Adrenal cancer is a rare and aggressive disease that causes abnormal cell growth inside the adrenal cortex. This cancer usually appears as tumors at the outermost layer of the adrenal glands and gradually develops cancerous cells. In the majority of the cases, adrenal cancer is diagnosed only after it has been growing for several years.

Symptoms
While most of the adrenal cancer patients have the common symptoms, often some people feel just fine, unless until their doctors find the presence of cancerous cells in the adrenal cortex through CT scan. Generally, the symptoms of this life-threatening disease depend on three factors, which are:

The particular type of overproduced hormone
The tumor producing hormones excessively
And, type of the tumor
However, it is the overproduction of particular hormones, that makes the majority of the symptoms visible. Below are the common symptoms of adrenal cancer, depending on hormone types that are overproduced during the presence of this disease.

Symptoms of cortisol overproduction
When the presence of adrenal cancer leads to excess production of the cortisol hormone, people start experiencing different types of symptoms. The accumulation of fat behind the shoulders and neck, gradual weight gain in the stomach and chest portions irregular periods, and hair growth on the chest, face and back (in women) are the most prominent ones. One can also suffer from depression, weakness in legs, and easy bruising as other signs of cortisol overproduction.

Symptoms of aldosterone overproduction
As a result of the overproduction of the aldosterone hormone, people generally have feelings of excessive thirst, feelings of tiredness and weakness and sometimes high blood pressure. The desire of urinating frequently and painful muscle cramps too become evident due to the excessive production of aldosterone.

Symptoms of testosterone overproduction
When as a result of malignant tumors in the adrenal cortex the production of the testosterone hormone goes to higher than normal levels, it is considered to be overproduction. The voice becoming deeper, excessive invasion of acnes, irregular periods become prominently visible symptoms of this kind of adrenal cancer. Even, excessive growth of body hair or the facial hair and heightened muscle mass are some of its common symptoms.

Symptoms of estrogen overproduction
The growth of the breast in males and the early puberty in females are the most common symptoms of adrenal cancer where the malignant tumors overly produce estrogen hormone. Even decreased sex drive or impotence in males can be considered as its other serious symptoms.

Apart from the above mentioned adrenal cancer symptoms, in some cases, the adrenal tumors become so big that they start pressing the nearby organs which leads to signs of abdominal pain or feelings of fullness in the belly. The moment one identifies having any one of the signs discussed here, he or she should look for medical attention immediately.

Adrenal Cancer - What Are The Symptoms?

Achalasia is a serious disorder of the esophagus in which your nerves and muscles fail to work properly. This disorder causes problems in your body such as chest pain, difficulty to swallow food and excessive coughing. 

You will also face problems in breathing in case the food enters in to the lungs. There is a valve in your lower esophageal splinter, which closes the esophagus from your stomach. If you have problems like achalasia then perhaps your lower esophageal splinter fails to open while swallowing food it can lead to accumulation of food in esophagus. In this condition the nerves in your body gets damaged and hence cause health complications.

You are at risk of achalasia when you are middle aged, but it can also occur during childhood. Auto immune disorder often places you at risk for achalasia.

Symptoms of achalasia:
The major symptom of achalasia is dysphagia in which you face problems while swallowing food. You may feel that the food is struck in your esophagus which causes choking and problems when you breathe. There may be other symptoms of achalasia which includes:
1. Loss of weight
2. Heart burn
3. Discomfort or pain while you eat food
4. Chest pain
5. Risk of esophagus cancer

Treatment for achalasia:
Esophageal manometry is a technique your doctor may use, if he suspects achalasia when the symptoms include difficulty while you eat and swallow foods. A tube measures the muscular activity in your stomach and reports about the functioning of your esophagus. Another way to diagnose is through X- ray of the esophagus or endoscopy.

The treatment for achalasia generally starts with oral medications. Sphincter nitrates and calcium blockers often help to relax the muscles. Botox can also help to relax your sphincter and help you swallow food.
Esophagomyotomy also helps to treat achalasia in which your doctor can use an incision to access the sphincter and also alter it to enable better flow into the stomach. It s a generally successful procedure, but sometimes can cause gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) which causes heart burn and would require intensive care. Sometimes surgery can also help to give relief but it can also cause acid reflux, respiratory problems, tearing of esophagus along with other serious complications.

Laparoscopic surgery is a simple and effective way of treating this problem .The tight lower esophageal sphincter is released to make way for easy passage of food.The patient recovers in one day and is discharged home following this operation.

Achalasia - Symptoms + Treatment

Ovarian cancer takes place when the cells in either of your ovaries have an abnormal growth. The ovaries are two small organs, situated on either side of your uterus. They deliver female sex hormones and store and discharge eggs (ova) that help a woman reproduce. Ovarian cancer is a serious disease that emerges from various sorts of cells and growths inside the ovary.

Specialists do not know precisely what causes ovarian cancer. Hereditary qualities, for example and other DNA changes, are a danger element for few ladies. Around 10 out of 100 ovarian cancers are thought to be brought about by quality transformations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Women who go through changes due to these carrier genes are more at risk of contracting ovarian cancer.

The earliest symptoms of ovarian cancer are as follows

    Frequent bloating in the uterus or stomach area.
    Pain in your pelvis or belly.
    Inconvenience while eating, or feeling full quickly.
    Urinary issues, for example, a critical need to urinate or urinating more frequently than expected.


Treatment options for ovarian cancer

The decision of treatment and the long-term result for ladies who have ovarian cancer relies upon the sort and phase of cancer they are in. Your age, general wellbeing, personal satisfaction, and wish to get pregnant should be considered. The primary treatment methods for ovarian cancer are:

    Surgery to see whether you have cancer or not and to treat it. This may include taking an ultrasound and biopsies to check for the spread of cancer.
    Chemotherapy, which uses medications to kill the cancerous cells. It is suggested after surgery for most phases of ovarian cancer.
    Women who are in a more progressive stage of ovarian cancer may have a portion of their chemotherapy before surgery and whatever is left of it after surgery. This can make the surgery more secure for these women.
    Radiation treatment might be utilized to pulverize the cancer cells with the help of high-measurement X-ray beams or other high-vitality beams.

Side Effects of Treatment Methods:

Most medications for ovarian cancer cause reactions. They may vary, depending upon the kind of treatment, your age and general well-being. Reactions of surgery rely on the degree of your surgery and spread of the disease. In case your specialist removes your ovaries, you lose the capacity to bear children or get pregnant. Furthermore, in case you were all the while bleeding before your surgery, you will begin with your menopause.

Symptoms of chemotherapy may incorporate loss of appetite and weight, queasiness, fatigue, vomiting, nausea and hair loss. There is also a possibility of getting a very serious infection. One should get regular or annual check-ups done to see if there are anomalies in either parts of the bodies since natural symptoms of cancer are only visible after a certain stage. 

Ovarian Cancer - 4 Highly Effective Treatment Options Available

Kidney transplantation is a major surgery. In this surgery, doctors will remove your damaged/malfunctioning kidney and replace it with a healthy kidney from a donor. A successful kidney transplantation surgery will greatly increase your life expectancy if doctors have diagnosed you with chronic kidney disease.

However, some kidney transplantation surgeries have a better outcome than others do. This is mainly due to some factors that can affect the chances of success before and after the surgery. Here is a look at what these factors are.

Pre-surgery:

You may not be able to control what happens before the transplantation surgery, but here are some things that can affect your chances of a healthy life:

1. Age of the donor and the recipient: Younger people have healthier bodies and easily recover from surgery. Therefore, to achieve the best results in kidney transplantation surgery, it is important for the kidney donor to be young. Kidneys from a younger donor are likely to be healthier and function better for a longer time. For instance, if donor A is 60 years old and donor B is 30 years old, the outcome of transplant will be better if you receive the kidney from donor B. Similarly, if you are too old, your body may reject the transplanted kidney. However, your body will easily adjust to the transplant if you are young.

2. Living donors are better: If you receive a kidney from a living donor, the surgery is much more likely to be successful. In most cases of living donors, a friend or family member donates the kidney to the patient. Therefore, if you have a friend or relative willing to donate a kidney to you, you should opt for that instead of waiting for a kidney from a dead donor.

Post-surgery:

When you undergo a kidney transplant, you can develop heart diseases. Here are some things that will help you prevent that-

1. Keep blood pressure low

Some medications for your kidney disease can lead to an increase in blood pressure. Therefore, you should consult the doctor and report the elevated blood pressure, so that he/she can change the medicine. Additional medication may be required to keep your blood pressure under check so that you do not develop cardiac conditions.

2. Keep cholesterol levels in check:

To prevent organ rejection after the transplant surgery, doctors prescribe immunosuppressants. These drugs can increase cholesterol levels in the blood, which leads to blood and heart disorders. Therefore, you need to reduce cholesterol intake through diet. Ask your doctor about exercises that you can do to reduce cholesterol build up in the body.

Lastly, maintaining proper body weight is also essential after kidney transplantation surgery. Taking these measures will keep your overall body healthy while keeping heart disease and other problems at bay.

How To Achieve Best Results In Kidney Transplantation?

Obesity can make life miserable. From unhealthy eating habits to unhealthy lifestyles and medical conditions, obesity can be an amalgamation of many factors. Obese people are a greater risk of suffering from many serious health complications like type-2 diabetes, mood swings, and depression, cardiac problems, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, to name a few. It does not stop there. More alarming is the fact that obese people are an increased risk of suffering from different types of cancer.

Bariatric surgery comes as a saviour for highly obese people (with a BMI over 40), who have tried every possible treatment under the sun to lose weight without any success. Bariatric surgery has helped many severely obese people attain a healthy weight. Bariatric surgery can be of three types;

Gastric bypass surgery (Roux-en-Y): This is one of the most common types of weight-loss surgery practised worldwide. The procedure involves rearranging (dividing) the stomach into a smaller upper pouch and a larger lower part. The smaller pouch is then connected to the small intestine. The food consumed will pass into the small intestine through the pouch. The idea is to rearrange the stomach in such a way that a person consumes a lesser quantity of food.
Gastric banding (Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band): In this procedure, the surgeon creates a small pouch at the upper part of the stomach by placing a band (lap band or A-band) around it. The pouch, true to its name, is used to hold the food consumed. The purpose of placing a band around the stomach (upper part) is to reduce the intake of food.
Sleeve Gastrectomy (Gastric Sleeve surgery): In Sleeve Gastrectomy, surgeons remove a large portion of the stomach, leaving behind only a small sleeve-like pouch (hence the name). Like the other two surgeries, sleeve gastrectomy also aids in limiting the consumption of food.
Duodenal switch: The fourth type of bariatric surgery, Duodenal switch with biliopancreatic diversion, is not very commonly used. Bariatric surgery has several health benefits. In addition to the weight loss, it plays a pivotal role in lowering the incidences of Type-2 Diabetes, depression, anxiety, coronary artery problems, sleep apnea cardiovascular diseases.
Research also suggest that bariatric surgery has been instrumental in reducing the chances of cancer (especially colon and breast cancer) by as much as 60%. The correlation between weight loss and reduced cancer instances is still a debatable topic. Some researchers and oncologists believe that the weight loss (bariatric surgery) brings about a hormonal modification which prevents the growth of tumour cells. Another study links obesity with an increased inflammation. In many cases, inflammation acts as a catalyst, accelerating the growth of cancer cells. Research is still going on to understand this correlation (obesity and reduced cancer rates) better.

Bariatric surgery has its share of risks and demerits. Consult your physician and get yourself thoroughly examined before opting for the surgery.

Does Bariatric Surgery Reduces The Risk Of Cancer?

Colon cancer is a medical condition where malignant cancerous growths mainly originate in the colon or the large intestine. Believed to be the sixth most common type of cancer prevalent in India (As per the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research Centre), the colon cancer can metastasize and affect the other healthy body parts and organs.

The symptoms that may be indicative of colon cancer include:

Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
A person may suffer from anemia (triggered by iron deficiency).
Rapid and unexplained loss of body weight.
There may be rectal bleeding (blood may also appear in the stool). There may also be pain and discomfort during the bowel movement.
A person may experience extreme weakness and fatigue.
Frequent diarrhea or constipation.
A person may complain of abdominal pain and cramps.
There may be a change in the consistency of the stool.
Unfortunately, in most cases, the symptoms associated with colon cancer may not appear in the initial stages, thus complicating the situation.

Prevention and management of Colon Cancer
A little alertness on your part can help to prevent colon cancer.

Regular health checkups and screening: Whether the symptoms appear or not, health check-ups at regular intervals are a must. In addition to preventing colon cancer, regular health check-ups can also help to avert a host of other health complications. The screening tests for colon cancer are necessary for people who have a family history of colon cancer and also those who are above 50 years of age. The various screening tests for colon cancer include:
Colonoscopy (used to examine the inside of the colon for any abnormalities).
Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT)/Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) (These tests are carried out to detect the presence of blood in the feces).
The screening may also be done using Virtual Colonoscopy or Flexible Sigmoidoscopy.
Forget the unhealthy lifestyle habits: Smoking and drinking (excessive) can be the chief contributors triggering colon cancer. Limiting your alcohol intake and quitting smoking will not only keep you healthy but also keep colon cancer at bay.
Shed the extra pounds: The harmful effects of obesity are known to all. Obesity is considered to be one of the underlying factors that can trigger a colon cancer. A healthy body weight can go a long way in preventing colon cancer and keep you fit and active. Minimum 30 minutes exercise daily is all that you need to stay fit and healthy.
Make healthy changes in the diet: If you want to prevent colon cancer, make your diet as healthy as you can. Enrich it with fruits, vegetables and food items that are rich in fibers, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. Dietary fats (red meat or any other processed meats) are a strict no. Choose whole grain products over refined ones.

Colon Cancer - How To Prevent It?

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