Women’s Health Information

Many of us know that heart disease affects not just men but women also. Around the world every day women suffer this type of disease and now it is time to talk about it, and encourage others to do so also…

Heart disease isn’t just a man’s disease; in fact heart disease is the leading cause of death among women. Thousands of our mothers, daughters, aunts and sisters will be affected by heart disease this year, and unfortunately, many of them may not get the care and treatment they need.

That’s why the HEART for Women Act is so important. This newly introduced legislation is a step forward to better diagnose, prevent and treat heart disease in women.

Will you join me in asking our lawmakers to co-sponsor the HEART for Women Act.

Click the link below to take action today - http://www.democracyinaction.org/AmericanHeart/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4234&t=.dwt

A team at the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and the Melbourne based Prana Biotechnology have developed a drug, that they believe will not necessarily be a cure but a powerful intervention for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Human trials of this drug PBT2 will start next month.

You can read more about Alzheimers at Information For Her

By 2010 analysts predict that women will control 50% of private wealth in the United States. Already women control around $7 trillion in consumer and business spending and women-controlled businesses employ more people in the United States than all the Fortune 500 companies combined.

Women are now the majority users of the Internet and have passed men as the primary consumers of computers, cameras and PDAs.

So why are we still facing discrimination, physical abuse and salesmen who can’t cope with the idea that we may have more of a clue than they do?

We take electricity for granted. We flick a switch and the light comes on, we press a button and the dishwasher begins its wash cycle. We drop bread into the toaster and it begins to prepare our breakfast. We do it every day and we never stop to think where the electricity that powers those lights and appliances comes from.

Electricity is part of our daily life that we take for granted. But it doesn’t come out of thin air – electricity is the produced by power stations that can employ any one of a number of different methods.

Here in Australia much of our power comes from the burning of coal and the same is true in other countries too. Oil can also be used to produce electricity as can water, the sun and the wind. Unfortunately most countries depend on coal and oil and as those resources become more finite and more expensive we begin to look for alternatives.

Not every country has access to sufficient levels of sunlight to make solar energy a reasonable alternative and besides, generating the amounts of electricity that the western world needs to survive requires more generating power than the current level of solar technology can provide.

And it’s the same with wind generated electricity. Wind farms are beginning to appear but they are a long way for reaching the generating level that we need.

So it should come as no surprise that more and more countries are looking to nuclear power to supply the electricity that we need every day. But is that a wise alternative?

There are many who say that it is a wise alternative and that it is perfectly safe but to those people I say just four words – Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

If you don’t think that a major accident could happen at one of the West’s nuclear power plants then remember Three Mile Island that happened in 1979 and seven years later Chernobyl spewed its deadly radiation cloud into the atmosphere.

Both were accidents caused by people who were either poorly trained or desperately trying to cut corners to save costs. The legacy of those accidents will haunt us for many years to come and the reminder of Chernobyl – a site still not stabilized 20 years after the event – will stay with the world forever.

If you think nuclear energy is safe to use then visit the site Chernobyl Revisitedand take some time to read the text and look at the photos taken during a journey through the dead zone.

Who wants to live in a world where there are dead zones?

And if Chernobyl Revisited is too graphic for you then visit Chernobyl: Ghost of the Soviet Union – it’s not quite so stark and threatening.

And once you have seen what simple accidents could do – accidents that came through cost cutting and poorly trained staff – you decide whether you want public companies (those very companies who cut costs to save money and improve their bottom line) to be allowed to build a nuclear reactor in your country.

A Fatal Slumber: What is Sleep Apnea?

Do you snore while you are sleeping? Do you wake up during the night sometimes with the sensation of choking or grasping for breath? Do you wake up with headaches and have trouble staying awake during the day?

If you answered yes to the questions above, chances are you may already be under a threat of a serious, potentially life-threatening sleeping disorder called sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is a breathing disorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. It comes from the Greek word, apnea, meaning “want of breathe.”

There are two types of sleep apnea: central and obstructive. Central sleep apnea, which is less common, occurs when the brain fails to send the appropriate signals to the breathing muscles to initiate respirations, usually with decreases in blood oxygen saturation. Obstructive sleep apnea is far more common and occurs when air cannot flow into or out of the person’s nose or mouth usually accompanied by a reduction in blood oxygen saturation, and followed by an awakening to breathe.

According to the National Institute of Health, sleep apnea affects more than 18 million Americans. It occurs in all age groups and both sexes but is more common to men over the age of forty. Sleep apnea seems to run in some families, suggesting a possible genetic basis.

Early recognition and treatment of sleep apnea is important because it may be associated with memory problems, weight gain, impotency, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.

Sleep apnea generally has the following symptoms:

• Loud, frequent snoring. This is probably the best and most obvious indicator. Though not everyone who snores has sleep apnea.

• Cessation of breathing during sleep.

• Excessive daytime sleepiness/fatigue.

• Un-refreshing sleep with feelings of grogginess, dullness, morning headaches and severe dryness of mouth.

Fortunately, sleep apnea can be diagnosed and treated. Several treatment options exist, such as behavioral therapy, physical or mechanical therapy and surgery. For many sleep apnea patients, their spouses are the first ones to suspect that something is wrong, usually from their heavy snoring and apparent struggle to breathe.

Friends or coworkers of the sleep apnea victim may notice that the individual falls asleep during the day at inappropriate times, such as while driving a car, working or talking. The patient often does not know he or she has a problem. It is important that the person see a doctor for further evaluation.

This article is courtesy of ProsShapeRX

The Black Dog Institute launches a bipolar disorder website. It is said to be a new internet based education program that will help thousands of Australians who suffer from Bipolar Disorder.

Sydney’s Black Dog Institute, are the producers of this program which says that there are up to 5 percent of Australians that may experience Bipolar Disorder.

For those who maybe wondering what Bipolar Disorder is… it is described as a set of ‘mood swing’ conditions with the most severe form called… manic depression.

You can read more about Bipolar Disorder here.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services offers a place for women at womenshealth.gov

I found an interesting page that gave lots of information that focuses on depression during and after pregnancy. This page is a frequently asked questions page and covered topics such as the symptoms of depression, the baby blues, postpartum depression along with the effects of depression and the causes of depression.

If you live in the United States of America you can check out The National Women’s Health Information Center.

Phone: 1-800-994-9662
TDD: 1-888-220-5446

Do women who own a small business really have a different view of that business than men?

A recent study conducted by the When it Comes to Selling a Business at Small Office, Home Office Information

That’s a name that strikes fear into the hearts of many in today’s modern world and yet as recently as 50 years ago Mesothelioma was almost completely unknown outside of a small group of medical practitioners. Today it’s a word that is frequently heard on the television news as little people battle big multi-national companies for compensation for the dreadful disease that they now face.

Mesothelioma is also known in some parts of the world as Asbestosis because the disease only comes from exposure to asbestos fibers. It doesn’t have to be prolonged exposure and you aren’t safe from it just because you have never worked in the asbestos industry either.

Just one single fiber is enough to trigger the disease and more and more people who have never been near an asbestos mine or worked near an asbestos processing plant are succumbing to the disease.

Certainly the disease is most prevalent, and almost guaranteed, in anyone who has either worked at an asbestos mine or in a factory where asbestos related items were manufactured. The families of those people are also affected because fibers from the mine or the plant invariably came home on the clothes and in the hair of the workers.

Many wives of asbestos workers have contracted the disease after being exposed to those fibers while washing their husband’s work clothes. Children have been similarly exposed and many years later begin to display the symptoms in of Mesothelioma and subsequently succumb to the disease.

But the disease is not just confined to the workers and families of workers in asbestos mines and associated plants. Mesothelioma has appeared in growing numbers in the general population. That is because for many years asbestos was a commonly used ingredient in a variety of building materials and it was also used in insulation.

Fibro – a common building material used in homes in the period from 1940 through to the late 1960’s and beyond – contained a high level of asbestos. Fibro was used for roofs and walls in houses and public buildings. Many schools here in Queensland, where I live, have contaminated fibro roofing and huge numbers of houses were built around the world with that same material.

Asbestos was also used in material used for insulation. That insulation went into wall cavities in houses, around steam lines in naval ships and even in lagging around the boilers on steam locomotives.

Initially many of the places that it was used were quite safe. The building material was stable and unless it was broken the asbestos remained undisturbed. However, age has led to a deterioration in the fibro and the insulation and as the material has deteriorated asbestos fibers have been disturbed and are found in the air.

In other instances house renovations have uncovered the insulation that has contained asbestos and that has released the fibers into the air.

There is a case in record here in Queensland of a teacher who contracted Mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos particles and fibers as they settled on the school desks from a deteriorating fibro roof. She ultimately passed away but now all the children that she taught are facing a very uncertain future.

The sad fact is that today, and for many years into the future, the world is going to be living with Mesothelioma and it is going to begin appearing in people who have perhaps never even known that they had come into contact with asbestos or asbestos related products.

Stuart Livesey

Mesothelioma is a malignant form of cancer that develops in the mesothelium and it strikes over 3,000 people every year. The mesothelium is the protective lining that covers most of the body’s internal organs and this form of cancer attacks that lining.

The most common points of attack for this form of cancer are the outer linings of the lungs and chest cavity however it may occur in other areas of the body including the lining of the abdominal cavity and the sac around the heart.

And the attack comes from the asbestos particles or fibers that are inhaled by mine workers or process workers who work in the asbestos industry. Those same particles and fibers are also inhaled by anyone who comes into contact with asbestos that is used in insulation or building materials.

While asbestos is no longer mined except under the most stringent safety conditions what has already been mined and processed is dispersed widely in the community in the forms mentioned above. Unfortunately as the products that contain that asbestos deteriorate with age the fibers that cause Mesothelioma are released into the air that many of us are breathing.

Those particles and fibers can be taken into our lungs where they lodge and then lay dormant for years. Sometimes that dormant period can last for decades but almost invariably there comes a time when the disease awakes and begins to attack the host body.

Mesothelioma can start from just once particle and once it starts it quickly spreads, usually through the lungs. The symptoms that most sufferers display are not readily recognizable as Mesothelioma because they are common to a number of other disorders including heart problems because sometimes sufferers present with shortness of breath and chest pains.

Other symptoms can be mistaken for viral pneumonia, a persistent cough and some less common symptoms include fever, night sweats and weight loss.

In around 60% of people suffering from this form of cancer it is the right lung that is affected first. Why that should be the case is not and even less clear is the fact that around only 5% of sufferers present with the cancer showing in both lungs.

People suffering from the peritoneal form of Mesothelioma often display symptoms that include swelling of the abdomen, nausea, weight loss and bowel obstruction.

Up until now the only want of reaching an initial diagnosis was by having a chest xray and sometimes a CT scan or ultrasound may also be used however early detection may now be possible thanks to a new test developed in Australia.

This new text measures blood concentrations of certain proteins produced by the Mesothelioma cells. In clinical research the new tests and a very level of accuracy and it may be that the blood test will show conclusively whether or not a patient as Mesothelioma.

Stuart Livesey