Oriental medicine

The article talk about acupuncture, more specifically about how the acupuncture can help the silks of cancer. The article doesn’t say that the acupunture is the new cure of cancer, because, as we already know, the best cure of cancer is a timely diagnosis and early surgery to remove the tumor. But the article says something very interesting and it is that the acupuncture can relieve the secundary symptoms to the treatments for the malignant tumors.

The acupucnture is a very old technique that originated in China and is used to treat a lot of disorders, such as headaches, migraines or bronchil asthma. One of its biggest benefits is that it provides drug-free pain relief. That fact is the reason for which it is one good candidate to treat the secundary effects of palliative therapies. This therapies have a lot of secundary effects like pain, nauseas and vomits. The role of acupucture is to reduce the symptoms. This allows to reduce narcotic use and thereby minimizing the side effects confusion, disturbed mentation, behavioral changes, nausea and severe constipation.

                             

All of us have heard about alternative medicine and all the varieties that exist. But its effects are questionable, because the improvement is often due to the placebo effect. So I do not think that should be used as an alternative medicine. But, could it be used as complementary medicine? If improvement is shown in patients who subject it, even if only be for the placebo effect, we should consider the use of it to reduce the doses of the drugs.

I want to know what is your opinion about the acupuncture and its benefits.

This is my article:

http://www.medicalacupuncture.org/For-Patients/Articles-By-Physicians-About-Acupuncture/Acupuncture-in-Cancer-Treatment

I have extracted my article of a acupuncture page, so they always say that it is good alternative of drugs. That is why I look for another article for if you wanted to compare the information:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156488.php

Is it possible the sexual transmission of Zika virus?

The Zika virus has been spread rapidly in the Americas since its first identification in Brazil in early 2015. Zika is transmitted through the aedes mosquito’s bite and it causes a mild disease in adults but in case of pregnant women, Zika requires extra caution. This virus is linked to abnormal fetal development. It may be the reason why many new-borns in the last year suffer from microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) hasn’t confirmed this relation yet.

Brazilian scientists support the connection between Zika virus and diseases such as microcephaly and Guillain Barre. The Brazil Government is taken the Zika very seriously and they have taken a lot of actions in order to face this outbreak. This action covers several areas: surveillance and monitoring, prevention, control and training, financial investment, information awareness and mobilization, and finally research.

Nevertheless, the best way to stop the Zika infection is prevention. The Government has promoted responses to be adopted like applying insect repellent, ensuring there are nets on windows and doors and wearing long-sleeved clothing. Even so, the number of new-borns with microcephaly has raised to 4.783 cases.

Moreover, next July, Brazil is welcoming the 2016 Olympics and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. So, the social alarm is whistling. In this context, the WHO together with the Brazilian and Canadian governments have issued no recommendations against leisure or business trips to or trade with the 25 countries and territories affected by the Zika virus.

But this article returns the attention to this country, because it supports the idea of a possible sexual transmission of the Zikas virus. This means that men who are infected from it, could pass on the infection to pregnant women. However these studies prove the transmission through semen, it seems that it could be possible a transmission through other fluids, but this hasn’t been proved yet.

Zikas virus will increase the list of sexual diseases which are an important problem in developing countries. It is very common in these countries a lack in sexual education, so the Government must start a program to make aware the population about the use of condoms and the risk of having sex without protection.

I strongly believe that the situation in these countries, particularly, in Brazil, is very complicated. If Zika virus can be contagious through sexual contact, the number of microcephaly and abnormal babies will increase. We don't have any effective medication to treat this sickness, so the Government only can act in order to prevent the infection. But if at the moment, the contagion is possible by two ways, the task of stopping the spread will be more difficult and it will take more time.

So at that point, do you think that this study is relevant? Should we centre our attention in sexual transmission of virus Zika or otherwise we should forget about this study and centre our work in the mosquito’s transmission?

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1604449?query=featured_zika

Doulas: the debate. To be or not to be banned.

Controversial. It is even more controversial when the Spanish Penal Code bans intrusiveness in the regulated professions.

Doulas, which might not ring your bell, is the new self-called profession which is raising so much debate about their competences and duties.

Canibalism, nursing intrusiveness, familiar apartheid, doctors' demonization, risky health behaviours for the mother... It is not the description of a horror serial movie, it is the description made by the Spanish Nursing College Organization referring to the Doulas' work.

First of all let's be fair and let them explain themselves. What does appear on the website of some random Doulas? They claim what it follows: "We Doulas, are women, mainly mothers, that accompany other women in their path to maternity. Our main duty is to give support, either physic or emotional, during pregnancy, birth and puerperium".

Doesn't it sound great? Wait, you need to check what's going next. They want to prevent the frustations of births that weren't as succesful as pregnants expected like "mistreatment for the usage of aggresive practices on the mother or on the baby" or "guilty feelings in caesaria or other interventions cases".

What do they want to prevent? The use of a caesarea in a risky birth? The use of episiotomy if it is mandatory? Are they professionally acredited for stating something like this regarding that they lack any kind of study?

The report on Doulas issued by the Spanish Nursing College Organization is pretty clear. Their activities surpass the competences which are exclusive to midwives, endangering mother's and babies' lives.

The College Organization state that some of them promote canibalism by advicing the mother to cook and eath their own placenta, ban the presence of the father in the delivery room, prevent the mothers to check their pregnancy status by not attending the gynaecologist... And some more aberrations.

The truth is that their activities are not taught by any college or institute, it is not regulated either at a state or european level. It is just their beliefs and pure ignorance which lead mothers to believe their words and take up risky habits which endanger their pregnancy.

So I would like to know what's the opinion of my dear medical students fellows. Do you think these activities are intruding the nursing and medical profession? Do you think this activity should be banned by the authorities? Do you think this endangers the mothers' and babies' lives?

Let the debate begin!

To be vegetarian, or not to be, that is the question

Probably, some of you have conceived of going vegetarian or vegan at least once in your life. Maybe that happened while cooking a burger or eating a nice succulent sirloin, am I right?

We all know that vegetarianism and veganism are becoming more and more popular nowadays and people are getting more sensitive with animal suffering. Many proponents of vegetarianism say that eating meat harms health, wastes resources, causes deforestation, and creates pollution. They argue that killing animals for food is cruel and unethical. Many opponents of a vegetarian diet say that meat consumption is humane and producing vegetables causes many of the same environmental problems as producing meat.

Pythagoras advocating vegetarianism. Rubens & Snyders (1618-1630)

Putting to one side ethical or environmental opinions, what about health? Is a vegetarian diet healthier than a non-vegetarian diet? It is known that even though vegetarian people have some struggle to get iron, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and calcium from the diet, they have lower risk of suffering diabetes, stroke and obesity. However, going vegetarian or vegan is not a bed of roses.

A recent study from the Journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution found that long-term vegetarian diet raises risk of cancer and heart disease. Researchers from the USA and India have discovered a mutation in people who have followed a vegetarian diet for generations that makes them susceptible to inflammation. The not-easy-to-remember mutation is called rs66698963 and is found in the FAD2 gene (fatty acid desaturase 2), which controls the synthesis of fatty acids in the body, especially arachidonic acid, the precursor of pro-inflammatory molecules such as prostaglandins and leukotrienes. In such individuals, vegetable oils will be converted to more pro-inflammatory arachidonic acid, increasing the risk for chronic inflammation that is implicated in the development of heart disease, and exacerbates cancer.

To make the problem worse, the mutation also hinders the production of beneficial omega-3 fatty acid, which is protective against heart disease.

How dare WHO say that processed and red meat raises the risk of getting cancer? And now vegetables too?

My questions are simple: are you vegetarian or carnivorous and why? What do you think about people who go vegetarian or vegan in terms of health and development?

You can check the links below to the news article and the scientific paper:

News article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/29/long-term-vegetarian-diet-changes-human-dna-raising-risk-of-canc/

Paper: http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/03/09/molbev.msw049.full.pdf+html?sid=38b79418-4f81-4bab-a19d-234b8d49a9dd

Adrià.

New breast cancer treatment wipes out tumours in just 11 days

                              Can we cure cancer in eleven days?

Last month, in the European Breast Cancer Conference (Amsterdam), a group of scientists reported some groundbreaking news on the fight against cancer. They used a combination of two known drugs and found that it shrinks – and, in some cases, eliminate – the breast cancer related with the HER2 gene. The relation with this gene only makes the breakthrough even more important, since it is known for the aggressive and resistant behavior of its tumors.

One of the lead researchers, Judith Bliss, shared her surprise with a BBC reporter: "We were particularly surprised by these findings as this was a short-term trial (…) it became apparent some had a complete response. It's absolutely intriguing, it is so fast."

The investigation counted with 257 women diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer sized between 1 and 3 cm. 66 of which received a combination of lapatinib and trastuzumab and in less than two weeks, 11% of them were completely tumor-free and only 17% had remaining cancer, but with less than 5mm in size.

The scientists are really excited about the idea of these women not needing to undergo chemotherapy, which is so tough on patients.

As we know, the trastuzumab is already a standard treatment for HER2-positive cancers, but it is used after surgery. It appears that while trastuzumab targets the surface of cancer cells, lapatinib attacks them from within.

So, I’d like to know if you guys are as excited about this news as I am. Does it surprise you that a drug already used in the treatment of this type of cancer could now be discovered to produce such amazing results? Researchers are being very cautious about this, because HER2-positive breast cancer has a high risk of coming back, do you think that is prudent to start using it as soon as possible or should we wait to see if the outcome is not as expected?

(http://www.sciencealert.com/new-treatment-dramatically-shrunk-breast-cancer-tumours-in-just-11-days)

                                                 (Ana Margarida Santos)