Health News. Lots of resources and information

IMPLANTS OR SURGERY

A natural, safe way to increase your breast size without resorting to implants or surgery is not an impossibility. Many women have discovered that specific exercises, when performed correctly and regularly, can result in a higher, firmer chest and, in effect, a larger breast size. Here are some exercises designed to develop higher, firmer breasts:

1) Assume a sitting position, with your legs crossed and your back straight. Place your hands on the back of your head, with your fingertips touching. Extend your elbows as wide as possible, and to the side.

Bring your elbows together in front of your face (don’t raise your shoulders). Swing your elbows back to the starting position.

Inhale as your elbows come together and exhale as you swing them out to each side.

For best results, do 10 repetitions of this exercise.

2) Another good exercise designed to create a higher, firmer chest requires that you sit on a couch and bring your arms in back of you, resting them on top of the couch. Hold this position for 30 to 60 seconds. Focus on the stretch in your chest muscles. This exercise can be done while you’re watching TV, during the commercials.

Implants And Mammography And Cancer

Specialists say that implants can make mammography difficult and delay the detection of cancer. This poses a particular risk for those women with a family history of breast cancer. Experts advise women who have had implants to tell the mammogram technician that there is an implant.

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We’ve all heard it before—especially those people who use tobacco regularly— cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addictive. We even know that nicotine is the drug in tobacco which causes addiction, and that all tobacco products contain substantial amounts of nicotine. The nicotine is absorbed quickly in the lungs from tobacco smoke and in the nose and mouth from smokeless tobacco, such as snuff and chewing tobacco. Even knowing all of this, millions of people continue to use tobacco, many of them, perhaps, because the addiction is so powerful.

How powerful is nicotine? Here are some facts, according to the 1988 Report of the Surgeon General on the Health Consequences of Smoking:

1) Used regularly, levels of nicotine accumulate in the body both day and night. In other words, daily tobacco users are exposed to the effects of nicotine 24 hours a day.

2) The more and longer you smoke, the more your body builds up a tolerance to nicotine, meaning the more nicotine you get, the more you need in order to produce the same feelings. That’s the reason that certain unpleasant symptoms, such as headaches and dizziness, which usually accompany beginning smoking disappear once tobacco is used regularly.

3) Nearly every component of the body’s endocrine and nonendocrine system is affected by nicotine and smoking.

4) Most patterns of tobacco use are regular and compulsive, and any attempt to give it up usually results in a withdrawal syndrome.

Whenever someone who uses substances that contain nicotine—cigarettes, cigars, pipes, snuff, chewing tobacco—attempts to quit, he or she usually experiences varying levels of the following withdrawal symptoms:

1) A craving for nicotine.

2) Frustration, irritability, anger.

3) Anxiety and tension.

4) Decreased heartrate.

5) Increased appetite.

6) Lack of concentration.

Most withdrawal symptoms seem to reach their zenith within the first 24 hours after quitting tobacco use and then decline gradually after that over several days or a few weeks.

Scientific research suggests that medicines can help reduce certain withdrawal symptoms as well as the likelihood of starting tobacco use again, but they seem to be more effective when used with behavioral intervention, such as relaxation methods and hypnosis.

Local offices of the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the American Lung Association can provide pamphlets on how to stop smoking and information on low-cost cessation programs. For those people who find quitting smoking “cold turkey” too difficult, the information supplied by these organizations can be very helpful.

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Recent research suggests that some natural chemical compounds found in fruit may help prevent certain types of cancer . The compounds are known as limonoids and were tested on rats. The results showed that limonoids caused an increase in the secretion of an anti-cancer enzyme in the rats’ stomachs, providing them with added protection against stomach tumors and stomach cancers. Limonoids are the natural compounds that create the slightly bitter taste in some fruits, including oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit.

Many Nuts And Berries May Help Prevent Cancer

According to results from a study conducted at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, elegic acid—a substance found in many nuts and berries—may help your body tend off cell damage caused by certain Cancer-causing chemicals or carcinogens.

Researchers discovered that elegic acid neutralizes carcinogens which have invaded the bloodstream.

The researchers note that the substance only seems to work if it is introduced into the body’s system immediately before or during the time the body is exposed to the cancer-causing carcinogens.

Because the body has difficulty absorbing elegic acid in a concentrated form, supplements of the substance aren’t very effective. The researchers indicate that elegic acid in its natural form—in nuts and berries, such as Brazil nuts and strawberries—is more easily absorbed by the human body.

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Nutrients are substances YOU need to get every day from what you eat and drink, and by that definition water is an essential nutrient. The recommended amount of water is 8 glasses (64 ounces) per day. That may seem excessive, but under average conditions—a moderate temperature, and only light exercise—the body loses 2 to 3 quarts (2 quarts equals 64 ounces) of fluid a day through sweating, breathing and waste products.

All that fluid must be replaced to maintain an adequate fluid balance in the body. Some of the fluid is replaced when you eat solid foods, such as fruits and vegetables— which contain a lot of water. Other liquids, such as juice, milk, soup, and soft drinks, also help replace lost fluids.

Plain water is best, however, because it is more efficiently absorbed than other fluids, especially those that are high in sugar. Coffee and caffeinated soft drinks are not good replacements either because caffeine acts as a diuretic and causes even more fluid to be lost. Alcohol has the same negative effect.

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Findings from a new study suggest that people who wear disposable contact lenses may be up to 14 times more likely to get sight-threatening eye ulcers than those people who

wear non-disposable soft lenses.

Researchers say, however, that the condition may not be due to the lenses, but rather to improper care by wearers. Apparently, many people fail to heed the limits stated on the recommended wearing times for the lenses.

The study was focused on 42 cases of eye ulcers associated with contact lens wear. The results showed that compared with people who use d daily-wear soft lenses; disposable soft lens users had a 14-times greater risk of developing a potentially dangerous eye ulcer called ulcerative keratitis. The ulcers can be treated effectively by antibiotics, but if left untreated, can cause scars and blindness. Key: Don’t wear your contact lenses longer than you are supposed to.

How To Save Over Seventy Percent On Your Contact Lenses

It isn’t always necessary to consult an eye doctor if you want to replace your contact lenses with the same brand, type and prescription. Several mail-order firms offer over 70% off most brands and types of contact lenses. However, many experts are opposed to this type of lens buying because they feel that mail-order customers will stop seeing their doctor for regular vision checkups.

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The bloodstream transports gases throughout the body. Blood is pumped into the lungs, where it deposits carbon dioxide, a waste product, and receives oxygen. The fine balance and control between the heart and lungs prevents shortness of breath even when you exercise. Shortness of breath (dyspnea) that occurs at rest or with little exercise can be acute or chronic, but in either case it is caused by diseases of the heart or lungs, or both. Occasionally, illnesses such as anemia or excess thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism) tax the heart so that it must work overtime. The result is shortness of breath.

Sudden breathlessness can occur without warning, and it can be frightening. You may feel that you are choking because you are unable to catch your breath. Depending on the cause, there may also be pain in the chest, cough, heart palpitations, dizziness, light-headedness, and mental confusion.

One of the common causes of sudden breathlessness is heart failure. Acute heart failure, or pulmonary edema, means that the pumping action of the heart suddenly becomes impaired. Instead of the heart being able to effectively pump the blood that has been brought to it, the blood backs up and collects in the lungs, thereby interfering with the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

The common causes of acute heart failure are heart attacks (myocardial infarction), a sudden irregularity of the heart rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia), or conditions that suddenly overtax the heart, such as severe anemia, hyperthyroidism, or a pulmonary embolism. Immediate emergency-room care and hospitalization are required for heart failure. Medications such as diuretics, morphine, and digoxin are used because they drain the fluid from the lungs and improve the efficiency of the heart’s pumping action. An electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, and blood tests may be necessary to find the exact cause and best treatment for this condition.

Even though the pulmonary (lung) causes of sudden breathlessness can be as dramatic as the cardiac (heart) causes, in most cases lung causes are more gradual, even during an acute situation.

A collapsed lung (pneumothorax) can also cause sudden breathlessness. In this situation one of the small air sacs in the lung ruptures, and air rushes out of the lung and into the pleural space between the lung and the chest wall. The lung loses air and collapses. Sometimes there is sudden pain with the episode. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are often responsible for a collapsed lung. Immediate medical attention is required to allow the lung to reexpand.

Other common respiratory causes of sudden breathlessness are infections such as acute bronchitis or pneumonia. You may not know that you have these diseases until an attack of acute breathlessness occurs. You may have had a recent cold or flu with some cough, phlegm, or fever. Sometimes a rapid progression of symptoms occurs within a few hours and you may become short of breath. The most important clue to a lung infection is coughing and yellowish or green phlegm.

Another condition that causes shortness of breath is a pulmonary embolism. A blood clot (thrombus) forms either in the veins of the legs or pelvis and makes its way to the heart and lungs. The clot blocks the blood flow from the heart to the lungs and interferes with breathing. Other symptoms can be chest pain and coughing up blood. This is a medical emergency that requires hospitalization and rapid treatment with anticoagulants (blood thinners) to prevent further blood clots from forming. Very rarely, emergency surgery is done to remove the blood clot from the lungs.

You are most at risk for pulmonary embolism if you have had surgery or have suffered from a severe illness that has required prolonged bed rest. Operations and fractures, especially when occurring after an accident, pose the greatest danger. However, there is a good chance for a complete recovery. I treated a spry 93-year-old woman who had fractured her hip. She agreed to hip surgery and was doing well until three days after the operation, when she suddenly developed severe pain in her chest and became short of breath. She was diagnosed as having pulmonary embolism. Despite her age, she made an excellent recovery. Three years later, she is still an active, involved, and very independent woman.

A number of less common events can cause sudden breathlessness. In some, following an inflammatory illness or viral infection, the lungs accumulate excess scar tissue. The body tries to counteract the inflammation and produces a jellylike material which fills the lungs and interferes with their proper function.

Inhaling a noxious material during a fire or breathing some chemical that may inflame the lung can also cause sudden breathlessness.

In most cases of sudden breathlessness, hospitalization is required for proper investigation and treatment. First-aid measures by a physician or in an emergency room can be life-saving, such as expelling the air from the chest in a case of pneumothorax, improving the severe fluid congestion in heart failure, or giving oxygen after removing a person from a smoke-filled room. Most of these conditions respond to treatment, but urgent medical attention improves the chances of recovery.

Unlike the sudden causes of shortness of breath, the chronic causes may be gradual and therefore more insidious. It may take many days, weeks, or months before you are aware that you no longer can undertake your normal activities because of shortness of breath.

If you have heart disease, you may discover that you pant after exertion. You might feel short of breath lying in bed, especially when you lie flat, and find that raising the head of your bed or using more pillows makes you comfortable. Sometimes you become breathless only in the middle of the night. Getting up and walking around sometimes helps. You may begin to notice that your legs swell, which is usually worse at the end of the day. This edema can be so gradual that you may not be aware of it.

If you have not had a heart attack or rheumatic fever, you may not be aware that you have heart disease. Some people know only that they had high blood pressure for many years before the symptoms of chronic heart failure show up. If you begin to experience these symptoms, heart failure might be diagnosed. Your physician will usually do a number of tests, including a chest X-ray, an electrocardiogram, and blood tests. Treatment, often with a combination of medications, is usually successful.

Like chronic heart failure, chronic pulmonary breath-lessness progresses gradually, often occurring with a cough, excessive phlegm, or wheezing. Sometimes there are no symptoms other than the awareness that physical activity has become more difficult.

Shortness of breath from lung disease is more common if you smoke. This is by far the most common cause of chronic respiratory disease. Unfortunately, many people continue to smoke even though they know the connection between smoking and their symptoms. You may have had wheezing and coughing for many years, or other symptoms that signify the development of chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Exposure to lung irritants from work, such as occurs in miners, grain handlers, and people who worked in dusty atmospheres for many years or with irritant chemicals can also cause chronic lung disease and chronic breathlessness. Your work history should be given to your doctor when you discuss your history and respiratory symptoms.

As in heart failure, with pulmonary disease you may notice some swelling in your legs, especially if the disease is severe. You may learn to partially close your lips as you walk which makes breathing seem easier, and notice your hands tend to be gray or blue. You may have little tolerance for cold weather, which often aggravates breathlessness. Tests for these symptoms include a chest X-ray, an electrocardiogram, and pulmonary function tests, which allow the physician to determine the cause and extent of the lung damage and measure the response to treatment.

On rare occasions your physician may recommend a lung biopsy, in which a small piece of lung tissue is removed and examined under a microscope. This facilitates a diagnosis that may have been difficult to determine by other means.

Another condition that causes breathing difficulty is pleural effusion (an accumulation of fluid between the lung and chest wall). Often, the physician can remove this fluid to relieve symptoms and diagnose the reason for its accumulation. The causes include heart failure, infections, inflammatory diseases, and tumors. Thoracentesis (removal of fluid) is usually painless and has very little risk.

Occasionally, a pleural biopsy may be necessary, in which a needle is inserted to remove a small piece of the pleura (lining of the chest wall). This is simpler than a lung biopsy, and it helps to clarify the cause of fluid accumulation.

Most people with chronic lung disease causing breathlessness can be helped if medical advice is followed. Stopping smoking is the single most important step you can take.

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Losing your appetite can be very discouraging, and it is a common complaint of older people. You may ask your doctor or pharmacist for a “tonic” to improve your appetite. But a “tonic” that consists of a mixture of vitamins and alcohol acts for a short period only as a placebo.

A decreased or lost appetite can be caused by various physical and psychological illnesses or it may be a side effect of medication. Digoxin, used for heart diseases, can accumulate in your body and lead to digitalis toxicity, which often results in a loss of appetite. Other medications that can lead to appetite loss include antibiotics, especially tetracycline and erythromycin, and drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease, heart palpitations (irregular heart rhythms), or abnormal emotional states.

in addition to drugs many illnesses can lead to a loss of appetite, including those that affect the stomach, bowel, liver, and pancreas. Diseased kidneys may cause a gradual loss of appetite, as may an underactive or overactive thyroid gland and metabolic disturbances affecting the body’s control of calcium.

A major cause of appetite loss is depression. This illness may not be immediately recognized by you, your family, or your physician because the symptoms are often different from those in the younger person. If you think you are suffering from depression, consult your physician, who can prescribe or arrange for suitable antidepressant therapy.

You should always be aware of social situations that interfere with your desire to eat. If you live alone, you may lose interest in preparing food or you may not want to eat because you have no one to share a meal with. This situation is similar to depression, but it can be treated by finding friends or neighbors to share meals.

Although as you get older your needs for food may decrease, you should not confuse this with appetite loss. If your weight remains steady, there is usually little to worry about. When loss of appetite is severe, it usually causes weight loss, which should be evaluated by a physician.

One 93-year-old woman caused great concern for her daughters because she ate very little according to their standards. They said she only nibbled at her food, whereas she claimed that she ate all that she needed. She remarked, “At my age you don’t need much food.” A comparison of weights taken at my office showed that her weight had not changed in the last two years. Clearly she knew what she was talking about.

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Heart function can be evaluated in a number of ways. A physical examination and a chest X-ray are crucial. However, different types of electrocardiograms (ECGs, sometimes abbreviated EKGs) give information that cannot be obtained by any other means.

A muscle in the heart receives its stimulation from an electrical system that governs how the heart beats. An electrocardiogram records the contraction of the muscle and the electrical impulses. By studying the ECG patterns and changes, physicians can diagnose many heart disorders.

An ordinary electrocardiogram takes about five minutes and is completely painless and has absolutely no danger. It is done either routinely to make a record for future reference or at the time of a suspected heart disturbance. Because an electrocardiogram records only a few moments of your heart’s action, it may fail to reveal abnormalities that occur infrequently or episodically, such as an irregular heart rhythm. It may be necessary, if you have had a heart attack or have an irregular heart rhythm, to repeat tracings frequently to observe any changes.

Your physician may want to have an ambulatory cardiogram, which means you carry a small, portable recording device (called a Holter ambulatory monitor) that continuously traces your heart’s rhythm over an extended period, usually twenty-four hours. This monitor is more likely than an ordinary ECG to reveal an episodic change in heart rhythm that may be the cause of dizziness or fainting spells. Although somewhat less convenient than a standard ECG, this tracing over time can supply invaluable information about the cause of unusual symptoms. Sometimes the attacks are so infrequent that it may take more than one tracing before the diagnosis can be made. It may also be repeated to see if treatment is effective.

Some people have chest pain that is not typical of angina pectoris. The standard ECG, which is taken while you are resting, may not reveal any abnormalities, so cardiographic tracings may be taken while you exercise in a carefully controlled situation. This is called an exercise or stress ECG. The tests involve riding a stationary bicycle or walking at increasing speeds on a moving ramp. Electrocardiogram wires will be attached and a technician and a physician will supervise the examination and interpret the results.

The only danger of this test is that you may experience an episode of angina pain during the procedure. However, it is certainly safer to have an attack under supervision so that a definite diagnosis can be made than to experience attacks when you are alone. Sometimes this test may be repeated after you have been given treatment for your anginal symptoms or after a heart attack.

The results of this test are not completely foolproof. You may have a normal test and still suffer from coronary disease. Occasionally, a test appears to indicate heart disease in a person who is normal. The examination itself is only one part of the total evaluation of heart disease. Your doctor will interpret all the tests together before he makes a diagnosis and decides on treatment.

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Angiography is a relatively new development in the field of radiology. An angiogram is an X-ray taken while an iodine substance is injected into blood vessels. This reveals any abnormalities in the organs that they supply. Angiography can be used to visualize the blood supply of every organ in the body. With little danger, many internal parts of the body can be outlined by the pattern of the blood vessels. Diagnoses that were previously elusive are more easily made with the assistance of these X-rays. The only discomfort is that of the needle entering the blood vessel and the momentary warm feeling that may occur when the iodine enters the body. Very rarely people who are allergic to the iodine dye may suffer anaphylaxis (shock) which may be fatal.

Angiograms are done of the carotid blood vessels (blood vessels to the brain) in patients suffering from strokes. An angiogram may show the reason for the stroke and may help determine whether treatment can relieve symptoms or prevent further strokes. Other abnormalities of the brain can be shown with a cerebral (brain) angiogram, such as benign or malignant tumors and blood clots (hematoma), which occasionally press on the brain. Clots may be found in older people who have suffered a fall.

A peripheral angiogram indicates whether there is a blockage in the blood vessels to the legs. A vascular (blood vessel) surgeon might be able to bypass such a blockage or remove a clot that has formed.

An abdominal angiogram outlines the arteries and veins that supply the large and small bowel. Occasionally, older people bleed from various parts of the bowel, and this may not show up on barium X-rays. In these cases an abdominal angiogram may demonstrate the area of hemorrhage and the exact site of blood loss, especially if done at the time of active bleeding.

A cardiac (heart) angiogram shows the blood vessels supplying the heart. This X-ray is suggested for patients who have angina pectoris or who have had heart attacks (myocardial infarction), if the physician is considering a bypass operation to increase the heart’s blood supply.

All angiograms have a small degree of risk. The main danger is bleeding from the site of insertion of the thin plastic tube (catheter) that is used to inject the dye into the blood vessel. Blockage of the blood vessel, which occurs very rarely, usually means that the underlying disease is severe. In most cases the minimal risk of the angiogram is less than the danger of the disease. I have recommended these tests to many elderly patients and have rarely observed serious side effects.

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Urine, which is produced by the kidneys, contains a large amount of water, within which the body’s waste products are dissolved. Infections that occur in the urinary system can lead to abnormalities in the urine. If the kidneys are damaged, the normal amounts of elements in the urine are altered. During illnesses such as diabetes mellitus, sugar may “leak” into the urine. Its measurement can be useful in controlling the degree of blood sugar elevation.

Some urine tests require only a small sample of urine. Other tests require a whole day’s urine, sometimes collected in a special container that contains a preservative to keep it from decomposing. It is sometimes necessary to bring the first urine passed in the morning.

When the physician checks your urine for signs of infection, it must be collected in a way that keeps the bacteria in the urine from being contaminated by the bacteria on your skin. Urine collected in this way is called a midstream urine (MSU) or clean-catch specimen. Such a sample requires a sterile container so that only the germs in the urine are examined.

In men it is usually easier to collect a clean-catch specimen. As the man urinates into the toilet, and while the stream is flowing, he can place the sterile container under it without interrupting the flow.

In women, bacteria normally inhabit the area around the urethra. If these enter the container with the urine, the test results may wrongly suggest an infection. It is therefore necessary for women to clean the area around the urethra and vagina with sterile water before collecting the urine. Then, as the urine flows, while standing over a toilet, the specimen is collected in a sterile container without interrupting the stream. In older women with physical disabilities or who are unsteady, it may be necessary for a technician or nurse to help obtain a clean-catch specimen.

The stools may be tested for bacteria or parasites if there is a suspicion of infection, for example, if you experience severe or prolonged periods of diarrhea. Sometimes the stools contain bright red blood if bleeding from the colon or rectum has occurred. If there is significant bleeding from the stomach, the stools may become black and look like tar (tnelena). Small amounts of blood in the stool may not be visible to the naked eye; this is called occult bleeding. Such bleeding may cause anemia. Special tests are used to check stool samples for occult blood. In order to diagnose bowel malignancies at an early stage, some physicians recommend that older individuals take stool samples at home and apply them to home testing kits which can then be brought to the physician for analysis.

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