Posts Tagged ‘Should’

Pregnant Women: What Should You Do or Avoid for a Healthy Baby

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

In the lifetime of a woman, the best moments are when she becomes a mother. It’s a feeling that only a mother can explain. When women conceive and are due to deliver in 9 months there are a number of worries and anticipations along with excitement and delight cropping in one’s mind and heart. Every pregnant woman would want to have a healthy baby first and then would desire for either of the sex, colour, or appearance. Health comes first and should be the most primary concern of any expecting mother. Taking care of yourself and for your expected child during pregnancy is the most important focus during that period.

Pregnant women must follow a certain diet and lifestyle and avoid a few things to have a healthy baby. She must first and foremost stay healthy by eating the right food items. She must not only eat for herself but should eat for her baby as well. A good nutritious diet consisting of bread, vegetables, fruits, milk and milk products, meat and protein food should be consumed on a daily basis. Pregnant women must also drink lots of water and have lots of calcium content food items. Some of the good sources of calcium are almonds, dried beans; vegetable those are dark green in colour, like spinach and broccoli, milk and milk products, sardines, peas and brussel sprouts.

Around 30 mg’s of iron is required for pregnant women to build up their haemoglobin level. Iron can be found in food products of red meat, eggs, dry fruits, salmon, dried beans and peas among others. Pregnant women should have a healthy diet and along with this must also have a healthy lifestyle to have a safe delivery and a healthy baby. They must sleep well, be in good spirits, should be surrounded with bliss and a stress free environment. They should further exercise regularly, and have a daily routine walk to flex their muscles and bones. This helps pregnant women have a smooth and easy delivery.

Pregnant women must also avoid a few things in order to have a health baby. They must first let go of all their bad habits, if any, of abuse, namely, alcohol or drug abuse. They should avoid taking any stress upon themselves mentally or physically. OTC or over the counter medicines must also be avoided. Consuming a lot of hot or spicy food items, tea, caffeine, and vitamin a supplements, effect the proper development of the foetus.

Women who are pregnant tend to feel over heated because of hormonal changes and thus must avoid any additional heating from outside. By this we mean Jacuzzi’s, Sauna or sun bathing must be avoided, as it has been found that women with over heated bodes tend to deliver baby’s with neural defects.

Thus all the above points must be kept in mind by a pregnant woman. Things that need to be avoided must be taken seriously as they have a direct or indirect effect at the normal growth and development of the baby in the womb.

To Your Health!

Should You Have a Mastectomy to Prevent Breast Cancer?

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Should You Have a Mastectomy to Prevent Breast Cancer?

Modern women always have a fear of breast cancer. Whilst average woman has around 12% risk of getting affected with breast cancer, others have 85% chance of getting their life troubled with this menace. For women with high risk of breast cancer, fear is very much real, and most of them look to ways for lowering its risk.

An option, which some high-risk women considers for treating breast cancer, is prophylactic or preventive mastectomy. You may consider it, if you:

1-Are having cancers in one of your breasts and looking forward to remove the healthy breast for avoiding it to get affected too.

2-Are at high risk of breast cancer and looking forward to remove both breasts before it develops to advance and untreatable stage.

Mastectomy is a surgical procedure done for removing nearly all the tissues of your breast, where cancer may grow. This is, in no mean, a guarantee that you will not have breast cancer, as it’s impossible for taking out every bit of the tissue. However, experts have estimated that mastectomy can reduce the risk by almost 90%.

Some women find losing their breast for reducing risks of cancer to be beneficial. However, their choice cannot be clear cut. Various factors, which include women’s personal risk and their own feelings on the same, can affect the application of Mastectomy on their breasts.

Who Can Opt For Preventive Mastectomy?

You should opt for preventive mastectomy, if you know that you’re at high risk of breast cancer. You might be at high risks if:

1-You are sure that you have BRCA (breast cancer) gene change. You can find about BRCA by having a gene testing. Gene testing is generally done on women having a history of ovarian or/and breast cancer in their family.

2-You are having a history of breast cancers in your family. If any (or more than one) of your close family member (mother or sister) had breast cancer before, you are said to have a strong history. Risks are also considered high, if you are having both ovarian and breast cancer on any side of your family.

3-You are already having cancers in your breast. This means that there is a possibility of getting it on the other breast.

4-You have already been diagnosed with LCIS (Lobular Carcinoma in Situ). LCIS means that you are having abnormal cells in lobules (milk glands) of your breast. Experts classify it to be a pre-cancer or stage ‘0’ cancer. It might be increasing your risks of breast cancer. However, figures suggest that most women, who have been diagnosed with LCIS, do not get breast cancer.

5-Your chest has been exposed to radiation therapy before you were 30.

How Can I Make A Decision On Preventive Mastectomy?

Decision for having mastectomy to prevent cancer is a very personal one. To make the decision easy and right, it might help if you:

1-Consult your doctor or genetic counselors for getting a better idea of the risk involved.

2-Give consideration to your feelings. Some of us cannot imagine the thought of giving up our breasts, whereas others feel greater peace of mind covers up the loss.

3-Discuss this decision with the one, who are close to you. Suggestions from them can go a long way in helping you to decide.

However, you should always remember that it’s your body and it will always be your decision.

Should Diabetes Risk Keep Older Women From Giving Birth?

Friday, March 12th, 2010

In the controversy that erupted when the world found out that a 63 year old woman was on her seventh month pregnancy after using IVF to conceive. Although giving birth by women over 50 has increased 24 times over in the last few years, many doctors and laypersons protest, claiming that it is not safe for mother or baby.
The National Health Service currently refuses free IVF treatment to women over 39, forcing would-be mothers over that age to pay for private treatment. However, the HFEA figures reveal that doctors are not adhering to an “unofficial” guideline to refuse treatment to women over the age of 49. The guideline is intended to limit the potential health risks to mother and child.
Amid mounting concern that IVF is being used to extend fertility beyond the limits of what is ethically acceptable, a leading expert yesterday called on the HFEA, which currently allows clinicians to decide on eligibility for IVF, to set an age limit for those who want the treatment.
Also, there is an increased risk of deadly complications such as heart attacks and diabetes, but is this a reason for a woman to give up the dream of motherhood, even if it is ‘late’ in life? Don’t potential complications exist for every birth, regardless of age? (Childbirth is still one of the leading worldwide causes of women’s deaths.) What do you think? Does potential reward outweigh the potential risk?
The effect of diabetes on the severity of illness and risk of death for patients with heart failure is much worse in women than men, the effect being more pronounced in older women (over age 65). Diabetes was associated with a significant increase in the risk of death and hospitalization in patients with heart failure. Women over age 65 had worse outcomes than men or younger women.
That’s what the new research at University of Alabama at Birmingham (led by Ali Ahmed, M.D., MPH, associate professor in the division of gerontology, geriatrics and palliative care and director of UAB’s Geriatric Heart Failure Clinic and Geriatric Heart Failure Research) is telling us: “Our results suggest that heart failure patients should be thoroughly evaluated for the presence of diabetes and if it is present, should be intensively managed based on published guidelines. Further studies should test current interventions and develop new ones to reduce the adverse effects of diabetes in heart failure patients in general, and among older adults in particular.”
Another one is that the death rate of men with diabetes has dropped significantly (in line with the overall decline of the death rate for all Americans), while the death rate for women with diabetes did not decline at all.

Prostate Cancer Symptoms That You Should be Aware of

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

In the event that you are unfamiliar with what prostate cancer is, it is the abnormal growth of all of the cells within the prostate gland, the prostate gland is considered to be a major part of the male reproductive system. The prostate cancer symptoms may or may not occur within men that are suffering from this condition. Since prostate cancer is a type of cancer that develops slowly, there are some men that have the disease that may not even realize it.Within the early stages of prostate cancer, the prostate cancer symptoms aren’t evident. Relatively speaking, the screening process for prostate cancer is simple to perform, with a PSA test and a prostate examination annually. The majority of patients that have prostate cancer are going to be identified and with a high chance of finding a cure relatively. Overall, screening for all of these diseases is just a fact of modern day medicine.In relationship to prostate cancer, this issue is rather complex, because the overall benefit to all of the patients is very far from being completely clear. A screening is performed before you ever have any of the symptoms of cancer, just to test to see if the cancer is present. When a screening test is performed, it can normally find cancer in its early stages. All of the prostate cancer symptoms are the essential key to determining whether or not an individual is at risk for developing prostate cancer. With all of the early self-diagnosis, one will be able to create a detour completely away from prostate cancer’s deadly route. Prostate cancer symptoms within their early stages can reflect characteristics such as urinary incontinence and difficulties. Often, there are men that experience frequent urination, even though the amount of urine that is passed is quiet small. Often, the urinary incontinence follows menopause or childbirth. Prostatic or urine fluid cytology could reveal some cells that look rather unusual. You should also take into consideration that all of the experts report that the PSA tests aren’t reliable any that they are searching for all of the better ways that they can diagnose prostate cancer. Prostatic or urine fluid cytology could reveal some rather unusual cells. One of the other tests that are normally performed when all of the prostate cancer symptoms are present is the DRE or digital rectal exam which is performed by the oncologist, proctologist, and doctor. All of the blood within the urine is normally a symptom of something other than the prostate cancer.However, within individuals that do have the prostate cancer, a presence of blood within the urine could be an indicator that the condition has advanced or either it has spread from the prostate and on into the urethra or bladder. Normally, the blood tests will confirm this diagnosis.