Talent Mash

Hair loss is a natural thing that happens to all persons, male and female. It may be more pronounced in men as compared to females due to the hormonal differences. The causes of loss of hair include hormone testosterone, pregnancy, illness, emotional or physical stress and chemotherapy especially among cancer patients.

This article will concentrate on chemotherapy and other drug related hair loss and treatment.

Let us start by having an understanding of the drugs that cause the loss of hair. It is not every drug that cause this phenomenon. It is therefore not necessary to avoid all forms of medication out of fear of losing hair. If you are in doubt, you can read through the information on the side effects or ask the pharmacists for information on the drug.

Excluding anticancer chemotherapy drugs, there are a number of drugs that do not have usually exhibit bad reactions but which can cause loss of hair. These include pregnancy prevention pills and high blood pressure medications which alter the hormonal balance. Other drugs that have been said to cause loss of hair include celexa and accutane. This is a natural principle in life where there is nothing that lacks the other side of the coin. While these drugs play a vital role on making life healthier, they can lead to poor health too.

The most common class of drugs that cause loss of hair are the anti-depressants. This class of medicines which are also caused by include the celexa which are accused of using more of the proteins and amino acids. This means that amino acids such as cystein will not be supplied in adequate amounts to meet the need for production of hair follicles.

Other drugs with similar effect include Prozac, Paxil, Accutane. Accutane class of drugs is used to treat severe acne and is responsible for loss of hair among teenagers and those in their early twenties of age.

Similarly, medicines such as heparin that are blood thinners and anti-coagulants have been shown to increase loss of hair. So are dilantin which are used in managing the seizure and alopurinol used in managing gout.

In chemotherapy, hair loss is most prominent because of the suppression of the cellular activities. The toxic byproducts of the chemotherapy are very dangerous and they lead to destruction of the cells around the epidermis.

You can mitigate against the effects of these drugs on loss of hair by:

Avoiding the medicines wherever there is an alternative Take lots of water Take iron tablet supplements Do not be rough when brushing your hair.

As a patient with cancer, two of the most important decisions you will make are which treatment you will receive and where.

But diagnosing cancer is a very complex process that involves many health care professionals. In addition, the testing that is done on patients varies between doctors and specialists. And even the best health care professionals make mistakes.

How do newly diagnosed patients know they are getting the best therapy for their cancer?

Unfortunately, most patients don’t get the best treatment because they are diagnosed by a doctor who is not an oncologist. Therefore, that doctor is not likely to direct them to the most up-to-date therapies available.

The first step toward getting what you need is to get a second opinion. The Institute for Advanced Study in Medicine reported that 25% of patients had their treatment changed based on a second opinion.

Comprehensive Cancer Centers are the best places to get second opinions. That’s where the experts are, doctors who think about your type of cancer every day. And that’s what you want.

If you aren’t near a National Cancer Institute-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center or Clinical Cancer Center (you can find their locations online), you can still get a second opinion. Choose a doctor who is not affiliated with your doctor, and who is at a hospital that is not affiliated with your doctor’s hospital.

Another important part of getting the best therapy is to get a second opinion on your cancer by an expert pathologist. This involves getting the biopsy specimen to an outside pathologist.

Pathologists can’t always precisely determine the stage of cancer, and sometimes not even the type of cancer. And, sometimes tests that could be done on your biopsy specimen aren’t, simply because they aren’t commonly used. But that doesn’t mean these tests won’t help you.

You need an expert to examine your biopsy specimens. For example, The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has an excellent reputation in pathology.

Another important thing to do when you are first diagnosed is to contact the organizations for your type of cancer. They can lead you to experts in that field. Finally, get good nutritional counseling, and if you smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, try your best to stop.

Copyright 2005 Palkon Publishing Services Corp.

With the rising costs of healthcare and the unwanted side-effects of traditional medications, many cancer sufferers are turning to alternative medicine as a cancer treatment. Are they worthwhile? Although such treatments haven’t undergone the rigorous testing of traditional medications, their advocates claim that they’re useful. Here are some of the most common types of alternative medicine treatments for cancer:

1. Detoxification

Several cancer patients, who choose alternative cancer treatments, use detoxification as part of their regime. Detoxification can include several types of treatments, including colon cleansing, fasting, heat therapy, herbal methods, and water therapy.

Modern life constantly bombards our bodies and minds with toxins. This happens through the air we breathe, the foods and beverages we consume, and so on. These basic yet effective detoxification methods help to cleanse your body of those unwanted toxins.

2. Nutritional Therapy

There are two basic approaches have become popular. One method is a universal approach that helps to improve the patient’s strength and health. This includes sticking to that old “Food Pyramid” that we learned in elementary school, using a raw foods diet (such as juicing), and so on. While diet fads come and go, research continues to prove that fresh, organic food best feeds your body the fuel that it needs to function effectively.

Another type of nutritional therapy uses a special blend of nutrients to meet the nutritional needs of the patient. For instance, cancer patients may need special quantities of amino acids, carbohydrates, or glucose in their diets. A dietician and other health experts will have the expertise to determine the nutritional needs for individual cancer patients.

Researchers have discovered that certain foods are particularly useful when battling cancer. Here are some of them:

avocados: contains a powerful antioxidant broccoli: breast and prostate cancer cabbage: breast and prostate cancer carrots: high in beta carotene/effective for several types of cancer cauliflower: breast cancer chili peppers: may neutralize particular substances that cause cancer figs: could shrink tumors garlic: may boost immune cells that battle cancer grapes (red): contain powerful antioxidants grapefruit: may be effective against breast cancer kale: may prevent the conversion of lesions into cancerous cells mushrooms: some types may battle cancer raspberries: may contain vitamins and minerals that prevent cancer tomatoes: contain various antioxidants
3. Psychology/Psychotherapy

Some cancer experts believe that a traumatic experience can cause cancer to appear in a person one or two years following the event. Certain methods included in this type of cancer treatment include counseling, meditation, music, psychotherapy, relaxation techniques, stress reduction, and support groups.

The goal of using these techniques is to boost the cancer patient’s immune system. Another common method is biofeedback. This is a method in which people control particular physical processes that usually happen involuntarily– in order to enhance their health. In this case, the cancer patient visualizes the body’s immune cells striking the cancer cells.

If you are suffering from cancer, you can battle back by using some basic alternative treatments. As always-consult your doctor beforehand!

As our lives become more and more stressful, and our food less and less nutritious, cancer seems to be increasing and many people are suffering as a result. Traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy can be very harsh and often tend to make people even sicker, so what can be done to help cure cancer?

Ozone Therapy

A number of cancer patients have had successful results using ozone therapy. Ozone is a pure form of oxygen and can be used in a number of different forms including bubbling ozone into your bath water and absorbing it through the skin, using ozone capsules or droplets, breathing in ozonated air, drinking ozonated water, etc.

Glyconutrients

Glyconutrients have only recently started being taught by the medical profession and included in medical literature and they can be useful in helping to relieve symptoms of chemotherapy and radiation therapy and in making these treatments more effective. They assist improved communication between the cells which also benefits the immune system.

Diet Therapy

Our diets play a huge role in the development of cancer and much of our food today contains carcinogenic substances. By eliminating junk and sugary foods from our diet and focusing on raw foods and juices we can help to prevent and cure cancer naturally.

Green Tea

A number of research studies have been done into the use of green tea and its use for cancer and researchers have found that some of the compounds in green tea help to reduce the growth of cancer cells.

It is important that you seek professional medical advice if you are suffering from cancer and follow the program that they develop for you and speak to them about these alternate treatments. All of these traditional treatments however can be used in addition to traditional methods and may even help to make them more effective.

Radiation therapy is a cancer treatment in which energy is being utilized to kill cancer cells as well as shrink tumor. In cancer radiation therapy damages not only the cancer cells but also the normal cells however, normal cells can recover and regain its normal function. Usually, radiation is being done to complete the destruction of all tumor however, some cases uses radiation to only shrink the tumor in order the the symptoms to be relieved. It can be used as a sole treatment for cancer or as a combination together with chemotherapeutic drugs or surgery.

In some types of cancer radiation is not being used as a treatment but as a prophylactic, which means radiation is given to areas even without the evidence of cancer to prevent the development of cancer cells. Sometimes, radiation therapy is given to relieve the pain one is experiencing. In this regard, the radiation is considered to be palliative, not treating the disease, only reducing the symptoms.

There are many consideration when undergoing radiation therapy. For external radiation, patients are not radioactive and the avoidance to people around is not necessary. However, for internal radiation, in which there is the presence of implants, patients need to stay in the hospital. They are considered radioactive and the hospital staff including visitors, family and friends should avoid the patient as much as possible. If contact is necessary, certain precautions must be taken into account.

In certain cancer radiation dose should be followed. Usually, the dose that is given to cancer patients maximizes the destruction f cancer cells and minimizes the damage it will bring to the normal cells. There are different energy source for internal and external radiation.

A team is needed when providing cancer radiation therapy. You need a radiation oncologist is a doctor who specializes in using radiation as a treatment for cancer. The team also includes a dosimetrist who determines the proper radiation dose, radiation physicist who makes sure that the machines being used delivers the appropriate amount of radiation and the radiation therapist who is responsible to deliver the radiation. The team works hand in hand with other doctors involved in the treatment.

A careful planning is necessary when a cancer patient decide to undergo radiation therapy. The team should be present when discussing the radiation therapy to the patient and is responsible to inform the patient of what to expect during the treatment. Depending on the type of radiation treatment, certain marks are necessary. The marks are placed in the body of the patient in which the radiation will be focused.

It is the right of the patient undergoing radiation therapy to be informed of what to expect before, during, or after the treatment. It is also important to inform the patient that radiation therapy is best when combined with other cancer therapy such as the use of chemotherapeutic drugs and or surgery if necessary.

Cancer is a deadly disease. Cancer often takes the lives of the individuals that it infects. The disease can be stopped if it is caught in time. Catching the disease in time to reverse it involves a person being screened for cancer yearly.

Cancer occurs when the body begins producing abnormal cells that do not die. Normally cells in the body die when they are unhealthy or old; however, all cancer cells are abnormal and do not die. The cells continue to reproduce and often form tumors.

Therapy involves the treatment of an illness. Cancer therapy involves the treatment of cancer. Therapy often involves finding and destroying all cancer cells and tumors. And it often involves stopping cancer from spreading throughout the body, travel through lymph nodes and blood to other areas of the body. Once the cells reach another area of the body they begin infecting that area of the body. It works to stop the invasion of other parts of the body by the disease.

There is more than one type of therapy for cancer patients. Alternative therapy is a kind of therapy that works by increasing the body’s natural immune system and getting rid of unhealthy poisons in the body through detoxification.

Non alternative therapies include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, targeted therapy and biological therapy. There are also other types of therapies used to treat cancer.

Chemotherapy is the most common type of therapy used for treating this disease. A patient that does not have heart disease or diabetes is a good candidate for chemotherapy. Chemotherapy involves giving a patient drugs that seek out the cancer cells and kill them. Often a patient will get rid of all the cancer cells in his body through chemotherapy.