POWER WANDS
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| News For Breast Cancers By Joan Estelle High ©1-31-2010 |
| It is a very scary thing for a women to find a lump
in her breast tissue. Getting a mammogram is usually the next step. Getting Mammograms yearly is causing some disagreement between the health care professionals. That and PSA tests for men's prostate problems maybe given further study. When you are young with firm breast mammograms range from uncomfortable to hurt. I used to think that the man that invented them should have his testicle x-rayed that way. The problem with them is false negative, they miss some cancer, false positives they find other things than cancer and they expose women to more radiation than was originally thought. If something suspicious is found the next step is getting a biopsy. In the past and currently the treatment for breast cancer has been a trial by fire for women. Although there are a few men who get breast cancer this disease is life threaten mostly to women. I remember as a young women hearing the screams of a neighbor lady who was suffering some thing awful with breast cancer. Surgery had left her arm swollen to twice the size. Thank God we have come a long way down the road, from those days 60 years ago. Now there is a 90 percent survival rate, if the cancer is found early. Yet only lung cancer l kills more women each year. Mastectomies are not the only treatment used today. Surgery, chemo, Radiation, immunotherapy , vaccines can be part of the treatments as well. They are looking at possibility that some of the bone drug used for bone thinning osteoporosis may be adapted to use in preventing breast cancer in healthy women. At this time these medicines have sided effects that can cause bone and joint pain. In rare cases they have caused the patient being treated to have their jawbone decay. A interesting study that sounds like something from a Sci.Fi. story is using microwaves with chemo to shrinks breast cancer which may eliminate the need for mastectomies up to 90 %, in as little as 5 years. This could be a major break through in preventing lost of a women's breast. Clinical trials are scheduled for this coming year. (Don't try this at home. It is not an microwave oven as you know it.) Researcher looking for the cure and prevention of breast cancer have to take a lot of different factors involved. Age, weight, smoking, diet can all be part of the problem. Women who drink regularly have a 50 percent greater chance of getting breast cancer than women who do not drink. Of course drinking also increase your rate of liver, head and neck, esophageal cancers as well. So even if you have heard that light drinking might help your heart, the damage it does to other organs is worth thinking about. The risk facto is directly tied in to genetic factors. |
| January Update
Health Reform by Joan Estelle High ©1-17-2010 |
Well this year so far we have gone from a ticking clock to more of a ticking bomb. At least some people are finding some aspects of the proposals being considered to be likely to do more a disaster than a blessing . Folks get a little worried when they start talking about 900 Billion dollar programs . Right now they are comparing the proposed Senate bill with the one from the House. The hope is to find the things that they agree on and iron out a compromise. Both sides want health coverage to be a mandatory that would fine individuals who don't have health coverage. They differ in how much they people will be fined if they don't participate. They will need to fine tune the employers mandate. There is some help for small business in the form of tax credits. Medicaid would be expanded for those under 65 depending on their percentage of federal poverty level. They are close in their ideas for help with premiums but have difference on the starting date for this help to kick in. In the matter of health exchanges the difference mainly is, if it will be state wide or nation wide. While the House would like a government run insurance program the Senate proposes a federally supervised privately run multistate plan. Both sides want benefits to be covered from 60 to 90 % medical bills or 65 percent to 95 depending on which version gets picked. Abortion is still a hot topic. Odds are the Catholic Bishops will have some influence in pressure to going with the House position. Personally I think that if any religious organizations that is going to spend their time and money in the political arena should lose their tax exemptions. That would alone could raise a lot of money Looks like they are going to lessen the Donut hole problem starting with adding $500.00 more per person and hopefully giving a 50% discount on brand name prescriptions. Send any comments to thecrystallady @hotmail.com |
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