Cervical cancer: Know all about the top cancer-killer among Indian women

What is cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer is cancer of the cervix or cancer of the entrance to the uterus (womb). It can also be defined as a type of cancer that happens in the cells of the cervix. Cervix is the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina.

What causes cervical cancer and how you get the disease?

Cervical cancer affects mostly women over the age of 30. It is believed that cervical cancer is caused by a virus called human papillomavirus or HPV. The disease can be contracted through sexual contact with someone who has it.

While there are different types of the HPV virus, not all types of HPV cause cervical cancer. Some of them cause genital warts, but other types may not show any symptoms.

About 132,000 cases of cervical cancer diagnosed in India yearly

Gravely, the disease kills more women in India than any other countries in the world. Cervical cancer affects approximately 132,000 Indian women annually, of which an astounding 72,000 die, according to the Cervical Cancer-Free Coalition.

Symptoms:

Signs and symptoms of cervical cancer may include - vaginal bleeding during sex, pelvic pain or pain during intercourse, change in menstrual cycle, bleeding in-between periods, post-menopausal bleeding, vaginal discharge tinged with blood that may have a foul odour.

Diagnosis:

Treating cervical cancer is more likely to be successful if detected in its earliest stages. The American Cancer Society advises that all women should begin cervical cancer screening at age 21. It recommends that women aged 21 to 29, should have a Pap test every three years. Women who are age 30 or older should have a Pap test combined with an HPV test every five years till age 65 or just a Pap test every three years.

According to the Society, though the Pap smear is not foolproof in screening, it has been “more successful than any other test in preventing a cancer”. The Pap smear is available in several laboratories in Indian cities nowadays.

Treatment

Treatment differs depending on stage of cancer and other health problems you may have. Treatment choices may include:

Surgery- Surgery is performed to remove the uterus (hysterectomy) in the early stages of cervical cancer.

A simple hysterectomy is a surgical process to remove the cervix and the uterus.

A radical hysterectomy involves surgical removal of the cervix, uterus, part of the vagina and lymph nodes in the area.

If you have a hysterectomy, you won’t become pregnant. But, hysterectomy isn’t always needed if cancer is detected very early.

Radiation- In this therapy, high dose of X-rays is used to destroy cancer cells and shrink tumours. It is a standard treatment for many types of cancer and may be used in combination with surgery, chemotherapy, or hormonal therapy.

Chemotherapy- It is the use of drugs/medicine to kill cancer cells. Certain chemotherapy drugs may lead to infertility as well as cause early menopause in premenopausal women.

Prevention:

You can reduce your risk of getting cervical cancer by following the tips below:

1. Have regular Pap test screening

2. Get HPV vaccine

3. Do not smoke or if you do then quit smoking

4. Avoid having multiple sexual partners

5. Use condoms

6. Avoid all intimate sexual contact with anyone who has symptoms of STIs (sexually transmitted infections).

More: http://zeenews.india.com/news/health/diseases/cervical-cancer-know-all-about-the-top-cancer-killer-among-indian-women_25429.html

Exercise 'is good dementia therapy'

People with dementia who exercise improve their thinking abilities and everyday life, a body of medical research concludes.

The Cochrane Collaboration carried out a systematic review of eight exercise trials involving more than 300 patients living at home or in care.

Exercise did little for patients' moods, the research concluded.

But it did help them carry out daily activities such as rising from a chair, and boosted their cognitive skills.

Though we can't say that exercise will prevent dementia, evidence does suggest it can help reduce the risk of the condition as part of a healthy lifestyle”Dr Laura Phipps of Alzheimer's Research UK

Whether these benefits improve quality of life is still unclear, but the study authors say the findings are reason for optimism.

Dementia affects some 800,000 people in the UK. And the number of people with the condition is steadily increasing because people are living longer.

It is estimated that by 2021, the number of people with dementia in the UK will have increased to around one million.

With no cure, ways to improve the lives of those living with the condition are vital.

Researcher Dorothy Forbes, of the University of Alberta, and colleagues who carried out the Cochrane review, said: "Clearly, further research is needed to be able to develop best practice guidelines to enable healthcare providers to advise people with dementia living at home or in institutions.

"We also need to understand what level and intensity of exercise is beneficial for someone with dementia."

Dr Laura Phipps of Alzheimer's Research UK said: "We do know that exercise is an important part of keeping healthy, and though we can't say that exercise will prevent dementia, evidence does suggest it can help reduce the risk of the condition as part of a healthy lifestyle."

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25202903

Hubble senses water on five planets, bodes well for finding new Earths

There’s water in them thar planets – five massive “hot Jupiters” spied by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

But if you just thought "Life?!" think again. Despite the presence of water molecules in their atmospheres, none of these five planets is suitable to life as we know it. They are all gas giants, and they are all too close to their suns to sustain liquid water on their surfaces.

These planets -- WASP-17b, HD209458b, WASP-12b, WASP-19b and XO-1b -- are tidally locked with their stars so that the same side of the planet always faces the star and is constantly bombarded with a powerful stream of solar radiation. The heat from the star is distributed around the planet via strong winds that move faster than the speed of sound.

"They are very violent places," said L. Drake Deming, an astronomer at the University of Maryland who recently led a census of exoplanet atmospheres.

To find traces of water vapor in their atmospheres, Deming and his colleagues used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which measures near-infrared light. The scientists waited until each planet was about to pass in front of its sun, then pointed Hubble at it. Because water molecules absorb certain wavelengths of light, the scientists could detect the presence of water vapor during the planet's transit across its sun if those wavelengths were not picked up by Hubble.

Deming said that finding water vapor on these planets was not a surprise. Indeed, he would have been surprised if he hadn't found it.

"It was consistent with what we expect," he said. "But it is one thing to say these planets should have water vapor and it's another thing to actually measure it."

Hubble is only strong enough to see the signs of water vapor on the gas giant planets, but Deming said that Hubble's successor -- the James Webb Telescope, slated to launch in 2018 -- will be strong enough to find water signatures in the atmospheres of smaller, rockier planets more like Earth.

"The James Webb Telescope would allow us to extend these measurements to habitable Earth-like planets, maybe twice as big as Earth, and in the habitable zone where water could condense," he said.

In the meantime, Deming and his team want to determine the most accurate way to measure the presence of water on planets trillions of miles away, and the hot Jupiter planets make good test cases. Because they are so close to their host stars, most of them take just days to complete a full orbit, offering scientists frequent opportunities to take measurements.

"It wouldn't be a bad analogy to say these planets are the astronomical equivalent of fruit flies," he said."The grand challenge is to find another habitable Earth-like planet, but the focus of my work is to put these measurements on a really sound basis."

More: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-hubble-finds-water-on-5-planets-20131203,0,1063198.story#ixzz2mZqzLonw

Mars mission extends 9.25 lakh kms, travels beyond Earth's sphere of influence

India's maiden mission to Mars has traversed beyond the sphere of influence (SOI) of Earth extending about 9,25,000 km in its 10-month long voyage to the red planet.

The spacecraft crossed the SOI of Earth at around 1:14 hrs (IST) on Wednesday, Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) said.

The Mars orbiter spacecraft had slung out of its earth-bound orbit in the early hours of December one during the critical 22-minute Trans Mars Injection, a manoeuvre billed as the "mother of all slingshots."

The spacecraft which was in a hyperbolic orbit had escaped from the SOI, after the first step on Sunday in the Mars mission's 680 million-km-long odyssey to its destination to put on course the country's first ever inter-planetary space rendezvous.

ISRO has planned four mid-course corrections --around December 11, in April, August and on September 14 --in case of any deviation along its path to the Martian orbit before its expected arrival in the orbit of the Red planet in September 2014.

The spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennae at Byalalu here.

The Mars mission's success would catapult India into a small club, which included the US, Europe and Russia, whose probes have orbited or landed on Mars.

ISRO's workhorse ISRO's PSLV C 25 had successfully injected the 1,350-kg 'Mangalyaan' Orbiter into the orbit around the earth in a textbook launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on November five.

More: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-12-04/news/44757456_1_trans-mars-injection-mars-orbiter-spacecraft-mars-mission