Asbestos Mesothelioma Blog http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog Your own space of information and help related to Cancer Wed, 20 Dec 2006 07:08:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 en Five Foods for Better Health http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/12/20/five-foods-for-better-health/ http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/12/20/five-foods-for-better-health/#comments Wed, 20 Dec 2006 07:08:31 +0000 Teena http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/12/20/five-foods-for-better-health/ Want to look great and live longer? The secret isn’t a new miracle drug or surgical technique. It’s not even a new exercise program (though exercise couldn’t hurt). No, the real secret can be found in the foods you eat. Here are five foods that will help prevent disease and make us look and feel great.

Soy
A fantastic food for our health. It lowers cholesterol, and it reduces the incidence of osteoporosis as well as breast cancer and heart disease. Staving off osteoporosis is of particular importance because so many women are at risk for it. Soy is not just tofu; you can find it in soy nuts, which are a great snack food and good for sprinkling on a salad, or soy burgers.

Salad
Certain salad ingredients are going to do more for your body than others. For example, using leafy greens (such as spinach) as your base rather than lettuce is going to increase your intake of folic acid. Folic acid is extremely important for pregnant women and women in their childbearing years. If you include carrots in that salad, you’re getting a powerful antioxidant that reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer. Broccoli should also make an appearance. It is a great source of calcium as well as vitamin C. Of course, it’s not a salad without tomato, and in tomatoes you’ll find another powerful antioxidant that reduces the risk of prostate cancer. It becomes more potent, however, when it is consumed in the form of cooked tomato products, such as stewed tomatoes or fresh tomato sauce.

Fish
This is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are extremely good for the body. They decrease the incidence of heart disease and breast cancer. When selecting a fresh piece of fish at the market, you want to look for a firm fillet that has a healthy sheen to it and that doesn’t smell “fishy”. Fish is very easy to prepare. The best way to maintain the omega-3 fatty acids is to poach the fish. Season it with a little bit of parsley and some freshly ground pepper, maybe a little bit of coarse salt; you’ll need only about one minute per inch of thickness for cooking time. Very easy, very tasty and great for you!

Bread
Whole grains provide us with fibre, and fibre has been shown again and again to reduce the risk of colon cancer. Aim for at least 30 grams of fibre per day. Take care, however, to consume brown bread rather than white.
Blueberries
They are practically a dessert item, so it’s fun to be able to inc1ude them as part of a healthy diet. And it’s easy to convince the kids to eat them as well. Much like cranberries, they are used to reduce the incidence of urinary tract infections. Blueberries are also a powerful antioxidant, reducing the risk of many cancers as well as things such as memory loss.

]]> http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/12/20/five-foods-for-better-health/feed/ Fish Formula http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/10/16/fish-formula/ http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/10/16/fish-formula/#comments Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:23:33 +0000 Teena http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/10/16/fish-formula/ For a long time now, research has been done on fat and its effects on the heart. We know that too much fat will clog and stiffen our arteries, bringing forth drastic effects that choke off blood to the brain and harm the heart. Whether your arteries are wrecked and your body suffers considerable other problems may depend on the chemical make up of the fat and its consequent disposition by the body. But animal fats are very different from the ones in fish.
Scientists were perplexed by the fact that Eskimos had virtually no heart disease and yet ate a high fat diet of blubber and seal meat; their blood cholesterol levels, especially among Alaskan Eskimos, were fairly high, only slightly lower than that of Americans, Danes, and others who were dropping dead from heart attacks. Research showed that Eskimo blood is not as sticky and does not clot as readily.
The same phenomenon shows up among families in Japanese fishing villages who are also remarkably free of heart disease. They found that the strange phenomenon was rooted in the fact that the Eskimos loaded themselves with a unique oil found in seafood. They typically devour 13 ounces of seafood every day, all of it heavily packed with molecular chains of fatty acids called omega-3’s. In contrast, the fat or oil in land plants and meat from animals raised on such plants are dominated by omega- 6 fatty acids that are broken down differently in the body.
An excess of omega-6 provokes the cells to frantic activity, causing the production of excesses of hyperactive prostaglandins and similar hormones that wreak havoc on the body.
Fish oils may protect against thrombosis - clots that block off blood. Cancer, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, allergies, immune inflammatory disorders, headaches, high blood pressure and multiple sclerosis are all disorders related to over enthusiastic production of prostaglandins. Fish oils, by curbing prostaglandin formation, may control the underlying metabolic mechanisms that set off these diseases too.
Nutrition experts at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas say older adults who eat just one serving of fatty fish a week can lower their risk of a fatal heart attack by up to 44 percent, compared to people who don’t eat fish at all.
But if you prefer your fish fried, you’re not getting the benefit. The high heat from frying changes the structure of the beneficial fatty acids so they no longer have the same effect on the body besides the negative effect of all that oil, used for frying, on your body. Fatty fish like salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel and herring are most beneficial because they have the highest levels of the omega-3 fatty acids that prevent heart disease. These fatty acids are important for growth and development, but they’re not manufactured within the human body. Leaner fish like cod and flounder don’t have as much omega-3 and are less beneficial. Nutrition experts suggest you bake or grill fish to preserve the health benefits and recommend eating at least two servings of fish reek to help prevent heart disease.

]]> http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/10/16/fish-formula/feed/ Treatment for migraine http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/09/25/treatment-for-migraine/ http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/09/25/treatment-for-migraine/#comments Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:48:54 +0000 Teena http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/09/25/treatment-for-migraine/ • Treatment is usually very successful but can require a battery of medicines to deal with the problem, because each attack may be different. Most people will have tried painkillers such as aspirin or paracetamol but sometimes, just for one dose, three tablets, rather than the usual two, may make all the difference.
• One of the main problems is that during a migraine attack the stomach contents are static. This means that tablets taken are not well absorbed and therefore don’t work efficiently. Sometimes a doctor will prescribe medication to stop sickness and nausea and help empty the stomach, which will enable the painkiller to be more effective.
• Tablets containing codeine are not recommended because they can create dependence and a rebound headache once they are stopped. Anti-inflammatory tablets, such as ibuprofen, work for some people.
• New migraine-specific drugs called triptans, which control the changes in blood vessels that cause the migraine, have recently become available. These need to be prescribed by a doctor and come in the form of tablets, rapidly melting tablets, nasal sprays and injections for those whose migraine starts with vomiting.
• About three times more women than men are affected by migraine, and this is probably hormone related. Women with migraine react individually to extra hormones. About a third benefit from taking the contraceptive pill, in a third it makes little difference and in a third the migraine gets worse and the pill should be stopped. In that very rare group of women who have a numbness or weakness of part of the body when they have a migraine attack, the pill should definitely not be taken. During pregnancy, many women have fewer attacks and they may even disappear. A few have a really difficult time.
• For those troubled with very frequent attacks of migraine who find that painkillers don’t work, daily preventive medicines such as beta-blockers (which help regulate heart rhythm) may reduce the severity and frequency of the attacks, but these may also have side-effects.

]]> http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/09/25/treatment-for-migraine/feed/ Cancer Fighting Crucifers http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/08/14/cancer-fighting-crucifers/ http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/08/14/cancer-fighting-crucifers/#comments Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:27:09 +0000 Teena http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/08/14/cancer-fighting-crucifers/ Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower have recently come under a lot of attention mainly for their anti-cancer effects. Broccoli, for instance, is a wonder food, one of the best nutrition bets around. Not only is broccoli high in fiber and vitamin C, it provides folic acid, calcium magnesium and iron. Certain chemicals found in broccoli and related vegetables appear to help prevent lung cancer – even in smokers.

Researchers from the National Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences and Their colleagues in China studied people in Shanghai. The people in these Chinese communities eat a lot of cruciferous vegetables. They also smoke a lot, which puts them at higher risk for lung cancer. When the researchers tested the blood levels of the people who smoked and also ate a lot of cruciferous vegetables, they found that these people had a 36 percent lower cancer rate than the smokers who didn’t eat the cruciferous vegetables.
Scientists found that if you ate cabbage more than once a week you were only 1/3 as likely to develop colon cancers as someone who never ate cabbage. In other words, one serving of cabbage a week could cut your chances of colon cancer by 66 percent. Even if you ate cabbage once every two or three weeks, the risk dropped by forty percent.
The most effective members of the cruciferous family are: broccoli, Brussels, sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cress, horseradish, kale mustard, radish and turnip.

]]> http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/08/14/cancer-fighting-crucifers/feed/ Surgical castration or bilateral orchidectomy http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/08/01/surgical-castration-or-bilateral-orchidectomy/ http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/08/01/surgical-castration-or-bilateral-orchidectomy/#comments Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:23:00 +0000 Teena http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/08/01/surgical-castration-or-bilateral-orchidectomy/ Surgical castration (or bilateral orchidectomy) is the simplest and cheapest method to reduce a man’s testosterone levels for good. It involves removing both testicles during a short surgical procedure and this brings about an irreversible drop in testosterone levels. This method of reducing testosterone is the most rapidly effective, with levels dropping by 90 percent within hours of the operation.
The surgery itself can be performed either as day surgery or may require a night in hospital. Most men have a general anesthetic so that they are unaware during the procedure. However it can also be performed with a spinal anesthetic, where the patient feels nothing from the waist down, or more rarely a local anesthetic where an injection into the scrotum numbs the tissues before they are cut. A small cut is made in the scrotum. The blood vessels that supply the testicle and the vas deferens, the tube that carries the manufactured sperm back into the body prior to ejaculation, are tied and divided, then both testicles age removed. The scrotum is then sewn up again. So that the scrotum does not look empty some urologist will put in silicone plastic wishes them. A dressing will be put over the scrotum to prevent excess bruising or post-operative bleeding and this can be removed the following day. Most patients are discharged within 24 hours.

]]> http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/08/01/surgical-castration-or-bilateral-orchidectomy/feed/ Is Common Sense or Research Needed to Cure Cancer? http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/is-common-sense-or-research-needed-to-cure-cancer/ http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/is-common-sense-or-research-needed-to-cure-cancer/#comments Tue, 18 Apr 2006 07:32:38 +0000 Teena http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/is-common-sense-or-research-needed-to-cure-cancer/ It is an incredible feat that organisms can begin from one cell and then differentiate and compartmentalize into the millions of diverse tissue and organ niches that represent a mature body. Why brain, fingernail, liver, intestine and bone cells ever become what they are is mystery enough. Why they stay what they have become while still retaining the full genetic information to produce an entire new body, compounds the miracle even more.

Cancer is a condition in which cells lose their orientation and proliferate uncontrollably. Any cell can become cancerous. A lot of them do, but are squelched by cell death (apoptosis), the immune system or nipped in the bud by DNA repair mechanisms. Successful cancer cells escape these impediments, disregard normal cellular checks and balances and become an island unto themselves with only their own survival and self-interests at heart.

The cause of cancer is no mystery. It is our aberrant modern living context that has put us at cancer risk. When cells are forced to bathe in a milieu (the tissue soup we create with modern foods, drugs and lifestyle) entirely unlike what they are genetically programmed to expect, they revert to their most primitive directive – multiply, multiply, multiply – without regard for neighbors. It’s a sort of payback for our disregard for “neighbors when we pollute and repudiate nature. Why should our cells be polite to their neighbors if we don’t have regard for ours? Since the immune system is compromised from the chronic stresses created by modern living, defenses are down. Couple this with the nutritionally depleted and perverted modern processed diet and you have the incubator for cancer.

Today, about one in three humans will get cancer. In pets it is worse and perhaps the leading cause of death. No evidence exists that the disease was of similar incidence before our modern era. President Nixon’s “War on Cancer” (beginning in the early 1970s) is the most failed and embarrassing “military” campaign ever undertaken by any nation at any time in history. One person in 30 got cancer at the beginning of the 20th century, now almost one in two do.

So, to increase the chance of having cancer, or to speed its progression, eating the standard modern fare is the way to go. Get lots of sugar and lots of grain-based foods such as pasta, bread, cereal, bagels, donuts (which convert to sugar after consumed) and lots of vegetable oils. Increase carbohydrates, eat oleo and look for low-fat foods. Drink very little water and instead enjoy acidified pop and municipal acidic water. Tumors thrive on this banquet.

]]> http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/is-common-sense-or-research-needed-to-cure-cancer/feed/ MESOTHELIOMA SETTLEMENTS http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/mesothelioma-settlements/ http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/mesothelioma-settlements/#comments Tue, 18 Apr 2006 07:28:29 +0000 Teena http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/mesothelioma-settlements/ Compensation must be provided to victims suffering from mesothelioma since the illness causes not only physical hardships but emotional as well. Trauma is experienced from inadequate and uncertain therapies. Furthermore, medical expenses arising from tests and treatment of this illness is very costly resulting to the victim’s financial hardship as well.

There are two types of legal assistance one can seek. One is a personal injury case where the victim (plaintiff) is still living or a wrongful death case where the person with mesothelioma has already died and any member of his family would act as a representative. Only if asbestos exposure is linked to a particular job-site can a worker’s compensation claim be filed against an employer. The victim must be able to prove without a doubt that his illness was caused by exposure to asbestos.

It is important that the plaintiff discloses all information, such as work history, time frame of exposure, types and brands of asbestos, name of employer, name of co-workers, diagnosis, prognosis, and all other information related to his/her mesothelioma cancer. If the victim is incapable of providing the information to the lawyer himself, some lawyers with experience in investigating asbestos exposure has numerous proven methods for finding and documenting a person’s exposure. Providing the lawyer with the correct and complete information will aid in quickly determining the appropriate course of legal action, help him form a solid foundation of the victim’s case and may speed up the process of litigation.

Awarding compensation is based on the premise that the victim is totally unaware of the dangers or hazards brought about by his exposure to asbestos. And that this exposure has lead to injury, mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases or ultimately death.

One must remember that time is of the essence when filing compensation claims due to mesothelioma illness. Statute of limitation states that a claim must be filed within a short period of time (ranging from one to three years depending on what state the victim resides in) from the date of initial diagnosis. Waiting too long in the filing of claims can result to making it impossible for you to recover any form of compensation.

There are a number of lawyers, paralegal investigators, doctors and academics that specialize in Asbestos litigation. Generally, seeking legal advice and pursuing a claim can be very costly. But mesothelioma lawyers do not require payment upfront and will only ask for litigation fees when the verdict is favorable.

]]> http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/mesothelioma-settlements/feed/ High cholesterol linked to prostate risk http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/high-cholesterol-linked-to-prostate-risk/ http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/high-cholesterol-linked-to-prostate-risk/#comments Tue, 18 Apr 2006 07:24:20 +0000 Teena http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/high-cholesterol-linked-to-prostate-risk/ Men with high cholesterol levels, particularly if they were detected before the age of 50, may have an increased risk of developing prostate cancer, Italian scientists say.

They discovered an association between prostate cancer and raised cholesterol in a study of more than 2,750 men, published online by the journal Annals of Oncology.

“We have found a possible relation between high cholesterol and prostate cancer. It was self-reported by patients,” Dr Francesca Bravi, of the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, said in an interview.

After considering other potential confounding factors, Bravi and her team said men with prostate cancer in the study were around 50 per cent more likely to have had high cholesterol levels than men without the disease.

Prostate is one of the most common cancers in men. Each year 543,000 new cases are reported worldwide and the disease kills 200,000 mostly older men in developed countries.

High cholesterol levels had been thought before to be linked to the disease but most of the evidence was in animal studies. The new research shows a statistically significant relationship, according to Bravi and her team.

The scientists said the association was stronger for men whose high cholesterol levels had been diagnosed before they were 50 and for men over 65, where there was an 80 per cent greater likelihood of high cholesterol levels.

They also found that prostate cancer patients in the study were 26 per cent more likely to have suffered from gallstones, which are often related to high cholesterol levels.

Dr Cristina Bosetti, a co-author of the study, said hormones called androgens that play a role in prostate tissue and cancer are synthesised from cholesterol. Gallstones are also often composed of cholesterol.

“So, the direct relationship we found between gallstones and prostate cancer, while it was not statistically significant, suggests a similar biological mechanism may explain the link,” Bosetti said.

The scientists added that cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins may help to lower a man’s prostate cancer risk. Statins have also been shown to help prevent diabetics and people at high risk of heart disease from suffering a heart attack or stroke.

But Bravi said further studies are needed to determine whether statins could reduce the risk of prostate cancer because current research is limited and inconclusive.

]]> http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/18/high-cholesterol-linked-to-prostate-risk/feed/ Cancer killer!! http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/03/cancer-killer/ http://www.asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/2006/04/03/cancer-killer/#comments Mon, 03 Apr 2006 19:17:43 +0000 Teena http://asbestos-mesothelioma-guide.com/blog/?p=3 Finally a delicious way to fight a deadly disease: “Cancer cells forget how to die - they just grow and grow and grow,” says Daniel Nixon, MD, president of the American Health Foundation in Valhalla, NY.

Solution: Raspberries, which have a chemical called ellagic acid that kills cancer cells by reinstituting their ability to die.

So far, ellagic acid has worked in test tube and animal studies; Dr. Nixon is studying whether eating raspberries can reduce the number of colon polyps in people at risk of colon cancer.

Strawberries, raspberries, jambools have plenty of ellagic acid. But the top source is Pomegranates.

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