Июль 20th, 2011 -- Posted in Без рубрики |
Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection (STD), that caused by Chlamydia trachomatis which is a unique organism. Chlamydiae live inside the living cell as viruses, but their structure is similar to the bacteria. Because of the dual nature of Сhlamydiae and the ability to parasitize intracellularly chlamydia is extremely difficult to cure.
According to WHO, chlamydia is one of the most common STD worldwide. Every year almost 90 million people infected with chlamydia in the world.
The cycle of Chlamydia trachomatis continues for two days, but in that period they are very sensitive to antibiotics, chemotherapy, ultraviolet rays, and high temperatures.
Chlamydial infection is sexually transmitted. After casual sex chlamydia detected in 50% of women and 60% of men, although a single contact with a patient with chlamydia does not always lead to infection in the partner. The mechanism of transmission of chlamydia is realized with genital-genital, genital-anal and genital-oral sex. Persons aged 17 to 35 years are in the risk group of reproductive tract infections caused by chlamydia. Unsexual route of transmission of chlamydial infection (through infected arms, clothes) considered as irrelevant.
Chlamydia is the cause of diseases of the urogenital tract: cystitis, urethritis, cervicitis, erosion, vulvovaginitis, prostatitis, endometritis, epididymitis, coleitis, orchitis, parauretritis, vulvitis, salpingitis, salpingo-oophoritis. Also chlamydial urogenital infection associated with diseases of eyes, joints, respiratory lesions. Chlamydia is also a frequent cause of arthritis, and even disorders of the cardiovascular system.
Апрель 2nd, 2011 -- Posted in prostate, prostate cancer, Testosterone |
The Daily Express reports that a “new treatment for prostate cancer has cut the risk of dying by half”. It said that “six months of the hormone therapy……is all that is needed”, and the benefits continue for 10 years.
The trial in question did not look at androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) alone. It provided either three or six months of ADT before and around the time that the men received radiotherapy (a schedule of delivery referred to as neoadjuvant therapy), and compared this with radiotherapy alone. It found that six months of neoadjuvant ADT reduced the chances of men dying from prostate cancer over 10 years of follow-up. But three months of neoadjuvant ADT only significantly improved some outcomes, though not deaths from prostate cancer.
The study used a robust design, and its results indicate that six months of ADT before radiotherapy is beneficial in men with locally advanced prostate cancer. However, as the study started more than a decade ago, it used a lower dose of radiation than is currently used, which may affect whether these findings can be generalised.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines already suggest that men with locally advanced prostate cancer should be offered 3–6 months of this type of neoadjuvant therapy (luteinising hormone-releasing hormone agonist therapy) before and while receiving radiotherapy.
Where did the story come from?
The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Newcastle in Australia and other research centres in Australia and New Zealand. It was funded by the Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council, Hunter Medical Research Institute, and the manufacturers of the two drugs used in the trial (AstraZeneca and Schering-Plough).
The study was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet.
This story was covered by the DailyExpress, Daily Mail, and The Daily Telegraph. Although the reports generally convey the main findings of the trial, there are some potentially misleading statements.
The Daily Mail suggests that “just six months of the treatment could cure in many cases”, but as the study followed people for just 10 years, it is difficult to say how many of them will remain free of cancer in their lifetimes.
The Express suggests that this hormonal treatment is “all that is needed”, but it is actually given alongside radiotherapy. Also, it is not possible to say from the trial whether longer treatment would increase benefits further.
The Telegraph suggests that the hormonal therapy is given “before and after radiotherapy”, whereas it was given before, with a one-month overlap with the start of radiotherapy.
What kind of research was this?
This was a long-term (10-year) follow-up of a randomised controlled trial looking at the effectiveness of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) given before radiotherapy for locally advanced prostate cancer. The earlier, five-year results of this trial (the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group [TROG] 96.01 trial) suggested that six months of ADT reduced metastases and deaths from prostate cancer.
This study design is the most appropriate way of testing whether a new or modified treatment is better than the current standard treatment, as it is the best way of ensuring that the only difference between the groups is the treatment received.
What did the research involve?
The researchers compared three treatments for locally advanced prostate cancer in 818 men aged 41 to 87 years old.
radiotherapy alone
three months of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) plus radiotherapy
six months ADT plus radiotherapy
Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of these treatments and were then followed up for 10 years to observe their outcomes. This type of treatment, where ADT is delivered before and alongside radiotherapy, is called neoadjuvant androgen deprivation therapy (NADT). ADT can also be used for relapses after radiotherapy, though this was not studied in this trial.
Men who had other significant medical illnesses were not eligible to take part, nor men who had previous malignancies or metastases. NADT consisted of two drugs called goserelin (3.6mg given as an injection under the skin once a month) and flutamide (250mg pill given orally three times a day). The group who received three months of NADT started this treatment two months before radiation started. The group who received six months of NADT started this treatment five months before radiation started. All groups received radiation according to the same treatment schedule.
The researchers enrolled 818 men between 1996 and 2000. After 10 years of follow-up, 802 men were available for analysis. After they had received radiotherapy, the men had been assessed every four months for the first two years, then every six months for the next three years. After this, men with no signs of cancer were followed-up annually.
At each visit, the men had a digital rectal examination, and their serum PSA levels were measured (a biochemical marker that is used to monitor prostate cancer recurrence). Men who had signs or symptoms that their cancer might be returning had further investigations as appropriate, such as biopsies and CT scans. If prostate cancer did reoccur, their doctor could offer whatever treatment was appropriate.
The researchers were mainly interested in whether the treatment affected the proportion of men who died from prostate cancer or the proportion who died from any cause. They were also interested in the proportion of men whose PSA levels indicated progression of the disease, who had local progression of their prostate cancer, spread of their cancer elsewhere in the body (distant progression), or needed further treatment, and the length of time the men survived without any of these disease events.
In their analyses, the researchers took into account each participant’s age, initial level of PSA, and the stage of their cancer at the start of the study.
What were the basic results?
During follow-up, there were 334 deaths, of which 159 were due to prostate cancer. There were 33 deaths from prostate cancer in the six-month NADT plus radiotherapy group (11.4%). There were 56 deaths in the three-month NADT plus radiotherapy group (18.9%), and 70 deaths in the radiotherapy alone group (22.0%).
The researchers found that having six months of NADT before radiotherapy reduced the likelihood of men dying from prostate cancer during the 10 years of follow-up, but three months of NADT did not have this effect. The risk of death from prostate cancer during follow-up was 51% lower with six months of NADT plus radiotherapy than with radiotherapy alone (hazard ratio [HR] 0.49, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.31 to 0.76).
Compared to men who received radiotherapy alone, men who received six months of NADT plus radiotherapy were also less likely to die from any cause during follow-up (HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.83), or to experience any disease progression event during follow-up (HR 0.51, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.61). Three months of NADT plus radiotherapy did not reduce the risk of death from any cause, or of distant progression of the disease compared with radiotherapy alone. But it did reduce the risk of local progression and the risk of having PSA levels that indicated progression of the disease.
Side effects of NADT were reported to be temporary and only occurred during the NADT treatment, not after. NADT did not appear to exacerbate the adverse effects associated with radiotherapy.
How did the researchers interpret the results?
The researchers concluded that “six months of neoadjuvant androgen deprivation combined radiotherapy is an effective treatment option for locally advanced prostate cancer”.
Conclusion
This long-term follow-up of the TROG 96.01 trial found that having six months of androgen deprivation therapy (goserelin plus flutamide) before radiotherapy reduces the 10-year risk of death among men with locally advanced prostate cancer. The study has a robust design, and it assessed important clinical outcomes – such as the risk of death from prostate cancer – rather than just intermediate outcomes, such as reductions in PSA levels that were the main beneficial outcomes in the previous five-year report of this trial.
One limitation noted by the authors is that the dose of radiotherapy used in their study (66 Gy), which was initiated over a decade ago, was low by modern standards. They say that this increase in radiation dose may have contributed to the improved progression-free survival in men with prostate cancer observed over time. This study cannot prove that NADT would be beneficial when added to a higher dose of radiation. However, this would seem likely, considering the size of the benefit from NADT. The authors also carried out some computer simulations suggesting that six months of ADT might still be beneficial in this context.
This study has helped to resolve some questions about the scheduling and duration of existing ADT treatments. It does not describe a new treatment as suggested by the press, but an alternative way of delivering existing therapy.
Information
This article was originally published by NHS Choices
Июнь 21st, 2010 -- Posted in diets |
Swedish researches reported that only a small number of men who are diagnosed within the early stages of prostate cancer actually die from the disease, even if they have not been treated. This cancer study concluded that even after ten years of dealing with prostate cancer, less than three percent of the victims actually die. This demonstrates the need to remain calm when you have been diagnosed with this low-risk form of cancer.
Cancer researcher Grace Lu-Yao states that there is no real need to panic because prostate cancer is no longer believed to be a fatal disease. Modern prostate screening tests have demonstrated that several forms of prostate cancers are found to never actually develop into a serious disease; thus a removal of the prostate or treatment with radiation may not recommended as they may contain harsh side effects that are far worse than the actual disease itself.
One such study was conducted to track men under the age of seventy years old. After eight years, nearly twenty percent of these men had died; however this number was about the same as those who were not diagnosed with the disease. The final conclusion of the test states that nearly 2.4% of men with this low-risk form of cancer would actually die from the disease within a ten year time period if they did not under go treatment. It is not yet clear how much of a variation this number is from those who had undergone treatment.
Moreover, the usual things, more products, you can beat prostate cancer and stop its development.
As shown by the opening of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, useful antioxidants in red wine and green tea have a combining effect against important cell signaling SphK1/S1P, necessary for tumor growth.
This signaling pathway plays a major role in other cancers such as colon cancer, breast cancer and gastric cancer. It is proved that the compounds in the studied drinks destroy this way and thus serve as an important step forward in the development of anticancer drugs, say U.S. oncologists.
Scientists have conducted laboratory experiments which showed that the path SphK1/S1P a target of polyphenols in the tea and wine, to kill cancer cells in the prostate. Studies conducted on mice with artificially induced, and tumor development, which was given polyphenols extracted from beverages. It was found that the polyphenols reduced tumor growth by blocking the path SphK1/S1P. To mimic the preventive effects of polyphenols, was carried out another experiment using three groups of mice that drank either plain water or water with compounds EGCG in green tea, or with another component of tea called polifenon E. prostate cancer cells were implanted into the body of experimental animals. According to the results, tumor size decreased sharply from those of mice that received EGCG or medicine with polifenonom E.
Июнь 3rd, 2010 -- Posted in diets, herbs |
Pickled cucumbers are the national Russian dishes. Very tasty and healthy men. Russian witch has long recommended salted cucumbers for the treatment of prostatitis, to increase male power. Recipes salting greatest of many and some clever that it is very hard for a delicious salted cucumbers, urged to adhere strictly to the recipe. However, nothing in it is not difficult if you stick to the classic Russian recipe. And cucumbers are crisp and the taste is excellent and the brine in the morning in handy!
Products
1. Cucumbers. It’s small size is desirable. The smaller the better a little more gherkins – up to 12 centimeters long.
2. Salt
3. The roots of horseradish, preferably dried – a key ingredient in the classic Russian recipe for pickled cucumbers. Roots do not give damn spoiled pickle, mustard and excellent taste. You can take a thin roots of horseradish, and if not cut along the usual
4. Garlic is a cost of 3 shares for 1 kilogram of cucumbers.
5. Pepper, dried dill, or a simple, tarragon and other herbs to taste, parsley root can.
Preparation:
1. Cucumber Wash, stand in a pot of cold water for 2-3 hours, if gorchat, then more.
2. Water poured off the tips of cucumber crop it and add in a container, where they will add salt. Capacity can be enameled saucepan, 3-liter jar, wooden barrel, etc. May pass dry dill, greens and horseradish root. Fuck little does not happen! There is a royal ambassador cucumbers when they solyatsya not in brine, and completely in the hammer horseradish root – but more on that later on.
3. Prepare brine. Boil water, add salt to taste 20 to 80 grams per liter. This is from 1 to 4 tablespoons of salt without slides. I throw the 2 tablespoons per liter. Can 3. Add the pepper there. All boiling for 10 minutes. Liter of brine consumed per kilogram of cucumbers. You can make a concentrated brine and dilute its already boiled water.
4. Brine is cool, fill with cucumbers – a day salted cucumbers are ready.
The peculiarity of this Russian recipe as I mentioned – this is hell. It was his presence will not allow mold to begin spoiled pickle cucumbers and yet you do not eat, will be crisp. and in the same brine can be reused pickle cucumbers. By adding a little salt and a little horseradish. And in the morning so the brine is also good, especially from the refrigerator. In some villages in the Kuban region is well prepared so far. Sometimes the leaves and add (or bark) oak. Then cucumbers obtained firmer. But these amateur – oak also has its own flavor and taste spicy.
