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July 17, 2011

The Signs Of Ovarian Cancer

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 5:24 pm

The uncontrolled growth of cells is a disease called cancer. Other malignant characteristics of cancer are an invasion that destroys adjacent tissues and metastasis i.e. the spreading to other areas of the body by means of the blood or the lymph glands. Benign tumors are unlike cancer in that they do not invade or metastasize.

Either environmental or hereditary factors can be the cause of cancer. Primarily, it is an environmental disease with enhanced danger from genetic influences. The main environmental reasons behind the cause of cancer are obesity, smoking, pollution, disease and radiation etc..

Ovarian cancer is one of the most common sorts of cancer. It takes place in the ovaries of women which is why it is known as ovarian cancer. There are two ovaries in females, one on either side of the uterus. Both eggs and hormones i.e. estrogen, testosterone and progesterone are made by the ovaries.

Usually, it occurs in those women who have reached their menopause. Usually an ovarian cancer is a sort of epithelial cancer i.e. cancer in the outer cells of an ovary. Most common kinds of epithelial cancer of the ovaries are serous. Less commonly known sorts are clear cell and endometrioid ovarian cancers

Almost 85% of the women treated for ovarian cancer are above the age of 50, although there are possibilities of its occurrence in younger females as well. Multiple genetic mutations are the cause of this cancer. The risk of the disease is greater in those women who have never had a baby.

The danger is higher for those whose menstrual cycle starts at an early age and whose menopause occurs late. Infertility is the biggest danger factor behind this disease. Personal or family history of breast cancer increases the risk of ovarian cancer too.

The indications of the disease are not specific to it and it usually begins stealthily. Some of the indications of ovarian cancer are pelvic pain, abdominal pressure, indigestion or wind, constipation, lower back pain, the frequent requirement to urinate, loss of appetite, pain with intercourse, changes in the menstrual cycle and a deficiency of energy.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer tend to be persistent and they worsen with time. An appointment with a GP should be made if any of the above mentioned indications happen every day for two to three weeks. If someone has a family history of this cancer, she should make contact with her medical doctor for further diagnosis of the worries.

The most widespread diagnostic procedures and check ups are pelvic examination, ultrasound, CA 125 blood test and surgery for removing samples to test (biopsy). Four stages of ovarian cancer are recognized according to the concentration of the disease.

The treatment of ovarian cancer is possible. Researchers are working on developing ways of identifying it at earlier stages because it is very difficult to cure it at later stages. The most common form of treatment for ovarian cancer is a blend of chemotherapy and surgery.

Healthy habits like eating a balanced diet, exercising and getting enough sleep can be useful to control your symptoms of the disease. Although there is no certain way to protect you from this illness, the risk of getting ovarian cancer can be reduced by thinking about the risks and benefits of using birth control pills and discussing issues with your doctor.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on quite a few topics, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

June 28, 2011

Safe Gas Boiler Repairs

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 2:46 pm

There is not actually much to go wrong with contemporary gas furnaces, but each mechanical item can fail and the central heating system is one of them. The problem is though, that hundreds of millions of households around the world have come to rely on their central heating system.

In general, people are not advised to meddle with things that they know nothing of, especially when it refers to something that could be a fire hazard, but this piece is about safe gas furnace repairs, that you can undertake yourself.

Some of these tips might stand you in good stead if the gas furnace in your home central heating system gives up the ghost. These pointers could save you cold nights and high call-out fees.

The more that you become intimate with your central heating system, the more easily you will identify problems that arise, because in general, home heating units have intermittent issues and recurring problems.

Does your heating system keep switching itself on and off at inappropriate times? This probably has something to do with the thermostat. The old fashioned of dealing with thermostats was to tinker with them, but no one does that anymore, they just replace them. You might as well do the same.

Purchase a replacement thermostat and fit it, but if you want to learn more, play about with the metal disk in the old one and refit it after a modification. If you carry on going like this, you may find out what works one day. Some thermostats are quite easy devices and you can suss them out.

If your central heating system keeps shutting down, this is also almost certainly a difficulty with the thermostat, as long as there is fuel in the tank. The tactic is the same. Look at the disk inside the thermostat and read any writing on it. Usually, if you bias it one way or the other, it will fix the problem.

A really easy one is the pilot light. If your system is not working, simply check that the pilot light is burning. The pilot light serves as the ignition for a heat cycle, so if there is not one there, there will be no heat cycle or heating.

The pilot light can get blown out or just go out because of a temporary shortage of fuel, after which it will need to get re-ignited.

If your entire heating system seems to be working normally, but there is no heat coming through the vents, it is probably the blower. Check the fan belt and either tighten the tension or replace it. This is a simple task, which, having done once, you can do in your sleep.

The foremost thing concerning any home appliance is not to automatically reach for the phone book if things go wrong. That is exactly what the want you to do. They would like you to think that items are too difficult unless you have studied them, whereas in fact, most engineers only replace parts – very little is fixed or taken apart any more.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on a number of topics, but is at present concerned with emergecy air conditioning repairs. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Home Air Conditioning Systems.

June 19, 2011

Fighting Atherosclerosis With Good Nutrition (part 2)

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 3:42 pm

You will have to make your own mind up on whether cholesterol or omega 6 is to blame for arteriosclerosis. The argument is similar to the dieting problem: do you have faith in in the old-style fat-reduction, high carbohydrate diet or the newer, Atkins’ high fat low carbohydrate diet?

It is very perplexing for the layman, but that is how specialists sell books. You pay your money and take your choice or you only go along with your medical doctor.

However, both camps of dietitians agree that fish oil is good for you and in particular is helpful for decreasing LDL cholesterol and omega 6 overdose. Omega 3 is best found in oily, cold water fish like salmon, herring and mackerel.

They contain relatively high degrees of omega 3 essential fatty acids. Another source of omega 3, but different ones from the fish, is from meat that has been fed on grass.

Garlic is well-known for being an antiseptic but it is also useful for reducing cholesterol. It appears to have a deleterious impact on LDL (bad) cholesterol, but leaves HDL (good) cholesterol alone. One clove a day is said to be adequate to have a beneficial effect.

Fibre and roughage are crucial for good general health. These components are to be found in fruit and vegetables (particularly the leafy green ones); grains, lentils, legumes and nuts. Roughage and fibre will help remove LDL cholesterol and prevent constipation. They also help avoid bowel cancer which is on the rise in the West.

Some nutritionists say that LDL is not perilous, but is just a threat and it becomes perilous when it has been damaged. One kind of damage is oxidization. Therefore, anti-oxidants will reduce your risk from cholesterol and arteriosclerosis. The next question ought to be: what are major anti-oxidants?

There is a huge array of anti-oxidants ranging from the fun to the boring. I do not know what you find boring, but flavonoids are a useful anti-oxidant and they are present in high quantities in red wine. As well red wine, other anti-oxidants include: Vitamins Ce and E and beta carotene.

These are available in peppers, citrus fruit, strawberries, cantaloupe melons, broccoli, white carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, mangoes and green leaf vegetables. Other good sources are wheat, oats, nuts and seeds.

Mono unsaturated fat is one of the best sources of oil you can find. Mono unsaturated fat comes best from olive oil, which is one of the factors why the so-called Mediterranean Diet is so good for people.

Mono unsaturated fat has another valuable effect: eating it lowers hunger for a longer time than you would expect for the calories involved. This makes it a good substance for dieters. The same is true of roughage, fibre and eggs.

Mono unsaturated fat is one of your best friends in the fight against atherosclerosis. However, it is not merely present in olive oil, it is also in avocados and nuts, especially pecan nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds.

Last but not least is ginger. Ginger has a high amount of phytochemicals known as gingerol and shogaol which are also antioxidants. Ginger not only lowers LDL cholesterol, but it also helps prevent the oxidization of LDL

If you can merely implement a few these alterations to your diet you might be able to stave off arteriosclerosis and sidestep having to take drugs like statins for ever.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of subjects, and is now concerned with omega 3 arthritis. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Omega 6 9

June 8, 2011

Places Where People Live Longer

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 12:20 pm

Most individuals do not relish death. They would like to live a long life and endeavour to stay eternally young. The peoples of each country spend billions each year on health care and beauty products.

Some individuals think that the length of time you live is written in fate and there is nothing that you can do to change it, others think that we only have a certain number of heart beats, but most individuals believe that genetics, diet and lifestyle are the major influences.

However, there may be another feature worth looking into: your place of residence. There are a couple of places around the world where individuals appear to live longer, on average, than is normal for their country or globally.

Take the city of Okinawa in southern Japan. Okinawa has over a million inhabitants, 900 of whom are over 100 years of age. Japan has an aging populace in general, but nowhere there matches Okinawa for longevity and the percentage of centenarians is between four and five times greater than in the UK or the USA.

Not only do Okinawans live longer, but they also tend to stay healthy until their dying days, which is everyone’s dream. Diet is considered to be the foremost reason why Okinawans live such long, healthy lives. They consume a great deal of fish, tofu, soya and seaweed and swill it down with plenty of tea.

This makes their diet low in saturated fats and pretty low in salt. However, it is also a widely-held belief in Okinawa that one should only consume until one is 80% full not 100% This may put less strain on the digestive system, but no one is quite certain yet if this has a bearing on living a longer, healthy life.

Then there is Loma Linda in California, the USA. The citizens of Loma Linda live an average of five to ten years longer than the residents of near-by towns. The town is predominantly Seventh Day Adventist, which preaches vegetarianism, no smoking and no alcohol. Some will point to these reasons as the reasons for living longer.

However, this does not account for why nearly everybody, even the smoking, alcohol-drinking, meat-eating inhabitants, lives longer. Others put the longevity down to religious belief, but researchers are mystified. Maybe going to church and relying on God relieves believers of some of the stress of daily life and stress is famous to be a cause of major diseases.

Another strange place is Owoda on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. It is only a village of less than 2,000 residents but it has far more than the average number of 100 year olds than elsewhere. What is even stranger is that there are as many old men as old women which is not the standard anywhere else in the world.

The well-known Mediterranean diet and the pleasant climate are thought to be reasons at play here, but it might also have something to do with their genes. The residents were practically isolated for hundreds of years and marriage among relatives was not uncommon. Usually this is not recommended because it can cause abnormalities. It looks like the abnormality that inter-marriage caused for the Owodans is longevity.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of topics, but is now concerned with the cause of macular degeneration. If you want to know more, please go to our website at Macular Degenerative Disease

June 7, 2011

Water And Dehydration

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 5:40 pm

We, as human beings, as very dependent on water. We are approximately 70% water and we cannot live without it. In fact, we can go weeks without food, but just about three days without water.

One of the sad facts about the Western diet is that a lot of people no longer drink water. They have completely replaced water with sugary soft drinks, which naturally contain enough water but also contain too much sugar or sugar substitute.

The first step that these people have to take in order to get back on track is to give up this silly, childish habit and begin drinking plain water again. It has been worked out that about two-thirds of individuals do not drink enough water, which is saying that they are in a permanent condition of partial dehydration.

Water has a number of important functions in our bodies, but one of the most important ones is to flush out toxins. It is worth realizing that if you feel thirsty, your body has arrived at a state where it is crying out for water. In other words, it has already passed the state where it requires water, so endeavour not to wait until you are thirsty before you take a drink.

Another fact is that tea, coffee and alcohol (some of our most popular adult drinks) are diuretics, which means that they force urination, often more than they replace. So you can put 250mm in but you may lose 270mm. This is naturally not the purpose of drinking if you are thirsty

Exercise is another reason why we lose water. In fact, just by being alive, we lose water due to body heat and evaporation, but whilst we are actually doing something, we lose water fairly rapidly. You may get worried about drinking water before going to sleep, but if you can do it, it is a very healthy thing.

If you wake up a bit groggy every day and need breakfast, tea or coffee before you can actually wake up, it might be because of dehydration, not because you have issues waking up. Being dehydrated results in drowsiness and lack of concentration.

In fact, dehydration is a major killer in the Third World. This is not because there is no water, but because the water is contaminated. This contaminated water causes diarrhoea which causes dehydration. It is vital to continue drinking when you are sick even if you do not feel like eating.

It is recommended that we drink at least eight tumblers of water (say, of 250mm each) a day. More if you are exercising or sick. It sounds like a lot of water, but most people are awake for about 16 hours a day, so eight tumblers works out to just one each two hours.

It is more of a difficulty to get into the habit of drinking water on a regular basis than it is to actually do the drinking, but once you have established the habit, you will feel better on a day-to-day basis. It will not stop you from getting sick, but your general level of health will improve, because you are getting rid of toxins.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of topics, but is now concerned with Sundance hot tubs. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Hot Springs Spa Parts

Eyesight Improvement

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 3:03 pm

We are under immense pressure not to look old, not to look our age. One of the best compliments individuals over 21 years think that they can receive is: ‘Really? You do not look it!’ To a certain extent this obsession with a youthful appearance has always been with us, but the pressure has ratcheted up due to films and TV.

Film stars and pharmaceutical businesses ruthlessly team up to persuade us that we have to have this surgery too in order to be popular. What they do not tell you is that the pharmaceutical companies have paid the film stars to have free treatment and then paid (or sponsored) the chat programmes that so blatantly promote them.

And ageism is rife as well, both among the young, whose worst insults normally have the word ‘old’ included and among employers who can not wait to be rid of employees at 65 after a lifetime of service. Governments or at least some governments are just as bad, penalizing pensioners with a meager salary after fifty years of paying taxes.

People used to grow old gracefully, now it is a sin. There is a long list of ‘improvements’ that you can work your way through: face lift, liposuction, hair transplants, dentures and several others, but the one that actually makes sense to me is sight improvement by whatever means works.

We live in a beautiful world and it is a shame that whilst we are at the correct stage in our life to enjoy it – that is while we have more time, more money and have become more philosophical, we begin to go blind. At the same time as your grandchildren begin arriving, your eyesight begins to go.

There are numerous reasons why you could start losing your vision besides only old age, but old age does play a role in some of them too.

Macular degeneration is usually called age-related macular degeneration, but there is a rare form that has an impact on the young. There are two types wet and dry. The dry form is less severe, but the wet form is more easily treated.

Cataracts are thought to be age-related as well, but I had premature senile cataracts 20 years early. Luckily these are easily treated too with merely a couple of minutes of surgery. Glaucoma is a nasty one, which can leave you totally blind, if you do not catch it soon enough and have it treated.

The key to success with all of these eyesight impairments is tackling them early. If you suspect that anything is not right with your eyes, go to a GP or optician immediately. Do not be fooled by quack cures that you might see advertised on late night TV or in the small ads. They ought to get banned.

Eye exercises and eye drops are fine for healthy eyes, but they will not help you if you have a problem, only a fully qualified expert can do that. These advertisers prey on individuals who either do not have the money for surgery or who are frightened of it and there are lots of them around too.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of topics, but is now concerned with macular degeneration glasses. If you want to know more, please go to our site at Macular Degenerative Disease

June 2, 2011

Traditional Medications

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 2:57 pm

As you all know, the way that it works with medicine is: you get sick, you go to the GP, he/she gives you a prescription, you buy that, take it and hopefully undergo a full recovery. In a way, it has always been like that. People went to the most skilled person in the village for advice on how to cure an ailment, a couple of herbs were prescribed and a donation received.

The only real difference in the procedure nowadays is that then, there was a far higher general awareness of the power of herbs. These days, in the Developed World at least, the medical profession and the pharmaceuticals have managed to wean us off herbs by one means or another – usually fear.

The fact is that most drugs are made from herbs or plants or from synthesized chemicals found in herbs and plants. In a way, all we have done is substituted purchasing for picking.

OK, I know that it is more complicated than that. Drugs are often combinations that work well together and being told to take one tablet a day saves you having to worry about overdosing, but there are still often side-effects. Just read the leaflet inside the box of your next box of pills.

Mine says: concern, fainting, erectile dysfunction, low blood pressure, diarrheoa and heart failure. Charming, isn’t it? They are pills for high blood pressure (beta-blockers). I live in a small village in northern Thailand, where high blood pressure is not a problem, but I know one old lady who has it and high cholesterol and her nurse showed her which tree to choose leaves from to make a tea. She does not take tablets, but I still do.

There is also a woman who started coming into our garden four months ago to select purple flowers off a form of wisteria that we grow (dork anchan). ‘It is for my son’s very bad cough’, she said. Asthma, I think she was trying to say.

Anyway, she plucks a handful a week and her son is fine. I had a cough at Christmas and tried it myself. I drank two cups of tea before going to bed and I drank the cold dregs in the morning, but my cough had already vanished.

The hottest time of the year here is March – May, after which it is still hot but the monsoons come and cool it down. Last year, for the first time in my life I suffered from prickly heat in the hot snap. This year it began again, but someone suggested Aloe Vera.

‘Obviously’, said my wife and went into the garden to cut some. She cut two small ‘leaves’ and I spent three days dabbing the sap onto the affected parts. It had almost gone on the second day, but it disappeared on the third day and has not come back despite the fact that it has become hotter since then.

A great deal of people are taking another look at traditional treatments and I am going to be one of them. The difficulty in our village is that my Thai is not good, only my wife speaks some English and individuals are afraid to talk about the old methods in case I think that they are backward.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of topics, but is now concerned with the macular degeneration test. If you want to know more, please go to our website at Macular Degenerative Disease

May 29, 2011

Ovarian Cancer

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 2:00 pm

Ovarian cancer that accounts for over 25,000 newly diagnosed cases of cancer every year only in the United States Of America is by and large detected in the later stages once it has already spread outside the ovaries. Ovarian cancer or a group of malignant tumors begin in tissues of different sorts in the ovary.

Most cancers of the ovary start in the epithelial or outer layer of cells, with rarer kinds starting in the egg forming germ cells or the stroma in the ovaries. However it is wrong to imagine that all tumors and cysts could become cancerous, for non-cancerous or benign tumors are more common than cancer of the ovary.

Cancer of the ovary or ovarian cancer is the 7th most common cancer among women in America; with only one out of five cases diagnosed in the early stage when effective treatment can be implemented. However most women might like to know the danger factors for ovarian cancer and take care to go in for early analysis.

It is a good idea to understand that danger does not mean a certainty, it merely indicates an elevated chance to develop this sort of cancer.

They say that a strong family history of cancer of the breasts, uterus, colon and rectum could expose a woman to cancer of the ovaries also. A family history could include one’s blood relations like grandmother, mother, daughter or sister, with a family history of cancer at a young age contributing to a higher likelihood for ovarian cancer. A genetic counselor could suggest genetic check ups for you, certain genetic alterations indicating an increased risk for cancer of the ovaries.

It is important to note that each woman that has a personal history of cancer and has been already afflicted with cancer of the breast, uterus, colon or rectum stands a higher likelihood to get ovarian cancer.

It is to be noted that cancer has the tendency to spread quickly and chemotherapy and radiation can just treat or remove cancer for some time. In addition to the development of new cells there is every opportunity for it to spread to other organs of the body as well.

It is true that women that have attained menopause and older women that have never had children have a higher likelihood to develop cancer of the ovaries. Postmenopausal use of hormones like hormone replacement therapy for a period of 10 years and more could increase the likelihood of getting ovarian cancer, with estrogen replacement therapy or ERT having the highest risk followed by estrogen-progestin replacement therapy or EPRT. It is also the case that obesity and use of talcum powder also create a higher risk factor.

The indications of ovarian cancer after it develops to some extent could be pressure with or without pain and bloating experienced in the abdomen, pelvis, back and legs, feeling of nausea with indigestion, flatulence, constipation or diarrhea and a feeling of tiredness most of the time. In rare instances you could experience shortness of breath, the frequent urge to urinate and heavy periods after stoppage of periods.

However it can be hard to diagnose ovarian cancer and the only one who can do it in the right manner is a GP.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on quite a few topics, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

Throat Cancer Does Not Really Exist – But You Have To Be Wary.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 1:11 pm

Really there is no such medical illness known as ?throat cancer?, although several sorts of cancer can arise in the throat and neck. The proper medical term for the throat is the ?pharynx?, which can be defined as: ‘the passage that ensures that food and drink go to the stomach and air to and from the lungs’.

The pharynx is made up of three components: the oropharynx (the back of the mouth, including the soft palate and back of the tongue); nasopharynx (connecting the back of the nose to the back of the mouth); laryngopharynx (connecting the oropharynx and nasopharynx to the beginning of the gullet (oesophagus) and the windpipe (trachea) via the voice box (larynx)).

The laryngopharynx is occasionally called the hypopharynx. ?Throat cancer? can be cancer of any of these, although the most common form of ?throat cancer? is nasopharyngeal cancer.

Just to render the term ?throat cancer? even more useless and puzzling, some individuals apply it to cancer of the thyroid gland (situated at the front of the base of the neck), cancer of the voice box (larynx), cancer of the gullet or cancer of the windpipe (trachea), which actually falls into the lung cancer group.

Most head and neck cancerous cells are squamous, which means they do not travel far from their origin, although they often have an impact on the lymph nodes. In fact, the first indication of head or throat cancer is frequently an enlarged neck lymph node, which is also occasionally called throat cancer.

A different sign could be the manifestation of white patches or spots in the mouth that will not respond to treatment. Known as leukoplakia, 33% of them become cancerous. It is estimated that 7,000 Americans die of a throat cancer each year, often because it was detected late. Ethnicity might also play a part, since African American men are 50% more at risk of throat cancer than Caucasian men.

These cancers are quite painless in early stages and can be confused with toothache, earache, sore throat or croakiness. When established however, they develop very quickly, although if caught at an early stage, they can nearly always be effectively removed.

There is a extensive variety of causes why someone can be at a greater danger for a throat cancer, including smoking; chewing tobacco and other things, such as betel nut, gutkha, marijuana or pan; heavy alcohol consumption; poor diet resulting in vitamin deficiencies (worse if this is caused by substantial alcohol intake); weakened immune system; asbestos exposure; prolonged exposure to wood dust or paint fumes; exposure to petroleum, industrial chemicals, and being more than the age of 55 years.

The existence of acid reflux disease (gastroesphogeal reflux disease – GERD) or larynx reflux disease can also be a major factor. In the case of acid reflux disease, stomach acids flow up into the oesophagus and injure its lining, making it more liable to throat cancer.

Because successful therapy depends on early detection, routine oral examination is suggested. Your dentist will have been trained to be on the look out for early symptoms, making a bi-annual visit to the dentist even more worthwhile

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of topics, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

May 25, 2011

Melanoma: Skin Cancer By Another Name

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 6:43 pm

Melanoma is the most common form of skin cancer and skin cancer is the most widespread kind of cancer in the Western world. It starts in skin cells called melanocytes.

Melanocytes are found under the skin, which is made up of two layers: the epidermis on the outside and the dermis below that. To be accurate, melanocytes are found in the lowest levels of the epidermis, but not actually in the dermis.

These cells produce melanin, which affects the epidermis? pigmentation, both natural skin colour and because of exposure to the sun as in tanning.

Sometimes, a group of near-by melanocytes combine with a little local tissue to form a mole (also called a nevus; plural nevi). The average person has between ten and forty moles, which normally seem before the fortieth birthday. They frequently fade or disappear with age.

Moles are non-malignant (non-cancerous) and can be flat or raised in shape and almost any colour. Normally, they are a little darker than one?s natural skin colour. Dark skinned individuals are likely to have more moles.

Cancer starts in cells where the regular cycle of decay and replacement by regeneration has been Upset. Under these conditions, cells do not always die when they ought to and new cells are produced needlessly.

This, in turn, creates a growth (also known as a tumor), which can be either benign or malignant (that is to say cancerous or non-cancerous).

Benign tumors can be surgically removed and hardly ever come back. They do not spread or affect surrounding tissue.

Malignant tumors are cancerous and can affect surrounding tissue and organs. In these cases, cancerous cells can break away from the primary tumor and have an impact on other organs or enter the blood stream (lymphatic system), wherein it can spread to other regions of the body (metastasis) very quickly. The rate of metastasis is a deciding factor in how a physician deals with cancer.

Melanoma happens when melanocytes become malignant. It can occur at any age, but the likelihood rise with age. Fair-skinned people are more probable to develop it than dark-skinned people. In fair-skinned races, men tend to get it on the torso and neck, whereas women get it on their calves (lower legs).

Dark-skinned individuals rarely suffer from melanoma, but if they do, it is usually under the finger and toe nails or on the soles of the feet or palms of the hands. When cancerous cells from melanoma enter the lymphatic system and have an impact on other organs, it is still attributed to melanoma. For instance, if the liver becomes affected by cancerous cells from melanoma, it is referred to as metastatic melanoma, not liver cancer.

Frequently, the first sign of melanoma is a change in the size, shape, colour, or texture of an current mole, although it often first manifests itself with a new mole or moles. Self-diagnosis is not to be relied on – always seek professional advice if you have any concerns relating to your skin. However, it is wise to remember ?The ABCD of Melanoma?, which goes like this:

Asymmetry: the shape of one half of the mole is not the same as the other side.

Border: the border or edges of the mole are not plainly defined; a bit ragged or the colouration ?leaks? into the adjacent skin.

Colouration: the mole is not uniformly of one colour, although it is not so vital what that colour is.

Diameter: there is a change in size or a new mole gets bigger than 5mm in size.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on quite a few subjects, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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