Cancer Treatment: Know Your Options

While surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are still the first-line treatments for most cancers, there are also new and emerging approaches.

When you are learning about cancer and evaluating what cancer treatment to undergo, it's important to understand your options, and the benefits and risks that each offers.

Generally, cancer patients receive one of three types of cancer treatment: surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. It's also possible to receive a combination of any of those three types, in hopes of increasing the odds of getting rid of the cancer cells.

Cancer Treatment Options: Surgery Pros and Cons

If the tumor is large and easy to remove, surgical treatment might be the best option. The decision to cut is based on the type of cancer, its stage (how far it's spread), and where the tumor is located. Surgery can be effective at removing a single mass or tumor, but a surgeon can’t remove cancer that has spread and affected multiple areas of the body. Another consideration: It can also take time to heal from a large incision following surgery, and there are the usual surgical risks of excessive bleeding and infection.

Cancer Treatment Options: Chemotherapy Pros and Cons

Chemotherapy involves the use of drugs that destroy cancer cells. While it is a very effective method of ridding the body of cancer — particularly types of cancer that have spread to more than one location — there are side effects to deal with because healthy cells are also damaged during this form of cancer treatment.

Cancer Treatment Options: Radiation Pros and Cons

Radiation, another method used to destroy cancer cells, can be administered from outside the body (external beam radiation) or within the body (brachytherapy). Radiation can be delivered as streams of energy from X-rays and gamma rays, or can consist of energy from charged particles, such as proton beam radiation. Radiation is not a good option for all types of cancer; it's best for a single tumor or mass. With radiation, immediate side effects tend to be less severe than those of chemotherapy.

Cancer Treatment Options: Other Approaches

Not everyone benefits from the most well-known forms of cancer treatment. For some types of cancer, other, less commonly used methods may be most effective. These include:

• Biological therapy. Also called immunotherapy, this type of cancer treatment uses drugs that don't directly attack cancer cells, but instead work to promote the body's natural immune response against the cancer cells. These drugs make the body better able to defend itself and fight the cancer. Right now, the biggest drawback is that biological therapy seems most effective against cancers that are still small and in the earlier stages.
• Hormone therapy. The hormones estrogen and testosterone can promote the growth of tumors in the breast and prostate, respectively. To fight these types of cancer, drugs that inhibit the effects of those hormones may be given to slow tumor growth. Hormone therapy is only used to treat breast or prostate cancer, and only slows down progression; additional treatment is needed to kill the tumor.
• Photodynamic therapy. This cancer treatment uses light and a drug that makes cancer cells react when exposed to the light. The drug, called a photosensitizing agent, is administered and absorbed by the cells. Once the cells are exposed to light, the drug inside them reacts with oxygen, forming a chemical that destroys the cancer cells. This type of cancer treatment doesn't pose long-term side effects, offers targeted treatment that doesn't affect the rest of the body, and doesn't cause scarring. However, its use is limited because it is only effective on areas that can be exposed to light, not those deep within the body.

There are many other types of cancer treatment that are available or still being researched. Options include targeted therapy, gene therapy, heat therapy, laser therapy, stem cell transplantation, and angiogenesis inhibitor therapy, which cuts off the blood supply to tumors.

Only you and your doctor can determine the best possible cancer treatment for you. As an educated and informed patient, you can take an active role in deciding on your cancer treatment and understanding what that treatment will be like for you.

From : www.everydayhealth.com

Your Diet, Your Health

Nutrition is essential not only for life, but for a healthy life. Learn about the connection between what you eat and how you feel.

We've all heard the old saying “you are what you eat.” And it's still true. If you stick to a healthy diet full of vitamins and minerals, your body reflects it. You feel healthy, energized, and just all-around great. However, people who limit their diet to junk foods will undoubtedly suffer the consequences of not giving their bodies what they need to thrive. The result is not only fatigue and low energy, but poor health as well. Understanding this clear connection between your health and your diet may spur you to make better dietary choices.

Your Diet and Your Health: What Your Body Needs

"Food is essential. People take it for granted, but we need nutrients," says Anne Wolf, RD, a researcher at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Wolf cites as one example the old days when sailors crossed the ocean for months without proper nutrition. As a result, they ended up with scurvy because of a lack of vitamin C from citrus fruits. Vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals are necessary to keep all the different parts of the body healthy and functioning — otherwise, we get sick.

Every little thing that you do happens because of the nutrients that you give your body. Says Wolf, "Food gives us the fuel to think and the energy to move our muscles. The micronutrients, the vitamins, the minerals are there so that our bodies can function. You need food not just to sustain health, but to feel better."

And the only way the body will get the many nutrients needed to stay healthy and function is by eating a wide variety of healthy foods.

Your Diet and Your Health: The Guidelines

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's food pyramid and the daily food recommendations were established after extensive research and continue to be updated as more is learned about the role of nutrition in good health. Their goal is to make sure that people understand all the different nutrients their bodies need to stay healthy.

Food went from being a necessity to simply function to being the key to enabling the body to be at its functional best, says Wolf. Research shows that the right nutrition optimizes health and that getting enough of certain vitamins and minerals can also lower disease risk.

Your Diet and Your Health: Poor Diet, Poor Health

Many foods have a huge impact on heart health. Research has long shown that fruits and vegetables and a diet rich in whole grains and low in saturated fats can help protect the body from heart disease and high blood pressure, while a diet high in saturated and trans fats without enough fruits and vegetables can actually cause those diseases.

Even small diet deficiencies can have an enormously negative impact on your health. The most common health problem due to a lack of nutrients in the United States is iron deficiency, says Wolf. Menstruating women and girls need plenty of iron in their diets to replace what they lose each month during their periods. Iron is also an essential nutrient for infants, children, and growing teens.

Another example is calcium, needed to keep bones strong and healthy, says Wolf. Without it, the body can develop osteoporosis, a health condition characterized by weak and brittle bones.

Eating a well-rounded and varied diet will go a long way toward making sure you have all the nutrients you need. Remember that our body uses everything we put into it, and what we give it determines how it's used — for good health, or for bad.

From : www.everydayhealth.com

Maintaining Good Dental Care Habits

Your dentist is only a partner in your dental health. You need to do your part at home to keep periodontal disease at bay.

Taking care of your teeth at home can help you maintain your dental health and prevent periodontal, or gum, disease from developing.

Richard H. Price, DMD, spokesperson for the American Dental Association and a former clinical instructor at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, says regular home care should include daily brushing and flossing. “My advice is to brush thoroughly, at least twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening before going to bed,” says Dr. Price. “Be sure to floss at least once a day. I do it after every meal when I can.” Proper dental care at home, combined with seeing your dentist regularly, is your ticket to good dental health, says Price, who is retired from a 35-year private group dental practice in Newton, Mass.

Dental Health at Home

“Use products that have the ADA (American Dental Association) seal," says Price. "This means that the products — toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, etc. — are safe to use as directed and will keep your mouth healthy — no gum disease, no cavities."

Here are some basic principles to follow:

• Spend at least three minutes brushing your teeth two times a day. Use a timer if you have to to ensure that you're spending enough time on your oral care routine.
• Use floss at least once a day every day to clean between your teeth.
• Buy ADA-approved dental cleaning tools and toothpaste.

“Basically, brush and floss, and do it correctly,” says Price.

The goal of regular home care is to combat the buildup of plaque in and around your teeth and gums, and fight bad breath, tooth decay, and gum disease. Adults who neglect their teeth and who let plaque build up often develop infections in the delicate tissue around their teeth, Price explains.

A whole arsenal of dental health tools is available in drugstores to help you clean your teeth at home. These range from regular toothbrushes to power toothbrushes, inter-dental cleaners (picks, etc.), waxed and unwaxed floss, oral irrigators, and mouth rinses. You should ask your dentist which of these tools you might want to include in your daily cleaning routine.

Consequences of Poor Oral Hygiene

Poor oral hygiene invites plaque to accumulate around the base of your teeth and gum line, causing your gums to become red and inflamed.

"Plaque is the bacteria-laden film that, if allowed to accumulate on teeth and gums, will cause tooth decay and gum disease," Price explains.

If you neglect the care of your teeth at home and fail to go to the dentist regularly, accumulated plaque could potentially lead to the development of empty spaces around your teeth. These spaces could eventually lead to the destruction of bone and other fragile tissues supporting your teeth, and you could lose your teeth.

The good news is that being diligent about your dental health care and getting regular dental checkups can prevent plaque from forming and even reverse early gum disease. "A plaque-free mouth is a healthy mouth,” says Price. Along with regular dental checkups, “proper bushing and flossing are the only effective ways I know of preventing plaque buildup.”

From : www.everydayhealth.com