Lung Cancer

Lung cancer starts when abnormal cells grow out of control in the lung. They can invade nearby tissues and form tumors. Lung cancer can start anywhere in the lungs and affect any part of the respirotory system. The cancer cells can spread, or metastasize, to the lymph nodes and other parts of the body.

What causes lung cancer
Most lung cancer is caused by smoking. Secondhand smoke also can cause lung cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths.
Being exposed to arsenic, asbestos, radioactive dust, or radon can increase your chances of getting lung cancer. People who are exposed to radiation at work or elsewhere have a higher chance of getting lung cancer.


What are the symptoms?

Early lung cancer doesn't usually cause any symptoms. This is why it's not usually found early.
In its advanced stage, cancer may affect how your lungs work. The first signs of lung cancer may include:
=) Coughing.
=) Wheezing.
=) Feeling short of breath.
=) Having blood in any mucus that you cough up.


If you have these symptoms and are worried about lung cancer, call your doctor.
Lung cancer may spread to the chest and then to other parts of the body. For example, if it spreads to the spine or bones, it may cause pain in the back or other bones or weakness in the arms or legs. If it spreads to the brain, it may cause seizures, headaches, or vision changes.


How is lung cancer diagnosed?

Your doctor will check your symptoms and ask questions about whether you smoke or have been exposed to another person's smoke or to any cancer-causing substances. He or she will also ask about your medical history, including any history of cancer in your family. This information will help your doctor decide how likely it is that you have lung cancer and whether you need tests to be sure.
Lung cancer is usually first found on a chest X-ray or a CT scan. More tests are done to find out what kind of cancer cells you have and whether they have spread beyond your lung. These tests help determine what stage the cancer is in. The stage is a rating to measure how big the cancer is and how far it has spread.


How is it treated?

Treatment for lung cancer includes surgery, anti-cancer medicines (chemotherapy), radiation, or a mix of all three. It depends on what type of cancer you have and how much it has spread.
Few lung cancers are found in the early stages when treatment is most effective.
It can be very scary to learn that you may have lung cancer. Talking with your doctor or joining a support group may help you deal with your feelings. It can help if you have lots of support from family and friends. Staying as active as possible will also help.
Less than half of people who get lung cancer live 1 more year after the cancer is found. And only about 15 out of every 100 people with lung cancer live for 5 or more years.It’s important to remember that everyone’s case is different and that these numbers may not show what will happen in your case.


Can you prevent lung cancer?

Lung cancer is one of the easiest cancers to prevent, because most lung cancer is caused by smoking. So it is important to stop smoking—or to stop being around someone else’s smoke.
Even if you have smoked a long time, quitting can lower your chances of getting cancer. If you already have lung cancer, quitting makes your treatment work better and can help you live longer.

Acupuncture is a technique of inserting and manipulating fine filiform needles into specific points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes. The word acupuncture comes from the Latin acus, "needle", and pungere, "to prick". In Standard Mandarin, 針砭 (zhēn biān) (a related word, 針灸 (zhēn jiǔ), refers to acupuncture together with moxibustion).

According to traditional Chinese medical theory, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi, the vital energy, flows. There is no known anatomical or histological basis for the existence of acupuncture points or meridians. Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice. According to the NIH consensus statement on acupuncture, these traditional Chinese medical concepts "are difficult to reconcile with contemporary biomedical information but continue to play an important role in the evaluation of patients and the formulation of treatment in acupuncture."

Acupuncture originated in China and is most commonly associated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).Different types of acupuncture (Classical Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Vietnamese and Korean acupuncture) are practiced and taught throughout the world.

There is no scientific or medical evidence that acupuncture has any efficacy beyond a placebo effect.The WHO, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Medical Association (AMA) and various government reports have studied and commented on the efficacy of acupuncture. There is general agreement that acupuncture is safe when administered by well-trained practitioners using sterile needles, and that further research is appropriate.

Health Care

Health care, or healthcare, refers to the treatment and management of illness, and the preservation of health through services offered by the medical, pharmaceutical, dental, clinical laboratory sciences (in vitro diagnostics), nursing, and allied health professions. Health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including “preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations”.
Before the term health care became popular, English-speakers referred to medicine or to the health sector and spoke of the treatment and prevention of illness and disease.
A health care provider or health professional is an organization or person who delivers proper health care in a systematic way professionally to any individual in need of health care services. A health care provider could be government, the health care industry, a health care equipment company, an institution such as a hospital or medical laboratory, physicians, dentists, support staff, nurses, therapists, psychologists, pharmacists, chiropractors, and optometrists.
Emergency medicine is a speciality of medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of acute illnesses and injuries that require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a wide array of pathology and undertake acute interventions to stabilize the patient. These professionals practice in hospital emergency departments, in the prehospital setting via emergency medical service and other locations where initial medical treatment of illness takes place. Just as clinicians operate by immediacy rules under large emergency systems, emergency practioniers aim to diagnose emergent conditions and stabilize the patient for definitive care.
Chronic care management encompasses the oversight and education activities conducted by professionals to help patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, lupus, multiple sclerosis and sleep apnea learn to understand their condition and live successfully with it. This term is equivalent to disease management (health) for chronic conditions. The work involves motivating patients to persist in necessary therapies and interventions and helping them to achieve an ongoing, reasonable quality of life.
Patient safety is a new healthcare discipline that emphasizes the reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical error that often lead to adverse healthcare events. The frequency and magnitude of avoidable adverse patient events was not well known until the 1990s, when multiple countries reported staggering numbers of patients harmed and killed by medical errors. Recognizing that healthcare errors impact 1 in every 10 patients around the world, the World Health Organization calls patient safety an endemic concern. Indeed, patient safety has emerged as a distinct healthcare discipline supported by an immature yet developing scientific framework. There is a significant transdisciplinary body of theoretical and research literature that informs the science of patient safety. The resulting patient safety knowledge continually informs improvement efforts such as: applying lessons learned from business and industry, adopting innovative technologies, educating providers and consumers, enhancing error reporting systems, and developing new economic incentives. This patient safety page provides an evidence-based and peer-reviewed forum to learn about contemporary error and adverse event knowledge.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a technique of inserting and manipulating fine filiform needles into specific points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes. The word acupuncture comes from the Latin acus, "needle", and pungere, "to prick". In Standard Mandarin, 針砭 (zhēn biān) (a related word, 針灸 (zhēn jiǔ), refers to acupuncture together with moxibustion).

According to traditional Chinese medical theory, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi, the vital energy, flows. There is no known anatomical or histological basis for the existence of acupuncture points or meridians. Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice. According to the NIH consensus statement on acupuncture, these traditional Chinese medical concepts "are difficult to reconcile with contemporary biomedical information but continue to play an important role in the evaluation of patients and the formulation of treatment in acupuncture."

Acupuncture originated in China and is most commonly associated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).Different types of acupuncture (Classical Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Vietnamese and Korean acupuncture) are practiced and taught throughout the world.

There is no scientific or medical evidence that acupuncture has any efficacy beyond a placebo effect.The WHO, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Medical Association (AMA) and various government reports have studied and commented on the efficacy of acupuncture. There is general agreement that acupuncture is safe when administered by well-trained practitioners using sterile needles, and that further research is appropriate.

Clinical practice

Acupuncture needleMost modern acupuncturists use disposable stainless steel needles of fine diameter (0.007" to 0.020", 0.18 mm to 0.51 mm), sterilized with ethylene oxide or by autoclave. These needles are far smaller in diameter (and therefore less painful) than hypodermic injection needles since they do not have to be hollow for purposes of injection. The upper third of these needles is wound with a thicker wire (typically bronze), or covered in plastic, to stiffen the needle and provide a handle for the acupuncturist to grasp while inserting. The size and type of needle used, and the depth of insertion, depend on the acupuncture style being practised.

Warming an acupuncture point, typically by moxibustion (the burning of a combination of herbs, primarily mugwort), is a different treatment than acupuncture itself and is often, but not exclusively, used as a supplemental treatment. The Chinese term zhēn jǐu (針灸), commonly used to refer to acupuncture, comes from zhen meaning "needle", and jiu meaning "moxibustion". Moxibustion is used to varying degrees among current schools of oriental medicine. For example, one well-known technique is to insert the needle at the desired acupuncture point, attach dried moxa to the external end of an acupuncture needle, and then ignite it. The moxa will then smolder for several minutes (depending on the amount adhered to the needle) and conduct heat through the needle to the tissue surrounding the needle in the patient's body. Another common technique is to hold a large glowing stick of moxa over the needles. Moxa is also sometimes burned at the skin surface, usually by applying an ointment to the skin to protect from burns, though burning of the skin is general practice in China.

EXTRA TIPS FOR EXAM PREPATION

Below are listed some other specific suggestions.Other tips:

Flashcards - help to memorize facts NOT understanding
Groups - good to work through difficult material, quiz each other for understanding
Review sessions - only go to early ones, last minute reviews sometimes cause needless confusion
Tutors - get help early, waiting till the last minute only fosters aggravation and panic
Professors/TA's - same as above, don't email about material the night before, do it early

MOST EFFECTIVE DIET

Wouldn't it be great if you could find out what the most effective diet program is without spending a fortune? Oh wait a second...you're about to find out right now! Seriously though, take just two minutes out of your busy day to read this article and learn more about the most effective and popular diet of 2009!
My friend, you have to first understand that in order for any diet to be effective, you have to still practice the core principles of a healthy lifestyle. This is why I highly recommend for you to avoid fad diets, starvation diets, and celebrity type diets. Those types of diets go against the core principles of a healthy lifestyle...especially the most important principle...proper nutrition!
The most effective diet that will help you with the most effective principle, which is proper nutrition as mentioned above, is a new dieting system called calorie shifting. This system works because you will firstly be able to eat the amount of calories you are SUPPOSED to get daily, but you will be taught how to shift those calories into raising your metabolic rate to its highest level possible. The higher your metabolic rate is the more fat and weight will drop right off of you!
Listen, if you are tired of wasting your hard earned money on expensive dieting systems and plans that are highly ineffective...and in most cases unsafe for you, then I highly recommend for you to look into a tryout the calorie shifting diet system!

EXAM PREPARATION

The most important thing any student can do to prepare for exam is to start early. The days of studying for an exam on the bus going to school are over. Even if you got A's this way, it's not going to work very often with college material. College courses require far more effort.
Start preparing for the next test the day after you take the prior one. Daily preparation is crucial. At a minimum, review material once every week between exams.
How much time is needed? The classic question. Some recommend 2-3 hours outside of class for every hour of class time. In some cases homework problems will require this much effort. For a straightforward lecture course try the following:
Every day before class, preview the material for 15-20 minutes.
Attend every lecture. Seems simple but it's the biggest misteak students make.
Take good notes. Learn how.
Spend another 20-30 minutes after class going over the notes.
Use this time to get any confusing points cleared up in your head; much better now than later. This will make later exam prep. MUCH easier.
Once a week, review the material to get a more complete overview of the information.

Patience

Animals act upon instinct. Humans, however, can think.


Everyone has been in a situation where they just rushed things, and later wished they had taken things slowly. When animals are in a state of panic, they generally tend to act on instinct and don't think about what they are doing. They just blindly do whatever their instinct tells them. Fortunately for us, through many years of evolution, we have developed something no other animal has. By rationalizing and making sense of a situation, we can “bypass” our first instinct and control what we do. This allows us to think things through and plan our actions, even if we are in a tough situation.
By simply taking a moment to breathe deeply and tell yourself to calm down, you will find that you can think more clearly. You should set your priorities, find what matters most, find that outcome you want, and plan a series of actions that will lead you to that outcome.
I know what you are thinking, “It is easier said than done.” Well yes, it is easier said than done, but by at least trying to calm down, you will get better results.
You should try the following in any situation:
1. Calm down
2. Make sense of the situation
3. Set your priorities
4. Find the outcome you want
5. Plan your actions accordingly