It hit like a ton of bricks and it wasn’t something that I was prepared for – maybe later in ‎life but not at 32. In one week I went from a normal life to finding out I had testicular ‎cancer and undergoing surgery to remove the infected testicle. There was no time wasted ‎and little preparation for the blow to my psyche. ‎

The week started like any other, I went to work on Monday and something just wasn’t ‎right. As it turns out something was more than just wrong. An ultrasound on Tuesday ‎would indicate cancer had invaded my right testicle and my fears were confirmed. ‎Wednesday brought a meeting with the urologist that would remove the testicle and ‎Thursday was surgery. In less than seven days, my life changed.‎

You also have to understand that my medical life was so very charmed before all this. I’d ‎never broken a bone, had a cavity, I still have all my wisdom teeth, and I’d never had ‎surgery before. To be honest my worst fear was that I’d wake up with a tube down my ‎throat like on ER and have to deal with that. To my great comfort there was no tube, just ‎a bandage virtually duct taped to my hip and a missing testicle upon my waking in the ‎recovery room. As I walked out of the hospital that day I realized there was a long road ‎ahead.‎

Before I could begin chemotherapy, I had to bank sperm (in case the drugs left me ‎sterile), undergo breathing tests (since the Bleoymicin can scar your lungs) and have an ‎additional consultation with a radiation oncologist should my condition require radiation ‎as part of treatment. I was lucky since a pure seminoma responds well to chemotherapy ‎and likely would not require radiation. ‎

I had heard the horror stories of chemo, loosing weight, frequent bouts of vomiting, and a ‎generally miserable time. I prepared for all that, but it never came. During the course of ‎my treatment, I never got sick, actually gained weight, and the worst thing that happened ‎was that I perpetually felt tired. It’s a difficult feeling to describe, what chemo feels like ‎that is. I used to say, it feels like I’m hung over and walking through loose sand all the ‎time. But as I read the description it doesn’t make a ton of sense to me either, but that’s ‎the way it felt.‎

The bottom line is that I made it through and have been fine ever since. My chemo lasted ‎from October to December and between each cycle I had a CAT and PET scan to judge ‎the progress. All along the way we saw the infected lymph nodes get smaller and the ‎disease gradually die. ‎

You might be asking, so how did he get through? What allowed him to cope? I’ll be ‎honest – I gave in to the simple fact that I didn’t cause this. I had no hand in causing my ‎disease; it’s not like lung cancer from smoking of ruining your liver from drinking. Once ‎I came to this realization, my focus shifted to killing the disease and getting it out of my ‎body. While I can’t say that I enjoyed the weekly IV sticks and the daily trips to the ‎cancer treatment center, I didn’t mind them as much. Beyond the mental shift, my family ‎played a tremendous role in my recovery. For the surgery and the chemo my family was ‎by my side and kept me going. While I could have done virtually all of it on my own, it ‎was very helpful to have someone at the house since I really wasn’t working at this time ‎and too much time alone would not have been good. ‎

While this story seems very positive, there are a few aspects of my cancer diagnosis that ‎require some attention. First, I have this feeling that I’m not out of the woods yet. I have ‎kept up with all my follow-up visits and have regular CAT and PET scans, blood work, ‎and physical exams. However, there’s a voice in the back of my head that every now and ‎again whispers to me – beware…And finally, while my surgical scar has healed and I’ve ‎lost the weight I gained during chemo, there are emotional issues that I’ve yet to deal ‎with fully. I think some upfront counseling would have helped, but that didn’t happen ‎and now I’m dealing with it. ‎

Bottom line – testicular cancer is beatable with modern medicine. The thing is if you ‎think there’s a problem, get it checked out. Find a doctor you trust and tell them the ‎facts, while we all hope for the best case, you need to be more prepared for the truth than ‎I was. Should the diagnosis be cancer, understand that it’s not the end of the world and ‎there are places to turn like the American Cancer Society for advice and a friendly person ‎to talk to who has been where you are now. ‎

I live in South Florida and am married to a lovely woman. I have a passion for Swiss Watches and run a online watch store, swisswatchdeal.com www.swisswatchdeal.com in addition to my government job.

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One of the forms of cancer of most concern to men is prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men, after skin cancer, and is the third leading cause of cancer death in men, after colorectal cancer and lung cancer. One in six men will get prostate cancer in his lifetime and over 200,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year.

Research has shown that there are several natural ways to prevent prostate cancer. One particular study reported by the UK Tea Council outlined several ways that men can protect their prostate health by making changes to their diets. Some of the most important changes you can make to prevent prostate cancer include the following:

• Lower your fat intake – Research has shown a reduced risk in prostate cancer in men who have a low fat diet. It’s particularly important to lower your saturated fat and eliminate trans fats from your diet. Saturated fat is found in red meats, butter and high fat dairy products. Trans fats are artificial fats and are actually more dangerous than any other, because the body is unable to properly process it.

• Increase your intake of lycopene – Lycopene, a powerful anti-oxidant found in tomatoes has been shown to be particularly effective in preventing prostate cancer. Many doctors recommend that you get your lycopene intake from tomato sauce, because it is a more concentrated form of lycopene than a simple tomato.

• Add a vitamin E supplement – Vitamin E also has been shown to have a cancer preventing effect in some men. A simple supplement once a day may decrease your prostate risk.

• Add a selenium supplement – Another mineral supplement, selenium, has also been shown to be a cancer preventative.

• Add a calcium and vitamin D supplement – Vitamin D has also been shown to have a cancer preventing effect, but it requires an adequate amount of calcium in order to work effectively. So, when you add one supplement, add the other.

• Eat soy protein – Obtaining some of your dietary protein from soy protein sources can lower your risk of prostate and other cancers. Try soy milk and tofu in place of some meat to reduce fat and increase soy protein. Soy protein has been shown to have an effect even when prostate cancer has already been diagnosed. It appears to slow or inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells.

• Drink green tea – Green tea has been shown in many studies to prevent several forms of cancer, including prostate cancer. Green tea is a powerful source of anti-oxidants, which can prevent free radicals from damaging our cells, leading to cancer, aging and other diseases. However, green tea has other benefits when it comes to prostate cancer.

Green tea has been shown to causes apoptosis of prostate cancer cells. Apoptosis is the systematic killing off of cells. It happens in many circumstances in the body, ensuring that only healthy, vital cells survive. However, rarely have we seen substances that can generate apoptosis in the body for the purposes of killing off abnormal cell growth like cancer cells, or abnormal cells that may grow into cancer.

Improving your diet and adding supplements is a simple way to prevent to cancer and many other diseases. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables is an important key to health. Fruits and vegetables contain anti-oxidants, which are extremely important to protecting health.

Anti-oxidants combat free radicals created in our bodies as a by-product of converting food to energy. Free radicals damage our cells and DNA, causing premature aging and disease unless they are regularly neutralized by anti-oxidants. Fresh fruits and vegetables are powerful sources of anti-oxidants as is green tea, dark chocolate and red wine. So, by adding these products to your regular diet, you can help ensure that you live a long and healthy life, avoiding many types of disease like heart disease and cancer.

To date, much of the research on preventing cancer naturally has been performed on mice and in laboratory controlled studies. So, it’s clear that we need to perform more tests on humans in order to truly determine the benefits of all these dietary changes and supplements in the fight against prostate cancer. However, we do know that all the changes mentioned here are generally healthy, so we can feel good about making them even if they don’t significantly lower our cancer risk.

The rates of prostate cancer have started to decline over the last 10 years. In addition, the mortality rate has declined. Today, while one in six men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime; only 1 in 34 will die from it. With emphasis on natural preventative measures, perhaps we can eradicate this form of cancer, eliminating one of the most common and significant male health problems.

Jon M. Stout is the Chairman of the Golden Moon Tea Company. Golden Moon Tea carefully selects the finest rare and orthodox teas, which are processed slowly and handcrafted with extreme care. At their website, you can learn more about their current

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Leukemia is a dangerous form of cancer, and it affects thousands of people every year. It affects the white blood cells. The body loses control of the quantity and quality of blood cells, and it becomes very vulnerable because the white blood cells are supposed to protect our organism against infections. There are two main types of leukemia - acute leukemia and chronic leukemia. Acute leukemia is more dangerous because it spreads much faster, but chronic leukemia can be tricky because it has almost no symptoms.

The first organ that is affected by chronic leukemia is the bone marrow. The bone marrow is a tissue that can be found on some of the main bones in the body and that has the role of producing blood cells (red blood cells and white blood cells).
White blood cells are the guardians of the body. They can be found anywhere in the blood and they attack and neutralize any type of bacteria that enters the body and that can be harmful.

When a patient has chronic leukemia, the white blood cells from his blood are deffective and they are continuously created. A normal person should have less then 10000 white blood cells white a person with leukemia can have more than 100000, but although there are so many the protection against infections is decreased because most of the cells are malfunctioning.
A particularity of chronic leukemia is that patients who have it also have a lower number of red blood cells.

The causes of all types of leukemia are unknown, doctors cannot determine why some people have this illness and other don’t. Though, scientists discovered some factors that increase the risks of becoming ill of leukemia. Among these factors radiations play an important role, many that were exposed to radiations were soon diagnosed with leukemia. Also, a malfunction in the genes can cause the blood cells to transform, so it can have a genetic cause. The causes and risk factors are still being researched.

The bad thing about chronic leukemia is that it usually shows no symptoms that can give he patient an idea about his condition. It’s often discovered during routine lab tests. Some of those suffering from chronic leukemia reported having a general state of weakness and fatigue. As the disease advances blood can start to come out of the nose or of the gums for no reason, and because the organism is weakened and its defense is lowered, leukemia patients can be vruised very easy, and they are often infected with foreign microorganism.

Chronic leukemia treatment depends on each patient. After the diagnose a series of tests are made to determine which therapy the patient responds to. Chemotherapy is used in most situations. The number of people that are cured of chronic leukemia is increasing as time passes, but a there is a notable number of victims too.

New drugs and cures keep being researched by doctors and scientists and the survival rate is rising, so maybe in the near future chronic leukemia will be musc easier to treat.

For more resources on different leukemia related issues like leukemia-guide.com/leukemia-symptoms.htm leukemia symptoms, leukemia-guide.com/leukemia-causes.htm leukemia causes and many more visit leukemia-guide.com leukemia-guide.com

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Prostate is a male gland that surrounds first part of the urethra and is responsible for production of semen (the sperm carrier). Prostate cancer is the name given to development of cancer in prostate and prostate cancer is generally found in older men i.e. men that are over 50 years of age.

Diet and Prostate cancer

The risk of prostate cancer can be reduced by including sufficient tomato and tomato products in your diet. Similarly, fresh fruits and vegetables are also said to reduce the chances of occurrence of prostate cancer. On the other hand there are suggestions that animal fat and dairy products can increase the risk of prostate cancer

Symptoms of prostate cancer

Since prostate cancer affects the abilities of prostate gland the main symptoms are shown by the urinary system. So prostate cancer might lead to more frequent urination or it might lead to difficultly in passing urine (e.g. pain while urinating). It’s important to note that enlargement of prostate gland doesn’t necessarily mean that you have prostate cancer. Also, the occurrence of these symptoms can’t be attributed to prostate cancer without proper tests and diagnosis by a qualified doctor.

Diagnosis of prostate cancer

There are a number of ways in which diagnosis of prostate cancer is carried out. Your doctor will, of course, enquire about the symptoms first and then prescribe certain tests based on how strong the prostate cancer symptoms are. The various prostate cancer tests include rectal examination (in which the rectum passage is used to feel abnormalities in prostate gland). Then we have blood test that checks the level of prostate-specific antigen in your blood. Ultrasound tests are another means of diagnosing prostate cancer and these are sometimes done in parallel with biopsy of prostate tissue samples. Though these tests are known to be quite good at detecting prostate cancer, they can’t be labeled as 100% accurate and hence some other advanced tests might need to be carried out in certain cases.

Treatment of prostate cancer

The treatment approach for prostate cancer will depend on whether it is in its early stages or whether it has got more advanced. Note that if the prostate cancer is detected in too advanced stage, it might spread to bones even and become more or less uncontrollable. The best way to keep prostate cancer at bay is to take proactive approach by consulting doctor (and even going for blood test) regularly and hence catch prostate cancer in its early stages. Surgery, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy are the most usual ways of treating prostate cancer. However, chemotherapy may be used too.

Warren and Karen have been involved in the internet for a number of years and run several websites. They are most interested in providing opportunities for people to connect with information relating to business, health and creativity. Check out their prostate–cancer.blogspot.com Prostate Cancer blog for more information.

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