Cancer

Cancer begins in your cells, which are the building blocks of your body. Normally, your body forms new cells as you need them, replacing old cells that die. Sometimes this process goes wrong. New cells grow even when you don't need them, and old cells don't die when they should. These extra cells can form a mass called a tumor. Tumors can be benign or malignant. Benign tumors aren't cancer while malignant ones are. Cells from malignant tumors can invade nearby tissues. They can also break away and spread to other parts of the body. Most cancers are named for where t

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Drinking Alcohol and Your Cancer Risk

Question: Drinking Alcohol and Your Cancer RiskI read that to prevent cancer, you should only drink a moderate amount of alcohol. How much alcohol is considered to be moderate? How many beers are considered to be too many? Answer: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that a moderate amount of alcohol is considered to be 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men. Consuming more than this amount is considered to be excessive drinking and increases your risk for many diseases and conditions. With that being said, how many ounces is considered to be "o

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9 Natural Remedies for Psoriatic Arthritis

Psoriatic arthritis treatmentsBy Amanda Gardner When it comes to natural treatments for psoriatic arthritis, there's not a ton of research. Conventional drugs have been shown to delay damage from the disease, but alternative therapies have not. "Many of these supplements or vitamins may ease some of the symptoms of psoriatic arthritis, but none have been shown to prevent damage," says Guy Fiocco, MD, assistant professor of internal medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, in Bryan. That said, here are nine vitamins or remedies that may be helpful in addit

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Inflammation: What You Need To Know

Fig 1: When inflammation occurs normally, chemicals from the body’s white blood cells are released to protect us from foreign substances. Sometimes, however, the white blood cells and their inflammatory chemicals cause damage to the body’s tissues. Inflammation is a process by which the body’s white blood cells and chemicals protect us from infection and foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses. In some diseases, however, the body’s defense system (immune system) inappropriately triggers an inflammatory response when there are no foreign substances to fight off. In these dise

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Inflammation

Inflammation (Latin, inflammare, to set on fire) is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants.[1] Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process. Inflammation is not a synonym for infection, even in cases where inflammation is caused by infection. Although infection is caused by a microorganism, inflammation is one of the responses of the organism to the pathogen. However, inflammation is a stereotyped response, and therefore it

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Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis ("porous bones", from Greek: ὀστέον/osteon meaning "bone" and πόρος/poros meaning "pore") is a disease of bones that leads to an increased risk of fracture.[1] In osteoporosis the bone mineral density (BMD) is reduced, bone microarchitecture is deteriorating, and the amount and variety of proteins in bone is altered. Osteoporosis is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a bone mineral density that is 2.5 standard deviations or more below the mean peak bone mass (average of young, healthy adults) as measured by DXA; the term "established osteoporosis" includes the p

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Hepatitis

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, most commonly caused by a viral infection. There are five main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E. These five types are of greatest concern because of the burden of illness and death they cause and the potential for outbreaks and epidemic spread. In particular, types B and C lead to chronic disease in hundreds of millions of people and, together, are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis and cancer. Hepatitis A and E are typically caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water. Hepatitis B, C and D usually occur a

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