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What is mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma is cancer of the mesothelium. Like most cancers, mesothelioma involves the abnormal dividing of cells of a particular part of the body — in this case, the mesothelium. Mesothelioma is so deadly due to the fact that it remains dormant for many years and subsequently begins to rapidly expand. The cancer then begins to invade and damage nearby tissue, including the vital organs.
What is the mesothelium?
Many of the internal organs of the body are protected by a membrane called the mesothelium. This membrane actually consists of two layers of cells. The inner layer surrounds the organs, and the second is a sac surrounding the inner layer. When organs within this membrane must move, expand or contract — just like the heart, lungs, bladder, and so on, they are able to do so mainly because the mesothelium produces a lubricating fluid between the two layers.
Mesothelioma usually begins within the pleura or peritoneum. The pleura surrounds the lungs and covers the chest cavity. The peritoneum covers most of the organs in the abdominal cavity. Other mesothelium tissue is as well vulnerable to mesothelioma. These include the pericardium that surrounds and protects the heart; the tunica vaginalis testic which surrounds the internal male reproductive organs; and the tunica serosa uteri which is the membrane covering the internal reproductive organs in women.
Who is at greatest risk to develop mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma has a quite specific cause - exposure to asbestos. During the first half of the previous century, right up until the mid 1970s asbestos was an important material used to insulate buildings, machines, heavy equipment, and a broad range of commercial applications. Simply because it was plentiful and low-cost to mine, asbestos was used in many building products such as home insulation, floor, ceiling and roof tiles. It was also used in commonly found commercial products just like brake linings and pipe insulation.
This meant that millions of people were coming in contact with asbestos on a daily basis. And since the effects of exposure to asbestos fibre often usually do not become apparent for 30 or 40 years after prolonged exposure, companies and health officials were slow to recognize the dangers of asbestos. As a result, shipyard workers, men and women working in asbestos mines and mills, workers producing asbestos products, workers during the heating and construction industries, and virtually all other tradespeople were exposed to asbestos fibres for extended periods of time.
Today it is understood that anybody working with or near asbestos has an increased risk of developing mesothelioma, so there are strictly controlled limits of exposure in the work place. Nonetheless since the dormancy period of mesothelioma can often be 30 or 40 years, there are millions of workers who are at risk because of their exposure within the decades before the safety controls were put in place.
What are the symptoms of mesothelioma?
Pleural mesothelioma - cancer of the pleura or lung lining - causes shortness of breath or chronic coughing. Other symptoms of pleural mesothelioma can include chest pain, chronic coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, wheezing, hoarseness, weight loss, or blood in the phlegm from the lungs when coughing.
Peritoneal mesothelioma affects the lining around the stomach and intestines and is generally just as dangerous. Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include pain or swelling in the abdomen, weight loss, bowel obstruction, anemia, and fever.
Many of the symptoms of mesothelioma can easily be mistaken for allergies or a common cold. Mesothelioma is often discovered when patients think they have one of these other common illnesses.
How Serious is Mesothelioma?
By the time most infected people become aware they have mesothelioma, it’s no longer dormant and becomes extremely aggressive. In its active phase, mesothelioma can travel quickly, and is almost impossible to stop. You’ll find treatments used to keep the patient comfortable, but there’s currently no cure for mesothelioma. As many as 75% of those who develop the disease will lose their life within one year. The remainder might last for up to an additional six months.
This makes it extremely important to detect the disease before it enters its active phase.
How is mesothelioma diagnosed?
Mesothelioma is often not diagnosed until it reaches an advanced stage. This is due to its long dormancy period, and mainly because once it becomes active the initial symptoms are similar to much more common and less dangerous sicknesses just like colds or the flu. If a patient has a history of exposure to asbestos, subsequently a complete physical examination is advised. This would normally include x-rays of the chest or abdomen and lung function tests. It might at the same time include a CT (or CAT) scan or an MRI. Both of these tests give detailed pictures of areas inside the body.
If these tests indicate the probability of mesothelioma, in that case it’s essential to perform a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. Doing a biopsy involves an oncology specialist taking a small sample of affected tissue and examining it under a microscope for signs of malignancy. Depending on the location of the affected tissue, carrying out a biopsy could be a relatively straightforward procedure. It normally involves the insertion of a small instrument into the suspect cavity. These surgical devices have both viewing and sample taking capabilities. So the oncologist or surgeon can take a look at the cavity from the inside, and subsequently take tissue samples from different areas.
If mesothelioma is discovered, the initial tests are followed up with what is called “staging”. This involves more tests to determine how far the disease has spread.
How is mesothelioma treated?
Standard treatments include the normal options available to cancer patients: surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Sometimes, these treatments are combined. When the mesothelioma is discovered at an early enough stage these treatments can sometimes be effective.
Among the treatments which might be used in order to reduce the effects of the disease are oxygen, postural drainage and pain killers. Many alternative treatment methods are also being tested, including attempts to strengthen the body’s immune system. Gene therapy is also being tested in an attempt to attack the problem at the DNA level. Other treatments being tried and tested include homeopathy, herbs and acupuncture. Unfortunately none of these have been found to be quite effective once the disease reaches its aggressive stage.
As with all cancers, early detection is the best defense against mesothelioma. Anyone who has been exposed to asbestos has to be alert for symptoms and contact a doctor immediately. Detecting mesothelioma at the earliest stage possible drastically increases the chances of beating the disease.
I’m Greg. Gardner, I’m surviving from Abestos Mesothelioma Cancer, and still defeating it everyday! You can read more about my write-up about Mesothelioma here! Also visit my site to learn more about Abestos Settlement.
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When you pose this question, how can I lose weight then following fad diets is not the answer if you are planning on keeping the weight off.
The one thing all fad diets have in common is, they are “diets”.
A pair of bell-bottom pants, in today and out tomorrow. For a few years these diets are popular and then they are out of style. Then, what happens, after a while they come back like a vicious circle when the fitness professionals feel that we are ready to start up with them again. If you really want to burn fat and lose weight steer clear of the fad diets.
Many of you will lose some weight at the beginning of these diets. So you get some weight loss initially, but you might also lose some muscle on these diets also. Your fat burning efforts and overall health could suffer if you lose muscle.
But the most discouraging part of fad diets is that virtually all people who use these diets will gain the weight back, and then even more. Has this happened to you?
I need to keep the pounds off forever, this is most important for me.
One reason is the fad diets often advise focusing too much on one type of food, like non-carbohydrate foods (meat and dairy only) or only carbohydrate foods (fruits and vegetables only). This kind of diet will lead to unhealthy eating habits.
You are greatly reducing the number of vitamins and minerals you eat when you only eat foods from one catagory. Poor health and health problems is the result of restricting yourself of the needed vitamins and minerals that your body requires.
To have good health it is necessary to eat a variety of nutritious foods.
Fad diets are too restrictive to be realistically followed, particularly for a long period of time. They are not only unhealthy but these diets are also very difficult to stay on because they take away many of our favorite foods. If you remain on a rigid restrictive diet then you won’t be losing weight for very long.
Behavioral changes in your eating habits is what will keep you on a pattern of weight loss and weight stabilization for the rest of your life.
You see, the very concept of a diet is doomed to fail. Why? Fad diets are rooted in short term thinking. The fact that someone goes on a diet means they will have to come off of the diet. This is not permanent…why must I struggle to lose 15 pounds when I will gain it back and additional weight when my diet is ended.
A lot of people just don’t understand this, even though it may sound simple. In an attempt to fix their weight and health issues many people turn to diets. These fad diets are not the answer as they just result in more problems. People who diet regularly won’t lose weight in the long term and more often than not they will gain more weight back than they lose.
To answer the question how can I keep the weight off, it is important for you to seek life long fat burning, health and fitness in a lean body, you should take some tips from my mom, and probably your mom too.
My mom gave me the most significant nutritional advise of my life. I got very sound advise from my mom. My mom didn’t have any knowledge about fat burning, but she fed me very nutritious foods while I was a growing boy.
My mom always made sure that I ate my green vegetables. On special occasions she would let me have sweets and some other fun foods, but she limited how much and how often I could have them. She tried to provide a balance of the different food groups throughout the day.
Thanks, Mom! Mom’s diet was actually quite sound, and I’ve found that heeding some of this advice in the pursuit of maximum body fat burning and a lean healthy body for the remainder of your life is a smart way to go.
You see your body naturally craves foods rich in nutrients, (antioxidants, phyto nutrients (plant), fiber, vitamins, minerals, etc.) When you eat most of your meals from foods rich in basic nutrients, your body will be satisfied and overeating will no longer be much of a concern.
As a result of eating wholesome foods you will go into a fat burning phase as a natural result of giving your body what it thrives on and needs to be healthy. Because you are giving your body what it needs to be healthy you will be promoting natural alkalinity in your body and this will reduce your risk of disease.
If you do the opposite and eat most of your meals from foods lacking in nutrients, you’ll keep eating and eating and eating to fulfill your nutrient requirements. These are fast food, foods high in fat, high sugar foods, etc that are low in nutrition. This means you will be taking in too many calories.
Eating too many calories means you will continue to gain weight, get fatter and be more prone to developing diseases related to being overweight. Your body will have an acidic environment, which is an extra risk of disease when you gain weight and fat. You just will not burn fat under these conditions.
So nutrition for fat loss, fitness, and health in fact all do go hand in hand. My Fat Burning Furnace students have changed their lives permanently, by simply altering what they put in their bodies and you can do it to.
Focus on foods rich in nutrients. Next, I will define a plan that will aid you in transitioning from where you are now to where you want to be. One where your body seemingly burns fat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
One of the major keys to healthy eating is to eat a variety of foods from all of the food groups regularly and consistently.
Frank Hurley is an advocate of a 3 Step system to weight loss that you can find at How to Lose Weight in 3 Easy Steps. Frank’s complete weight loss process can be found at burnfatcaloriesfast
History of asbestos.
There are four main types of asbestos; Amosite (brown fibers), Anthophyllite (gray fibers), white Christie, and blue Crocidolite. Chrysotile has curly fibers while the other three have rod like fibers. These fibers fragment into dust quite readily and waft into the air. They can adhere to skin or clothing and are easily swallowed or inhaled.
Half a century ago, asbestos was hailed by many as a miracle product. They said nearly anything could be made from this mineral. It as used as an additive to reinforce mortar and plastics. Asbestos fibers can also be separated into fine threads that do not conduct electricity and are unaffected by heat or chemicals.
Use of asbestos drastically increased during World War II. Shipbuilding incorporated asbestos extensively in freighters and support vessels to insulate boilers, steam pipes and hot water pipes. Asbestos became the miracle construction material as it was readily obtained, processed, and transported. After WWII cars used asbestos in brake shoes and clutch pads. Asbestos found its way into residential and industrial building materials, water supply, sewage materials, ceiling and floor tiles, and vermiculite garden materials to name a few products.
In the 1970’s, following the discoveries of the health dangers of asbestos dust inhalation, the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission prohibited the use of asbestos in several products that could liberate asbestos fibers into the environment during use. Regulations governing the use of asbestos and public concern since 1970 have created a significant drop in the use of asbestos in the United States. The same pattern has been seen in most of the developed world.
In 1989 all new uses of asbestos were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency while any old uses before that year were still allowed. The EPA suggested that schools inspect for damaged asbestos and eliminate any exposure or enclose it in protective barriers. Vermiculite, widely used in horticulture, became a concern of the EPA . They recommended outdoor use, limiting the amount of dust used, and keeping vermiculite damp.
Health hazards
Asbestos may create serious health hazards such as coughing, lung damage, shortness of breath, and lung cancer. Most people do not become sick in the early stages of contact but usually need continued exposure. This often means on jobs such as mining, milling, manufacturing asbestos products, and the building construction industry. Firemen, demolition and destruction workers, drywall removers, and anyone else involved in trades that involve destruction of buildings, ships, and automobiles are also exposed to the hazards of asbestos.
Over a number of years continual exposure to asbestos can cause very serious health problems, such as mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare type of carcinoma of the membrane that lines numerous cavities of the body, including the lungs, abdomen and heart, and has been associated with exposure to asbestos dust. In mesothelioma, the cells of the mesothelioma metastasize and damage adjacent organs and tissues.
Mesothelioma may not develop for a long period of time, often as long as twenty-five or thirty-five years before full blown symptoms appear. Not all workers who have been exposed will develop diseases, but workers who have been exposed to it may bring fibers on their clothing, hair, shoes, and skin home to their families. To circumvent this risk, most industries require workers to bathe and change their clothing before they leave work.
Dietary advice for Mesothelioma patients
Doctors and nutritionists may recommend a special cancer diet because many mesothelioma patients tend to lose their appetites due to worry over their condition. Also, those who are undergoing treatment may choose not to eat because of the unpleasant side effects they may experience. Chemotherapy and some medications may cause an imbalance of nutrients that must be corrected in order to keep the body as strong as possible and to keep the patient from losing an excessive amount of weight. Other side effects of mesothelioma treatment can include nausea, vomiting, constipation,dry mouth and a change in the sense of smell or taste.
In our childhood we were all told to eat our vegetables. Forcing down cabbage and sprouts was supposed to make us bigger and stronger. Well, so it is for mesothelioma patients. Diet is often an overlooked subject for cancer patients, but eating the right nutritional foods for strength and energy is just as important as taking the proper medication.
Mesothelioma patients undergoing treatment must follow a special cancer diet devised by their nutritionists. The details of every patient’s mesothelioma diet will vary. Some patients will need to incorporate more fat into their diets, while others may need more protein. Cancer diets involve eating the correct amounts of protein and calories as well as drinking the right amount of water to keep the ailing body replenished and energized. The body needs plenty of nourishment when it is going through chemotherapy or even when the patient is taking certain medications.
It is important that patients devise a cancer diet under the guidance of their doctor and nutritionist to ensure that they obtain the proper amount of nutrients to improve their quality of life.
Protein is important for any cancer patient because it helps repair tissue damaged by surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. Protein also helps maintain a strong and healthy immune system, lowering a mesothelioma patient’s risk of infection after aggressive cancer treatments. The National Cancer Institute recommends increasing protein in a cancer diet with cheese, milk, ice cream, yoghurt, eggs, nuts, peanut butter, meats and fish.
Fats are an essential part of the cancer diet because they supply the body with the necessary energy it needs while undergoing treatment. The amount of fats a cancer diet should consist of is dependent on a mesothelioma patient’s age and body size. The National Cancer Institute recommends increasing caloric intake with such foods as butter, milk, cheese, honey, sugar, granola and dried fruits.
Water is another essential component of the cancer diet. Without a significant amount of water, the body will dehydrate. It is important that anyone undergoing cancer treatment drink sufficient water to keep their bodies hydrated and replenished.
I’m Greg. Gardner, I’m surviving from Abestos Mesothelioma Cancer, and still defeating it everyday! You can read more about my write-up about Mesothelioma here! Also visit my site to learn more about Mesothelioma Lawsuits.
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