What causes Skin Tags

What causes Skin Tags

 

What is a Skin Tag?

Skin tags are small benign growths of the skin attached to the surface of the skin by a thin stalk tissue. Also called a acrochordon, skin papilla, or skin tags, which typically occur in areas where friction clothes or skin to skin causing some irritation. This can happen in the armpits, neck, groin, eyelids, and upper chest and their frequency may increase with age because of the sensitivity of the skin. There may be a genetic predisposition, causing them to run in families and usually occur in about 25% of adults.

What causes skin tags?
Much research has been done on the skin tags to determine their exact cause, though not much came of them. Skin tags are composed of nerve cells, fat cells, ducts and fibers, and the skin. They are generally as non-cancerous tumors on the skin. Risk factors of skin tags.


There are a number of risk factors for the development of skin tag. These factors include:

Friction against the skin. Friction constant and repetitive skin contact may cause skin tags. This can happen, from clothes, but it is more oftencaused friction skin to skin. Obese people are more likely to have skin tags, because the folds of the skin are constantly rubbing, causing chafing and skin thickening. This is also the reason why skin tags develop in areas such as the armpit and groin. Hormone imbalance. Skin tags are common in pregnant women because of the imbalance of hormones. Skin tags are also seen in women with polytheistic ovary syndrome, which is a hormonal disorder. Skin tags are also common in people with other hormonal disorders as gigantically is caused by higher levels of growth hormone. HPV infection. Through research of the causes of skin tags, the scientists found the DNA of two types of human papilla virus in about half of the skin tags studied. So the HPV virus, of which there are about a hundred types, can cause skin changes in some people. Diabetes and metabolism. Skin tags were commonly observed in people with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which is a group of disorders that include high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance. Steroid abuse. Illegal steroids can cause changes in the skin, causing collagen fibers in the skin to bond with each other, forming small growths. This is the result of steroids interfere with the functioning of the natural body and muscles. Family history. Genetics may play a role in the development of skin tags. If you have relatives with skin tags, it is likely that they will develop at some point in your life.

Where Do skin tags grow?
As mentioned above, skin tags are meant to grow in areas of the body where there is a lot of rubbing and friction. These areas include:

• Under the breast
• Armpits
• Groin
• Eyelids
• Neck
• Upper chest

How Do I Get Rid Of Skin Tags?
There are a number of treatments for skin tags if discomfort or are in an area that makes them discomfort. Home remedies work quite well. If you want to get rid of tags for aesthetic reasons or because they are in an area subject to friction and irritation, you can consult your doctor about medical attention.
1. Home Remedies To Remove Skin Tags

Try clear nail polish. It is believed that the application of clear nail polish to the skin tag causes dry out and eventually fall. To do this, apply a thin layer of polish to the tag and allow to dry. Repeat this process two or three times a day until the skin tag falls. You can move the skin tag to accelerate the process. Apply lemon juice. The acid in the lemon juice can dry out the skin, drying, thereby changing the skin and helping it to fall. You can rub a slice of lemon on the right on the skin, or soak a cotton ball in lemon juice and apply it to the tag. Apply daily until the skin tag falls. Apply tea tree oil. Tea tree oil is known for its treatment of a variety of skin diseases, such as acne, and also can eliminate skin tags. Dip a cotton ball in water to dilute the oil and then add a few drops of tea tree oil for cotton. Dab on changing the skin once or twice a day until the tag falls. Use ligation. Binding is a painless and bloodless procedure which involves the use of string or floss to tie the skin tag, cutting its nutrition. Tie the string around the skin tag and tighten so that the blood supply is cut off. Leave it for a few days, if needed tightening and the tag will dry up and fall. The skin below will have already healed.
2. medical treatments for skin tags

If home remedies fail to do the trick, or if the changes of the skin become an issue, stand always turn to medical treatment to have them removed.
Remove with surgery. The removal of a skin tag by the doctor is quick and easy, and is done right in the doctor . The size of the tag will determine if it is necessary the use of an anesthetic cream, and the removal takes place either with a scalpel or surgical scissors. There may be some bleeding, but the area will heal within a day or two. Cauterize skin tags. The doctor may use cauterize to remove the skin tags easily. An electric current is used to kill the tissue, causing it to fall. The procedure is painless and there is virtually no bleeding. You may have to pay for the procedure themselves, as most insurance companies consider cosmetic. Freeze and off skin tags. The doctor may perform psychotherapy which freezes skin tags with liquid nitrogen, causing them to die and fall. It is a painless procedure that is done right in the doctor’s. Chemotherapy can cause some temporary discoloration of the skin, which will fade over time.

Scientists develop blood test that can identify which breast cancer patients will likely relapse after surgery

Scientists have developed a blood test that can identify which breast cancer patients are likely to suffer a relapse after surgery – a breakthrough which has the potential to spare thousands of women from undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy and other treatments.

The blood test has only been tested in 55 women, but showed highly promising results and has been hailed as a potential “game-changer” by experts.

It works by uncovering small numbers of residual cancer cells that may have resisted therapy, by detecting cancer DNA in the bloodstream.

In early trials, women who tested positive for tumour DNA in the bloodstream were 12 times more likely to suffer a relapse, and the return of their cancer was detected on average eight months before any visible signs emerged.
The research, carried out by the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, is now set for clinical trials next year. It could be several years before the test is available in hospitals, but if its effectiveness is confirmed, it could benefit thousands of women.

There are around 50,000 new cases of breast cancer in the UK every year.
Currently, the vast majority of women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer have to undergo further treatment, often with gruelling side effects, to lower their risk of a relapse. A test that can reveal, far in advance, whether women are at high risk of a relapse or not, could mean further treatment would be necessary for a much smaller number of women.

Professor Mitch Dowsett, head of the academic department of biochemistry, at the ICR and Royal Marsden, a senior author of the study, said that the test could change breast cancer patient’s treatment dramatically.

“A patient would come in, they would have their surgery, we would take their blood sample, and [if it was negative] we could say the DNA is undetectable in your blood, it would appear you have no minimal residual disease, we don’t think it’s worthwhile giving you any medical treatment at this time,” he said.
“We’ve been looking for this kind of thing for so long. If this continues to show the promise it currently is, then it’s got the chance of being a game-changer.”

In the study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers said the test also enabled better understanding of how cancers evolve over time, tracking the mutations that lead to a relapse.

This information could prove invaluable to doctors in choosing the best possible treatments for an individual patient, they said.

Professor Paul Workman, chief executive of the ICR, said: “We are moving into an era of personalised medicine for cancer patients. This test could help us stay a step ahead of cancer by monitoring the way it is changing and picking treatments that exploit the weakness of the particular tumour. It is really fantastic that we can get such a comprehensive insight about what is going on in the cancer all over the body, without the need for invasive biopsies.”
Katherine Woods, senior research communications manager at the charity Breast Cancer Now, said: “When breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body it becomes incurable, so we desperately need better ways to predict which cancers will spread and, in the future, stop this from happening altogether.

“This research not only has the potential to improve on current methods used to assess a patient’s prognosis soon after diagnosis, but it could also help to tailor the way women with early breast cancer are treated, presenting a new way to stay one step ahead of – and ultimately outsmart – the disease from the outset.”

Senior cancer patients may undermine treatment with alternative medicines

Supplements and alternative medicines commonly used by senior cancer patients can interact with other medications and affect their treatments. Photo by surajet.l/Shutterstock

 More than a quarter of senior cancer patients use complementary or alternative medicines, or CAMs, which researchers said could interact poorly with other medications they take.

Most CAMs are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration because they are considered health supplements. Researchers said that without standard measures or research on dose and potency variances between substances and patients unexpected effects an occur when they are used.

Enough research has been done to know that some CAMs affect medical treatments. St. Johns Wort is known to make cancer treatments less effective, and others interfere with anesthetics used during surgery.
"Currently, few oncologists are aware of the alternative medicines their patients take," said Dr. Ginah Nightingale, an assistant professor in the Jefferson College of Pharmacy at Thomas Jefferson University, in a press release. "Patients often fail to disclose the CAMs they take because they think they are safe, natural, nontoxic and not relevant to their cancer care, because they think their doctor will disapprove, or because the doctor doesn't specifically ask."

Researchers surveyed 248 patients at the Senior Adult Oncology Multi-Disciplinary clinic at Jefferson University. The mean age of participants was 79.9 and 64 percent of them were women. The participants were seen by 5 specialists in areas important for seniors being treated for cancer: a medical oncologist, a geriatrician, a clinical pharmacist, a social worker and a dietician.

In addition to interviews and examinations, the participants were asked to bring in the contents of their medicine cabinets. The medications they said were actively using were reviewed by researchers and included with participant data.

The researchers found that 26.5 percent of the participants were actively taking some type of CAM while being treated for cancer. The survey results of those using them found complications, including polypharmacy -- either interaction between drugs or misuse of other prescriptions -- vision impairment, and urologic comorbidities.

Researchers recommended including a pharmacist on medical teams caring for seniors in order to monitor and advise them on using CAMs when being treated for cancer, or other conditions.

"It is very important to do a comprehensive screen of all of the medications that older cancer patients take, including CAMs," Nightingale said. "Clear and transparent documentation of CAM use should be recorded in the patient's medical record. This documentation should indicate that patient-specific communication and/or education was provided so that shared and informed decisions by the patient can be made regarding the continued use of these medications."

The study is published in the Journal of Geriatric Oncology.

Anti-Aging Serums : ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM

SPECIAL REPORT: Has this accidental discovery become a breakthrough in anti-aging serums?

“What Are The Chances” – A new (and revolutionary) injection free age-defying serum has hit the market and sent the cosmetics community into a frenzy. Dermatologists and consumers alike are astounded by the waves of positive reviews coming in for this new product, and the craziest thing is, it should have never existed in the first place. It’s called ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM™ and it’s changing everything.


There are a handful of reasons for your skins declining health which makes it hard to pinpoint the exact cause. One of the major reasons is a loss of collagen production that every person will face sooner or later. This will cause your skin to sag and stretch leading to unwanted facial features such as wrinkles and fine lines.

ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM™ works quickly to restore your skins lost collagen production. This will help smooth and tighten your skin so you can look younger in just minutes. Attacking the cause of things such at wrinkles at source allows this product to prolong your skins health and beauty for years to come!

Safe and Effective – The ingredients in ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM™ have been proven to be 100% safe and as effective as some of the top anti-aging cosmetic serums. The difference? ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM™ has no harmful side effects and causes no adverse reactions when used. While injections such as botox or laser surgeries have become insanely popular they realistically could damage your skin even further! 

How Does It Work?

ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM Face Serum provides superior anti-aging force by combining Palmitoyl Tripeptide-28 with Hyaluronic Acid and supporting botanical extracts. Palmitoyl Tripeptide-28 is an amazing breakthrough in skin tightening technology that helps immediately to begin to firm and tighten your skin for a more youthful complexion in both the short and long term. It helps build skin elasticity and hydration for a smoother, younger looking appearence.

ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM was clinically proven to naturally reverse the aging process that your skins cells go through. This eliminates unhealthy skin cells and leaves your skin looking almost flawless with little effort. Using powerful anti-aging ingredients allows this advanced skin care formula to help shave years off your appearance quicker than any other product! 

Your skin will get damaged as its protective barrier it has when you're younger begins to diminish. This layer eventually fades as your skins cells begins to breakdown leaving your skin more readily damaged. ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM will prevent this damage from happening any further and ensure your skin stays beautiful and vibrant for many years to come!

Unless you have the ability to spend insane amounts of money on injections such as botox or get laser surgeries, looking younger can almost seem impossible. ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM will help you accomplish this long term goal by offering you an inexpensive option to these potentially risky procedures. Targeting your skins deeper layers allows ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM to repair your skins cell on an internal level allowing you to have better looking skin for years to come. Most products you find similar to this act as makeup and just cover up the problem without fixing it. Stop wasting your time and money and see how much this wrinkle-reducer can change your life within days!

Skin care products make a lot of promises they most of the time they will not keep. When you order your trial of ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM you will be guaranteed to get the results you have been looking for once it comes to your skin care products. If you click on the offer below you can snag a trial of this fountain of youth while supplies are still available!

ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM™ has been clinically proven to:

• Reduce Wrinkles By Up To 45% In 28 Days
• Promote Collagen Biosynthesis Up To 250%
• Counter the Aging Effect Of Stress On Your Skin
• Prevent Further Damage Happening To Your Skin
• Trap Moisture To Hydrate Your Skin

Link found between throat microbes and schizophrenia

 A link between the tiny organisms found in the throat and schizophrenia could lead to ways of identifying the causes and potential treatments of the neuropsychiatric disorder, according to new research.

The researchers looked for differences in the levels of bacteria, fungi and virus microbes in the oropharynx region of the throat.

The peer-reviewed study was conducted by researchers at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, and is published in the journal PeerJ. 

Lead author Eduardo Castro-Nallar states that an area of the throat called the oropharynx appears to contain different levels of oral bacteria in people with schizophrenia compared with people who do not have the disorder.
"Specifically, our analyses revealed an association between microbes such as lactic acid bacteria and schizophrenics," he says. 

A growing number of studies have demonstrated that the viruses, bacteria and fungi found living on and within the human body - known as the microbiome - can influence brain development, behavior and cognition. 

Previously, Medical News Today have reported on studies revealing that changes to the gut microbiome can reduce cognitive functioning, improve body fat distribution and lead to anxiety and depression. 

Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder characterized by deficits in cognitive functioning, perceptions and emotional response. Research also suggests that as well as having connections with mental health, the microbiome may affect the immune system in ways that are associated with schizophrenia. 

For the study, the researchers focused on the microbiome of the oropharynx, the region of the throat located at the back of the mouth, including the back third of the tongue, soft palate, tonsils and side and back walls of the throat.
Earlier research from the team identified differences in one aspect of throat bacteria between people with schizophrenia and people without the disorder. In the new study, the researchers examined the complete microbiome, looking at the viruses, bacteria and fungi present in 16 individuals with schizophrenia and 16 control participants.

Results 'require replication and expansion' for further validation

The researchers report significant differences between the microbiomes of schizophrenia patients and those of the control participants. The control participants were richer in microbe species but less even in their distribution than the participants with schizophrenia.

Fast facts about schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia occurs in 10% of people with a first-degree relative with the disorder
• Symptoms of the disorder typically start between the ages 16-30
• People with schizophrenia are not usually violent.

In particular, lactic acid bacteria were relatively more common in people with schizophrenia. These included species of Lactobacilli and Bifidobacterium that have previously been linked to the modulation of inflammation and anxiety in the case of the former. 

The fungal species Candida dubliniensis was also found to be more abundant in participants with schizophrenia. The researchers suggest that this fungus may be associated with either altered immune responses or changes in the local environment.

"Our results suggesting a link between microbiome diversity and schizophrenia require replication and expansion to a broader number of individuals for further validation," reports Keith Crandall, director of the Computational Biology Institute at George Washington University. 

"But the results are quite intriguing and suggest potential applications of biomarkers for diagnosis of schizophrenia and important metabolic pathways associated with the disease." 

A potential confounding factor is that while 10 of the 16 participants with schizophrenia smoked, none of the control participants did, as some studies have indicated that the microbiomes of smokers and nonsmokers can differ. 

The researchers conclude that if they can confirm their findings in larger and more diverse samples, such as in the gut microbiome, they will be able to shed more light on the potential links between schizophrenia and these microbes.
Source : medicalnewstoday

There Is No Reason to Deny Trans People Necessary Medical Care

It comes as no surprise to us when we hear that many trans people suffer from depression even after full medical transition. But for some cisgender people, such as Richard A. Friedman writing for the New York Times, this fact can only be resolved by calling into question our very right to self-determine our genders. (Shutterstock)

This has been a blood-red letter year for trans women. It’s been one of growing visibility blended, with terrifying seamlessness, into a rash of murders—18 in the United States, as of this writing—mostly targeting trans women of color and sex workers. Another case in the Philippines, meanwhile, saw American soldier Joseph Scott Pemberton murder a local sex worker, Jennifer Laude, claiming she had “defrauded” him and that he was defending his “honor.” 

The terror created by these cases and others like them is real and should not be underestimated. Such heinous crimes are the tip of the abuse and discrimination that keep us balanced on the knife’s edge of liveability. It comes, therefore, as no surprise to us when we hear that many trans people suffer from depression or commit suicide even after full medical transition, up to and including reassignment surgery. But for some cisgender people, including those given national publishing platforms, this fact is a riddle that can only be resolved by calling into question our very right to self-determine our genders.

The New York Times published an editorial this week by Richard A. Friedman, professor of clinical psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College, who argued in part that the “best available scientific evidence” suggests we should not be believed when we talk about what we need or the truth of our genders—particularly, that there is no good evidence that medical interventions like sexual reassignment surgery actually improve our quality of life.
“Until we have better data, what’s wrong with a little skepticism?” he writes, leaving unspoken the fact that this means skepticism of trans people and what we assert about our own beings.

One of his key arguments relies on his use of a Swedish long-term study that can be misrepresented to argue that sexual reassignment surgery fails to ameliorate rates of suicide in transgender people, and that this further suggests that we are suffering from some deeper malady that cannot be cured merely by giving into our “cherished beliefs.” 

“When the researchers controlled for baseline rates of depression and suicide, which are known to be higher in transsexuals, they still found elevated rates of depression and suicide after sex reassignment,” Friedman writes.
The problems with reading the study this way are myriad. Its control group was comprised of cisgender people, rather than, say, trans people who had not undergone reassignment surgery—a fact that even Friedman acknowledges. What this means, in effect, is that two vastly disparate groups of people with different social forces and external variables acting upon them, behave differently; hardly shocking. The lack of a proper control to minimize the possibility of unknown variables influencing the results renders the study’s scientific value somewhat dubious, at least if you’re trying to make an argument like Dr. Friedman’s.

Yet he still goes on to say, “On a broader level, the outcome studies suggest that gender reassignment doesn’t necessarily give everyone what they really want or make them happier.”

Further, the study itself contains the following caveat: “No inferences can be drawn as to the effectiveness of sex reassignment as a treatment for transsexualism.” The researchers freely admit that the condition of the trans subjects in their study might well have been worse without surgical intervention.

This issue is further compounded by the fact that other studies come to rather different conclusions. For instance, Murrad, et. al.’s exhaustive review of existing research—which Friedman mentions obliquely—argues that “sex reassignment that includes hormonal interventions in individuals with [gender identity disorder] likely improves gender dysphoria, psychological functioning and comorbidities, sexual function and overall quality of life.” But they also point out that many of these studies lack controls and call the evidence “low quality.” 

Other studies have more conclusively demonstrated that the oft-criticised hormone treatments given to minors who experience gender dysphoria are not harmful and are easily reversible, and still another very recent study has done exactly what Friedman suggested and given us medical proof of the safety of trans hormone replacement therapy.

This is, of course, all rather preliminary; the surface has only just been scratched here. We have only recently begun to study transgender people properly, after all.

But Friedman’s analysis waves away anything that contradicts his argument and seems to pretend there is a nonexistent consensus in the limited scientific literature on us—even as he seems to claim more research is needed, he suggests we ignore that the vast majority of trans people, whatever our social problems, would never de-transition and instead argues we should be “skeptical” of trans people, particularly youths, who claim to need affirming health care. His is an argument for deadly inertia while he and his colleagues sort matters out.

Beyond the mishandling of this particular scientific analysis, Friedman’s piece reflects a wider obsession of cisgender people with this non-paradox of suicide and medical treatment.

It’s seen as a “gotcha” of sorts to act as an argument against granting us access to care we need. In general, cis people fixate on surgeries (witness how Friedman’s article opened with a lurid description of Caitlyn Jenner’s supposed reconstructive surgeries) and then seem to react with insatiable demands for explanation: Why would you do that to yourselves if it doesn’t stop you from committing suicide? From trans exclusionary radical feminists, to men’s rights activists, to evangelical conservatives, these arguments remain popular.

In short, Friedman and those who make similar arguments confound two separate maladies: the experience of bodily gender dysphoria and the morbidity caused by living as a second-class citizen. He announces, as if it were any great surprise, that addressing the former problem does not ameliorate the symptoms of the latter.

For instance, Friedman writes: “Given the absence of good treatment-outcome data, how can anyone—whether transgender activist, parent or clinician—be sure of the best course of action?” As I argued earlier, there is indeed a dearth of medical and psychiatric literature on trans people that addresses treatment. This is something we have protested for years, as it happens, because we do need that data. In a development that should surprise no one, we want to live happy and healthy lives, and prefer safe and effective medical treatments. That Friedman suggests the nebulous, nefarious trans community from which he fears “reprisal” wishes it to be otherwise is bizarre to say the least.

But we make the decisions we do to pursue health care because life is genuinely unlivable otherwise. My worst dysphoric years were characterised by crushing depression, suicidal ideation, failing and dropping out of college, lethargy, sleeping for 18 hours a night, and other abysses that I shudder to recall. Within a year of transition I was a straight-A student, rocketing back onto the Dean’s List, winning merit scholarships and appointments; now I’m a sociologist and write for a living as I work on my Ph.D. The usual sunny story, yes? 

Sort of.
There are times when I still have thoughts of suicide, where depression, insecurity, and dysphoria all wrap around me again like a familiar old blanket. But it never occurs to me that my medical transition was the wrong course to take; I know the sources of my problems, and not all lie in gender dysphoria. Sometimes my bodily dysphoria has more in common with the insecurities foisted onto all women than anything specific to trans female experience, and my depression finds its roots in a thousand old furroughs, some of which include fear that I will not be accepted in society, or that my trans status will be used against me, or that I might be hurt for it. I’ve had a few close calls since I transitioned, after all. 

But what is this if not a human life? Why do Friedman and so many other cisgender people assume that if trans-affirming healthcare does not solve all our outstanding problems, that it must be deficient and unneeded? As if we hold all treatment to that standard. And it is certainly bizarre to expect a psychological and biomedical treatment to fix a sociological problem—that is, the fear and anxiety created by being a member of a class subject to discrimination. Medical transition helped me take ownership of my body. Activism and political change is required to ameliorate the rest.

This is to say nothing of the fact that not all trans people want or need reassignment surgery—it is no longer as definitional of transsexual existence as it once was, and new generations of trans people are finding countless new and interesting ways of having a trans body. It’s a flowering deftly ignored by articles like Friedman’s, except inasmuch as he briefly uses the existence of such people to suggest that perhaps those of us who need surgery don’t. To truly respect trans existence would mean not trying to use our diversity to pit us against one another.

What afflicts us is not surgery but a world under the oceanic pressure of norms and prejudices.

Even leaving aside the more dramatic cases of trans women being murdered, we live in a world where we are seen as strange at best: something to stare at, something to passively exclude, some thing, rather than an equal person. Our bodies seem to exist as amusement parks for the fantastic curiosities of others. We are the conversation piece in cisgender society’s living room.
Ask yourself how that would make you feel, regardless of what medications you took or what surgeries you had.

Gender dysphoria as a whole—bodily and mental—is something imposed on us from without as much as something that manifests from within; it certainly finds its origins in deeply felt, physical sensations of wrongness, but it is also wildly exacerbated by the way trans people’s bodies are talked about, publicly possessed, and seen as inherently violable. In its subtle way, the Times editorial feeds that sense of objectifying entitlement.

This wider issue forms the foundations of all violence against us.
Men can often get away with doing absolutely anything to trans women in particular, especially if we do sex work: that double stigma is a brand that says “no one will miss you” in invisible ink all over our bodies. Even as men lust after us, they want to destroy us as an extraverted act of revenge against all womankind. Because they can.

They say we’re not “real women” and yet do to us the things they wish they could do to other women: their wives, their mothers, female politicians, the ball-busting boss, the ice queen who won’t date them. We are, in fact, the canvas of so many cisgender men’s own deeply unresolved psychological crises, which themselves never make it to the front page of the Times’ Sunday Review in the form of handwringing editorial piety.

You live with that knowledge and you learn to make peace with it, uneasy as it may be, and hope for the best.

Time and again, well-meaning cisgender people tell me and my sisters, brothers, and siblings, that we are so very “strong” and “courageous,” as if they intuitively sense how poisonous our world’s atmosphere is for us.
For my own part, I’m simply trying to fashion a liveable life, partially through these words, partially through the perambulations of my career, and in every case I find that the freshest air I breathe in this world is the result of work done, past and present, to help cisgender people see my existence as a way of being human.
But I needed medical transition in order to breathe in the first place.
Source : rhrealitycheck

Tweaking the heart's response to injury could lead to better treatment

Rapidly clearing neurohormones known as cardiac natriuretic peptides from the blood is essential for maintaining cardiac health. Credit: janulla/iStock/Thinkstock

One of the master regulators of the heart's response to injury has been identified, thanks to a Singaporean research collaboration. This regulator could ultimately be used to assess the degree of damage in heart attack patients and pave the way for new treatments.

Cardiac natriuretic peptides (NPs) are neurohormones that play an important role in cardiovascular and kidney health by influencing blood pressure and concentration, and the force with which the heart pumps blood. Previous studies have also suggested that they might help protect the heart against stress and injury—for example, mice lacking the genes to make NPs show more signs of heart damage and die younger. To ensure that the body is able to maintain proper control of the cardiovascular system it is essential that NPs are rapidly cleared from the blood.

The atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) are two important NPs produced by heart muscle cells with demonstrated protective effects for cardiac stress and injury. These NPs are removed from the blood by binding to a receptor called NPR3 on the surface of cells lining the blood vessels; the whole complex is then internalized and destroyed.

A team led by Arthur Mark Richards, and Yei-Tsung Chen at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the National University Health System and National University of Singapore, together with Leah Vardy at the A*STAR Institute of Medical Biology, set out to better understand how levels of NPR3 are regulated in health and disease.

They temporarily starved heart muscle cells of oxygen to simulate the same oxygen supply shortage that occurs in heart disease, and noticed a significant decline in the expression of NPR3 with a corresponding increase in a small, noncoding piece of genetic material called microRNA-100 (miR-100).
MicroRNAs like miR-100 play a crucial role in fine-tuning the strength of gene expression in cells by temporarily silencing them. The team then demonstrated, for the first time, that miR-100 decreases NPR3 gene expression, which may in part contribute to the heightened amounts of ANP and BNP in the blood. Raised levels of miR-100 were also detected in the blood of rats that had suffered the equivalent of a heart attack, and in patients with heart failure.

"This study highlights the potential importance of circulating microRNAs in modulating the cardiac injury response," says Vardy. "Further understanding of this pathway could lead to novel therapeutics for cardiovascular disease." 
Source : medicalxpress

Relapse in leukemia tied to mutations that persist through treatment

Acute myeloid leukemia patients with mutations that linger through chemotherapy have a higher risk of relapse and lower rates of survival than patients whose mutations are cleared by the treatment.


This was the key finding of a study led by the Washington University School of Medicine, in St Louis, MO, that was published in JAMA.

The finding suggests doctors should run genetic tests to look for the persistent mutations once chemotherapy has finished so that decisions about whether to start more aggressive treatments can be made early during remission.

Senior author Timothy J. Ley, a professor of oncology, says most patients diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) "fall into a gray area" when doctors try to predict their risk of relapse.
"About 80% of AML patients go into remission with chemotherapy, but most of them eventually will relapse," he adds. "Unfortunately, we still don't have a definitive test that tells us early on which patients will relapse."

AML is the deadliest form of leukemia. It is an uncommon cancer that rarely strikes before the age of 45. The average age of a patient with AML is about 67 years. The disease causes overproduction of myeloblasts or leukemic blasts (immature white blood cells) that crowd the bone marrow and stop it from producing normal blood cells.

The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2015, there will be around 54,270 new cases of leukemia in the US, of which about 20,830 will be AML, mostly in adults. Around 24,450 Americans will die of leukemia, including 10,460 from AML (nearly all adults).

For their study, Prof. Ley and colleagues ran genetic profiles of bone marrow samples from AML patients. They found those whose cells still had mutations 30 days after starting chemotherapy treatment were around three times more likely to relapse and die than patients whose cells were cleared of them.

Prof. Ley says it is important to know which patients have persistent mutations because they will need aggressive - yet potentially curative - therapy such as stem-cell transplant while they are in remission.
Doctors do not want to put patients through such an aggressive, expensive and risky procedure with potentially severe side effects if they are unlikely to relapse following conventional chemotherapy, he adds.

Findings need to be confirmed by larger studies

The researchers note that their study was retrospective - they looked at bone marrow samples from patients whose outcomes were already known.
They sequenced samples taken from 71 AML patients at time of diagnosis, and also from another 50 patients whose samples were taken at time of diagnosis and also 30 days after chemotherapy.
Mutations in the samples taken at time of diagnosis did not help to predict risk of relapse after chemotherapy any better than standard methods.

However, mutations that persisted through chemotherapy - those that were present before chemotherapy and found to be still present 30 days after treatment started - were linked to poor survival.

A total of 24 of the 50 patients whose samples were taken at diagnosis and after chemotherapy had persistent mutations and their median survival was 10.5 months, compared with 42 months for the 26 patients without persistent mutations.

The researchers say their findings now need to be confirmed by larger studies. If they are, they suggest genetic profiling after initial chemotherapy could improve early prognosis and help decide whether chemotherapy has worked before the cancer recurs. Prof. Ley concludes:

"This new approach gives us a way to think about how to use genomics to evaluate the risk of relapse for nearly all AML patients."

He and his colleagues also suggest the findings could be useful for other cancers.

Earlier this year, Medical News Today reported on a study by researchers in Canada that suggests a compound found in avocados shows promise as a leukemia treatment. The study shows that the compound, avocatin B, selectively destroys leukemia stem cells without harming healthy cells.
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

Kybella Injection a New Treatment for Double Chin

There is a new non-surgical approach that can get rid of your double chin which comes from UT Southwestern Medical Center. A double chin is when you have moderate-to-severe fat below the chin, and this new approach is an injection that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This injection helps destroy the fat by going into the tissue, and this drug is called Kybella or deoxycholic acid.

When this drug is injected into the tissue, it physically destroys the cell membrane, and it is becoming a very effective way to eliminate the double chin. The clinical trials of the drug were successful, and the Food and Drug Administration decided to approve Kybella to use as a non-surgical option for this problem that millions of Americans suffer from. Kybella is identical to deoxycholic acid, which is naturally produced in the body to absorb fat, and Kybella takes advantage of that fat-destroying activity to eliminate the skin below the chin. Dr. Jeffery Kenkel, who is a professor and Interim Chairman of Plastic Surgery in Dallas, Texas, and he has begun using Kybella on his patients. This new injection is a treatment option that is great for people who cannot or should not undergo surgery, but who are also looking to fix their double chin. A consumer survey by the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery showed that 68 percent of respondents were concerned about the excess skin and fat underneath their chin and neck. 52 percent of the 8,300 respondents to the 2014 American Society for Dermatologic Surgery on Cosmetic Dermatologic Procedures had said they were considering a cosmetic skin procedure to help improve their appearance.

Kybella is available for people in an outpatient setting, and it involves injecting this drug into the fat on the chin area a handful of times. A single treatment can consist of 20 or 30 injections, but most patients need between two and four of these treatments in order to get their desired results. This means that it could take up to 60 injections into the area for the treatment to give the results desired. The treatments are done not less than 30 days apart, which is part of the Food and Drug Administration guidelines. The amount of treatments required depends on the amount of fat and other factors that are all determined during the consultation. The consultation also helps people determine whether or not more traditional options would be more effective, such as liposuction. This particular drug is aimed at helping people with more moderate-to-severe fat underneath the chin, so people with only a little fat would not need this more intensive treatment. Men are also more likely to use this new injection since men are more resistant to having surgery and tend to not want to go under the knife to fix their double chin issues. Kybella is also not intended for other chin related issues such as a turkey neck or sagging skin, since these issues can be addressed through other less intense treatment options. The effectiveness and safety of this drug was established in two different clinical trials, which used 1,022 adult participants with moderate-to-severe submental fat. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either Kybella or a placebo for up to six treatments, and the results were showing that the reductions in submental fat were observed more frequently in the participants who received Kybella.

Since this drug destroys the cell membranes, it is really important that a board-certified experienced physician do the procedure, because the drug needs to be properly injected into only the fat cells for it to be safe and effective. This drug can and likely will destroy other types of cells, so you want a doctor who knows what they are doing and has experience in this procedure in order to make sure that the other cells are not impacted by the drug. Kybella should not be used and is not approved for areas outside of the submental area, which is the chin.

In terms of side effects, Kybella could result in swelling, pain, brusing, redness, numbness, and there can be areas of hardness around the injection site. Even more serious side effects can happen, such as nerve injury in the jaw area which can cause an uneven smile or facial muscle weakness. You could also have trouble swallowing, and this should be promptly seen by a medical professional because this could potentially be fatal if the airway is cutoff. After the procedure is done, you still might need a necklift or facelift to get rid of the excess skin in the area, especially if you notice the skin sagging, which is normal when you are trying to get rid of excess fat in a certain part of your body. So Kybella more likely will just remove the fat under the chin, but that does sometimes leave the excess skin. It is like if you were really fat and then lost weight, as far as how you will have excess skin hanging off of you until you go under the knife to remove it, and the amount of skin depends on how big the area of fat was.
Source : gazettereview 


We Are Fossasia Stay Connected With Us On Twitter . . . ! ! !

Breast cancer treatment: short, high dosage of radiation is effective in early stage

A short and powerful dosage of radiation therapy would be effective to treat early stage breast cancer patients, says a new study conducted by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center researchers in Houston. This approach is also called as hypofractionated whole breast cancer irradiation in medical terms.

 According to the study, women with breast cancer had fewer side effects and better quality of life with four weeks of high dosage radiation treatment than patients with six weeks of low dosage treatment.

This study has shown a silver lining for breast cancer patients and researchers across the globe will experiment more with such studies to get good results. However, recent and similar studies by other researchers proved to be neutral in the results – similar results from the longer period with low dosage and shorter period with high dosage chemotherapy.

Author of the study Dr. Simona Shaitelman, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s professor of radiation oncology, said in a statement:

“Patients who received the shorter course reported less difficulty in caring for their families’ needs. This is a major priority for women undergoing breast cancer radiation. The take-home message is that for women 40 and older with early-stage breast cancer, shorter, higher-dose radiation should be the standard of care. For too long, longer-course treatment has been the standard.”

According to the reports, this study is first of its kind on analyzing the effect of treatments on quality of life of the patients by comparing two regimens.

Till now, Chemotherapy for breast cancer patients has been using radiation over a longer period with smaller doses (fractionation for whole breast irradiation). The studies on breast cancer conducted during 70s and 80s showed radiation and lumpectomy were effective, similar to mastectomy.

This method has been widely employed in Canada and Great Britain, where studies showed comparable rates of overall survival and tumor control in a decade, so far.

“They assumed that all of the side effects would be the same, it’s the same amount of radiation it’s just given at a different time course,” says Dr. Theresa Schwartz, SLU Care breast cancer surgeon, “But the people on the shorter course of radiation actually had less side effects with less skin irritation or less fatigue, then people that had a longer course of radiation,” she added.

This is a great discovery. As study author Dr. Benjamin Smith notes: “This study fills in a missing piece in the literature.” The MD Anderson associate professor of radiation oncology goes on to say, “No longer do I regard the shorter course of treatment as just an option for patients, but rather the preferred starting point for discussion with patients if they need whole breast radiation.”

The research has been published in JAMA Oncology.

We Are Fossasia Stay Connected With Us On Twitter . . . ! ! !

Cord blood a new trend in child medical therapy

Researchers are touting a rapidly growing trend in the use of blood cells to treat medical conditions.

It involves saving a small amount of blood from a newborn’s umbilical cord within 15 minutes of birth, just in case the child needs it some time in the future.

The cells also can be used for other biologically-matched children, either in their own family or the general public.

July is Cord Blood Banking Awareness Month. And researchers like those at the San Antonio-based GenCure Cord Blood Center are encouraging the public to learn more about the benefits of cord blood.

“Umbilical cord blood and its stem cells have a proven value to medicine, with the promise of cures and treatments for more and more diseases every day,” said Mary Ellen Mooney, director of Cord Blood Operations for GenCure .

“We’re proud to be contributing to both life-saving therapies and important research.”

The advantage of a child having access to his or her own stem cells is it eliminates the rejection problems that can occur when using another person’s cells, researchers say.

Researchers are looking at cord blood for treatment of conditions including cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury and type 2 diabetes, as well as inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.

GenCure houses the Texas Cord Blood Bank, or TCBB, a statewide repository of cord blood donations from newborns made at hospitals across the state.

The cord blood bank is listed on a national registry and is accessible worldwide for patients in need.

TCBB has 15,000 units of cord blood in storage and has distributed 300 units for transplant — 60 in 2014 alone.

Cord blood contains millions of stem cells that would otherwise be thrown away as medical waste.

As new uses are found for stem cells, there is a possibility at some point those “banked” stem cells could be used to save a child or someone else’s life, even if it’s several years down the line, according to the Valley Baptist Medical Center Online Health Library.

Since 1988, there have been more than 30,000 cord blood transplants performed around the world, GenCure stated.

Source : brownsvilleherald

We Are Fossasia Stay Connected With Us On Twitter . . . ! ! !

Virginia Tech cancer biologists find a key that may unlock how tumors form and progress

An international team of scientists, led by a Virginia Tech researcher, determined that the number of chromosomes in a cell may be a key to understanding how cancer forms and progresses – a finding that could help inform new treatments.

 

Healthy human cells need 46 chromosomes to maintain the body’s development and survival. However, when mistakes occur during cell division, cells may display abnormal numbers of chromosomes – a condition known as aneuploidy.

“It has been known for a long time that cancer cells typically display aneuploidy, but the role that it plays in cancer development and progression is not understood,” said Daniela Cimini, associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Science, a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate, and a biology Fellow in the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute.

Using live imaging of human colorectal cancer cells and human cells derived from amniotic fluid, Cimini and her team found that when cells have an additional chromosome, the rate of cell division errors rises, increasing the frequency of aneuploidy.

Their discovery was published in May in eLife, an open-access journal focused on life science research.

“This work is exciting because previous studies in budding yeast suggested that aneuploidy can cause multiple forms of genome instability,” said Angelika Amon, the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor of Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the research. “This study shows that at least some aneuploidies can also cause genome instability in humans. This could also provide an explanation for how aneuploidy drives the formation of tumors.”

The team also identified a particular cell division defect in cells that have an extra copy of chromosome 13, as shown in this video.

“Cells that have an extra chromosome 13 often fail the last step of cell division, which is the final step of separation. This gives rise to cells with twice the number of chromosomes, which are known to be unstable and lead to tumor progression,” said Elsa Logarinho, director of the aging and aneuploidy lab at the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology in Porto, Portugal, and co-corresponding author of the study. “Aneuploidy might also contribute to the earlier steps of tumor formation, thereby emerging as a potential therapeutic target in cancer treatment.”

When cells with abnormal numbers of chromosomes divide, some of the daughter cells become diverse in chromosome number. That diversity, known as heterogeneity, may increase the tools a cancer can use to escape medical treatment.

“If you came up with the best drugs to kill 99 percent of cancer cells, that would not be enough, as the 1 percent would grow up to be heterogeneous again,” said Josh Nicholson, who completed his doctoral degree in Cimini’s laboratory last spring and is first author on the paper.

A group of cancer cells with a range of chromosome numbers also may be better able to adapt within certain environments, explained Cimini.

The next step for Cimini and her team is to understand how specific characteristics of aneuploid cancer cells, down to specific chromosomes, effect cancer growth. In addition, the team plans to investigate how environmental conditions affect chromosome stability.

 Source : augustafreepress


We Are Fossasia Stay Connected With Us On Twitter . . . ! ! !

Experimental treatments raise cautious hope in Alzheimer's fight

The complexities of Alzheimer's disease make it difficult to treat, but three drugs under trial are showing promise.

Pharmaceutical researchers on Wednesday presented new data from the clinical trials of three drugs that, the scientists said, show promise for slowing the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers presented new analyses of research data on drugs produced by Eli Lilly, Roche and Biogen. All of the drugs involve using monoclonal antibodies, which are genetically engineered to mimic actions carried out by the body's immune system, and all of them target the accumulation in the brain of an abnormal protein known as beta amyloid, which forms insoluble plaques that can trigger the destruction of surrounding brain cells.

But in a field in which almost every drug has failed to do what its backers initially hoped, several scientists also cautioned against putting too much emphasis on data that showed incremental progress.

The results – presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference, held in Washington – offered a glimpse into an expensive and frustrating hunt for medications to tackle a costly and terrifying disease. More than 5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer's, and the number is expected to reach 13.5 million by mid-century. By 2040, when baby boomers will range from 76 to 94 years old, the disease will cost more than $328 million (NZ $495 million).

According to the Southern Cross Medical Library, it's estimated that 28,000 New Zealanders are living with Alzheimer's disease and that number will reach 70,000 by 2031.

David Knopman, a physician and vice chairman of the Alzheimer's Association medical and scientific advisory council, took care to tamp down expectations among patients and their families anxious for a cure.

SOLID ADVANCES BUT NO PROMISES

"To be honest, these results are not going to be something they can get next week," Knopman said. "But what you're hearing here represents solid advances, both in technology, in conceptualisation and – at a practical level, as two of the studies talk about – in figuring out what's the right dose."

Eli Lilly's researchers said their analysis of the drug solanezumab showed the potential value of a "delayed start" approach to clinical trials as a way of determining a drug's success in slowing the progression of a degenerative brain disease. And the study lent additional support to the view that identifying signs of Alzheimer's early and beginning early treatment could make a significant difference for people who suffer from dementia.

Previous studies have been ineffective at treating Alzheimer's disease. But amid signs that solanezumab could help people in the stages leading up to the disease, the researchers continued to follow a group of participants who had only mild cognitive impairment. The participants – including those who had been on a placebo – continued to receive the drug for an additional two years in what amounted to a delayed-start experiment.

In a delayed-start trial, patients are assigned at random either to receive the drug or a placebo at the beginning of the study. After a period, however, those who initially received the placebo begin taking the experimental drug. If the drug reduces symptoms only, and the maximum reduction of symptoms is achieved in two months, the later group should catch up to the earlier group and be functioning at a similar level. But if the drug slows the disease's progression, both groups should benefit, but members of the later group will never catch up because the disease will have progressed while they were receiving the placebo.

In the Eli Lilly analysis, the researchers said the results showed that the treatment differences between the early-start and delayed-start groups did not vanish, and that the later group did not catch up with the others – leading scientists also to conclude that there is a potential benefit to starting the drug as early as possible.

Paul Aisen, a physician who heads the Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute at the University of Southern California at San Diego, said the solanezumab study showed that in people with mild cognitive impairment, the rate of degeneration slowed by about one-third.

Biogen's drug, aducanumab, which is in development and designed to flush beta amyloid deposits from brains in the early stages of degeneration, has already produced results that appear promising, researchers said. On Wednesday, scientists offered new data suggesting that they had also homed in on a dose for the drug that struck a balance between beneficial effects and negative side-effects such as inflammation.

Similarly, a clinical trial on Roche's drug, gantenerumab, was halted in December amid signs that it was not going to reach targets for efficacy: Patients who received the drug failed overall to improve on measures of cognitive performance, compared with those who received a placebo. But upon resifting the data, researchers found there was evidence that the patients whose disease was progressing more rapidly might benefit from a higher dose of gantenerumab.

Philip Scheltens, a professor of cognitive neurology and director of the Alzheimer's Centre at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, said the results suggest that the dose of gantenerumab used so far was too low and that the drug should be tested further at higher doses.

STILL UNRAVELLING ALZHEIMER'S

Ronald Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Centre, said he was cautiously optimistic about the results for the three drugs.

But he said it is becoming clearer that Alzheimer's resembles a syndrome more than a disease, with multiple pathways and pathologies and therefore no single target to focus on for a possible cure. The likelihood is that several medications will have to be used together for effective treatments, he said.

"It's not like there's nothing out there; it's not like there's nowhere to go," said Petersen, who also chairs the national Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care and Services. "Clinical trials using antibodies to remove amyloid from the brain are making progress... The thinking is positive; the theme is positive. But the data aren't there yet to say the drugs are effective."

Source : stuff

We Are Fossasia Stay Connected With Us On Twitter . . . ! ! !