Coping with Lymphoma During and After Treatment
When a person is diagnosed with a condition known as lymphoma, his life should evolve in more than just having laboratory tests and deciding what treatment to take. During the entire course of the treatment and several years following its completion, there are many other issues that would come and go, like coping with side effects from treatments, possible remission and relapse, understanding the concepts of disease response, and arranging for necessary funding for the treatment. The immediate family of the patient should also readily provide support in any form other than financial. The issues should be immediately understood and addressed.
Remember that lymphoma treatment could be long and very complicated. Every type of treatment (radiation, chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation, and antibodies) could bring about its own complications and issues. There are known side effects of taking such lymphoma treatments. They include hair loss, fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, sore mouth, and sore skin. Red blood and white blood count could also fall as such cells could also be killed along with cancer cells during treatment. In some cases, there is nausea, vomiting, and difficulty or pain in swallowing and drinking.
For the financial aspect, understand that lymphoma treatment could be significantly expensive. Several treatments and drugs may be covered under health insurances and government grants but still overall costs could be high. The patient could opt to take financial aid from the government specifically granted to cancer patients. There are even non-government organizations that provide financial support to lymphoma and other cancer patients.
The patient should understand treatment response as well as survival. When treatment is completed, the doctors should immediately assess treatment response. Once all diseases seem to have already disappeared, the patient has had a complete response. He is in a stage of remission. When the disease reappears in the future, there is a condition called a relapse. The patient should very well understand the possibility for both remission and relapse. The doctor should explain each very carefully to the patient.
There are issues following the lymphoma treatment. Patients who win the initial battle against the disease should still expect significant issues in the coming years. Lymphoma and the treatments used have long-term effects. The survivors battle is not yet over after complete recovery. In the coming years after the treatment, these could still be expected: cancer-related fatigue, infertility, memory problems, and possible heart damages.
Lastly, the lymphoma patient should not feel alone. The patient needs to feel that his battle against the disease is not fought by him alone. Moral and emotional support could be important. The family members and the loved ones of the patient could take significant roles in supporting the affected individual. Some people fail to recognize the fact that recovery from lymphoma goes beyond mere monetary expenses. Physical recovery from the disease should be complemented by emotional and mental recovery. In this aspect, making the patient feel loved and supported by people around him would definitely help.
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Medical Tourism: Going to Asia
People from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom usually aim for Asian countries when getting medical treatment for a variety of reasons. Asians are known to be very kind, accommodating and friendly. Asian nations are also widely popular for their unique and colorful culture, so you get to learn a lot from your trip. Finally, the technologies and practices in these countries are now considered globally competitive and safe.
Going to India
Medical tourism in India experiences a yearly growth rate of about 30%. By 2012, experts estimate the revenues brought in by the industry will reach about $2 billion. Some of the reasons why foreigners go to India include the very low cost of medical treatment, the very rich culture, historical and religious landmarks and the availability of modern medical technologies and equipment.
At present, infrastructures in India is not that many, but the cost of treatment in India is only around 10% of the cost you expect to pay in America or the United Kingdom. Some of the most popular treatments that visitors go for include cardiac bypass surgery, alternative medicine, eye surgery, hip resurfacing, heart surgery, orthopedic surgery and bone marrow transplant.
The health capital of India is Chennai, located at the southern region. The city brings in around 45% of medical tourists from other nations and about 40% from local places. Other medical tourism hotspots in India are Mangalore and New Delhi.
More Asian Countries
Malaysia is one of the newest favorites of medical tourists. Some of the advantages of visiting the country include the availability of top quality hospitals, experienced and well-trained medical staff and English being widely spoken throughout the main cities. Malaysia also has a very active association that aims to develop medical tourism. There is a national accreditation scheme as well. A lot of the hospitals aim to become dually accredited in a few years.
The Philippines is known for having very qualified doctors and dentists. A number of medical institutions are already accredited by JCI. Expect treatment to be only a fraction of the cost you pay for in the States. Some of the popular procedures done in the country include dental work, plastic surgery and heart surgery.
Korea and Singapore
Korea is one of the hottest medical tourism destinations today. Japanese patients usually go to Korea to avail of cheaper prices and the modern medical equipment and facilities. Korean clinics and hospitals are especially popular for procedures like cancer treatment, organ transplant, joint care, dental care, ophthalmology, spinal treatment and infertility treatment. Other popular procedures are mostly included in cosmetic surgery, such as nose jobs, skin lightening, eyelid surgery and facelifts.
Singapore has several health centers and hospitals accredited by JCI. It is preferred by several tourists because English is widely spoken and the equipment, technology and practices are always updated and are among the best in the world. Singapore also has agencies working to ensure that the country becomes one of the best when it comes to providing quality and advanced patient care.
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The Benefits Of Gastric Bypass
Gastric surgery is one of the most common weight-loss surgeries, in the United States alone about 140,000 procedures are conducted yearly. There are people who have undergone surgery would report about 60% of improvement in their body weight. There are others, who would report as much as 80% of weight loss.
The effects of the surgery would be most felt after a year, where most patients would report to be at their lowest weight. However, there could still be tendencies that the lost weight may be regained especially if the dietary and exercise recommendations are not followed. After all, reducing your food intake is not the only way to lose weight and maintain it.
Gastric bypass is a procedure done to address issues of severe obesity. There are associated conditions with obesity like diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, obstructive sleep apnea and the gastroesophageal reflux disease. There are about 80% of patients with hypertension will be off medication significant time after the surgery. The same goes for 90% of diabetic patients who will not be dependent on insulin.
It could even reduce the patients risk of having heart disease and cancer. Because of the weight loss, gastric bypass surgery could help a person improve mobility and flexibility. Gastric bypass surgery could lessen asthma attacks and reducing dependence to medication or inhaler. Arthritis, fatigue, joint pain and shortness of breath due to physical movements are also reduced by weight loss brought by surgery.
Being extremely overweight could have significant effect on the bladder and other organs of the body. They get too much pressure increasing stress incontinence. It could also cause hormonal problems which could lead to infertility. There are studies showing that after undergoing the bypass, 90% of infertility is restored.
Because of the weight-loss, there are patients who claimed that they increased their confidence and well-being is improved. There are studies showing that those who have undergone surgery would usually experience depression and anxiety. Counselling and support would help the individual to recover and the psychological effects could be lessened or could disappear.
The National Institute of Health, said that patients who have undergone bypass showed dramatic and sustained improvements in how they live their lives. They were able to go beyond the results of weight loss and improve their over-all life. They have higher self- esteem and higher energy levels after the surgery.
For example, gastric bypass surgeries that have been performed to obese teens were able to improve the quality of life within six months, some studies say. Aside from weight loss, their health improves and starts to become appropriate for their age. They were also able to socialize better and deal with peer pressure.
However, it is important to understand that aside from the numerous benefits you can get from gastric bypass surgeries, there are also risks just like any other medical intervention or surgery. Morbidly obese patients have higher risks in surgeries compared with those who are not morbidly obese. It is important to weigh our options before we proceed to any procedure.
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Why Child Bearing Is Healthy
Why Child Bearing Is Healthy
Dr. Randy Wysong
From a purely biological perspective, bearing children can be considered the most important reason for a womans existence. For that matter, the same could be said about men, since both sexes are, in effect, disposable packages of genetic material. We die, but our genes continue on immortally.
With increasing population pressure and modern independent lifestyles (unlike the family farm where children were almost a necessity), procreation has become an option that is increasingly declined or at least significantly restricted. But with these choices women take themselves out of a natural biological role. Additionally, treating the breast as an ornament rather than a feeding organ by opting for synthetic formulas also removes women from a natural biological function.
When these choices are coupled with the use of contraceptive hormones, hormone replacement therapy, an increasing load of estrogenic pollutants in the environment and food, and a diet that has veered significantly from its natural design, the formula for hormonal pandemonium, metabolic dysfunction, and disease is in place. The result is early menses in children, infertility, abnormal and erratic menstrual cycles, cervical dysplasia, fibroids, endometrial cancer, breast cancer, premenstrual syndrome, dramatic mood swings and depression, osteoporosis, and other symptoms of abnormal menopause: hot flashes, psychological problems, decreased libido, and thinning of the vaginal wall.
This is a difficult problem with no easy solution. If women would have as many children as they are capable of, nurse them for years as they are designed to, eat natural foods, and live in a more pristine environment, most of these modern health problems would disappear.
If money flowed out of our tap we would not have economic problems either, right?
The desire to limit families may soon not even be an option. We either curtail population growth or we will saw through the branch we all sit on. Population is the engine that ultimately drives all environmental woes. We live on a finite planet with finite resources, but we have an infinite ability to breed. We either live within the limits of Earths sustainable resources or we will destroy ourselves. Having children may be a natural and healthy process, but can be a deadly game for sustainable life on Earth.
So we have a conundrum. Women need to fulfill their biological reproductive role to achieve metabolic balance and health, but if they do so unlimited, the health of life on Earth is jeopardized.
In an attempt to solve this dilemma, women have turned to the quick fix of pharmaceutical synthetic hormones. Hormones that control conception, hormones that control abnormal menstrual cycles, and hormones that fix menopause. It is an overly simplistic solution to a complex problem.
The saying, Dont mess with Mother Nature is particularly applicable when dosing the body with hormones. Since the 1940s when estrogen therapy became popular, hundreds of thousands of women have succumbed to cancer. For example, a woman is nearly 13 times more likely to get endometrial cancer, and at nearly a 30% increased risk of breast cancer when she takes estrogen. Recently, researchers have identified the two top preventable breast cancer risks: oral birth control pills and estrogen replacement therapy.
For those who justify the use of estrogen for the benefits of decreased risk of osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease, consider that proper exercise, diet and lifestyle choices can have the same beneficial effect without the potential consequence of cancer.
How have women specifically put themselves outside of their natural context to make themselves more susceptible to cancers?
The average mom gives birth to about two infants. Although this is an intelligent number from the standpoint of population control, it is unnatural in that by not continuing to have pregnancies and to nurse (which stops ovulations) she will ovulate an incredible 438 times during her lifetime.
On the other hand, a woman in the primitive natural setting who may not even know what causes pregnancy or how to prevent it even if they wanted to, would have started menstruating and ovulating at age twelve and would have delivered nine babies and breast-fed them over the course of her reproductive career. Breast-feeding can continue for children in a totally natural setting for up to five or more years of age. The combination of pregnancy along with breast-feeding in the premodern setting would have decreased the number of ovulations that a primitive mother would have had to about nine.
This means that today women cycle through their menstrual periods an abnormal number of times, subjecting their bodies to surges of estrogen 50 times greater than our primitive ancestors living in a natural setting.
Many cancers of women are sensitive to high levels of female hormones.
For example, breast cancer is sensitive to estrogen. In dogs, simply removing the ovaries can often prevent or halt the progress of mammary cancer. Tamoxifen in humans is used to block estrogen activity within the mammary glands and thus is believed to exert its protective effect in this way. (This pharmaceutical agent can, however, increase the risk of uterine cancer to about the same degree that the risk of breast cancer is reduced!)
The resting periods of lower estrogen levels that women experienced in the premodern setting served a protective effect to spare organs and tissues from cancer. Women who nurse for a total period of time of even as little as two years are known to have a decreased incidence of mammary cancer.
This excess ovulation hypothesis is the likely explanation for the tragic phenomenon of modern female cancers. When humans decide to flout and repudiate nature by interfering with natural biological design, disease will always be the consequence.
If the problem is a departure from nature, then the solution is a return to it. Here are some options:
1.Refer to the Wysong Optimal Health Program for guidelines on life choices that can enhance overall health and thus hormonal health (http://www.wysong.net/PDFs/ohp.pdf).
2.Emphasize fresh raw foods in the diet and avoid processed foods as much as possible.
3.Eliminate hydrogenated oils and refined sugars. Hydrogenated oils displace healthful dietary fats and have been shown to be carcinogenic, and sugars can stimulate a rise in estrogens.
4.Try to use organic foods as much as possible and avoid synthetic materials in cosmetics, at home and in the workplace to help reduce exposure to environmental estrogens.
5.Do not attempt low fat or low cholesterol fad diets that often create dependence upon processed carbohydrates and seriously reduce important natural dietary fats and essential fatty acids.
6.Increase the consumption of natural vegetable foods containing phytoestrogens which tend to counteract estrogens.
7.Avoid hormone medications if at all possible.
8.Explore natural birth control measures.
9.Nurse your babies for as long as you can.
Modern life presents many choices, freedoms and rights. Tinkering with child bearing, however, is a choice that is not without consequences. Women need to be aware and take the steps necessary to make sure the choices they make do not also bring with them the increased risk of serious modern diseases.
Reference:
Zeneca Pharaceuticals. Tamoxifen Patient Insert. Zeneca, Inc. Wilmington, DE. 1998.
Dr. Wysong is a former veterinary clinician and surgeon, college instructor in human anatomy, physiology and the origin of life, inventor of numerous medical, surgical, nutritional, athletic and fitness products and devices, research director for the present company by his name and founder of the philanthropic Wysong Institute. He is author of The Creation-Evolution Controversy now in its eleventh printing, a new two volume set on philosophy for living entitled Thinking Matters: 1-Living Life… As If Thinking Matters; 2-The Big Questions…As If Thinking Matters, several books on nutrition, prevention and health for people and animals and over 15 years of monthly health newsletters. He may be contacted at [email protected] and a free subscription to his e-Health Letter is available at http://www.wysong.net.
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