July 2007 - Page 2 of 2

Kidney Stones How They Are Formed and What They Are

More and more people in the United States, especially children, are getting kidney stones. Doctors attribute this to poor diet, obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure.The kidneys are located behind the abdomen and are the size of two small fists.

They flush out toxins from the blood in the urine. Men are more prone to suffer from this condition than women and it is generally diagnosed between 30 and 50 years of age.

They are formed by the concentration of urine and can be found anywhere in the urinary tract. They can be of different sizes and cause obstruction, pain, and infection. Most stones are made up of calcium combined with phosphate or oxalate. Continue reading “Kidney Stones How They Are Formed and What They Are”

Choose Calcium Rich Food – Not Pills and Supplements For Stronger Bones

Calcium helps to strengthen our bones. Women are especially recommended to include calcium in their diet all the time.

The first and the most important thing to remember while trying to include calcium in the daily diet is that getting calcium from food is better than getting it from a pill.

Calcium that is gotten directly from food is absorbed and utilized by the body better than synthetic calcium that a calcium pill.

Quality has proved to work better than quantity. In some cases women taking calcium supplements had higher average levels of calcium.

But still calcium that one can get from foods in their natural form proved to be more beneficial. And why just calcium all other nutrients also prove to be more beneficial in their pure and direct form than simply gulping pill.

However simple and uncomplicated the pill thing may sound it cannot be compared with the effect and benefits food in their natural form have to offer. Continue reading “Choose Calcium Rich Food – Not Pills and Supplements For Stronger Bones”

Know About Bladder Cancer

This is one of those cancers that people don’t like to think about or even talk about. But it does occur and it’s best to be aware of how it starts and progresses.

The function of the bladder is to gather and accumulate urine until it is ejected from the body. The bladder walls are made up of muscles and urinary epithelium.

At the back are the ureters that take urine from the kidneys to the bladder. The lower portion of the bladder narrows down into the urethra, which carries the urine from the body.

Bladder cancer can be of two types superficial and invasive cancers. Superficial bladder tumors are also known as papillary tumors or bladder warts.

They are found on the urinary epithelium surface. Invasive bladder cancers, as the name suggests, spread deeper into the epithelium, continuing into the muscle layer or surrounding tissues.

Sometimes they spread through the bladder wall to adjacent organs such as the rectum, colon, prostate gland/uterus, pelvic bones, and lymph glands. Continue reading “Know About Bladder Cancer”

Thyroid Cancer Risk, Symptoms and Treatments You Need To Know About

The exact causes of thyroid cancer are not yet known. Doctors are hardly able to explain while some people are affected with this disease and another is not. However, it is clear that thyroid cancer is not contagious. No one can “catch” cancer from another person.

Who is at a risk of developing thyroid cancer? Risk is something that increases the chance of developing the disease. Some such risk factors for thyroid cancer include family history of certain cancers, age, habit of tobacco and tobacco products, improper eating habits or unhealthy diet, obesity, no physical activities or say lack of exercise, exposure to radiation or other cancerous compounds or agents, and genetic changes. Continue reading “Thyroid Cancer Risk, Symptoms and Treatments You Need To Know About”

Be Aware of PAH

Pulmonary arterial hypertension or PAH is not a common disease that people are aware of readily although it affects perhaps close to 800,000 people in the USA at least those that are diagnosed. Women are more at risk than men for this disease. A mutation in the BMPR2 gene is said to cause PAH.

What happens is that the pulmonary artery, which carries blood from the heart to the lungs, is affected by hypertension. This latter happens because the small arteries in the lungs become narrower in diameter so naturally there is an increase in resistance of the blood flow through the lungs.

To combat this situation pressure goes up in the artery and in the right ventricle, which helps to pump blood into the artery. Continue reading “Be Aware of PAH”