CONTACT DATA:

CONTACT DATA:
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
DoB: 26-Jan-1946
Chepstow, NP16 7LR, Monmouthshire, United Kingdoms.
tel: 01594 - 528 337
on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

All ideas and info. provided here are to be discussed with your medical professionals. I am NOT Medically trained. I have merely had this vile disease since 1998 - always use your Common Sense and seek expert medical advice.
YOU MAY FIND THE LINKS in text and in the Right Sidebar of Help.
I can NOT vouch for any external site that I may direct readers to & therefore can NOT accept any legal responsibility - this is a personal blog of that which I believe only.
I do NOT believe there are magical cures hidden from us by our medical professionals though there are without doubt cases that seem cured as if by magic. Medical knowledge of this disease is very rudimentary and research frequently profligate but pointless!
However - sticking goji berries in your ear on a moonless night or similar WILL NOT HELP - Nor will the price paid for quackery be it here OR Mexico, Brazil or China!
There are many health care professionals trying their very best with great care and compassion but perfection is a little way off!
Be Minded:
I have cancer - cancer does not have me!

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come". - (Julius Caesar - Act II, Scene II).

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Miracles DO Happen - A Smile Does So Much

Miracles DO Happen - A Smile Does So Much 
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Jill Brzezinski-Conley, Breast Cancer Patient, Stars In Stunning Paris Photo Shoot By Sue Bryce (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

The Huffington Post  |  By Posted:   |  Updated: 02/02/2013 5:05 am EST

A beautiful woman twirls in front of the Eiffel Tower, decked out in a pale pink gown that makes her look like she stepped out of a fairytale. She smiles brightly and laughs as she gets her picture taken by Australian portrait photographer of the year Sue Bryce. But this is no ordinary fashion photo shoot.

The "model," Jill Brzezinski-Conley, was diagnosed with breast cancer a day before her 32nd birthday, underwent a double mastectomy -- and now, at 35, has incurable stage-4 breast cancer which has metastasized to her bone. 

In late August, Brzezinski-Conley, who lives with her husband in Kentucky, went to visit her childhood friend Nikki Closser, a wedding photographer in Seattle. "[Nikki] took pictures of me, and I was like, 'Nikki, I want you to take pictures of my breasts so that maybe we can send in the photos to magazines for breast cancer month [in October],'" Brzezinski-Conley told The Huffington Post. "[The media] never shows what breast cancer looks like." 

After the session, Closser emailed the pictures along with Brzezinski-Conley's story to Bryce, whose work she had admired. Inspired, Bryce contacted both women right away and invited Brzezinski-Conley to Skype into a CreativeLIVE workshop where she surprised her with the offer of a photo shoot -- in Paris. Three weeks later, Bryce, Brzezinski-Conley and Closser were off to the City of Light for five days, with a videographer in tow. 

"It was a million times better than what I ever dreamed of," said Brzezinski-Conley. "For the first time, in those five days, I felt like Cinderella. I didn’t feel like a cancer patient. They made me feel like a supermodel, and it was the nicest feeling ... I didn’t want to go back home." 

She hopes that her story -- and the images that accompany it -- will inspire other women to feel good about their bodies, regardless of how they look. She especially hopes that they reach other women in their 20s and 30s who are battling cancer. "I wanted the photo shoot to be for women who look like me, [to show them that] they can still feel sexy and beautiful," Brzezinski-Conley told HuffPost

But she doesn't want the only message she gets across to be about beauty. She's also passionate about educating young women about breast cancer, since she put off seeing a doctor for a year after she noticed that she had an inverted nipple. "If I would’ve known [that] an inverted nipple was a sign of breast cancer, I would've gotten checked up right away," she told HuffPost. "I always wonder if my cancer would have been at a different stage [if I had]." Her advice to young women is simple: "Be educated, learn your body, learn the signs of breast cancer." 

Brzezinski-Conley wants us to start seeing breast cancer instead of just talking about it -- and these personal photos are certainly more memorable than a pink ribbon.

To view the original article CLICK HERE

Here is the comment I left to encourage others and show there is hope:
Hi,

there is hope:

I presented with cancer symptoms in Nov-1998!
I had Kidney Cancer!
I have had a radical nephrectomy
Bladder Cancer
Tumours in the abdomen.
In April 2011 my oncology consultant said he did not believe I could expect to live much past June or July!
As it promised pain care and hands on attention - NOT a realistic chance of cure - I opted for high dosage chemo and after that high level Radio therapy.

I'm still here and was declared cancer free for the first time in 13 years 18 months ago.


My scans last Thursday still show me cancer free.


Never forget YOU may have cancer but NEVER let cancer have YOU!

Sh*t happens but that is NEVER an excuse to roll in it.

Congratulations to Jill as if one has one day, one week, one month, one year or an entire lifetime left to you there is no excuse for self pity and no reason to be miserable - leave your family, your friends and the world with an image of your smile!


See: http://bit.ly/KUxR5h


Good luck Jill.

Regards,
Greg_L-W.

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& Publicise My Blogs 
To Spread The Facts World Wide
of
OUR-ENEMY-WITHIN

&
To Leave-The-EU
 

 .
 Please Be Sure To
My Blogs
To Spread The Facts World Wide To Give Others HOPE
I Have Been Fighting Cancer since 1997 & I'M STILL HERE!
I Have Cancer, Cancer Does NOT Have Me

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!
Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.
I do make a lousy patient!
.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar.
.
You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
 .
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way. .

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
tel: 01594 – 528 337
Accuracy & Copyright Statement: CLICK HERE
Summary, archive, facts & comments on UKIP: http://UKIP-vs-EUkip.com
DO MAKE USE of LINKS & >Right Side Bar< & The Top Bar >PAGES<
Also:
Details & Links: http://GregLanceWatkins.com
UKIP Its ASSOCIATES & DETAILS: CLICK HERE
Views I almost Totally Share: CLICK HERE
General Stuff archive: http://gl-w.blogspot.com
General Stuff ongoing: http://gl-w.com
Health Blog.: http://GregLW.blogspot.com
TWITTER: Greg_LW
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Saturday, 22 December 2012

Cryoablation can freeze out Kidney Cancer

Cryoablation can freeze out Kidney Cancer
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The icy blast using freezing gas that kills off kidney cancer without the need for surgery

  • Cryoablation freezes and destroys the cancer using argon gas passed to the tumour tissue through fine needles in the patient's skin
  • No surgery is needed and patients can leave hospital the next day
  • Suitable for patients with tumours less than 2in in diameter or for those where surgery is considered too risky
By Alice Grebot
|
 
 A remarkable procedure that uses freezing gas to destroy kidney cancers is offering hope to the 8,000 Britons diagnosed with the disease each year. The technique means no stitches, just an overnight hospital stay, and faster recovery times than traditional surgery. 
 
Kidney tumours are usually treated through open or keyhole surgery, with either the kidney, or a portion containing the tumour, removed.
 
With cryoablation, however, there are no large incisions. Instead, extreme cold temperatures are used to effectively freeze, and therefore kill, the cancerous cells.
How it works: Argon gas is pumped through tiny needles to freeze and destroy the tumour
How it works: Argon gas is pumped through tiny needles to freeze and destroy the tumour
During the procedure, a number of fine hollow needles are placed directly through a patient’s skin into the tumour tissue, through which argon gas is then passed. This freezes and then destroys the cancer.
 
Patients usually leave hospital the next day and are able to return to work a week later. Other advantages include reduced risk of bleeding and infection, and limited damage to surrounding healthy kidney tissue.
 
It is suitable for patients whose tumours are less than 2in in diameter or for those where surgery is considered too risky. 
 
Cryoablation can also be used to treat tumours of the bone and prostate. 

It is a technique within interventional radiology, which  uses image-guidance – CT, ultrasound or MRI scans – in a similar way to  X-rays, allowing doctors to view inside the body and target treatments. ‘The idea behind interventional  radiology is to treat patients in the least invasive way possible,’ says Dr David Breen, consultant abdominal radiologist at the University Hospital of Southampton. 
 
‘It offers a new area of treatments for cancer, as well as other conditions. Scanners are identifying cancers at ever earlier stages, so, in some cases, we’re able do less invasive procedures and avoid the need for surgery.’
Speedy recovery: Patients who undergo cryoablation can usually leave hospital the following day
Speedy recovery: Patients who undergo cryoablation can usually leave hospital the following day
According to Dr Breen, cryoablation itself isn’t new; it has been used for some years, often in conjunction with keyhole surgery. What is new, he says, is the fact it can now be performed with the needles, also known as probes, being put directly through a patient’s skin. ‘It’s part of a growing trend towards less invasive procedures for small cancers,’ he says. ‘Results are outstanding and data indicates ablation may be equally effective as surgery for these small kidney tumours.’ 
 
Dr Breen performs the cryoablation procedure with patients under general anaesthetic. ‘Using the CT scanner to produce an image of the tumour, four or five probes are inserted,’ he says. ‘These needles are thinner than a pencil lead. Gas is passed through the probes, which makes the tips of the needles extremely cold – minus 150C. This generates ice around the probes to freeze and kill the tumour. 
 
‘The process takes 30 minutes, during which we can see the ice growing on the CT scan and enveloping the tumour.’ Afterwards, the dead tissue withers away and is broken down over time. The procedure has negligible effects on kidney function.
 
In January, Danielle Norman, 33, from Southampton, underwent the procedure, after being diagnosed with a cancerous kidney tumour. ‘The recovery time of six weeks associated with normal surgery wasn’t possible for me, as I have two children, Niamh, seven, and Aedan, two,’ says Danielle. 

‘I was referred to Dr Breen. I was a little sceptical, as the tumour isn’t actually removed, but he was very reassuring.’
 
Danielle underwent the procedure on January 24 and was back at home the next day. ‘I was a little sore but within a week it was as if nothing had happened.’ Danielle has a few tiny scars where the probes went in. Her follow-up scans show a good outcome. ‘At a scan in August, the doctors said they can see the tumour is shrinking, which is great,’ she says.

To read the original article CLICK HERE
 .
 .
 Please Be Sure To
My Blogs
To Spread The Facts World Wide To Give Others HOPE
I Have Been Fighting Cancer since 1997 & I'M STILL HERE!
I Have Cancer, Cancer Does NOT Have Me

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!
Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.
I do make a lousy patient!
.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar.
.
You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
 .
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way. .

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
tel: 01594 – 528 337
Accuracy & Copyright Statement: CLICK HERE
Summary, archive, facts & comments on UKIP: http://UKIP-vs-EUkip.com
DO MAKE USE of LINKS & >Right Side Bar< & The Top Bar >PAGES<
Also:
Details & Links: http://GregLanceWatkins.com
UKIP Its ASSOCIATES & DETAILS: CLICK HERE
Views I almost Totally Share: CLICK HERE
General Stuff archive: http://gl-w.blogspot.com
General Stuff ongoing: http://gl-w.com
Health Blog.: http://GregLW.blogspot.com
TWITTER: Greg_LW
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Wednesday, 19 December 2012

The Story of Mets! How Does Kidney Cancer Spread?

The Story of Mets! How Does Kidney Cancer Spread? 
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New Findings Clarify How Kidney Cancer Spreads to Distant Organs


By Eva Kiesler, PhD, Science Writer/Editor  |  Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Pictured: X-ray Image 
This X-ray image shows metastatic bone tumors in a mouse with kidney cancer. The metastatic tumors appear as hollow or dark areas in the bones.
Metastasis, the process by which some tumors spread from their site of origin to other body parts, accounts for more than nine out of ten cancer-related deaths. But scientists still know relatively little about the genes and biological processes that cause metastasis to occur — information that potentially could translate into new ways to stop cancers from reaching advanced or terminal stages.
Now a Memorial Sloan-Kettering research team has shed light on the mechanisms by which kidney cancer metastasizes to distant organs, including the lungs, bone, and brain. Published in the journal Nature Medicine in December, the findings point to potential therapeutic strategies to control the spread of the disease. The study also offers scientific insights that could advance metastasis research in other cancer types.

Focusing on Kidney Cancer

The research was led by cancer biologist Joan Massagué, Chair of the Sloan-Kettering Institute’s Cancer Biology and Genetics Program and Director of the Metastasis Research Center. In recent years, his laboratory has uncovered basic causes of metastasis in a number of cancer types, including breast and lung cancers.
“In this study, we focused on clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common subtype of kidney cancer, for which there is an urgent need for more-effective therapies,” says postdoctoral fellow Sakari Vanharanta, the first author of the Nature Medicine report. “The metastatic form of this disease is almost always incurable.”
In the vast majority of patients, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) tumors carry DNA changes in a gene called VHL. These mutations have been shown to cause the formation of primary kidney tumors, but they do not necessarily lead to metastasis. Until recently, researchers did not know what makes some renal cell carcinoma cells capable of forming secondary tumors in distant organs.

New Potential Drug Targets

In the recent study, the team addressed this question by performing experiments in mouse models and cell lines, and by analyzing biological and clinical data from more than 700 patients with ccRCC, whose tumors had been analyzed in large-scale cancer genomics projects.
They discovered that two genes called CYTIP and CXCR4 are activated in metastatic tumor cells but inactive in non-metastatic cells. Their experiments suggest that the activation of the two genes might be essential for the spread of kidney cancer.
CXCR4 has been linked to metastasis before in this and other tumor types, including breast cancer,” Dr. Vanharanta says. “Now, our study shows that blocking CXCR4 function with a drug called plerixafor can reduce kidney cancer metastasis in mice.” Plerixafor (MozobilTM) is currently used to stimulate blood stem cells in some cancer patients treated by bone marrow transplantation.
The researchers plan to investigate further whether CXCR4 and CYTIP, and other genes identified in the study, might offer new targets for the development of more-effective drugs for kidney cancer.

Exploring the Epigenetics of Metastasis

In addition, the investigators explored the mechanisms by which the CXCR4 and CYTIP genes are switched on in kidney cancer cells to incite metastasis. Their study revealed that the genes undergo a series of epigenetic changes — modifications in the proteins that package a cell’s DNA and regulate genes.
Unlike gene mutations, which alter a cell’s genetic code, epigenetic changes leave the DNA sequence unaffected. Nevertheless, such changes can influence a cell’s behavior by switching individual genes on or off.
Epigenetic modifications are commonly seen in many types of cancer and have recently been associated with more-advanced disease. However, little is known about the specific genes and mechanisms by which tumor cells may reconfigure their epigenetic makeup, causing a person’s disease to progress and establish itself in new organs.
“Our study has demonstrated with clear examples how epigenetic alterations can lead to the activation of metastasis-inducing genes,” Dr. Vanharanta notes. “This is a conceptual advancement that is likely to help us understand how metastasis occurs in kidney cancer as well as in other cancer types.”

To view the original of this article CLICK HERE 
.
 Please Be Sure To
My Blogs
To Spread The Facts World Wide To Give Others HOPE
I Have Been Fighting Cancer since 1997 & I'M STILL HERE!
I Have Cancer, Cancer Does NOT Have Me
I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!
Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.
I do make a lousy patient!
. If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms in 1998, see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
 Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar.

You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
 .
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way. .
Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
tel: 01594 - 528 337
on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com
TWITTER: Greg_LW
Health/Cancer Blog: http://GregLW.blogspot.com  

Friday, 23 November 2012

And for a change A HEART ATTACK!

And for a change A HEART ATTACK! 
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Hi,
 
my postings and attention have been a little distracted, for which I apologise, in view of the fact that I have been a tad busy over the last week testing the facilities of The NHS, yet again, by having a heart attack in my sleep last Monday morning (19-Nov-2012), believed to be a result of familial heredity, many years of smoking good cigars, years of excellent living and 14 years of 24/7 stress combating and defeating cancer!
http://www.skeletonsandmore.com/securecart/images/1587798433.jpg
 
Despite 8/8 occlusion of the right coronary artery and an enlarged aorta I believe the NHS is glad to see me sufficiently recovered to be discharged in the light of the endless flow of visitors! (thanks for the support to all my friends who were able to make it and to those who provided such formidable support to Lee and those too distant who sent cards and constantly phoned messages of support).
 
Back at home I have taken some time in catching up with the vagaries and stupidities of UKIP leadership and their foolish willingness to preen in faux praise like performing monkeys and small children and my web site and blog at http://UKIP-vsEUkip.com I will endeavour to catch up with the info on this blog when time permits.
 .
 Please Be Sure To
My Blogs
To Spread The Facts World Wide To Give Others HOPE
I Have Been Fighting Cancer since 1997 & I'M STILL HERE!
I Have Cancer, Cancer Does NOT Have Me

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!
Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.
I do make a lousy patient!
.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way. .

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
tel: 01594 - 528 337
on: http://GregLanceWatkins.com
TWITTER: Greg_LW  
Health/Cancer Blog: http://GregLW.blogspot.com  

Sunday, 14 October 2012

The Future for Cancer Detection!?

The Future for Cancer Detection!?
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A Faster, Cheaper Way to Detect Cancer:

Never mind that Jack Andraka is 15 years-old, and likes cracking jokes about “sneaking research papers into my high-school biology class.”

Using nothing but Wikipedia, Google, and spare parts he bought at a Home Depot, the winner of Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair created a paper test strip that can detect harmful viruses and antigens based on changes in conductivity—a method that’s way more efficient than current models.

“Compared with the 60-year-old diagnostic technique called enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (or ELISA),” Forbes reported earlier this year, “Andraka’s sensor is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive, and 400 times more sensitive…

This could save the lives of thousands of pancreatic cancer victims each year.”


 .
 Please Be Sure To
My Blogs
To Spread The Facts World Wide To Give Others HOPE
I Have Been Fighting Cancer since 1997 & I'M STILL HERE!
I Have Cancer, Cancer Does NOT Have Me

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!
Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.
I do make a lousy patient!

. If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way. .


Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
tel: 01594 - 528 337
on: http://GregLanceWatkins.com  
TWITTER: Greg_LW  
Health/Cancer Blog: http://GregLW.blogspot.com  
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Friday, 17 August 2012

Treating The Whole Person!

Treating The Whole Person!
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Hi,

scientists have proudly announced their ability to store data on DNA and that within 10 years one gram of DNA would be capable of storing 7 Billion x 64GB of data - wow won't that be usefull, then all they need is to work out how to retrieve it!

In the meantime actual steps towards a totally new approach to medicine in the most holistic form imaginable seem to be the way forward not just holistic but 'whole-istic'!

This seems much more valuable to me than storing endless data, when it seems most data gathered confidentially is merely used by our burgeoning police state style authorities! Or put on lap tops, hard drives, CDs or the like and left in taxis or on trains!

However we could find care of our bio system internally will solve many of mankind's illnesses and diseases!

Modern medicine

Microbes maketh man

People are not just people. They are an awful lot of microbes, too

POLITICAL revolutionaries turn the world upside down. Scientific ones more often turn it inside out. And that, almost literally, is happening to the idea of what, biologically speaking, a human being is.

The traditional view is that a human body is a collection of 10 trillion cells which are themselves the products of 23,000 genes. If the revolutionaries are correct, these numbers radically underestimate the truth. 

For in the nooks and crannies of every human being, and especially in his or her guts, dwells the microbiome: 100 trillion bacteria of several hundred species bearing 3m non-human genes. The biological Robespierres believe these should count, too; that humans are not single organisms, but superorganisms made up of lots of smaller organisms working together.
It might sound perverse to claim bacterial cells and genes as part of the body, but the revolutionary case is a good one. For the bugs are neither parasites nor passengers. They are, rather, fully paid-up members of a community of which the human “host” is but a single (if dominating) member. This view is increasingly popular: the world’s leading scientific journals, Nature and Science, have both reviewed it extensively in recent months. It is also important: it will help the science and practice of medicine (see article).

All in this together

The microbiome does many jobs in exchange for the raw materials and shelter its host provides. One is to feed people more than 10% of their daily calories. These are derived from plant carbohydrates that human enzymes are unable to break down. And not just plant carbohydrates. Mother’s milk contains carbohydrates called glycans which human enzymes cannot digest, but bacterial ones can.

This alone shows how closely host and microbiome have co-evolved over the years. But digestion is not the only nutritional service provided. The microbiome also makes vitamins, notably B2, B12 and folic acid. It is, moreover, capable of adjusting its output to its host’s needs and diet. The microbiomes of babies make more folic acid than do those of adults. And microbiomes in vitamin-hungry places like Malawi and rural Venezuela turn out more of these chemicals than do those in the guts of North Americans.

The microbiome also maintains the host’s health by keeping hostile interlopers at bay. An alien bug that causes diarrhoea, for instance, is as much an enemy of the microbiome as of the host. 

Both have an interest in zapping it. And both contribute to the task. Host and microbiome, then, are allies. But there is more to it than that. For the latest research shows their physiologies are linked in ways which make the idea of a human superorganism more than just a rhetorical flourish.

These links are most visible when they go wrong. 

A disrupted microbiome has been associated with a lengthening list of problems: obesity and its opposite, malnutrition; diabetes (both type-1 and type-2); atherosclerosis and heart disease; multiple sclerosis; asthma and eczema; liver disease; numerous diseases of the intestines, including bowel cancer; and autism. The details are often obscure, but in some cases it looks as if bugs are making molecules that help regulate the activities of human cells. If these signals go wrong, disease is the consequence. 

This matters because it suggests doctors have been looking in the wrong place for explanations of these diseases. It also suggests a whole new avenue for treatment. If an upset microbiome causes illness, settling it down might effect a cure.

Yogurt companies and health-food fanatics have been banging this drum for years. And in the case of at least one malady, irritable-bowel syndrome, they are right. So-called probiotics, a mixture of about half a dozen bacterial species found in yogurt, do act to calm this condition. But there is little evidence that consuming probiotics has the tonic effect on healthy people that certain adverts suggest.

A handful of doctors are taking a more fundamental approach to another microbiome-related disease, infection with Clostridium difficile. This bacterium, which causes life-threatening distension of the gut in some people who have been treated with antibiotics and thus had their microbiomes disrupted, is a bane of hospitals. It kills 14,000 people a year in America alone. 

But recent experiments have shown it can be eliminated by introducing, as an enema, the faeces of a healthy individual. “Stool transplants” are a pretty crude approach, to be sure, but the crucial point is that microbes are much easier to manipulate than human cells. For all the talk of superorganisms (and despite the yuck factor of what is being moved from one body to another), transplanting a microbiome is far easier than transplanting a heart or a kidney.

Disgusting but useful

Two other areas look promising. 

One is more sophisticated deployment of the humble antibiotic, arguably the pharma industry’s most effective invention. At the moment antibiotics are used mainly to kill infections. In the future they might have a more subtle use—to manipulate the mix of bugs within a human, so that good bugs spread at the expense of bad ones.

The other field that may be changed is genetics. Many of the diseases in which the microbiome is implicated seem to run in families. In some, such as heart disease, that is partly explained by known human genes. In a lot, though, most notably autism, the genetic link is obscure. 

This may be because geneticists have been looking at the wrong set of genes—the 23,000 rather than the 3m. For those 3m are still inherited. They are largely picked up from your mother during the messy process of birth. Though no clear example is yet known, it is possible that particular disease-inducing strains are being passed down the generations in this way.

As with all such upheavals, it is unclear where the microbiome revolution will end up. Doctors and biologists may truly come to think of people as superorganisms. Then again, they may not. What is clear, though, is that turning thinking inside out in this way is yielding new insights into seemingly intractable medical problems, and there is a good chance cures will follow. Vive la révolution!
To view the original article CLICK HERE
 .
 Please Be Sure To
My Blogs
To Spread The Facts World Wide To Give Others HOPE
I Have Been Fighting Cancer since 1997 & I'M STILL HERE!
I Have Cancer, Cancer Does NOT Have Me
I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!
Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.
I do make a lousy patient!
.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
 .
Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
tel: 01594 - 528 337
on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com
TWITTER: Greg_LW
Health/Cancer Blog: http://GregLW.blogspot.com  
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Sunday, 3 June 2012

The First Sunday in June - Cancer Survivors Day

The First Sunday in June - Cancer Survivors Day
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Hi,

were YOU aware that:
The First Sunday in June is
National Cancer Survivors Day
http://wjltevansville.com/files/2011/06/national-cancer-survivors-day.jpg
Those of us who have been fortunate enough to survive cancer should honour this day with our thanks to our medical teams and those who have supported us but must never forget those wjho have been less fortunate and most of all those they have left behind to grieve and suffer their loss.


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 Please Be Sure To
My Blogs
To Spread The Facts World Wide To Give Others HOPE
I Have Been Fighting Cancer since 1997 & I'M STILL HERE!
I Have Cancer, Cancer Does NOT Have Me

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!
Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.
I do make a lousy patient!
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If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
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Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
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YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
tel: 01594 - 528 337
on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com TWITTER: Greg_LW Health/Cancer Blog: http://GregLW.blogspot.com  
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