On the contrary, benign cells are limited to certain confinements in the body, do not invade or spread to new locations. This article tries to understand the basics of this dreadful disease.

What are the Symptoms of Cancer?

There are more than 100 types of cancer. Each of these types has their own set of unique signs apart from some common indicators. Broadly, the symptoms can be categorized under three groups. They are:

• Local Symptoms:
• Unusual lumps or tumor
• Ulceration
• Pain
• Bleeding
• Jaundice

Metastasis Symptoms: The technical name for spreading of the disease to fresh locations is metastasis. If the disease is diagnosed prior to this stage, it can be cured. After this stage, it becomes only treatable. Signs to look out for are:

• Coughing of blood from the lungs
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Swollen liver
• Pain in the bones
• Neurological signs

Systemic Symptoms:

• Fatigue
• Night sweats
• Weight loss
• Poor appetite
• Anemia
• Hormonal changes
• Blood clot formation in blood vessels

What are the Causes of Cancer?

Cells are the building blocks of life. They carry out all the functions in the body by following certain chemical instructions called genes. The cells have certain basic properties. One such fundamental property is cell replication, where a cell creates a copy of its own by a process called cell division. Here, a parent cell passes on its genetic instructions to two news copies of it called the daughter cells. After cell division, the parent cell dies as a part of a programmed process technically called apoptosis.

Cancer is caused when changes in the genetic material takes place (technically called as mutation) while they are transferred from parent to the daughter cells during cell division. These changes or errors are unavoidable and happen inevitably.

The errors which are few in number grow exponentially as the daughter cells in the initial stage undergoing mutation turn parent cells themselves and pass on the erroneous genetic instructions to a new bunch of cells.

In this way, cancer is a gradual process and a progressive disease.  The minute errors accumulate over the time and there arrives a moment went a cell has completely erroneous set of instructions, thus behaving in a manner contrary to a normal healthy cell. In this way, a cancer cell is formed. Thus a cascade of error cells is the main cause of cancer.

Mutation can cause four types of errors leading to cancer. They are:

• Every cell has an inherent error-correcting system. When this system gets affected, errors self-amplify per cell division.
• Cells have a signaling system to communicate with each other. When mutation disrupts this system, erroneous signals are transferred between nearby cells.
• Cells grow at a particular rate. If mutation changes this pattern, then abnormal cell growth in one region can disrupt normal function of cells in remote regions too.
• Cells die their programmed death normally as per the apoptosis process. If mutation affects this process, a cancer cell can turn immortal and can become a constant and uncontrollable source of disrupting normal healthy cells forever.

Treatment of Cancer:

Prevalent treatment options of cancer are surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. If the disease is diagnosed early, surgery removes the tumor. In chemotherapy, powerful chemicals are targeted towards the malignant chunk of cancer cells to kill them. In radiation therapy, powerful laser beams are used to kill the cancer causing cells. All these techniques have their own limitations and side effects to deal with too.

Common Symptoms of Autoimmune Disorders:

• Fatigue
• Malaise
• Swelling
• High body temperature or fever
• Changes in weight
• Stiffness and weakness in muscles and joints
• Extreme sensitivity to cold in feet and hands
• High or low blood pressure
• Digestive problems
• Depression
• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Increase in size of a tissue or organ
• Destruction of a tissue or organ
• Changes in blood sugar
• Infertility

Every disorder has its own unique set of symptoms related with the organ first targeted by it. The list of symptoms becomes longer as the disease progresses and affects rest of the healthy cells and tissues of the body.

List of Accepted Autoimmune Disorders:

• Ankylosing spondylitis
• Alopecia areata
• Dermatomyositis
• Crohns Disease
• Goodpasture’s Syndrome
• Type 1 diabetes
• Hashimoto’s Disease
• Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura
• Graves Disease
• Guillain-Barre Syndrome
• Mixed connective tissue disease
• Lupus Erythematosus
• Myasthenia gravis
• Multiple sclerosis
• Pemphigus vulgeris
• Narcolepsy
• Psoriasis
• Pernicious anaemia
• Primary biliary cirrhosis
• Psoriatic arthritis
• Polymyositis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Sjogren’s syndrome
• Relapsing polychondritis
• Wegener’s granulomatosis
• Vasculitis
• Temporal arthritis
• Ulcerative colitis

Some of the diseases which are suspected to be of autoimmune category are vitiligo, schizophrenia, stiff person syndrome, sarcoidosis, scleroderma, neuromyotonia, morphea, Kawasaki disease, interstitial cystitis , IgA nephropathy, endometriosis, hidradenitis suppurativa, chagas disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Facts about these Disorders:

• These diseases are one among the top ten leading causes of death in women up to 65 years.
• The areas in the world affected with infectious diseases report fewer cases of these types of disease and vice-versa.
• Men suffer from fewer types of these diseases when compared to women. But the severity of these diseases is high in them.
• As the cases are unknown, there is no cure for these diseases and they can only be treated with medicines called immunosuppressants. As the name suggests, these drugs try to decrease the efficacy of the immune system.

The men with diabetes and erectile dysfunction face greater chances for cardiovascular diseases.

The study reveals that more than half of the American men between the ages 40 to 70 suffer from erectile dysfunction. So they probably have some kind of cardiovascular disease. The men who have both of these problems might not recognize the real fact.

The symptoms of erectile dysfunction might be seen in three to four years before the symptoms of coronary artery diseases.

The research was done by identifying the link between erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disorders in the mid 1990s. In the last few years the researchers found that the erectile dysfunction paves the way for future cardiovascular problems.

Source: usnews

Burns can be caused by over-spilling of hot water, chemicals, hot objects, steam, sun, fire, electricity, fore and sun.

The very first emotion that the term ‘burn’ evokes in our mind is ‘pain’. Though all burns are not caused due to fire, we often relate burns with fire. Skin burns also result from touching hot electrical appliances, chemicals, or radiation. Whatever the cause of burn, we all want the pain to subside at the earliest. Though minor burns can be treated at home to some extent, those which are of serious nature require medical attention.

Natural home remedies for Burns:
Though all kind of burns require medical attention, in case of less severe burns (mostly First degree) certain home remedies along with some preliminary treatments work effectively. These are as follows:

• Use Cool Water to Reduce Skin Temperature: Soak the affected area of the skin in cool water for 15-30 minutes to reduce temperature of the skin
• Natural home remedies for Burns by Use of Honey: To prevent blisters and to avoid skin infection, apply honey on the burnt area of the skin after washing your skin thoroughly with cool water. Honey contains enzymes that helps to kill bacteria
• Natural home remedies for Burns with Aloe Vera Leaves: On the burnt skin, put some freshly cut aloe vera leaves and leave it for sometime. Once the pain starts reducing, spill contents of vitamin E capsule on the burnt area to prevent scarring.Vitamin E reduces pain and helps in faster healing of wounds
• Natural home remedies for Burns with Chinese Poultice: This Chinese treatment for skin burns involves dressing of the wound with honey and pollen. The treatment is considered so powerful that it can reverse the process of gangrene and prevent spreading of infection
• home remedy for Burns from Proper Diet: Consuming high protein and calorie-rich diet helps in recovering the loss of micronutrients like zinc, copper, selenium etc. caused due to burning. Experts suggest that eating papaya helps in shedding dead cells from the burnt area of the skin quickly

Types of Burns:
Burns are of 3 categories: First-degree burns, second-degree burns, and the most severe third-degree burns.

• First-Degree Burns: These burns are the least severe. There is redness in the skin with minor swelling, with no blisters. The superficial layer of the skin peels off in 1-2 days and the wound takes about 3-6 days to heal
• Second-Degree Burns: These are of more serious kind as the layer beneath the topmost layer of the skin also gets affected. The area of burn develop blisters, and are more painful than the First-degree burns. The situation becomes worse when blister breaks and skin becomes wet and pinkish. Depending upon the severity of burns, healing time for such kind of wounds varies between 2-3 weeks
• Third-Degree Burns: These are the most severe kind of burns and immediately deserve medical attention. Burns affect all layers of the skin involving the underlying tissues. These types of burns cause little or no pain as the nerves underlying the skin also get damaged. The surface of the skin appears dry from outside. Depending on the severity, the skin becomes waxy white to severely charred. Usually takes very long time to heal

For other kinds of burns such as electrical burns that may not be obvious from the outside but may cause enough internal damage, the best remedy is to take the patient right away to the hospital. In case of chemical burns, the burnt area must be washed with copious amounts of water and left open without putting anything on the skin because it may cause chemical reaction.

What measures to take when a person gets burnt?

• One must try to stop the burning process. Cool the area with cool running water. Continue running water on the affected spot till the ambulance arrives.
• Look for sloughing, charred or blistered skin. In the case of blistering as well sloughing the top layer of the skin gets completely damaged.
• If a whole arm is affected or the abdomen gets burnt then one should take the person to the emergency ward.
  Mild burns whereby the skin becomes red can be treated with an ointment.
• Cool water also reduces the pain.
• Do not apply butter on the affected area.
• After the burn is cooled with the help of water or a cold compress apply lotion to the affected area.
• Do not try to break the pus-filled blisters.
• For major burns, seek immediate medical attention.

Burns can be very painful. They can mar the skin. One must treat them immediately. Major burns must be taken care of by medical specialist

A person suffering from anemia will not have a radiant look. Rather he or she will appear pale. The skin will not glow as in the case of healthy person.

Causes of Anemia

• Deficiency in iron.
• Sudden blood loss.
• Improper diet.
• Conceiving child causes iron deficiency leading to anemic conditions.
• Genetic.

Symptoms of anemia

• Weakness.
• Listlessness.
• Fatigue
• Lethargy.
• Dizziness.

 Acute stage Symptoms:

• Short breath.
• Palpitations.
• Sourness of mouth as well as gums.
• Headaches.
• Pale skin.

Who are susceptible to this health condition?
Anybody can be prone to this health problem. Pregnant women suffer from it. The elderly also experience this health condition. Children and teenagers can also be anemic. People who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, as well as kidney problems have anemia.

Prevention of anemia

• Proper diet containing iron, vitamins and  minerals.
• Vitamin  supplements.
• Food items such as meat, spinach, eggs, fish, cheese poultry and milk.One can also have broccoli, wheat germ, pulses. These contain folic acid and help in iron absorption.

Anemia can be taken care of by improving one’s diet and ensuring that one has sufficient iron intake.