What is it?

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer that occurs in the thin layer of cells lining the body's internal organs, known as the mesothelium. There are three recognized types of mesothelioma. Pleural mesothelioma is the most common form of the disease, accounting for roughly 70% of cases, and occurs in the lining of the lung known as the pleura.

Peritoneal mesothelioma occurs in the lining of the abdominal cavity, known as the peritoneum and pericardial mesothelioma originates in the pericardium, which lines the heart.

Who is at risk for Mesothelioma?

The only recognized cause of mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos, though other factors such as smoking can make the disease more or less likely in some individuals. Industrial laborers were widely subjected to asbestos exposure on the job, as the material was widely used throughout the 20th century. Few of these workers knew they were being exposed to asbestos, however, despite the fact that many manufacturers were aware the material was hazardous.

In most cases, mesothelioma symptoms will not appear in an individual exposed to asbestos until many years after the exposure has occurred. Those who believe they may have been exposed to asbestos should fill out our form to receive a free mesothelioma information packet, detailing treatment options, emerging therapies, and jobsite exposure information.

When you find you are pregnant, whether it is the first time or the fourth time it can seem like the whole world has new information for you to digest and make decisions on.

One of the things you are sure to hear about is banking your baby's umbilical cord blood, this idea is relatively new so there is a good chance that you don't really know why you would want to bank the cord blood.

1- Protection against future ill health

You are expecting a baby and the last thing you want to think about is that there is even the faintest possibility that your baby will ever be sick. As horrible as it is to think about any of our kids getting ill, it does happens and any insurance you can have to protect them is worthwhile.

2- Advancing Medical Knowledge

While the benefits that you will gain at the moment from the blood you store may not seem worth the time or effort, no one really knows what the future holds. This is especially true for medicine, illnesses that had high mortality rates 30 years ago are now treatable and in many cases completely curable.

3- Help Others

As well as helping your child, or one of their siblings at some time in the future, your choice to save the umbilical cord could well save another child or another member of your family.

While it may not seem like something that would have happened in our parents day that is no reason to just throw this simple method of having some sort of insurance against possible future illness.

Disclaimer: As always, my advice to readers is to seek the advice of your physician before making any significant changes in medications, diet, or level of physical activity.

Dr. Wascher is an oncologic surgeon, a professor of surgery, a widely published author, and a Surgical Oncologist at the Kaiser Permanente healthcare system in Orange County, California. Send your feedback to Dr. Wascher at: rwascher@doctorwascher.net
http://doctorwascher.com

The number of cases of swine flu in England continued to fall last week (week ending 9 August). The Health Protection Agency (HPA) estimates there were 25,000 new cases of swine flu in England last week, compared with 30,000 the week before and 100,000 the week before that. Cases of swine flu have fallen in all regions and among all age groups.

The disease is generally mild in most people so far, but is proving severe in a small minority of cases. So far 371 people have been hospitalised in England, while 44 people have died.

Swine flu vaccine

The government has announced that priority for the swine flu vaccine will be given to at-risk groups. These include pregnant women and people with serious underlying health conditions.

Vaccinations for these groups are expected to begin in the autumn. Steps are being taken to extend the vaccination programme to other people once this stage has been completed.

Swine flu - treatment and prevention

If you are in England, you can get antivirals to treat swine flu from a local collection point without seeing your GP. If you are in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, contact your GP or specific helpline. Reduce your risk of catching swine flu by following good hand hygiene – CATCH IT, BIN IT, KILL IT. Antiviral drugs - Tamiflu and Relenza

Swine flu is being treated with antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza. Antiviral drugs work by preventing the flu virus from reproducing - to be effective you need to take them within 48 hours of the symptoms beginning. This can reduce the risk of complications and possibly shorten the illness by a day.

If the National Pandemic Flu Service or your GP confirm you have swine flu, you will be told where your nearest antiviral collection point is so your 'flu friend' - a friend or relative who does not have swine flu - can pick up antiviral drugs for you

So far, the present guidelines stipulate that a person suspected of influenza A H1N1 need to be referred to an identified govt. health facility. He/she needs to be kept in an isolation facility in that hospital and if found positive, is treated accordingly.

In order to make the testing facility for H1N1 more accessible at large and due to the onset of the Influenza season in the country, it has been decided to revise the existing guidelines.

Under the new guidelines, any person with flu like symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, cold, running nose etc. should go to a designated Government facility for giving his/her sample for testing for the H1N1 virus. After clinical assessment, the designated medical officer would decide on the need for testing. Except for cases that are severe, the patient would be allowed to go home (This was not allowed under the existing guidelines).

The sample of the suspect case would be collected and sent to the notified laboratory for testing. If tested as positive for H1N1 and in case the symptoms are mild, the patient would be informed and given the option of admission into the hospital or isolation and treatment at his own home.

In case the patient opts for home isolation and treatment, he/she would be provided with detailed guidelines / safety measures to be strictly adhered to by the entire household of the patient. He/ she would have to provide full contact details of his entire household. The house hold and social contacts would be provided with the preventive treatment.

Notwithstanding the above guidelines, the decision of the doctor of the notified hospital about admitting the patient would be final.

In case the test is negative, the patient will accordingly be informed.

These guidelines have been issued by the Government in public interest and shall be reviewed from time to time depending on the spread of the pandemic and its severity in the country. These guidelines would however not apply to passengers who are identified through screening at the points of entry. The existing policy of isolating passengers with flu like symptoms would continue.

Swine flu (swine influenza) is a disease of pigs. It is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by one of many Influenza A viruses. Approximately 1% to 4% of pigs that get swine flu die from it. It is spread among pigs by direct and indirect contact, aerosols, and from pigs that are infected but do not have symptoms. In many parts of the world pigs are vaccinated against swine flu.
Most commonly, swine flu is of the H1N1 influenza subtype. However, they can sometimes come from the other types, such as H1N2, H3N1, and H3N2.
The current outbreak of swine flu that has infected humans is of the H1N1 type - this type is not as dangerous as some others.

Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) can also infect pigs

Avian flu and human seasonal flu viruses can infect pigs, as well as swine influenza. The H3N2 influenza virus subtype, a virulent one, is thought to have come from pigs - it went on to infect humans.
It is possible for pigs to be infected with more than one flu virus subtype simultaneously. When this happens the genes of the viruses have the opportunity to mingle. When different flu subtypes mix they can create a new virus which contains the genes from several sources - a reassortant virus.

Although swine influenza tends to just infect pigs, they can, and sometimes do, jump the species barrier and infect humans.

What is the risk for human health?

Outbreaks of human infection from a virus which came from pigs (swine influenza) do happen and are sometimes reported. Symptoms will generally be similar to seasonal human influenzas - this can range from mild or no symptoms at all, to severe and possibly fatal pneumonia.
As swine flu symptoms are similar to typical human seasonal flu symptoms, and other upper respiratory tract infections, detection of swine flu in humans often does not happen, and when it does it is usually purely by chance through seasonal influenza surveillance. If symptoms are mild it is extremely unlikely that any connection to swine influenza is found - even if it is there. In other words, unless the doctors and experts are specifically looking for swine flu, it is rarely detected. Because of this, we really do not know what the true human infection rate is.

Examples of known swine flu infecting humans

Since the World Health Organization's (WHO's) implementation of IHR (2005) in 2007, they have been notified of swine influenza cases from the USA and Spain.
In March/April 2009 human cases of influenza A swine fever (H1N1) were first reported in California and Texas. Later other states also reported cases. A significant number of human cases during the same period have also been reported in Mexico - starting just in Mexico City, but now throughout various parts of the country. More cases are being reported in Canada, Europe, and New Zealand - mainly from people who have been in Mexico.

How does a human catch swine influenza?

• From contact with infected pigs (most common way)
• From contact with infected humans (much less common way)

In cases when humans have infected other humans close contact was necessary with the infected person, and they nearly always occurred in closed groups of people.

Can I eat pork meat and pork products?

If the pork meat and pork food products have been handled properly transmission of swine influenza to humans is not possible. Cooking pork meats to a temperature of 70C (160F) kills the virus. So the answer is YES, pork meat and pork food products are safe to eat.

Where have pigs been infected?

As swine influenza infection among pigs is not an internationally notifiable disease we cannot be completely sure. Swine influenza infection among pigs is known to be endemic in the USA. Outbreaks have also occurred in other parts of North America, South American, Europe, Africa, China, Japan, and other parts of Asia.

Is there a pandemic risk?

People who are not in close contact with pigs generally have no immunity to the swine influenza viruses - they are less likely to be able to prevent a virus infection. If the virus infects enough people in a given area, the risk of an influenza pandemic is significantly greater. Experts say it is very hard to predict what impact a flu pandemic caused by a swine influenza virus would have on the global human population. This would depend on how virulent the virus is, what existing immunity among humans there already is, plus several other factors.

Do we have a specific swine flu vaccine?

No - not for humans.

Will current human flu vaccines help protect people from swine influenza infection?

We really don't know. Influenza viruses are adapting and changing all the time. If a vaccine was made, it would have to be specifically for a current strain that is circulating for it to be effective. The WHO says it needs access to as many viruses as possible so that it can isolate the most appropriate candidate vaccine.

What are the signs and symptoms of swine influenza in humans?

They are similar to those of regular flu, and include:

• Body aches
• Chills
• Cough
• Diarrhea (less common)
• Headache
• Sore throat
• Temperature (fever)
• Tiredness (fatigue)
• Vomiting (less common)

What medications are there?

There are some drugs around that can effectively treat swine flu infection in humans - and many types of flu infections in humans. There are two main types:

• adamantanes (amantadine and remantadine)
• inhibitors of influenza neuraminidase (oseltamivir and zanamivir)

Most previous swine influenza human cases recovered completely without the need for medical attention.

What can I do to protect myself?

• Wash your hands regularly with soap
• Try to stay healthy
• Get plenty of sleep
• Do plenty of exercise
• Try to manage your stress
• Drink plenty of liquids
• Eat a well balanced diet
• Refrain from touching surfaces which may have the virus
• Do not get close to people who are sick
• Stay away from crowded areas if there is a swine flu outbreak in your area

If I am infected, how can I stop others from becoming infected?

• Limit your contact with other people
• Do not go to work or school
• When you cough or sneeze cover your mouth with a tissue. If you do not have a tissue, cover your mouth and nose.
• Put your used tissues in a waste basket
• Wash your hands and face regularly
• Keep all surfaces you have touched clean
• Follow your doctor's instructions

Mexico City - Some good news

In Mexico City, where a sizeable number of people have become infected with H1N1 swine flu, authorities are urging people with flu symptoms to go straight to their doctors or a local hospital. They insist that the flu is completely treatable if the patient comes in straight away.

What is Swine Flu - Video

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Influenza Division has produced a video all about swine flu.
This video includes information on the signs and symptoms of swine flu, how swine flu is transmitted, what medicines are available to treat it and steps that people can take to help protect themselves from it. There are also some tips on what to do if you become ill with swine flu.

Map of Swine Flu Outbreaks

If you would like to keep up-to-date with the locations of the latest outbreaks of H1N1, see the map of swine flu outbreaks.

According to Dr. Jay A. Switzer and his colleagues at Missouri S and T, their simple, inexpensive process could also lead to new materials for ultraviolet lasers, solid-state lighting and piezoelectric devices.

"It's kind of like growing rock candy crystals on a string," said Switzer, the Donald L. Castleman/Foundation for Chemical Research Professor of Discovery at Missouri S and T.

But instead of using sugar water and string, Switzer's team grows the zinc oxide "nanospears" on the single-crystal silicon placed in a beaker filled with an alkaline solution saturated with zinc ions.

The process yields tilted, single-crystal, spear-shaped rods that grow out of the silicon surface, like tiny spikes.

The spears are about 100-200 nanometers in diameter - hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair - and about 1 micrometer in length.

Zinc oxide is a semiconductor that possesses some unusual physical properties, according to Switzer.

The material both absorbs and emits light, so it could be used in solar cells to absorb sunshine as well as in lasers or solid-state lighting as an emitter of light.

Silicon is also a semiconductor, but it absorbs light at a different part of the spectrum than zinc oxide.

By growing zinc oxide on top of the silicon, "you're putting two semiconductors on top of each other," thereby widening the spectrum from which a solar cell could draw light, Switzer said.

"You can absorb more light and possibly get more power out" with a zinc oxide-silicon solar cell, he added.

Previous efforts to grow zinc oxide on silicon have been limited to expensive ultra-high-vacuum methods, and because of silicon's high reactivity, it's been impossible to deposit the zinc oxide directly, without the use of a third material as a buffer.

In addition, previous attempts to align the two materials epitaxially - or perfectly one on top of the other - have been unsuccessful until now.

By tilting the nanospears 51 degrees, Switzer and his team have reduced the mismatch from 40 percent to just 0.2 percent, a near-perfect alignment.

"Epitaxially aligning the zinc oxide and silicon is important to ensure higher efficiency," Switzer said. (ANI)

Supplementing obese rats with the nutrient carnitine helps the animals to clear the extra sugar in their blood, something they had trouble doing on their own, researchers at Duke University Medical Center report.

A team led by Deborah Muoio (Moo-ee-oo), Ph.D., of the Duke Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center, also performed tests on human muscle cells that showed supplementing with carnitine might help older people with prediabetes, diabetes, and other disorders that make glucose (sugar) metabolism difficult.

Carnitine is made in the liver and recycled by the kidney, but in some cases when this is insufficient, dietary carnitine from red meat and other animal foods can compensate for the shortfall.

After just eight weeks of supplementation with carnitine, the obese rats restored their cells' fuel- burning capacity (which was shut down by a lack of natural carnitine) and improved their glucose tolerance, a health outcome that indicates a lower risk of diabetes.

These results offer hope for a new therapeutic option for people with glucose intolerance, older people, people with kidney disease, and those with type 2 diabetes (what used to be called adult-onset diabetes).

Muoio said that soon her team of researchers will begin a small clinical trial of carnitine supplementation in people who fit the profile of those who might benefit from additional carnitine - older people (60 to 80 years) with glucose intolerance.

The study is published in the Aug. 21 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The Duke researchers began studying carnitine more closely when abnormalities in the nutrient emerged from blood chemistry profiles of obese and old animals. These chemical profiles report on hundreds of byproducts of cell metabolism called metabolites and give scientists an opportunity to identify markers of disease states.

Carnitine is a natural compound known for helping fatty acids enter the mitochondria, the powerhouses of cells, where fatty acids are "burned" to give cells energy for their various tasks. Carnitine also helps move excess fuel from cells into the circulating blood, which then redistributes this energy source to needier organs or to the kidneys for removal. These processes occur through the formation of acylcarnitine molecules, energy molecules that can cross membrane barriers that encase all cells.

Researchers at Duke had observed that skeletal muscle of obese rats produced high amounts of the acylcarnitines, which requires free carnitine. As these molecules started to accumulate, the availability of free, unprocessed carnitine decreased. This imbalance was linked to fuel-burning problems, that is, impairments in the cells' combustion of both fat and glucose fuel.

"We suspected that persistent increases in acylcarnitines in the rats were causing problems, and we could also see that the availability of free carnitine was decreasing with weight gain and aging," said Muoio. "It appeared that carnitine could no longer do its job when chronic metabolic disruptions were stressing the system. That's when we designed an experiment to add extra carnitine to the rats' diet."

Muoio is also a professor in the departments of medicine, pharmacology and cancer biology.
Other study authors included Robert C. Noland, Sarah E. Seiler, Helen Lum, Olga Ilkayeva, Robert Stevens, and Timothy R. Koves of the Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center. Koves is also with the Duke Department of Medicine. Robert M. Lust is with the Department of Physiology at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., and Fausto G. Hegardt is with the CIBER division Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y la Nutrición of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III in Spain.

The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, and the American Diabetes Association, and a John A. Hartford Duke Center for Excellence Award.

Source:
Mary Jane Gore
Duke University Medical Center

Contrary to belief babies really don’t come from storks. I think we all pretty much know where babies come from. But do we really? To put it in perspective you need a sperm cell and an egg to make a baby.

During sexual intercourse, a mans sperm, which is produced by the testicles travels to the woman’s cervix, it then travels to the fallopian tubes. There are millions of sperm cells swimming to the fallopian tubes but it only takes one to penetrate an egg which is called fertilization. At this point a single life begins.

The question now is where does the sperm come from? Millions of sperm are produced daily by the testicles. Sperm cells undergo natural cell division which leads to its maturation. Half of the sperm cells carry the Y and X chromosome. Y comes from your dad and X comes from your mom. If a Y fertilizes an egg there will be a baby girl and X would be a baby boy.

During ejaculation, sperm goes into the mans vas deferens where fructose, seminal fluids, and other chemicals are secreted. Your sperm and other seminal fluids rush past the bladder through the urethra and out the penis.

Three things are needed for the sperm to enter the woman’s cervix. You need to have an erection, orgasm and ejaculation. Erections take place when the penis is stimulated or when erotic thoughts come into your mind. There is a sudden rush of blood to the erectile tissue chambers in the penis. With all this the penis engorges, making the penis hard, enlarged and elevated.

You need continued stimulation to achieve orgasm and ejaculation. Orgasm is the sexual climax. It is a pleasurable emotional or psychological response that accompanies ejaculation. In a man there are two stages to an orgasm. The first one is ejaculatory inevitability. This take place just second before you ejaculate. You know that you are about to ejaculate and at this point there is no turning back. Your seminal vesicles and your prostate gland begin to throb. The second stage of orgasm is when you involuntarily ejaculate semen in convulsive surges. On average a teaspoon of sperm contains any where between 40 to 150 million sperm.

Now that you have achieved orgasm as a man you have to go through a recovery period. Through out this recovery period you cannot experience another orgasm. This recovery period varies for different men. It can range anywhere from minutes to hours.

Dale has been married for 20 years and studies topics of this sort. You can check out some of his ever growing blogs at http://relationshiptidbits.blogspot.com/ or http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and http://fishingtutor.blogspot.com/

The relationship between human sperm maturity and apoptosis is of interest because of the persistence of immature sperm in ejaculates in spite of various apoptotic processes during spermatogenesis. We assessed sperm maturity by HspA2 chaperone levels, and plasma membrane maturity by sperm binding to immobilized hyaluronic acid (HA). We also utilized objective morphometry.

Sperm were stained with three antibody combinations: active caspase-3/creatine kinase (CK, a marker of cytoplasmic retention), caspase-3/the antiapoptotic Bcl-(XL), and CK/Bcl-(XL). In semen, 13% of sperm stained with CK, caspase-3 or Bcl-(XL), and 28% had stained with two markers.

In the mature HA-bound sperm fraction, <4% were single- or double-stained. Regarding sperm regions, CK staining, whether alone or as double staining, occurred in the head and midpiece (15-20%), whereas caspase-3 and Bcl-(XL) were primarily (>80% of sperm) in the midpiece.

Morphometrical attributes of clear, single- and double-stained sperm, in line with their more pronounced maturation arrest, showed an incremental increase in head size (due to cytoplasmic retention) and shorter tail length. We hypothesize that during faulty sperm development, three alternatives may occur: (i) elimination of aberrant germ cells by apoptosis; (ii) in surviving immature cells, caspase-3 is activated, and in response the antiapoptotic Bcl-(XL), and perhaps HspA2, provide protection; (iii) in a third type of immature sperm, in addition to the CK, caspase-3 and Bcl-(XL) expression, there are related manifestations of increased head size and shorter tail length.

Thus, immature sperm may vary in the type of developmental arrest and in protection mechanisms for apoptosis. These variations are likely to explain the persistence of immature sperm in the ejaculate.

New evidence is helping to confirm what many fertility doctors already knew; That the health and quality of a man's sperm cells are one of the biggest components to successfully conceiving.

The health of a man's sperm is so important because it truly is survival of the fittest. You have thousands of sperm cells competing for the chance to penetrate and fertilize the female egg. Compound this fact with the numerous variables that stand in the sperm cells way and you have an extremely difficult mission. The factors that dictate your success as well as your fertility rate are outlined in greater detail in the next section.

Factors of Importance-The Battle of Conception

First the environment of the female reproductive system is very acidic, and in order for the sperm cells to survive in this environment long enough to find the female egg they need a protective barrier. This protective barrier is the seminal fluid which contains the sperm cells. It not only acts as a barrier but also acts as a fuel on which the sperm cells feed off of. So in order to have strong and healthy sperm cells you also need a healthy dose of semen.

Next the sperm cells themselves must be of high quality with key traits like motility and mobility. What this means is that the sperm cells should show signs of being strong swimmers and the ability to swim in a forward motion. There should also be few signs of sperm abnormalities including: low sperm count low semen volume, poor swimming ability, crooked tails and malformed sperm cells and the presence of a large number of dead sperm cells.

What researchers have recently found is a correlation between the health and quality of a man's sperm cell and the presence of a particular protein that is found in the immune system. This protein was crucial to the continued strength and health of the sperm cells because it helped increase the sperms motility. Again what this confirms is the importance of a healthy body and the role that key amino acids (the building blocks of protein), nutrients, vitamins and minerals have in the health of the male sexual health system.

If you ensure that your body is receiving enough of these key elements as part of your diet then you are on your way to maintaining a healthy fertility level with healthy sperm cells. If you are unsure as to whether you are receiving the adequate nutrients adding a specially formulated supplement will help.

To read more about the latest on the protein MIF and the role it plays in the male reproductive system or to learn more about all natural supplements designed just for the male reproductive system please visit Sperm Cell Development Based on Protein MIF