To provide a complete health check-up consultation services, general health screening consultation, pre-marital health check consultation, employee’s health check
Instead of using talcum powder which poses health risks, consumers should use traditional bedak sejuk (rice talcum), says the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP).
The association made the call following findings in the United States that suggest that women who use talcum powder are 40% more likely to suffer from ovarian cancer.
CAP president S.M. Mohd Idris said bedak sejuk (powder made from rice flour) and powder made from corn flour were good alternatives to talcum powder.
He cited a study from the Harvard Medical School in the United States that found, from a sample of more than 3,000 women, that those using talcum once a week had a 36% higher risk of getting ovarian cancer while those using talcum daily faced a 41% higher risk.
A website that provides medical news, www.news-medical.net, reported that the study also revealed that the risk was greater still for those with a certain genetic profile.
The study’s lead researcher, Dr Maggie Gates, was also reported as saying that women should avoid using talcum powder in the genital area until more research was done,
Mohd Idris told a press conference yesterday that, despite the dangers associated with talcum powder, there were numerous talcum powder products in the market.
Some of these products were also baby products, he said. (more…)
Shopping for a gift to warm the heart of someone special this Valentine’s Day? Why not consider giving something that will strengthen and protect it, too?
The kindest, most beneficial gift anyone can receive this month is one that encourages healthy lifestyle, proper diet and exercise, says cardiologist Paul Douglass. Specifically, that’s a diet high in fiber and low in saturated fats, and a routine of at least 30 minutes of exercise five days a week.
Combined, they help keep hearts healthy and strong and decrease the risk of heart disease.
Along with Valentine’s Day, February marks National Heart Health Month. It features several campaigns that aim to increase awareness about cardiovascular disease risk factors and how to minimize them — especially among women. Women are less likely to receive diagnosis and treatment for cardiovascular disease and more likely to die from it.
Unlike age, gender and heredity, risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, smoking and obesity can be controlled, said Douglass, chief of cardiology at Atlanta Medical Center. And Heart Health Month is as good a time as any to start.
Here’s some recommendations:
Change eating habits. Replace processed foods with fruits and vegetables and add more oatmeal and whole grain cereals (such as Cheerios) to help reduce cholesterol levels.
Give heart-friendly food. Offer your valentine red wine, which provides antioxidants that protect the heart, or dark chocolate (at least 70 percent cocoa), which helps lower blood pressure. Be aware of the extra calories of each.
Try aspirin therapy (after consulting with your doctor). About 80 mg of aspirin every day helps inhibit blood clots, thus reducing the risk of heart attacks and stroke. It also reduces heart damage when taken during a heart attack.
Increase physical activity. Start simply: Walk in place while watching television, take the stairs instead of elevators and park farther from your (more…)
I recently received an email stating that my favorite brand of lipstick caused cancer. It was startling. It said that the good folks over at Walter Reed Medical Center were the finders of this cause of cancer and to stop using it immediately. In fact here is a copy of the email:
“Lipstick Alert!!!!!!!!!!!!
If there is a female you care anything about, share this with her. I did!!!!!
I am also sharing this with the males on my email list, because they need to tell the females THEY care about as well!
Recently a brand called “Red Earth” decreased their prices from $67 to $9.90. It contained lead. Lead is a chemical which causes cancer.
According to the 2003 National Cancer Registry in Malaysia, there are over 600 new cases of tongue, mouth, gums, salivary glands and oropharyngeal cancer every year!
Smoking does cause mouth cancer as well. It is called oral cancer, which comes under a broader group called oropharyngeal cancer (cancer of the mouth or throat). When detected early, oral cancer is almost always cured.
But unfortunately, so many people still present it at such a last stage. Oral cancer is more common in men than women because men tend to smoke more frequently.
Relatively speaking, oral cancer is easy to detect, but so many people still present it at a late stage? This is because this type of cancer is usually confused with other mouth, lips, tongue, cheek and throat diseases. Many people also overlooked the importance of having ENT (ear, nose, throat) screening in their yearly checkup, thinking it’s not important.
Also oral cancer is usually painless. So the hapless patient might think that innocent-looking swelling in his/her cheek is due to an ingrown wisdom tooth rather cancer. Most oral cancer are on the lips (easy to see), tongue or the floor of the mouth (easy to feel).
Things you have to look out for include:
A sore in your mouth that doesn’t heal. Or if it keeps on increasing in size (mouth cancer)
Lumps in your mouth that don’t go away (mouth cancer)
White read or dark patches inside your mouth that persist, or anything out of the ordinary that wasn’t there before (mouth cancer)
Persistent pain in your mouth (mouth cancer)
Repeated bleeding in the mouth
Thickening of your cheek (mouth cancer growing inside the soft tissue)
Difficulty chewing, swallowing or moving your tongue (tongue cancer, mouth cancer, oropharyngeal cancer) (more…)
This is a real story from The Star newspaper. It shows that you can’t be completely sure you are healthy from the inside eventhough you look and feel healthy.
Again, there are no symptoms or signs in the early stage. And when you start to feel uneasy or pain, it’s almost always the worst news.
And doing blood test without complete scanning is as good as not doing any health check at all.
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Getting to know more about cancer of the urinary bladder.
MR Lim, a 62-year-old man, complained of one episode of painless blood stained urine. He had no other significant medical health problem. He smokes about 15 to 20 cigarettes per day over the last 20 years and has just retired from working in a glue factory for 30 years.
He was treated by a general practitioner as a case of urinary tract infection. His urine cleared up almost immediately, but the blood- stained urine recurred six months later.
He went back to his GP, who subsequently referred him to a urologist for ultrasound scan of the urinary system and this revealed multiple “bushes” of tumour-like growth in the urinary bladder.
The urinary bladder is a reservoir which stores and discharges urine at the appropriate time. Urine itself is produced from the two kidneys. Urothelial cancer may occur anywhere along the urinary tract, from the kidney to the proximal part of the prostatic lining. The most common site for urothelial cancer is in the bladder.
Symptoms of cancer in the urinary bladder
The most common symptom is that of blood in the urine. Other conditions such as urinary stones and infection can also give rise to blood in the urine, but these conditions are usually associated with some amount of pain or discomfort at urination.
Therefore, if one passes blood in the urine without any pain (a condition known as painless haematuria), one must rule out cancer of the urinary tract.
In the early stages, there are no other symptoms nor signs. Of course, the bleeding can be diluted by taking more fluids or diuretics. Haematuria detected during microscopic analysis also has similar implications and warrants a full medical evaluation. The bleeding from the tumour can be intermittent. Therefore, one must be ever vigilant, even if there is only one episode of painless haematuria.
What causes cancer of the urinary bladder?
Bladder cancer is commoner in the older age group (above 60 years of age) and is very rare in children. It is more common in males compared to females, with a ratio of four to one. It is the sixth most common cancer in the US.
According to the National Cancer Registry of Malaysia 2002, it ranks as the 10th commonest cancer in males. For Malaysian men, it comprises 4.1% of all new cancers, with a peak incidence of 33.5 per 100,000 for men in the age group of 60 to 69 years of age.
Other than the above epidemiological factors, the most well known cause is smoking. Smoking increases the incidence of bladder cancer by three-fold, and also worsens the outcome of bladder cancer patients who continue to smoke.
Certain chemicals (eg aromatic amines) used in industry (eg dye in textile or rubber) and in agriculture may increase the incidence of bladder cancer. Hence, workers in the rubber, chemical, leather, textile, metal, and printing industries are exposed to substances such as aniline dye and aromatic amines that may increase their risk for bladder cancer. However, such occupational hazards take up to 20 years to manifest.
Chronic infections and irritation (eg by kidney stones) may predispose to certain types of bladder cancers, eg squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).
Diagnosis
If you have blood in the urine, you should consult a doctor who specialises in the urinary tract, namely, a urologist. Based on the clinical features, he will be able to determine the relevance of your symptoms and decide on further tests.
Blood in the urine can be confirmed by a simple urine dipstix test. The red blood cells can also be quantified with microscopy.
The urologist will usually arrange for appropriate imaging studies of the urinary tract. A minimum screening test is that of an ultrasound of the urinary tract. A full urinary bladder would give a better image on ultrasound.
Nowadays, multi-slice computerised tomography (MSCT) give good pictures not only of the urinary tract but also any extension of the growth to any other areas, eg outside the bladder or the lymph nodes.
Intravenous urography, which can pick up a space-occupying growth along the urinary tract, can be done if the patient has a normal kidney function. The excretion of the radiocontrast material will indicate the functioning of the kidneys as well as the blood supply to the kidneys.
Initial treatment
All suspected bladder tumours require endoscopic assessment which can be easily carried out by a urologist. A special endoscope called a cystoscope is used to examine the urinary bladder. Any tumour seen is then biopsied with a forceps, together with any other suspicious areas of the bladder.
Most bladder tumours are cancerous and biopsy alone (which may cause bleeding or tumour seedling) is insufficient. Endoscopic treatment is carried out, immediately after (more…)
