Thursday, December 17, 2009

Disgusted, Frustrated or both?

Every day I spend quite a good amount of time reading journals and health news.  I am sure there are others who skim along the news stories and collect a armoire of artilces to post on their various aggregator sites.  I think this has become the so-called current standard but it leads little to real understanding of health and the deep issues and problems we have in today's health arena.

Personally I don't get much enjoyment from just surfing the web and doing a cut & paste exercise.  To me the focus is improving your health and putting some thought into the outcome a reader may receive as a result of this work.  I've been on-line now 18 years and my work has been in print media for even longer.  All of this too has been on top of the myriad of public programs I have presented for going on 30 years.

During all of this time I also worked inside the medical industry.  I learned a lot and was to a great extent considered an expert in innovative nursing and utilizing natural approaches in health care even then (from the early 60s).

Walking on two paths leaves me often scratching my head in wonderment as to how far things have gone downhill since I was a youngster in the 40s.

I've mentioned before that a young D.O. colleague of mine once said to me in a conversation that no one knows how to interpret lab tests.  This is the conundrum because in that same conversation she said "everything is based on labs".

It isn't just the issue of lab tests, it is many other things.  One of those as you can see from this article, is that obviously diagnosis is a real concern as well.  Maybe if doctors can't diagnose you can guess why they can't interpret lab tests.

I could also mentions too that perhaps because this person happened to be female just might add to the puzzle.  Research shows clearly that there is discrimination in health care delivery for women and also people of color.  I'm sure it carries over to people with various life situations that are out of the norm (what ever that is).

This quandary over how bad things have become led me to develop the system I use called Health Forensics©, and our 'ASK' and Health Detective©  levels of service.

The same quandary led me to a decision for 2010.  I'm calling it "Natural Nutrition for health & healing".

During the coming year all of my articles, newsletters, BTR programs, and website work will be all about nutrition, health and healing.

And if you aren't signed up for herbalYODA Says! you might wish to know that the next issue will be published in January.

Perhaps, I'll just be able to help you make more sense of things and how you can take charge of your health and become a better advocate for yourself, friends and family.
Doctors Misdiagnose Woman's Tumour Three Times
By Jordan Lite

Strangers asked when her baby was due, and doctors said she was bloated from a digestive problem, but Janet Delaney was carrying neither a baby nor an irritable bowel. Instead, she was suffering from a giant, 17-pound ovarian cyst that had been misdiagnosed three times.

Only when Delaney, of Manchester, England, insisted on an ultrasound did she learn the truth, The Daily Mail reports. Doctors removed the cyst in March and are now monitoring her with blood tests that can detect ovarian cancer.
 
"I am disgusted that I was told so many times that this was irritable bowel syndrome. I looked nine months pregnant -- strangers were giving up their seat for me on the bus, asking me when my baby was due," Delaney said. "I'm lucky that I eventually insisted on having a scan -- and the cyst was eventually found before it was too late."

Ovarian cysts are fluid- or tissue-filled sacs on the ovaries. They're typically small and don't hurt, though they may cause a dull or sharp ache in the abdomen. In Delaney's case, the cyst was "rock hard," painful and protruding over her waistband. Each time she complained to doctors, she was told she had irritable bowel syndrome, a condition that can cause bloating, pain, constipation and diarrhea. An ultrasound in January 2009 revealed the cyst.

While ovarian cysts aren't unusual -- most women develop them at some point, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- the most common types usually don't grow to be larger than five centimeters, and even rarer kinds don't often approach the size of Delaney's. "I've heard of them larger, but that's pretty large," said Linda Bradley, M.D., vice chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

Among women under 50, most ovarian cysts are not cancerous and disappear without treatment, the NIH says. Those that bleed or burst need to be removed, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Post-menopausal women whose cysts look cancerous may be given a blood test that measures CA-125, a protein associated with ovarian tumors. The test isn't as reliable as an ovarian cancer marker in younger women, whose CA-125 levels can be high because of menstruation, pregnancy and endometriosis, among other conditions, according to the Mayo Clinic.

It took doctors five hours to remove Delaney's cyst, and it was so heavy that it took two people to lift it out, according to the Daily Mail. While the cyst was slightly malignant, blood tests have not yet shown that Delaney has cancer.

Still, Delaney is angry about her delayed diagnosis. "How could anyone have missed a cyst in my stomach of that size? It could have cost me my life."
Delaney isn't the only woman to suffer from a giant ovarian cyst. Indian doctors reported earlier this year on a woman who couldn't walk and had become anorexic because of a 51-pound ovarian cyst. And in Greece, doctors had trouble diagnosing a woman with a 9-gallon ovarian cyst.

While a physical exam can often detect an ovarian cyst, sometimes doctors need to use ultrasound, CT or MRI scans to find them, Bradley said.

"This is a one in a million case where it's dramatic and raises a lot of eyebrows," she said. "Women should pay attention to symptoms that are persistent or new and be seen annually by their OBGYN for pelvic and breast exams. If something doesn't feel right and you're not certain about that doctor's management, a second opinion is always important."
Related to very issue is an article regarding the interference with ASA (aspirin) casued by pain medication.  This is an example of not only the nutritional deficiencies cased by ASA, but prescriber ignorance of important issues in drug interaction.

Those who use our full services receive a drug interaction profile.  And you can learn about nutrient depletion as well, such as for ASA causing loss of B9(Folic Acid), Iron, Potassium, Sodium, and Vitamin C.  Loss of Iron reduces the amount of oxygen carried to your cells leading to an increase in pain.  You can also learn about other supplements that can "thin blood" but cause less damage than ASA. Ultimately ASA, like warfarin, can lead to a physiological state that cause a break down of the cell wall membrane which can lead to silent bleeding.

Painkiller undermines aspirin's anti-clotting action
ScienceDaily (2009-12-17) -- Millions of Americans take Celebrex  for arthritis or other pain. Many, if they are middle-aged or older, also take a low-dose aspirin tablet daily to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Yet they may be getting little protection, because Celebrex keeps the aspirin from doing its job effectively, a new study suggests. ... > read full article

MY NOTE: Celebrex also depletes B9.

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