stress

What is Stress?




Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain. In medical parlance, stress is defined as an organism's total response to environmental demands or pressures.






It results from interactions between persons and their environment that are perceived as straining or exceeding their adaptive capacities and threatening their well-being.






When faced with a demanding situation, the brain readies the body for defensive action – fight or flight response. Stress hormones, namely, cortisone and adrenaline are released that raise the blood pressure, elevate glucose levels in the blood and redistribute blood from the digestive tract to the muscles, thereby preparing the body to react to a situation

TREATMENTS OF BREAST CA

Prevention is better than cure, it holds true for breast cancer. However there are methods to cure breast cancer, though great deal of time and money is involved in these treatments. There are four basic types of treatments that are used to cure breast treatments.


Surgery

Most of the cancer patients go through the surgery to remove the cancer cells. Cancer is developed in the lymph nodes, to verify the presence of cancer these cells are taken out and viewed under microscope. Breast conserving surgery is done to remove only the tissues that contain the cancer. There are two basic types of breast conserving surgeries. Lumpectomy, involves removing tumor and small tissues attached with it , therefore conserving the rest of the breast. Partial mastectomy involves removing the part of the breast having the tumor. This depends on the growth of the tumor and it location in the breasts.


However there are surgeries where whole breast is removed to prevent its growth to the rest part of the body. This surgery is termed as whole mastectomy. Even after the surgery patients are often given radiation therapy, hormone therapy or chemotherapy to kill the remaining cancer cells.


Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy makes use of strong x-rays or other radiations to kill the cancer cells. Type of radiation therapy is selected depending on the type and stage of the breast cancer. Normally two kinds of therapies are used, internal therapy and external therapy. In internal therapy, a radioactive substance is brought near the cancer, with the help of wire, catchers and seeds. However in case of external therapy, a machine placed outside the body of the patient is used to direct the radiation towards her breasts.


Chemotherapy


Drugs are used in chemotherapy to stop the growth of the cancer and to kill the cancer cells. This drug is either taken in form of medicine or injected into the blood directly or the muscle. The drugs move in the bloodstream to reach the cancer cells. Types of chemotherapy depend on the stage and type of the cancer. Chemotherapy can be placed in the part of the body directly where the cancer is present.

BREAST CANCER

Breast cancer can occur at any age. However, it is more common in women between the ages of 40 and 50. It is suggested to start being tested in your mid 30's, but if you have a family history of cancer you should start in your early 30's.




Breast cancer doesn't occur in one single part of the breast, it can begin in different areas of the breast including:

• the ducts

• the lobules

• the tissue in between

There are many types of breast cancer, but two are more common in most women. They generally are named after the parts in the breast in which they start occurring. The first is ductal carcinoma and the second is lobular carcinoma. Those two are the most common types, and they appear in the breast’s milk ducts or the milk-producing glands.

In situ breast cancer or a noninvasive breast cancer is a type which the cells have remained within the place of the origin and have no spread around the breast tissue. Ductal carcinoma is a common type of noninvasive breast cancer as it keeps confined within the lining of the milk ducts


Invasive breast cancers are ones which spread outside the membranes which line the lobule, or the ducts, and start to invade the surrounding areas. They travel to other parts in the body which are more commonly known as lymph nodes. Invasive ductal carcinoma consists of nearly 70% of breast cancers. The lining of the milk ducts eventually get thin and break; the cancer spreads through the wall and starts to apply itself to the breast tissue.

The cells may keep near the site of origin, but they still spread through out the body by using a woman’s blood stream. Invasive lobular carcinoma is less common but it invades in a similar way as it starts in the milk producing lobules then starts to break into the surrounding tissue, but they can also have the same type of spreading on different parts of a woman’s body. This type of cancer does not necessarily provide lumps, but thickens an area in general. The most aggressive types of breast cancer is inflammatory as it starts form sheets and nests instead of lumps underneath the soft tissues of the breast. It can easily be treated with chemotherapy and with some surgery later on. If caught early it is manageable and the survival rates are increasing.

The least common type of cancer is the cancer of the nipple, which is called Paget’s disease. It starts to look like a skin rash or rough skin around the nipple, which some people may consider as eczema, but those are just the minor signs of cancer being under the surface of the skin. The best way to treat this type of cancer is mastectomy, since it is around the nipple and milk ducts.


For more
www.rjuette.com/2.html