Treatment for Leukemia

  By Robert | October 8, 2011 - 8:23 am | Treatment Leave a comment

Leukemia is basically a cancer .Cancer encompasses a group of related diseases starting from cells. Leukaemia starts from the white blood cells. The function of the white blood cells is to detect any foreign body in blood and destroy it thus preventing the body from infection by pathogens. If the cancerous cells accumulate in the cerebrospinal fluid they may cause a headache and seizures. Though leukaemia is thought to be a childhood disease, research has shown that more adults are getting infected by leukaemia everyday.

Though smoking is considered a risk factor, most people who smoke have not got leukaemia and most of the patients are non-smokers. Main symptom for leukaemia is damage of bone marrow and replacing with high number of immature white blood cells reducing the number of platelets thus patients may be bruised and bleed a lot. It may also lead to suppression of white blood cells or making them dysfunctional thus making them start attacking other body cells. Red blood cells deficiency leads to anaemia. For purposes of diagnosis bone marrow test and blood test need to be done. Bone and joint pain are symptoms for acute leukaemia.

Chemotherapy is one of the treatment methods of leukaemia. It’s a long process and usually takes a longer time of not less than two years. Another way would be dealing with the bone marrow problem .This process is too expensive and requires sophisticated equipments thus it’s only done in a few countries. Leukaemia can also be treated by use of steroids, radiation therapy or a combination of these three.

An alternative for cancer treatment may involve use of green tea. The products have to be caffeine free and you can also prepare tea from leaves of these herbs. Milk thistle seed standardized extract can be used for detoxification.

Apart from the treatments involved, it’s also advisable to eat a well balanced diet to compliment the treatment. A good exercise regime will also improve the results from treatment. Avoid doing strenuous exercise as they will deplete most of your energy reserves.

Like treatment for all other diseases, leukaemia treatment can also have side effects leading to complications in your body .Therefore, you are advised to be extremely observant and report any abnormal alterations in your body functioning to your physician. This will enable the physician to make timely changes to the regime until it suits you.

Above all support groups will be essential to boost your self esteem. It gives you a sense of belonging. However, support groups should not replace professional psychological services.

Causes of Leukemia

  By Robert | October 8, 2011 - 8:21 am | Causes Leave a comment

The word leukemia comes from two Greek words combined to mean white blood cell. It is cancer of the blood. The main function of white blood cells is to prevent the body from any infection .Leukemia leads to excessive production of white blood cells called leucocytes .The number of platelets is reduced drastically thus leading to poor blood clotting and also reduced immunity.

Some of the most common symptoms for leukemia include body fever, not wanting to engage in strenuous activities among others. If the leucocytes accumulate in high numbers in the cerebrospinal fluid then this can result in a headache.

Just like any other cancer, leukemia’s most suspected causal argent is smoking .How ever most of the patients are not smokers and most smokers don’t get leukemia.

These days, many children are seen infected by the cancer. The main reason for these is mainly poor breastfeeding by the mother’s .Lactating mothers in the current error tent to avoid breastfeeding due to career commitments and other personal issues. Due to these, the children have low immunity thus highly susceptible to this disease.

Individuals in developing or industrialized countries are at a high risk of getting leukemia. This is because of the continuous exposure to harmful chemicals and smoke. They inhale benzene, formaldehyde and other harmful gases. Also the exposure to processed foods with preservatives increases the chances of infection.
There are several treatment options for leukemia including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, steroids, and a combination of these among other ways. Green tea can act as an alternative treatment together with milk straws.

To lower the chances of infection, it’s advisable to have a good practice regime while ensuring you have a good diet .Even while on treatment, exercise and good diet can increase the speed of recovery. Like treatment for any other disease, complications and side effects should be expected .For this reason you are required to be very keen while on treatment and report any complications to your physician. This allows the physician to adjust the treatment to your specifications .Acupuncture has in resent times become the most widely used alternative in leukemia therapy. It alleviates symptoms by enhancing immune system, normalize digestion among other things.

Generally the causal argent of leukemia is not really known .Most of the things is those that increase the chances of infection like poor breastfeeding by nursing mothers. However, like many other cancers, its believed that smoking is the main causal argent.

Leukemia Symptons

  By Robert | October 2, 2011 - 10:18 pm | Symptoms Leave a comment

Leukemia is a type of cancer that causes an increase of white blood cells in the blood or bone marrow. Leukemia is a general term that covers an array of diseases. Leukemia have many symptoms but are usually inflicted but are usually shown when the cancer is full grown. The symptoms may cause ; sweating in the night, fevers, abnormal infections, weakness and exhaustion, skin bruises, posterior or gum bleeding, pains in the bones, joints, left side of the stomach, or a left shoulder, swelling lymph nodes in the armpit, neck, or groin, and will be decreased in appetites leading to weight loss because due to the fact they don’t want to eat. In 2000, about 256,000 of adults and children all around the world were diagnosed of some type of leukemia and 81% of them died from it. About 10% of all leukemia are diagnosed in children. Leukemia is divided into a large variety of groups, the first set is Acute leukemia, and chronic leukemia.

Acute leukemia is identified by an accelerated rise of immature blood. A lot of immature blood makes it hard on the bone marrow to generate healthy blood cells. Treatment is required immediately in acute leukemia due to how rapid the progression and accumulation of the malignant cells, which will spill over to the bloodstream and spread to the other organs of the body. Acute leukemia is most common to children.

Chronic leukemia is identified by the limitless build up of mature, but abnormal white cells. Although it takes months or years to develop fully, the cells are made at a much higher rate than normal cells, which results into a lot of abnormal white blood cells in the blood. Even though acute leukemia must be immediately treated, chronic forms are supervised for some time before treatment to guarantee highest capability of therapy. Chronic forms usually occur to older people but can occur to any age group.

There is not one specific cause of leukemia, but the different leukemia have different causes. Like other cancers, result from DNA mutation. Certain mutations can activate leukemia by generating oncogenes or deactivate tumor suppressor genes which will disrupt the management of cell death, differentiation which will result in exposure of radiation carcinogenic substances. For adults, the most common causes are natural and artificial ionizing radiation. Tobacco use is a small increase of the risk of developing acute leukemia in adults. Exposure to some petrochemicals and hair dyes develop some forms of leukemia.