What You Must Know if You Find a Lump in Your Breast

What You Must Know if You Find a Lump in Your Breast

July 25, 2008 | By Health Editor

Finding a lump in your breast may leave you in a cold sweat. But here’s a reassuring fact: It usually isn’t cancer. What could it be? We talked with two breast experts at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute to find out all about breast symptoms and tell you what to do about them. Talk to your doc about any changes in your breasts.
Soft lump
The symptom: A soft, smooth, round lump (like a grape) that moves a little when you press on it and may cause pain when touched; it can be small or large.
Could be: Cysts, or sacs filled with natural fluid.
Caused by: Hormone changes around your period. As many as 30 percent of women between 35 and 50 get them.
What to do: Get an ultrasound to see if the lump is filled with fluid or is solid (and possibly cancerous). Your doctor can insert a needle to drain fluid and relieve pressure if the cyst is painful (although it may come back). Taking the Pill may lower the incidence of cysts.
Fluid
The symptom: Fluid leaking from both nipples.
Could be: Milky discharge.
Caused by: A thyroid or pituitary gland problem, perhaps. Other obvious causes are pregnancy, birth control pills, or nipple stimulation.
What to do: Talk to your doc; if it’s a gland problem, it’s usually treatable with medication.
 
Soft mass
The symptom: A soft, lumpy mass about 1 to 4 inches wide, accompanied by tenderness in one or both breasts before your period.
Could be: Fibrocystic changes.
Caused by: Fluctuations in estrogen and proges­terone, which can thicken breast tissue. The problem affects more than 50 percent of women and often comes and goes until menopause.
What to do: Reduce pain by taking acetaminophen or ibuprofen, or by wearing a supportive bra. Limiting fat and caffeine in your diet may help, too. Talk to your doc if symptoms persist. (Find 5 Ways to Cut Your Breast Cancer Risk.)
Hard mass
The symptom: A hard, solid mass that has irregular or jagged sides, as opposed to smooth edges. It usually won’t move or “give” when you push it.
Could be: Cancerous tumor.
Caused by: Nobody knows for sure. Age and family history are risk factors, and studies show that having two alcoholic drinks per day ups your risks by 10 percent.
What to do: Call your doctor and get a mammogram.
Hard lump
The symptom: A hard, round, clearly defined lump (which could be very small or up to 5 inches wide) that can be moved around under the skin without any pain.
Could be: Fibroadenomas.
Caused by: Changing hormone levels. These benign tumors are not as common as cysts, but they’re not unusual among women in their 20s and 30s.
What to do: Get a mammogram. A biopsy is probably unnecessary, according to the latest research, but check with your doctor. Surgical removal is an option if the tumor is large.
By Jennifer Matlack

Study Examines Link Between Breast Cancer and Diabetes

Study Examines Link Between Breast Cancer and Diabetes

December 14, 2012 | By Health Editor

THURSDAY, Dec. 13 (HealthDay News) — Postmenopausal breast cancer survivors are at increased risk for developing diabetes and should be screened for the disease more closely, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed data from 1996 to 2008 from the province of Ontario, Canada, to determine the incidence of diabetes among nearly 25,000 breast cancer survivors aged 55 or older and nearly 125,000 age-matched women without breast cancer.

During a median follow-up of more than five years, nearly 10 percent of all the women in the study developed diabetes. Compared to those who had not had breast cancer, the risk of diabetes among breast cancer survivors was 7 percent higher two years after cancer diagnosis and 21 percent higher 10 years after cancer diagnosis, the investigators found.
The risk of diabetes, however, decreased over time among breast cancer survivors who had undergone chemotherapy. Their risk compared to women without breast cancer was 24 percent higher in the first two years after cancer diagnosis and 8 percent higher 10 years after cancer diagnosis, according to the study, which was published Dec. 12 in the journal Diabetologia.
“It is possible that chemotherapy treatment may bring out diabetes earlier in susceptible women,” study author Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe, of Women’s College Hospital and Women’s College Research Institute in Toronto, said in a journal news release. “Increased weight gain has been noted [after receiving] chemotherapy for breast cancer, which may be a factor in the increased risk of diabetes in women receiving treatment.”
“Estrogen suppression as a result of chemotherapy may also promote diabetes,” Lipscombe added. “However, this may have been less of a factor in this study where most women were already postmenopausal.”
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The study authors suggested that there may be other factors involved for women who received chemotherapy, including glucocorticoid drugs, which are used to treat nausea in patients receiving chemo and are known to cause spikes in blood sugar. In addition, breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy are monitored more closely and thus are more likely to have diabetes detected, they noted.
The researchers said it is unclear why diabetes risk increased over time among breast cancer survivors who did not receive chemotherapy.
“There is, however, evidence of an association between diabetes and cancer, which may be due to risk factors common to both conditions,” Lipscombe said. “One such risk factor is insulin resistance, which predisposes to both diabetes and many types of cancer — initially insulin resistance is associated with high insulin levels and there is evidence that high circulating insulin may increase the risk of cancer.”
“However, diabetes only occurs many years later when insulin levels start to decline,” she said. “Therefore, it is possible that cancer risk occurs much earlier than diabetes in insulin-resistant individuals, when insulin levels are high.”
Overall, the “findings support a need for closer monitoring of diabetes among breast cancer survivors,” Lipscombe concluded.
Although the study found an association between diabetes and breast cancer, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Dark Chocolate for Heart Health – New Evidence of Benefits

Dark Chocolate for Heart Health – New Evidence of Benefits

by Leigh on June 11, 2012

Just 100g of dark chocolate a day could help lower your risk of heart problems.

Dark chocolate is good for the heart, so don’t be surprised if your doctor is soon telling you to eat plain chocolate as a cardioprotective strategy for lowering blood pressure and improving blood lipids. New evidence of dark chocolate’s benefits for a naturally healthy heart come courtesy of a team of researchers in Victoria, Australia. The scientists looked at the use of dark chocolate as a preventive strategy for cardiovascular disease in people with metabolic syndrome and the results add to a growing stack of evidence on the benefits of dark chocolate for heart health.

Dark Chocolate and Polyphenols for Heart Health

Senior author of the study, Christopher M. Reid, noted that the use of dark chocolate for patients with metabolic syndrome could be an effective and cost-effective strategy to reduce cardiovascular complications of the disease in high-risk patients. He and his colleagues, at the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, at Monash University, point out that the chocolate would need to be at least 60-70% cocoa and be enriched with polyphenols in order to exert a cardioprotective effect, so tucking into a giant gooey milk chocolate caramel candy bar is not going to help your heart stay healthy.

Switching to Dark Chocolate for Heart Health

Many people find that the bitterness of dark chocolate is too strong a taste after years of eating fat and sugar-laden candy. Dark chocolate is more satisfying, however, and those who do eat it tend to eat less chocolate overall. Re-training your taste buds to enjoy dark chocolate can then alert you to just how sugary and fatty most candy bars actually are, and you may find other benefits as your tastes change other poor dietary and nutrition habits such as soda consumption.

Cardiovascular Improvements Through Diet

Could dark chocolate help you avoid having to take daily heart disease medications?

Cocoa beans are rich in polyphenols, including flavonoids that have the effect of lowering blood pressure (anti-hypertensive), reducing inflammation, reducing the risk of blood clots, and achieving other beneficial metabolic effects. These measures all contribute to a healthier heart and cardiovascular profile, with the added benefit of being a pleasant treatment option that is easily accessible.

Long-Term Benefits of Dark Chocolate

This new study is particularly interesting as it goes further than previous research into the benefits of dark chocolate for the heart. Earlier studies were short-term only, lasting less than five months or so, meaning that any benefits observed for reductions in LDL cholesterol and elevations of HDL cholesterol could not be determined longer-term. In this study, more than two thousand participants had their data used to monitor the presence of cardiovascular disease and the daily consumption of dark chocolate. The researchers used modelling systems to assess the likely effect of ten years of dark chocolate consumption on patients with metabolic syndrome, placing patients in one of the following categories: “alive without cardiovascular disease,” “alive with cardiovascular disease,” “dead from cardiovascular disease,” “dead from other causes.”

Lives Saved with Dark Chocolate

Data was taken from the Australian Diabetes Obesity and Lifestyles study and the patients included were all relatively young; they had an average age of just under fifty-four years old. Average blood pressure amongst the group was 141.1mmHg, average cholesterol 6.1mmol/L, and mean waist circumference was 100.4cm. Using data modelling, the researchers estimated that, assuming all patients ate dark chocolate daily for a decade, seventy nonfatal cardiovascular events per 10,000 people, as well as fifteen cardiovascular-related deaths per 10,000 people, could be prevented.

Avoiding Heart Attacks Through Diet

Nonfatal cardiovascular events included stroke, and heart attack (myocardial infarction), and the researchers determined that a prevention strategy based on daily consumption of dark chocolate could save $52,500 per years of life saved. This is based on an estimated $42 per year spent on dark chocolate per person, making it cost-effective even if only the majority of patients with metabolic syndrome used the preventative health technique. As this study was based on data modelling the results should be viewed as a likely indicator of trends rather than any kind of proof of principle; extrapolation from short term results is always difficult and contentious.
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How Much Chocolate is Healthy?

The effects of dark chocolate for heart health are not as profound as those of medications specifically tailored towards heart health. However, patients are far more likely to adopt a preventive health strategy based on chocolate consumption than remember to take a handful of pills consistently each day. It could be that in the future dark chocolate is subsidised, with advertising campaigns encouraging people to eat a daily ration of dark chocolate for heart health. How much chocolate should you eat daily for benefits for the heart? The amounts used in this study were up to 100g a day, so consider switching that sugar-laden candy bar to a bar of polyphenol-rich dark chocolate to reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 29% of all deaths and around eighteen million deaths each year. Eating a 100g bar of U>dark chocolate for heart health benefits seems a pretty simple step to take to reduce that number, particularly for women, who now face a higher risk of death from heart disease than men.

How Fish Oil Supports Heart Health

How Fish Oil Supports Heart Health

People at risk for coronary artery disease should get about one gram of fish oil per day.

When it comes to heart health, there is one fat that won’t work against you—fish oil. While most of us need more fish in our diets, heart experts recommend that people at risk for or with coronary artery disease should consume about one gram of fish oil per day. That's the same amount in three ounces of wild salmon (farmed fish may have less heart-healthy fats than wild).

Healthy people should aim for 500 milligrams a day, according to James O’Keefe, MD, a cardiologist with the Mid-America Heart Institute in Bethesda, Md.

Research suggests that omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and fish oil as well as some plant foods, can decrease the likelihood of cardiovascular disease.

Eating at least one fish meal a week was associated with a 52% reduction of risk for sudden cardiac death, according to a 1998 study of over 20,000 U.S. male physicians. Specifically, it can help prevent arrhythmias, lower triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood), slow down the buildup of plaque in the arteries, and slightly lower blood pressure.

Nutritionists recommend taking a food-based approach to fish oil before turning to capsule supplements, because fish is also a good source of protein and other nutrients.

Joyce Baber, 54, from New Egypt, N.J., is trying to do just that to help lower her high cholesterol, 233 (LDL, 174; HDL, 59) and slightly elevated blood pressure.

“My doctor recommended omega-3,” she says. “My LDL should be 130 or less and my HDL should be closer to 100.” Patients with high cholesterol patients who consumed EPA, an omega-3 fatty acid, daily showed a 19% decrease in non-fatal coronary events, including heart attack, according to a 2007 Japanese study of over 18,000 people.
 

People with a history of cardiovascular disease should eat fatty fish, such as mackerel, trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna, and salmon, two to three times per week. Those without a history of heart disease are advised to eat fish at least one to two times per week.

Pregnant women should consume two fatty fish meals a week, while avoiding shark, tile fish, king mackerel and swordfish, which may contain some environmental contaminants such as mercury, according to the FDA.

Eat with your mind as well as your mouth, and pay close to attention to how the fish is prepared. Fried fish and fish from fast food restaurants do not offer the same heart health benefits as baked and broiled fish. Tofu and other forms of soybeans, canola, walnuts and flaxseeds, and their oils, are also rich sources of alpha-linolenic acid, which is converted to omega-3 fatty acid in the body. Omega-3-enriched eggs are also available in supermarkets.

Fish versus fish supplements
While the American Heart Association recommends oily fish as the preferred source of omega-3 fatty acids, supplements are a convenient source for people who don't like fish or are unable to consume the advised dosage. Side effects from the supplements are uncommon, but some report a fishy aftertaste, nausea, bloating and belching. (Try storing the supplements in the freezer to minimize the taste.)

Baber admits she has not started taking the fish oil capsules, which her doctor recommended, because she has a hard time swallowing them.

“I am not good at swallowing large pills and I’m looking for ones that are a reasonable size. I also have acid reflux and I know there are possible GI side effects. But I will give this a try because I would like to avoid taking a statin drug, if possible.”

Rene Colwell, 50, of New York City, says "fish burps" turned her off to supplements after her 2006 heart attack, but she tries to take at least half of the four capsules her doctor recommended.

"Research actually supports combination therapy of omega-3 supplements and medication for people at risk for heart disease," says Dr. O’Keefe. Fish oil and statins are a safe and effective way to improve cardiovascular health—more so than the use of statins alone, he says.

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Naturally Healthy Heart

Naturally Healthy Heart

 http://your-health-and-life.blogspot.com/

A Naturally Healthy Heart is often achievable simply through diet and exercise without the need for expensive heart medications, heart surgery, and other drastic measures. Naturally Healthy Heart is a site that aims to provide accessible advice for those looking to keep their heart healthy, improve cardiovascular fitness, and who need a bit of extra assistance when recovering from, or coping with, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular diseases and injuries.

Nutrition for Heart Health

Heart healthy foods can help reduce dangerously high cholesterol levels, help with blood pressure regulation, and keep heart tissue healthy and protected from free-radical damage. Foods can also alleviate inflammation that may be causing heart and circulation difficulties, can help redress any potassium/sodium imbalances, and provide the nutrition needed for repair after heart injury and illness. Find out more about nutrition for heart health.

Exercise for Heart Health

We often forget that the heart is a muscle – it needs exercise to stay strong. A quality fitness regime, including both aerobic and anaerobic exercises, is key to keeping the heart muscle fit and healthy and also in restoring it to health after injury. Cardiac-rehab specialists can help you get your heart strong again following illness as well as providing advice on keeping the heart healthy through exercise. Read on for tips on fitness and exercise for heart health.
Written by a qualified personal trainer, nutritional therapist, and cardiac-rehab specialist, the information you’ll find on this site aims to help you on your journey to a Naturally Healthy Heart!

Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea

Remember

• Gonorrhea (GC) is an STD that is spread through oral, anal, and vaginal sex.
• Symptoms in girls include vaginal discharge, burning with urination, pelvic pain, and irregular periods.
• Gonorrhea can be cured with antibiotics; condoms lower your chance of getting GC.

Getting Treatment:

The Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital offers special services in the diagnosis and treatment of gonorrhea.

Make an appointment online

Have you heard of "the clap," or "a dose," or "a drip"? These are all names for gonorrhea. Gonorrhea is a common STD caused by a kidney-shaped bacteria that grows in pairs.

How common is gonorrhea?

There are over 700,000 cases of gonorrhea in the U.S. every year.

Am I at risk?

Anyone having unprotected sex with someone infected with gonorrhea can get gonorrhea.

How is gonorrhea spread?

Gonorrhea is spread through sex—oral, anal, and vaginal. Ejaculation is not needed for the disease to be passed on or caught. Women are much more likely to catch gonorrhea from men than men are from women but both can get it. Gonorrhea can also be passed to the eye by a hand or other body part carrying infected fluids.

What are the symptoms of gonorrhea?

You may not have any symptoms if you have gonorrhea. If you do have symptoms, they can take 1-30 days (average 4-8 days) for symptoms to develop. You can pass the germ on to others whether or not you have symptoms.

Symptoms of gonorrhea in girls include:

• Vaginal discharge
• A burning feeling when urinating
• Pain with intercourse
• Pain in the lower abdomen (pelvic pain)
• Irregular periods

Symptoms of gonorrhea in guys include:

• Milky discharge from the penis
• A burning feeling when urinating
• Pain and swelling in one testicle

Symptoms of gonorrhea in both girls and guys include:

• Fever
• Sore throat (for gonorrhea in the throat)
• Pain, discharge, and bleeding from the anus (for gonorrhea in the anus)
• Redness, itching, or discharges of the eyes (for gonorrhea in the eye)

How is gonorrhea diagnosed?

Your health care provider can diagnose gonorrhea by taking a urine sample or by doing a swab of the affected area (penis, vagina, cervix, anus, throat, eye). It is important to get tested so your health care provider can treat you for the right disease (chlamydia and gonorrhea have very similar symptoms but need different treatment).

Is there a cure for gonorrhea?

Yes. Gonorrhea can be cured with antibiotics prescribed by your health care provider. If you treat gonorrhea early, it is usually cured with a single dose of antibiotics (either injected or taken orally). The earlier gonorrhea is treated, the easier it is to cure. If the infection goes untreated, it can spread and cause pelvic infections which needs a longer course of antibiotics. You may even need to be hospitalized if the infection becomes serious.

Is gonorrhea dangerous?

Gonorrhea can cause serious problems if it goes untreated. It can spread from one area of the reproductive tract to other surrounding parts. Girls who have had a pelvic infection with gonorrhea are more likely to have a pregnancy in the tube (“ectopic pregnancy”) or pelvic pain. There is also a risk of gonorrhea spreading into the bloodstream and causing fever, chills, blisters on the skin, or arthritis of the joints.

How can I prevent spreading gonorrhea?

• If you think you have gonorrhea, you should stop having sex. As long as you have gonorrhea, you can pass it on to someone else. You need to wait until you have finished all treatment and your health care provider says you are cured.
• Make sure you tell all current and past sexual partners that you have gonorrhea, since you could have infected them. You may find this difficult to do, but it is very important to do so that those infected can get treated before more serious health problems occur.
• You need to make sure that your sexual partner gets tested and treated (if infected) at the same time as you, so that you don't re-infect each other.
• Make sure you use a latex (or polyurethane if you are allergic to latex) condom every time you have vaginal, anal, and oral sex.

Read more: http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/gonorrhea.html#ixzz2G2vd9pdd

America's Drunkest Cities

America's Drunkest Cities

Research By: Kathleen Pennepacker

 

Overdose on almost any medicine, and it can go from balm to bomb in an instant. A couple glasses of wine each day? Liquid fix-it for your heart. A bottle before bed? You might end up like the folks in Fresno. Our statistical sobriety checkpoint shows that the inebriated people there have one of the highest death rates from alcoholic liver disease (per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). In fact, Fresno was near the top in every measure of dangerous drinking, including the body count caused by booze-fueled car crashes (Fatality Analysis Reporting System), the number of arrests made for driving under the influence (FBI), the number of people who admit to binge drinking in the last month (CDC), and the severity of DUI penalties (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety). So remember: Better to take your medicine than let it take you.

1st = Most liver disease; 100th = Least liver damage
1st = Most binge drinking; 100th = Least
1st = Most deaths in DUI-related crashes; 100th = Least
1st = Most DUI arrests; 100th = Least
1st = Least stringent DUI laws; 100th = Most stringent DUI laws

Reno, NV

Overall Ranking: 2nd

Deaths from Liver Disease: 3rd
Deaths in DUI Crashes: 54th
Binge Drinking: 14th
DUI Arrests: 19th
Harsh DUI Laws: 18th

Grade: F

Old Pregnancy Tests

Old Pregnancy Tests? Turns Out, They're In Demand! (P.S. Do You Save Your Pregnancy Tests?)

 by Sarah Jio

 

 

 http://your-health-and-life.blogspot.com/Thirty five years ago, e.p.t. released the first at-home pregnancy test kit. Apparently the kit that debuted in 1977 (a year before I was born!), was far from the sleek little test strips we know and love today. (We've come a long way, baby!) In fact, it included test tubes and other medical supplies and required two hours to give a result. Can you imagine?!
And, guess who is in search of these old-style pregnancy tests? The Smithsonian! The institution is working on a pregnancy test exhibit and is in search of old fashion pregnancy test kits. The FDA is on the case, too. “Everyone wants one,” says FDA historian John Swann. “It’s a collector’s item.”
What aren't collector's items are the stash of used pregnancy tests some women hold onto as keepsakes after they test positive. (A friend of mine has one for each of her three babies taped into their baby memory books.)
What do you think? Is saving used pregnancy tests cute or kind of gross?
P.S. Read and pass on: new warnings about antidepressants during pregnancy. And, eat this, get pregnant? The pregnancy diet that experts say works!

Photo: Thinkstock

 

Living with a Chronic Condition

A Different Normal

Living with a Chronic Condition

Important:

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Monday, April 23, 2012

Relationships and Invisible Illnesses

By Maya Brown-Zimmerman

A few months ago, I wrote a post about the process of getting diagnosed with an “Invisible Illness” and how it can be difficult to get doctors on board. This month, I decided to look at how our illnesses can affect our relationships with those around us.
I was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome as a child, and it was my mother who pushed for my diagnosis. She recognized that my tall, thin stature and inability to master some gross motor skills — like riding a bike — were not typical of children my age. Thus, when I did receive the diagnosis of Marfan syndrome, she and my father took it very seriously (and were sometimes a little too overprotective!).
Growing up, I’ve received mixed reactions to my diagnosis from others around me. Some friends have been intensely supportive: carrying heavy loads for me, slowing their pace if we were taking a walk, and even participating in Marfan awareness events with me. Other times, I’ve been heckled for having too many doctors’ appointments or not participating in activities, as though I was making everything up. My diagnosis strained some relationships, but by and large, it has reached the point where it’s really not a big deal in terms of my family and friends; they don’t question the validity of my symptoms anymore.
I decided to pose the question on Facebook: “For those of you with an invisible illness, how did your family/friends react during the diagnostic process? Did they believe you? Were they supportive? How about now?”
Although I heard from people with a variety of diagnoses, there were common themes within their responses. They include:
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-  Family or friends saying “If you just did _____ then this would go away” and/or “It’s all in your head.”
-  Suspicions or accusations of laziness, hypochondria, and exaggeration in order to get out of work or get attention (even if they accept your diagnosis as valid)
-  People saying/assuming that because you “don’t look sick” you must feel just fine.
Overall, a fair number of people reported that it was difficult for some of their loved ones to understand what was going on with them, especially in cases where a diagnosis was difficult to confirm. Denial was really common among family members and friends, and in some cases that denial has continued for years. A few did share how supportive and proactive their family and friends were, and have continued to be, though they still reported occasional feelings of loneliness and isolation during the diagnostic process.
Also, who else thinks it’s interesting that although no one can see our illnesses on the outside, it is often the diagnosis of such an illness that shows us the truth about our relationships with others oh-so-clearly?
I think that this demonstrates just how important a support network of people who have been in your shoes is, not only during the journey for a diagnosis, but also after. How did your loved ones handle your diagnosis of an invisible illness? If they handled it negatively, how have you coped?
Maya Brown-Zimmerman, MPH, is a patient advocate and volunteer with the National Marfan Foundation as a member of the board of directors and coordinator of the teen program. She also chronicles the ups and downs of parenting two sons with special needs while having a chronic illness herself at Musings of a Marfan Mom and the Sensory Processing Disorders Blogger Network.

Photo: Stockbyte