newer and healthier skin underneath, as well as to promote healthy skin growth. The most common ingredients in anti-wrinkle creams are alpha hydroxy acids (AHA) and beta hydroxy acids (BHA). Most wrinkle creams also contain vitamin supplements to infuse the much-needed nutrients that the skin is lacking.

Remember that you need to research on the effectiveness of the ingredients in the anti aging wrinkle creams to see if they would bring positive results. This can be done by reading about various ingredients on the internet. Some of the most noteworthy ingredients that should be part of any skin care cream made for the treatment of wrinkles and fine lines are Phytessence Wakame, CynergyTK and CoQ10.

If used with care, anti-wrinkle creams can rejuvenate your skin and make it look like you are years younger. However, the easiest form of skin care is to avoid factors that cause premature aging on your skin. Staying away from suntan beds, avoiding unprotected exposure to the sun, and smoking can greatly reduce untimely wrinkles on your skin. These factors could give you wrinkles as early as your late teens if not avoided. You could also watch out for your facial habits that could cause creases on your skin, and re-train your facial muscles to move differently.

Wrinkles provides detailed information on Anti Wrinkle Eye Creams, Forehead Wrinkles, Laser Wrinkle Removal, Remove Wrinkles and more. Wrinkles is affiliated with Anti Wrinkle Face Cream.

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Cancer Treatment Modalities and Informed Consent

April 29th, 2009 by Cancer Treatment Information

When a person’s cancer is treated using only one treatment modality, this is called monotherapy or single-modality therapy. When more than one treatment modality is used, the term is combination therapy or multimodality therapy. Combination therapies can be administered at the same time (simultaneously), one after the other (sequentially), or in alternating cycles. When more than one treatment is administered simultaneously, the specialists involved must coordinate and schedule the treatments carefully. In one common sequential treatment, either surgery or radiation therapy is used first, to remove or shrink the tumor mass. This is followed by chemotherapy to treat any cells that may have metastasized.

Most cancer treatments are designed to cure the disease either by removing the tumor or by killing all the cancer cells. Sometimes, however, cure is impossible. The goal of treatment in these cases is to reduce the patients’ symptoms, improve their quality of life, and prolong their lives. This kind of treatment is called palliative care.

Because different people with the same diagnosis and stage of disease will differ in characteristics such as age or general health, an oncologist must consider the competing risks when determining which treatment is best for each individual. In addition, the oncologist must consider three additional concerns: whether the cancer is confined to the primary (local) tumor, whether other nearby (regional) tissues are involved, and whether cancer cells may have metastasized to distant sites.

Whatever type of treatment you receive, you will be given an informed consent form to read-carefully-and sign. In addition to giving the doctor and the treating institution permission to provide the treatment, this form describes the treatment and all of its likely or possible side effects, which can include physical symptoms (such as nausea), abnormal blood tests (low blood counts), and abnormal results of imaging tests (so that, for example, future x-rays may show an abnormality where a tumor has been treated with radiation). Although the extensive list of side effects in the informed consent form is necessary, in part for legal reasons, it can be frightening. However, most people experience only a few of the side effects described in the form. Many forms, in fact, subdivide side effects into those that are acute and late and those that are common, uncommon, rare, and extremely rare.

Acute side effects occur during treatment and usually disappear a few days or weeks after treatment ends. Their severity is usually graded on a scale of 1 to 5. Grade 1 side effects are usually mild and may be barely noticeable. People who experience Grade 2 or 3 side effects may need a drug such as an antibiotic to cure an infection, an antiemetic to relieve nausea, or a drug to control pain (and methods of controlling pain have been greatly improved). Many people who develop Grade 4 or 5 side effects must be hospitalized-their symptoms may be life-threatening. In some cases, the cancer treatment may need to be changed because of the side effects.

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Learn more about Breast Chemotherapy

April 28th, 2009 by Dr. Bill Ackart

While most articles are the same, it is very interesting to see how our readers are the most satisfied. I hope that you will be one of them.

Breast chemotherapy is the cancer treatment used when the disease has attacked the mammary glands. The treatment aims at reducing the tumor size and at killing the cells with a rapid multiplication rate. Various kinds of breast chemotherapy can be identified depending on the drug combination chosen by the doctor. Correct information on the way the medication works as well as an analysis of the side effects and the optimistic evaluation factors ought to be part of the discussion between doctor and patient that precedes the treatment as such.

There are two ways of administering breast chemotherapy: orally in cycles established by the doctor or intravenously. The drug reaches in the blood and then is carried through the entire body to locate and attack the sick cells meant to be destroyed. The targeted elements of breast chemotherapy are the cancer cells in the mammary glands, but there will be collateral damage to. From this point of view doctors consider breast chemotherapy a systemic treatment precisely because its effects are extended to the entire body structure.

Breast chemotherapy may be recommended after lumpectomy or mastectomy and in this case it is known as adjuvant treatment. The patients undergo this type of treatment only when doctors are certain from analyses that cancer has not yet spread to any other parts of the body but the breast.

Another situation when breast chemotherapy represents a necessity is when cancer has passed from the lymph nodes or breast to other parts of the body. This particular spread is known as metastatic breast cancer and it usually represents the ultimate and often lethal form of development.

Whichever of the breast chemotherapy treatments you are to receive it is important to know how you can figure out if it has any effect. This does not mean however that it is mandatory for you to experience side effects or otherwise your treatment is inefficient. This would be the wrong approach to it all. Adjuvant breast chemotherapy may have no side effects but it has always proved to be very helpful as it impedes unhealthy cells from spreading or redeveloping in your body.

All in all, breast chemotherapy makes no easy treatment. It is probably the devastating treatment and the mutilation brought by breast cancer in itself that has increased awareness among women, making disease detection a lot easier and in the early stages of development.

These articles can be very inspiring, hope the information was useful. Thanks a lot for reading.

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The side effect associated with cancer treatment

April 27th, 2009 by Dr. Bill Ackart

Help us so that we can help you! Read the following paper top to bottom and you will out what we have to say about this.

Together with AIDS, cancer is the lethal threat of the 20th century. Lots of people have become direct or indirect victims to this illness, either by suffering from the condition or by having someone dear to them devastated by tumor development. Knowing what cancer patients go through during chemotherapy is very difficult but reading about it may shed a bit of light on how to help and comfort these patients. To start with, chemotherapy side effects are aspects that patients dread most.

There are very numerous side effects, and their extent and intensity vary according to the length of the treatment and the type of drugs involved. Most chemotherapy side effects are temporary and they decrease in intensity and eventually stop after a certain period of time. It seldom happens for some adverse reactions to persist for several years after the cessation of the treatment.

If you were interested in finding out more about the chemotherapy side effects of various treatments or combinations of drugs, you should know that there are a great deal of sources providing you with relevant information helpful in alleviating and understanding the pain the patient goes through. The potential adverse reactions are more than two hundred, but the most commonly reported are digestive symptoms like nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, lack of appetite, weight loss or weight gain, nose bleeds, susceptibility to infections, pneumonia, eye problems and lots of others. It could prove very discouraging for one to go through the entire list, wondering how many of these could become manifest. Yet, side effects differ according to the kind of drugs used and to the concentration prescribed by the doctor, moreover, not all side effects will affect one individual.

Normally, patients should be informed by their doctors on the possible chemotherapy side effects and their persistence at the end of the treatment. Explaining what the patient will go through constitutes an essential preparatory stage as this will avoid having the patient panic about something that is usually associated with certain drugs. Most often, doctors come up with several treatment schemes and present their to their patients with the pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages.

That’s this article why not check out another for more great reading.

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Be prepared for chemotherapy protocol

April 26th, 2009 by Dr. Bill Ackart

Just another excellent paper written in an easy to read article format simply waiting for you to read.

Chemotherapy protocol is a concept familiar to cancer patients, but it remains totally unknown to people who do not have any direct or indirect contact with the disease. The chemotherapy protocol consists of all the procedures and medicine specificity, the expected results, the potential threats and the side effects related to the medication. This protocol is to be used as a sort of guide or reference throughout the prescribed treatment.

When going into details, the chemotherapy protocol involves all the case circumstances, meaning that it should specify the pathology type that the treatment has been prescribed for (the location of cancer, the cancer stage, and so on). The protocol ought to further specify indications and contraindications, it should pinpoint all the situations in which this specific chemotherapy protocol should be allowed or forbidden and it ought to refer to scientific sources that may be consulted during the treatment.

Another important part of the chemotherapy protocol comes in the form of drug information: all medication has to be described specifically. Drug information means dosage first and foremost, since the medicine concentration is influenced by the tumor size and the patient’s body weight and medical history. Other details in the chemotherapy protocol include info on cyclical administration and the time interval between doses. Moreover, the chemotherapy protocol should specify how the drug is to be administered, that is, the route of administration, as doctors refer to it (oral, intravenous, abdominal, etc). In some cases adjuvant treatment may be required which represents another piece of information that has to be specified in the chemotherapy protocol together with possible precautions and measures.

Last but not least, the chemotherapy protocol should talk about the cycles of the treatment. That means it should specify the intervals that separate the various cures and whether the dose intensity varies or not, and if so, under what circumstances. It should also stipulate the recommended number of cycles, the toxicity that the drugs may lead to, the level of recovery reached before beginning a new cycle, the conditions that may require partial or complete cessation of treatment, the modifications and the ways for the patient to adapt to dose increase or decrease.

If you think this article was good check out a few more.

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Can cancer be inherited?

April 25th, 2009 by John Adams

Cancer cannot be inherited, but the risk of developing cancer can be. That is, the tendency to develop cancer runs in some families, as has been shown with the discovery of specific abnormal genes that make a woman more likely to develop breast cancer under certain conditions. The presence of genetic abnormalities doesn’t mean that the disease itself is hereditary, however.

In cancers with a hereditary component, an abnormal gene is passed from parent to child. However, a cell becomes abnormal during a person’s lifetime because of additional changes in the DNA such as a spontaneous gene mutation or a cancer-causing agent (carcinogen) in the environment. Asbestos, cigarette smoking, and some pesticides are well-known carcinogens. According to die information that is currently available, the majority of cancers appear to be the spontaneous variety rather than the inherited kind linked to predisposition.

Another extremely important point to remember is that many people who have either an inherited cancer gene or a gene that has mutated spontaneously do not develop the disease. The abnormal gene might mean a tendency to develop a cancer, but additional mutations must occur before a tumor can develop. In fact, most cancer cells have a number of different defects in their DNA. Thus, one abnormal gene rarely causes cancer.

Genetic Counseling Genetic counseling is a new and rapidly evolving field that is important for parents who are concerned that they may pass a disease, such as sickle-cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, or cancer, to their children. Genetic counselors interview couples about their family histories to determine what type of disease may have occurred in relatives. For example, because some cancers, such as breast and ovarian cancer, go together, women whose relatives have developed either type of cancer at a young age may be at risk for either type of cancer. Under certain circumstances, a genetic counselor may recommend that a person have his or her genes examined in the laboratory. If a genetic abnormality is identified, the counselor can then discuss the potential risks for them or their children, the need for regular screening, and preventive measures.

Although genetic counseling can be helpful in some cases, it also raises a number of difficult questions:

- Can something be done to prevent the cancer? If nothing can be done to prevent the cancer, can more frequent testing for the cancer, and early detection, at least make a difference in terms of treatment and recovery? - Will the information make the person’s life better or worse? That is, will worry about the possibility of developing cancer dominate the person’s thoughts, so that his or her quality of life is diminished? - Will the information be kept confidential, so that insurance companies and employers don’t have access to it? (Insurance companies and employers may discriminate against a person if genetic testing indicates that he or she has inherited a tendency to develop cancer.)

Because questions such as these sometimes have unsatisfactory answers, many people, understandably, avoid genetic testing. The decision to undergo genetic testing is a difficult and personal one. It should be made only after discussion with an expert in oncology or genetic counseling.

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Detailed information of symptoms of colon cancer

April 24th, 2009 by Tyron Raugh

Cancer occurs when cells that are dividing go about doing that too often, producing more cells than are necessary in the area, and these are named according to the area it occurs in. An important organ that aids in the digestion of food in humans in the colon, commonly known as the large intestine. It is the last organ involved in the digestive tract. Colon cancer is a malignancy that occurs in the inner lining of the colon or the rectum, the end part of the colon. Colon cancer has become an everyday disease in today’s world.

All cells in a human body undergo the process of life and death. Cancer occurs when this cell growth becomes uncontrolled and when the body’s natural defense mechanism, the immune system, cannot control it. This uncontrolled growth then produces a collection of cells known as a tumor. Tumors are called benign or malignant, depending on how much the cells affect other regions of he body. Benign tumors do not spread or invade any other part of the body. Malignant tumors on the other hand keep dividing uncontrollable and can invade other parts of the body and destroy the healthy cells in the body.

Like all other cancers there are known risk factors that increase a person’s chance of being affected by colon cancer. Those over the age of 40 are said to be at a higher risk of developing colon cancer, and colon cancer has rarely been diagnosed in those under forty. Having a family history of colon cancer can also increase the chances of developing the disease. Other factors like having had benign tumors or polyps removed before, having a diet that is high in fat but low in fiber and having another illness that may increase chances of developing colon cancer are all considered to be risk of getting colon cancer.

There are many symptoms that are linked with the presence of colon cancer but having one or more of them does not necessarily mean colon cancer is present. Bleeding from the rectum does not always mean colon cancer but this bleeding should never be ignored. Other symptoms to keep an eye out for include changes in bowel habits and pain in the abdomen or rectum region. Again having these symptoms does not mean you have colon cancer but they should be taken seriously and a doctor has to be consulted to find out what may be causing these irregularities.

Researchers have gone far in identifying ways to cure colon cancer, and success rates are very high.Using a combination of treatment methods like surgery, radiation and chemotherapy will definitely mean a better prognosis for the patient.

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Learn more about cancer chemotherapy

April 23rd, 2009 by Dr. Bill Ackart

Our article has been rated by top reviewers as one of the best on this topic. Carry on reading and you will find out why.

The administration of cancer chemotherapy drugs becomes imminent and almost inevitable once a patient is diagnosed with cancer. Health care providers should not overlook the importance of treatment transparency and the necessity for good communication with the person under medication. The doctor-patient relationship is almost as important nowadays as the suggested cancer chemotherapy is because offering a good treatment without carefully explaining the steps to follow and the potential side effects that may appear along the way may completely discourage the patient. When there is professional support and human compassion in the approach to the illness, cancer patients have higher chances of recovery thanks to the positive attitude.

Cancer chemotherapy was first used in the 1940s when doctors prescribed mostly nitrogen mustards and folic acid as antagonist drugs. Since more and more patients turned up to suffer from the same condition, that is cancer, cancer chemotherapy has apparently become an industry registering huge success on the market through the wide variety of drugs that it produces. Even though one may think that the world has impressively evolved since the 1940s, it is surprisingly enough to mention that most of the principles discovered back then in cancer chemotherapy still apply today.

On certain occasions cancer chemotherapy proves insufficient in the fight against the tumor growth. Consequently, where combined chemotherapy fails, surgery has to take the lead. Not even surgery can always remove a tumor completely, particularly since the cancerous cells may grow back again. So doctors and researchers have come up with an adjuvant cancer chemotherapy treatment that relies on drugs meant to prevent the recurrence of cancer and clear away any signs of cancer left after removing the tumor. This cancer chemotherapy adjuvant appears to have improved and extended the life expectations of many patients suffering from colon cancer.

Chemotherapy means drugs that have various purposes and patients should learn what types of drugs they are using and what risks or side effects these drugs pose. The categories in which chemical drugs fall are pretty numerous but there are lots of sources to be consulted either under the form of books in libraries or text posted on Internet sites. Whichever the medium of getting informed, remember that associating the action of the drug, with the risks it brings along and with what other medicine it can be combined is utterly important before starting a certain cancer chemotherapy treatment.

Feel free to browse around at more of these articles. Thanks for taking the time to read.

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Chemotherapy related to hair loss

April 22nd, 2009 by Amy White

I would like to thank you for visiting and reading this article. The topic has been carefully researched and documented for your benefit.

One of the most frequent side effect of cancer treatments is chemotherapy hair loss. What is the reason why hair loss occurs during chemotherapy? The medication used in chemotherapy is extremely powerful and it destroys all the developing cancer cells, although they affect other body parts too. There are normal body cells with a rapid growth rate, and they are not cancer; the cells in the digestive tract and the hair follicles are the main examples here. The effects of chemotherapy on hair are not limited only to the scalp as the procedure affects the hair on the body, too. Unfortunately, eyelashes, eyebrows, armpit and pubic hair and other body hair may also fall out.

There is a wide variety of drugs that are used in chemotherapy. Among these, obviously some are more likely to cause chemotherapy hair loss than others. The difference in chemotherapy drug doses is another aspect to consider when hair loss is under discussion, as hair loss ranges from thinning to complete baldness. Thus, discussing the medication that will be prescribed with the doctor and nurse is very important as they are the specialists able to inform the patient on what to expect from chemotherapy.

Hair usually starts falling out after 10-14 days from the beginning of the treatment. It may happen quite fast, either in clumps or gradually. Chemotherapy hair loss remains a problem throughout the entire period of the treatment and a month afterwards. Half the hair will be gone without one even noticing. Fortunately, in the majority of cases, chemotherapy hair loss represents a temporary effect. Hair can be expected to grow back within six months to one year after the cessation of the treatment. The new hair could have a slightly different shade of color, with the mention that even the texture could be altered too.

It usually takes about four to six weeks for the hair to recover from chemotherapy, and generally, the hair grows at a rate of about a quarter inch each month. When the hair starts growing back again, it might be a little different from the hair that was lost because of therapy. As mentioned before, chemotherapy hair loss leads to new texture or color temporarily. The changes will stop and the hair will become what it used to be before the treatment the moment the cells that control the hair pigment begin working again. Unfortunately, chemotherapy hair loss cannot be prevented as there is no treatment which will guarantee that the hair will not fall out.

That concludes this article, I hope you found the information helpful. Please feel free to continue to browse around the site for more useful articles.

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Such an ‘original’ idea

April 21st, 2009 by cancergal

So when I was diagnosed nearly two years ago, I had the oh so ‘original’ idea to start a blog to keep family and friends informed of my medical adventures. Who would have thought that anyone else in the world would be this original as well? Apparently, lots of people use blogs to document their medical lives as well? Or their tries to get to a new normal after medical lemons have messed with their lives?

I have found many other blogs to read and then started following them and then starting reading and following ones that others are reading and then spending hours every day reading and following blogs. I have tried to restrain myself and organize who I read and follow but then I diversify and find more.

Here are some of the blogs I read most often:

- Life’s Funny Like That - well written adventures in breast cancer land.

- Adventures of Baldy Locks - I really like her blue wig. And her sense of humor.

- Dancing with Cancer - living with cancer, four times

- The Lloyd Newsletter - life with the brain tumor named Lloyd - why can’t you name them?

- My Cancer Deployment - another series of adventures in cancerland. She lists her interests as ‘not having cancer’. Me too!

Then people start posting links to other lists of other blogs like this one of the top 30 cancer blogs and this one on Lemondrop. So I wasn’t so original after all. (A note of caution here is that once you start clicking on the links and reading other people’s stories you become hopelessly addicted and want to keep reading to make sure they are okay. Then you realize two hours have gone by and you are now late for work.)

Who also would have thought it would have gone on so long. Nearly two years of medical adventures. I was told a cancer diagnosis is a year out of your life. Well, maybe we are past cancer and we can just talk about the continuing saga of what is wrong with me next. Back pain induced insomnia is a wonderful time to lie in bed staring at the ceiling and thinking what is wrong now. I mean is that pain related to my back issues or is it something new? Is it a headache or a brain tumor? Is fatigue due to anemia or leukemia? See how easy it is to start down that path as well? (Perhaps my fatigue today is due to the fact that yesterday I went on a really long walk and I have been awake since 4 am? But the little voices in my head are telling me otherwise.)

Yesterday I did watch the Boston Marathon. It was a very close race in the end. Then I went for a walk and found a parade. Yes the clown is directing traffic. Then I walked through the burned conservation land. There are acres of burned areas - both marsh and wooded. But last night and today we got a lot of rain and that should help in the regrowth.

Today I am only a little bit overscheduled. It is school vacation week which means I am working mornings, instead of afternoons (and feeling a little discombobulated as a result). My schedule is backwards: go to work, then work from home and go for a walk. But it keeps me busy. And now I am running late (already) so its time to get moving.

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