Pregnancy tumor linked to poor dental health

What is a pregnancy tumor?

A pregnancy tumor is a red glistening growth that is usually in the mouth during the later part of a pregnancy. It may bleed easily, cause discomfort when chewing food, and be a sign of poor dental health.

It is not cancer. The term "tumor" refers to any swelling or enlargement of a spontaneous growth of tissue. Pregnancy tumors have many names: pyogenic granuloma, granuloma of pregnancy, lobular capillary hemangioma, and pregnancy epulides. Shakespeare was right when he wrote "A rose by any other name is still a rose." If you get the diagnosis of any of the above mentioned conditions, they really are all the same thing.

The hormones that increase in a pregnancy are: HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin hormone), HPL (human placental lactogen), estrogen, and progesterone. All of these hormones play a role in maintaining a healthy pregnancy.

Progesterone is produced by the ovaries and the placenta. Progesterone helps the placenta function and stimulates the thickening of the uterine lining. However, it also affects the tissues in the mouth. Progesterone can increase the production of plaque. Plaque in the mouth is invisible. Plaque is actually a mass of microorganisms that grow on the teeth and at the roots of teeth. It leads to decay of both the teeth and the gums.

Women who have a history of gum disease are at greater risk for developing a pregnancy tumor. Some people blame pregnancy tumors solely on the hormones of the pregnancy. However, there is increased evidence that a combination of poor oral hygiene and increased levels of progesterone make a woman more susceptible to not only pregnancy tumors but also gingivitis and periodontitis.

If a woman does develop a pregnancy tumor, the dentist may be able to identify the cause, remove it and prevent further growth. Untreated tumors can lead to further tooth and gum decay. Women with untreated dental disease are also at greater risk of having a premature baby. Dental health is very important to both the mother and the baby.

Within five to six days after the birth of the baby, the level of progesterone drops dramatically. The hormones associated with lactation (the making of milk) are different than the hormones of pregnancy, thereby decreasing the risk of plaque formation. But it is still very important to practice good oral hygiene. That means: Brush your teeth at least twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste, floss at least once a day and rinse with an antimicrobial mouth rinse, and, of course, have your teeth professionally cleaned every six months.

Take care of your teeth because they are part of your smile. As Mother Teresa loved to say: "Love begins with a smile."

Original Article is HERE. Article By : Katie Powers, R.N., is a board-certified lactation consultant and perinatal educator at Manatee Memorial Hospital's Family BirthPlace. Her column appears every other week in WellBeing. Contact her at katie.powers@mmhhs.com.

Drugs, Fashion- Ruined Life

Video:
New Delhi: It's a riches to rags story of Geetanjali Nagpal, a former super model who once walked the ramp with Sushmita Sen, but today is forced to lead a desolate life on the streets of Delhi.

She now dresses in shabby clothes and begs for scraps for a living. Some NGOs and the Delhi Commission for Women have now offered her help.

Daughter of a navy officer, Geetanjali studied at Mount Carmel School in Delhi and later graduated from Lady Sriram College.

Little is known about the former model's personal life and the circumstances that led to her ruin. However, sources say she lost assignments and got into drugs to cope with stress.

Geetanjali studied fashion designing at South Delhi Polytechnic and ventured into modeling in 1990. She was living-in with a British man in Goa until recently.




FULL STORY HERE

AIDS stigma: Father forced to deliver baby

A man was allegedly forced to deliver his own baby when doctors refused to attend to his HIV positive wife in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district.
Sunita, who has been undergoing treatment at the Meerut Medical College, was taken to the hospital when she went into labour on Wednesday night.
But doctors and other staff refused to attend to the 28-year-old and did not even allow her to be taken to the labour room.

''The baby could have died or I could have died but the doctors were not bothered. We did not get blankets, food or milk. There were no facilities. Doctors asked us to go to Delhi or else, they said they would hand us over to the police. They said that we would spread HIV here,'' said Sunita.

Prejudice over duty?
As the situation became critical, her husband, Rahees Abbas, was forced to deliver the baby himself as doctors stood aside giving him instructions. ''I told the doctors that my wife is about to deliver the baby. They said they will come along. They came but simply stood in a line and asked me to pull out the baby and cut the umbilical cord.
They even asked me to clean up the all the blood and burn the waste. ''Even after the delivery, not a single doctor came and asked about my wife's health. It was only yesterday that we got some medicine and that too from the store outside,'' said Abbas.A baby boy was born to the couple who have three daughters.

Although the hospital has demanded an explanation from the doctors and staff on duty, it is treating the couple's complaint with some skepticism.''How can I believe what he said? These days those who have HIV think they will get media sympathy by blaming others. So how can I blindly believe what he said?'' argued Dr Abhilasha Gupta, Head, Gynaecology Department, Medical College, Meerut.

Probe ordered
The incident highlights the shocking extent of prejudice against the disease even among doctors and has sparked off outrage in the medical community.The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered a state level enquiry into the incident.

Full Story..

Fighting Cancer with Video Games

Check out the positive impact video games like Re-Mission can have on patients fighting cancer.
Parents struggle, strain and stress out trying to get sick children to take their medicine. Typically, this involves insidious tactics like crushing pills into pudding and playing endless hours of "Aspirin Airplane," but judging by the piles of strained peas covering kitchen floors, it's clear the kids usually win.
When it comes to fighting cancer, however, coercion takes a back seat to innovation. Instead of tricking patients into taking their pills, a joint effort by Cigna Healthcare and HopeLab is helping afflicted youth better understand their illness through an action-packed computer game.
Re-Mission is a third-person shooter that lets users fight cancer as a perky nanobot named Roxxi. Each of the game's 20 missions drops the player into the body of a patient afflicted with a specific form of cancer, ranging from common diseases like Hodgkins to rarities like Ewing's sarcoma. Featuring weapons like the Chemo Blaster, the Radiation Gun, and the Antibiotic Rocket, the game encourages users to zap malignant cells while enlisting the aid of helpful characters like Dendritic cells, T-cells and Platelets.
Unlike most educational gaming efforts, Re-Mission was designed from the start to be a viable, challenging action game. High-end 3D graphics, multiple weapon upgrades, and a variety of meters to manage have helped stave off the dreaded "edutainment" label that many gamers equate with a distinct lack of fun. By way of its visceral punch and frantic action, the product has even earned a "Teen" rating.
Most importantly, the game seems to be working on a medical level. The results of a 2006 Re-Mission study indicate that most of the respondents showed an increase in cancer knowledge and an improvement in their ability to manage treatment.
Re-Mission is being distributed to cancer patients for free at http://www.cigna.com/Re-mission. Further information can be found at http://www.re-mission.net/, which also houses the product's community site.

Bush vetoes embryonic stem cell funding

As he rejects such a bill for the second time, the president calls for study of tissue that would not 'destroy human life.'

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Wednesday vetoed legislation that would have allowed the use of federal funds to support embryonic stem cell research, the second consecutive year he has blocked such a bill. Proponents say embryonic stem cells — which can turn into cells for many different kinds of human tissue — offer the best chance of treating or curing many debilitating or fatal diseases.

But opponents, like Bush, argue that research on the cells, which can be derived from human embryos created during in-vitro fertilization treatments, effectively destroys a human life.In announcing the veto, Bush said he took heart from studies released this month that suggested it may be possible to grow stem cells from sources other than human embryos. "Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical — and it is not the only option before us," Bush said in remarks in the White House's ornate East Room after the veto. "Researchers are now developing promising new techniques that offer the potential to produce pluripotent stem cells without having to destroy human life." "Pluripotent" stem cells can become any of the three layers of cells from which all organs and tissues develop.At the same time, Bush issued an executive order to the National Institutes of Health, asking scientists to pursue research on stem cells that "are derived without creating a human embryo for research purposes or destroying, discarding, or subjecting to harm a human embryo or fetus."

Critics accused the president of using the executive order, which does not need congressional approval, to give the appearance of supporting stem cell research when in fact he has been holding it back. "Last year, the Republican-controlled House and Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill to open up the hope of stem cell research to the millions of Americans who suffer. That was a proud day," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)."Now a year has passed, and our best scientists continue to work with one hand tied behind their back. A year has passed, and countless thousands more Americans have been diagnosed with cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries, heart disease and ALS" — a reference to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said that the president has always advocated ethical research on stem cells and that the executive order will make sure that continues. "The policy change is that when you're taking a look at pluripotent stem cell lines, it is no longer limited strictly to embryonic stem cell lines. So that is a change in the law," Snow said. The stem cell bill passed both houses of Congress this spring with strong majorities, but overriding the veto would require a two-thirds vote in each chamber. The Senate appears to be one vote shy of the two-thirds mark, and the House is about 35 votes short.

Stem cell research has been a tricky issue for Bush since the first year of his administration, when he made a decision to permit scientists to continue to use several existing strains of embryonic stem cells but denied federal funding that would create new ones. Opponents of that policy say that research efforts have been hampered by myriad factors, including the limited amount of funding available through private sources and contamination of the existing cell lines. Wednesday's veto was only the third Bush has cast. In addition to two stem cell vetoes, the president in May vetoed a war funding bill that included a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Study: Ratings of Sunscreens

Environmental Working Group Tells How Well They Ward Off Various Harmful Rays
(CBS) A Web site that assesses the effectiveness and safety of almost 800 sunscreens was unveiled Tuesday morning. The sunscreen screening site, put together by the Environmental Working Group, gives detailed information about all the products and groups them by the types of harmful rays they're meant to protect against.

The EWG has cautioned the public in the past about health concerns involving certain cosmetics and seafood. It unveiled the sunscreens site on Early Show Tuesday. Jane Houlihan, the EWG's vice president of research, supervised the site's construction. She explained to co-anchor Julie Chen that there are two things people need from sunscreens more than anything else. One is broad spectrum coverage, from both UVA and UVB rays. The other is stability in sunlight. It's important to note, she said, that SPF numbers on sunscreen packages only cover UVB, the type of ray most responsible for burns.
UVA is far less responsible for burning, but still can raise skin cancer risk, and only one sunscreen in five has effective UVA protection, Houlihan pointed out. There is no number that quantifies UVA protection, which depends on several factors. There are ingredients that protect well against UVA, but sunlight can break them down and make them ineffective if they're not formulated well. Also, when sunscreen ingredients break down, they can penetrate the skin and trigger allergies.
The ingredients are actually designed to break down; that's part of the function of absorbing energy and keeping it out of the skin. But some break down more quickly and easily than others. The two ingredients Houlihan likes most are zinc and titanium, which don't break down in sunlight as others do, and offer longer lasting protection as a result. They also work by reflecting sunlight, rather than absorbing it.
Consumers should look for both SPF numbers and zinc and titanium when buying suncreens, Houlihan observed. High SPF protects best against UVB. Zinc and titanium offer maximum UVA protection. Several ingredients are far less desirable although, depending on how they're blended and what else the products contain, they're not automatically undesirable. They are avobenzone, oxybenzone and padimate O, a relative of PABA, which has come into disrepute in recent years.
The Web site's rankings show that a sunscreen being popular doesn't necessarily mean it's among the best. Coppertone, for instance, has some items in higher categories, but also makes a number whose stability could be better. One problem with sunscreens is that this country is behind the curve, Houlihan notes. European regulators have approved several effective products that the Food and Drug Administration hasn't gotten around to testing. So, Americans are limited in our choices. Even if your sunscreen is good, Houlihan stressed that you still need to take all the standard precautions against the sun, such as staying out of the sun during peak hours, wearing protective clothing and hats, and reapplying sunscreen often.

Take nap at work - Say Health Experts

New research suggests that a midday nap might be good for the heart -- especially if you can take one at work.

In the largest study to date on the health effects of napping, researchers tracked 23,681 healthy Greek adults for an average of about six years. Those who napped at least three times weekly for about half an hour had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from heart attacks or other heart problems than those who did not nap.

People who took any naps at all during the day had a 34 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease than non-nappers.

Most of the people studied were in their 50s, though they ranged in age from 20 to 86. The strongest evidence was in working men, according to the study, which appeared Monday in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Among working men, those who took midday naps occasionally or regularly had a 64 percent lower risk of death from heart disease than those who did not nap, while non-working men who napped had a 36 percent reduction in risk.

Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, a professor of cancer prevention and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, led the study with a colleague from the University of Athens Medical School in Greece.

''My advice is if you can take a nap, yes, do take a nap," Trichopoulos said. "If you have a sofa in your office, if you can relax, do it."

Scripps Howard News Service, AP

Stress Relief By Yoga

Stress seems to be the root cause of ill health – physical and mental. Stress results in problems like insomnia, anxiety, nervousness, weight gain/lose, heart disease, arthritis, weakness of immune system, loneliness, hypertension and menstrual disorders etc.

Here are some ways to overcome stress:

1. Aman Mudra
Sit cross–legged or on a chair, with your back straight, but not stiff. Join the palms together at the centre of the body, with the base of the palms and fingers touching softly, just below their tips. (as in picture) Stay in this position as long as comfortable. It can be 30 seconds or more. Practice this regularly once a day, at a fixed time, convenient to you.

2. Four Step Breathing
a. Chest Breathing: Inhale and expand your chest. Then exhale and relax your chest. This is one round of chest breathing. Do this ten times.
b. Abdominal Breathing: Inhale and expand your abdomen. Then exhale and relax. Do this ten times.
c. Yogic Breathing: Inhale and first expand your abdomen, then expand your chest. Exhale and relax your abdomen first and then your chest. Do this ten times too.
d. Tadan Breathing or Ajgari Mudra: Inhale from both the nostrils slowly. While inhaling expand your abdomen making it like a pot
belly. Hold for 5 seconds, then exhale from your nose and pull your stomach in while exhaling. Do ten rounds of this.

3. Om Mantra Dhyan
Sit in a comfortable meditative pose with eyes gently closed. Keep your back straight and upright, shoulders relaxed. Place both hands in “Ghyan Mudra”.(Touch tip of the index finger with tip of the thumb keeping other three fingers straight to form Ghyan Mudra) Now silently recite the “Om” mantra and focus your mind on the rhythmic flow of this mantra. Practice this dhyan for at least 15 times daily. Slowly increase the time as per time available.

4. Progressive Relaxation Technique
Sit in padma asana or sukh asana. Now inhale and tense your body for a few seconds or as long as possible. Then exhale and relax your body.
You can use this exercise to relax, whichever part of your body is feeling tense. It can be done anywhere and at any time.

5. Warm Up Cup Therapy
Rub your hands together vigorously until they become warm. Then cup them over your closed eyes
for five seconds, while you breathe deeply.

6. Mini Self Massage
Massage the palm of one hand by making a circular motion with the thumb of the other hand. Do
this exercise on both hands.

7. Nadi Shodhana Pranayama
Nadi means channel or flow of energy and shoudhana means purification.
Sit in a comfortable meditative posture. Keep the head and spine upright. Relax the whole body and close eyes. Then with the thumb of the right hand close the right nostril. Now breathe in through left nostril. Then close the left nostril with ring finger and release the pressure of the thumb on the right nostril while breathing out through the right nostril. Now inhale through the right nostril. Hold the breath, then release the left nostril and breathe out. This is one round. Do this for at least 20 rounds.

Benefits: The whole body is nourished by an extra supply of oxygen, while carbon dioxide is efficiently expelled and blood purified of toxins. This pranayama increases vitality and lowers level of stress and anxiety by harmonizing the prana.

8. Shavasana
Lie flat on the back with arms about 15 cms away from the body, palms facing upwards, fingers of both hands slightly curled up. Close your eyes. The head and spine should be in a straight line. Relax the whole body and be still. Become aware of your natural breathing and with every inhalation, chant the word SO and with every exhalation think of the word HUM. Repeat this mantra for 5 to 10 minutes, or according to time available.

Benefits: This asana relaxes the whole psycho–physiological system. It should be practiced before sleep. Try not to move the body while doing this asana, as the slightest movement will create muscular contraction. This asana is very useful for high blood pressure patients, heart patients, depression and stress.

www.yogagurusuneelsingh.com

BOTOX SHOTS TO KILL MIGRAINE

BOTOX SHOTS TO KILL MIGRAINE
MUMBAI: There's a shot of relief for patients who suffer recurrent and intolerable migraines. In what is emerging as a good treatment option, Botox injections are now being used to provide pain relief to those with chronic headaches.

For many, like 20-year-old Gayatri Balasubramaniam from Chembur, the little-known treatment option brought loads of cheer.

"Her headaches were unbearable. She would cringe and cry in pain. There were days we had to wake up her physician at two in the morning, only so that he could give her a pain-relief injection,"recalls Gayatri's grandmother. In fact, the recurrent migraine became a stumbling block for the budding fashion designer.

With not much awareness, Gayatri was at first skeptical about trying out the new treatment. Botox or botulinum toxin now popularly associated with beauty treatments — widely used for ironing out wrinkles and frown lines — has huge benefits for treating neurological and movement disorders.

TOI had earlier highlighted how botox offers hope to patients of cerebral palsy, besides being widely used for dystonia, squints, sweaty armpits and palms.

Chronic migraines can now be added to that list. "Botox injections have two benefits to patients of chronic migraines.

They relax the muscles of the forehead, besides reducing the pain effect,"explains founder of Houston Headache Clinic and former president of the International Headache Society, Dr Ninan Mathew.

"We introduce botox treatment only when drugs fail to work and the pain impairs the normal functioning of patients,"says specialist in headache management at Jaslok Hospital Dr K Ravishankar.

There is a caveat. Patients need to be selected with care, as migraines — identified by throbbing pain at the temples — differ from individual to individual and can be triggered by different factors
such as irregular sleep, changing weather or stress.

Consultant neurologist at Hinduja Hospital Charulata Sankhla adds a word of caution. "While Botox has no side-effects, the shots should be given by a trained specialist,"she said.