Asbestos has many appealing qualities for builders. It is strong, flexible and corrosion resistant. It is also burn resistant and a good insulator. There are not many substances with these qualities and may explain why it was so widely used. It becomes hazardous when asbestos containing materials are disturbed or damaged. Asbestos is made up of microscopic bundles of fibers. When the materials become disturbed or damaged, these fibers separate and may become airborne. These fibers may get into the lungs and that may lead to serious and even fatal diseases. Some of these diseases include:

Asbestosis is a non-cancerous lung disease. Inhaling asbestos fibers for an extended period of time causes it. This disease takes twenty five to forty years to develop. As asbestos fibers become trapped in your lungs, the body will produce an acid to try to eliminate these fibers. The continued production of the acid can eventually scar the tissues in your lungs. An excessive amount of scarring may cause the lungs to function improperly. This can lead to serious breathing difficulties. If asbestosis is left untreated, it may cause cardiac failure. At this time, there is no effective treatment for this disease. People who renovate or demolish buildings that contain asbestos have the greatest risk of getting asbestosis. The chances of getting this disease through physical contact with a person who works with asbestos are minimal. People who worked in naval shipyards were the first ones diagnosed with asbestosis.

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that affects the pleura (the outer membrane that encloses the lung and chest cavity) and/ or the peritoneum (the membrane lining the walls of the abdominal cavity). In the United States, there are only about 3000 new cases of this disease annually. Exposure to asbestos has been the cause in all of the cases. The exposure in these cases lasted anywhere from fifteen to thirty years. Unlike other forms of cancer, there is only one known cause of mesothelioma. Studies indicate that people who work in areas that contain asbestos, such as mines, mills, factories, or shipyards, or who manufacture and install asbestos installation are at the greatest risk of getting mesothelioma. You are also at risk if you live with a worker exposed to asbestos or near any area containing asbestos. Studies also indicate that younger people are more likely to contract mesothelioma when they inhale asbestos. This is the reason why people are going to great lengths to protect school children from asbestos exposure.

Many cases of lung cancer can also be attributed to asbestos exposure. Lung cancer is actually the leading cause of death among all of the illnesses caused by asbestos exposure. You can aggravate the effects of lung cancer by about fifty percent if you start smoking. People who work in occupations where they are directly involved in the handling of asbestos are at a greater risk of getting lung cancer. Exposure to both asbestos and another carcinogen, such as cigarette smoke, puts you at greater risk of contracting lung cancer than exposure to asbestos alone. There was a study that indicated that exposure to asbestos and smoke makes you ninety times more likely to contract lung cancer than a person who is not exposed to either. Some of the symptoms of lung cancer include coughing, breathing irregularities, chest pains and anemia. It usually takes fifteen to thirty years of exposure to asbestos to contract lung cancer.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to asbestos-guided.com Asbestos

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Tags: lung cancer, mesothelioma

If you find yourself heading outside frequently, and who doesn’t, you need to take basic steps to prevent skin cancer. In this case, we are talking about sunscreen the proper use of it.

Skin cancer is often given short shift when cancer is discussed. In truth, it can be deadly in some forms and thousands of people suffer from it. Many of them don’t even know until it is too late. Fortunately, skin cancer is preventable and easily so. It is all about using sunscreen. There is more to it, however, than just applying sunscreen once at the beginning of the day and then forgetting about it. Here are some tips on how you should use it.

1. Early Application – Sunscreens work in different ways. Some work immediately, while others much sit on your skin for a bit. As a general course, you should apply sunscreen 30 minutes prior to going out in the sun.

2. Reapplication – Sunscreen protection is dependent on it being on your body. From time to time, you will need to reapply it during the day. How often? Well, read the instructions first. Also, reapply it anytime you go in the water or sweat profusely. This is true even for “waterproof” sunscreens. As an overall general rule, reapply every two to three hours.

3. Cloudy Days – Don’t be fooled by cloudy days. The vast majority of harmful rays from the sun penetrate the clouds. You should still use sunscreen on cloudy days and follow the reapplication guide above.

4. Your Scalp – For many of us, we don’t have as much hair up there as we perhaps think we do. If you have thinning hair, your scalp is going to take a beating from the sun. Now is not the time to be proud. Use sunscreen or where a hat to keep your scalp from being cooked.

5. Lips – Finally, nothing is worse then burned lips. Use a lip balm with sunscreen to protect the delicate lip skin.

When heading outside, it is often easy to get lazy and forget to apply sunscreen. Skin cancer is a serious thing, so show some common sense and protect yourself.

John Grimes is with AllTerrainco.com - makers of allterrainco.com/sun_protection.html biodegradable sunscreen products for the outdoors.

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Tags: skin cancer

My friend has breast cancer. She just turned 50. This year she also lost her job, saw her eighty-something father through getting a pace-maker and broke her foot. All these events took place in a mere 4 month span. Talk about stress!

At this particular moment the news is “good”. The internist actually told her “if you had to get breast cancer, this is the best one to get”! I’m no expert, by any means, but that sounded like an oxymoron to me. There’s a “good” type?

The radiologist tried to calm my friend’s fears as much as possible-explaining that she was fortunate enough that it was caught in an extremely early stage. According to the mammogram, the sonogram and the biopsy, that it’s very tiny and localized. Both of these first two doctors said that since these were all signs of an excellent prognosis they felt that a lumpectomy would be all she would need. Of course, this was also followed by “unless the surgeon feels differently and thinks some radiation might be warranted”.

When she e-mailed me with the news, I felt a wave of nausea myself. After all, I’m but a mere year younger so I felt her terror and the terror of wondering who could/would be next to announce this type of news. Being a writer my way of coping was to start researching the web for types, treatments, groups and outcomes for an article.

Many of the websites talked about the varied types, stages and treatments. Too numerous to become an expert on for the most part. Since my friend is still in the “numb” stage, as she puts it, she hasn’t told me which type she has contracted. But when she does, I will go to some of the more user-friendly sites (I liked Susan G. Komen and The City of Hope) and start my detail searching there.

As the patient that’s also the line of attack my co-hort has decided on. She wants to know the what-ifs, what-abouts and what are the closest support groups around her. As a single woman she fortunately has built up a very strong base of other single women to have nearby. Which is as necessary as it wonderful. However, she will probably also benefit from attending meetings of others who are “in the same boat”.

I say this mainly from my own experience with a very different disease. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. I have been very fortunate to have a very supportive family base. My husband gives me my weekly injections. My grown children are more than willing to pitch in to help with a meal and laundry. I’ve learned to not be quite so controlling and let some of what I have always considered to be “my job” get farmed out to others who are more able-bodied. But what really helps are my two support friends. We’ve never actually met face to face, but we’ve known each other for over six years now and it’s our cyber-connection that has seen us through some times that our families quite simply cannot understand! We met via a now defunct Rheumatoid Arthritis website

We are all 49. One married, no children. One single. And me. We share many things, all of which help us get through the bad days and make the good ones seem all the brighter. I cheered one lady on when she decided to take her hobby of painting and go professional. One cheered me on when I decided to rejuvenate my writing career after a 26 year hiatus. I was in the rooting sections when one went back to college to earn her degree. Both were online telling me that starting my ENBREL injections would put me back into a more “normal” routine and told me stories about their positive reactions and remissions due to the taking of stronger medications.

So while I am still going to have to work on becoming more knowledgeable on my friend’s disease, I know one of the best things I can provide her with is a list of breast cancer support groups that she can contact and get involved with right away. Even if they will be an anonymous support group, they will give her invaluable comfort, and information that she would probably not receive from the medical community.

I am also hoping that when the new year begins, she finds a sense of strength and renewal that will be a positive outcome.

Carine Nadel is rejuvenating her writing career after a 26 year hiatus. Most of her articles are based on what experiences her family and friends, as well as herself, go through on a daily basis. To read more of Carine’s work, log onto: Carine-whatscooking.blogspot.com Carine-whatscooking.blogspot.com or fabulously40.com fabulously40.com

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Pancreatic cancer, which generally has a very poor prognosis, is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths. It killed greater than 32,000 Americans last year. Therefore, researchers are investigating methods to improve the outlook.

A large study recently demonstrated that patients who underwent surgical removal of the pancreas, who were given both radiation therapy and chemotherapy afterwards, derived improved survival.

When radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy are administered to a person who has undergone an operation to remove all the visible cancer, it is termed adjuvant therapy. An example of the routine use of adjuvant radiation therapy and chemotherapy is that of a woman who has had a lumpectomy to remove a malignant breast tumor.

Investigators reviewed the records of 472 people who had complete surgical removal of the pancreas. All had negative margins, meaning a rim of normal tissue surrounded the cancer cells. Patients whose disease spread beyond the pancreas or whose disease could not be removed entirely were excluded from the study. Also excluded were patients who had a slow growing variant of pancreatic cancer.

At the end of the review, the records of 454 patients were eligible for analysis. A comparison was then made of those who received adjuvant radiation therapy and chemotherapy concurrently after surgery versus those who did not.

Over half of the patients received adjuvant radiation therapy and chemotherapy (274 out of 454 patients). 50 percent of these survived two years and 28 percent went on to live at least five years.

This data was in stark contrast to one-third (180 out of 454 patients) who received no additional therapy after surgery and whose survival was significantly less; 39 percent at two years and 17 percent at five years, respectively.

In addition, patients who received further chemotherapy after their course of adjuvant concomitant radiation therapy and chemotherapy seemed to have even better survival; 61 percent and 31 percent at two and five years, respectively. However, only 28 of 454 patients received this regimen, so it is premature to draw conclusions from this limited sized population.

Nonetheless, the findings of this study suggest a significant improvement in survival rates for those who undergo adjuvant radiation therapy and chemotherapy after complete removal of pancreatic cancer. More good news is that the incidence of pancreatic cancer has decreased over the past few years.

Dr. Kornmehl is a board certified radiation oncologist at Passaic Beth Israel Regional Medical Center, Passaic, NJ and author of the critically acclaimed consumer health book, “The Best News About Radiation Therapy” (M. Evans, 2004). Her website is RTSupportDoc.com/ RTSupportDoc.com

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Tags: chemotherapy