About 1 out of 8 women will develop breast cancer at some time in her life. Although this oft-repeated ratio has frightened many women, it represents a woman’s lifetime risk. Thus, not until the age of 80 does a woman’s risk of breast cancer rise to 1 in 8. Here is the risk at earlier ages:
-    Birth to age 39: 1 in 227
-    Ages 40-59: 1 in 25
-    Ages 60-79: 1 in 15 Birth to death: 1 in 8
In 2000, approximately 182,800 women in the United States were diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time. About 1,400 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in men in 2000. About 41,200 women (and 400 men) would die, making breast cancer the second leading cause of cancer death for women. According to the most recent data, mortality rates went down dramatically from 1992 to 1996, with the largest decrease in younger women, both white and black. The decline in rates may be due to earlier diagnosis and improved treatment as numerous studies have shown that early detection increases survival and treatment options.
Warning signals of breast cancer include persistent breast changes such as a lump, thickening, swelling, dimpling, skin irritation, distortion, retraction or scaliness of the nipple, nipple discharge, possible pain, or tenderness. tl-pharmacy.com

Risk Factors
The risk of breast cancer increases with age. Although there are many possible risk factors, those that seem to be supported in the research include these:
-    Women who have a personal or family history of breast cancer (primary relatives such as mother, daughter, sister)
-    Women with a biopsy-confirmed atypical hyperplasia
-    Women with a long menstrual history (menstrual periods that started early and ended late in life)
-    Women who’ve had recent use of oral contraceptives or postmenopausal estrogens
-    Women who’ve never had children or had their first child after age 30
-    Women who consume two or more drinks of alcohol per day
-    Women who have higher education and socioeconomic status
Those risk factors that need more rigorous research before being confirmed include these:
-    Consuming a diet high in saturated fats
-    Exposure to pesticides and other chemicals
-    Weight gain
-    Physical inactivity
-    Use of selected estrogen-receptor modulators (SERMs) such as tamoxifen and raloxifen
-    Possible genetic predisposition through BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes
*15/277/5*

HIV: OPTIONS FOR MEDICAL CARE-GLOSSARY OF HOSPITAL PEOPLE AND PRACTICES: SPECIALISTSIn addition to the physician-of-record, the residents, and the fellows, the other physicians you will see in a hospital are the specialist physicians. Because AIDS affects so many different parts of the body, and because it takes so many forms in so many different people, no single physician can treat all aspects of the disease. Specialists (technically, these are sub-specialists) that are most likely to be consulted in HIV infection are neurologists, ophthalmologists, gastroenterologists, obstetricians, dermatologists, psychiatrists, and pulmonary specialists. Each has a specific area of expertise that may be sought by the physician-of-record. In most instances these specialists make recommendations or provide special procedures. The person ultimately responsible for carrying out their recommendations and approving their procedures is the physician-of-record.*163\191\2*

STUDIES ON MEDICINAL   PLANTS OF CHIKHALI (BULDHANA-DISTRICT) WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SOME ASPECTS  OF ETHNOBOTANY
Many aboriginal tribes of Buldhana District have been using the plants as medicine against common diseases. Such tribes include Thakur, Takari, Pardhi, Gond, Korku, Bhil and Labhani. Tribal people are related to the plants directly and know the methods of using plants. Actually they have acquired the reputation of highly purposive and innovative often setting pace in workable reforms in higher education suitable and relevant for national development. Ethnobotany is a dynamic and ever expanding field where the pace of discovery has been rapid during the past several years. This progress has greatly enriched our understanding of medicinal use of plants and has paved the way for the growth of many new areas of enquiry such as medicinal parts, medicinal property, bio-technology, protein engineering, etc.
Many investigators have contributed in the field of ethnomedicinal plants.
So far, no work has been done in Buldhana and hence the present contribution gives the first report.METHODS
A survey of Chikhli area was made to obtain first-hand information from the tribal people. The people were interviewed. Ambiguous plants were discussed with many experienced persons, and local vaidhyas also. Plants are arranged alphabetically.
Common Medicinal Plants
(1)     Aloe barbadensis Mill. (Liliaceae) Medicinal Part: Leaves.
UsesSlow acting purgativeAntispasmodic against grippingUsed in cosmeticsIn CoughClear Skin blemishesStimulates the growth of hairsIn Piles.
(2)     Argemone mexicana (L) (Papaveraceae) Medicinal parts: Entire plant.
Uses (1)Roosagainst scorpion bite (2) oil in rheumatism, and in scratches. (3) Aegle marmelos (L.) Corr. (Rutaceae)      Medicinal parts: Bark, leaves, fruits.UsesFleshy edible endocarp of Beal fruit alongwith Foeniculum fruits, decoction against dysentery.Against germs (leaf Juice)Against mouthache (decoctibn of bark of stem).Root decoction with milk against fever.Jelly of fruit in Amoebic dysentery.Decoction of bark against vomiting.
(4) Abroma augusta (L.) (Sterculiaceae)Medicinal part: Root.
Uses
(1) It stimulates sufficient discharge in menses. Before 3-days and after 2-days, root powder is given in irregular menses.
(5) Boerhaavia diffusa (Linn.) (Nyctaginaceae)Medicinal parts : Entire plant.
UsesDiureticExpectorantStomachachePrescribed for JaundiceGiven in loss of digestion powerEnlargment of spleen.(6) Cocculus hirsutus (Linn.) Diels (Menispermaceae)Medicinal parts Root and leaves
UsesIt controls cold fever if decoction of root is given along with pepper powderAgainst dysenteryAgainst scabiesIt stimulates sexual feeling
(7) Caesalpinia cristatta (Jacq.) Willd. (Leguminosae)Medicinal part: Seeds.
UsesOil of seeds applied in rheumatismIt stimulates liver to secret digestive juiceSeeds are used to prevent embryo formationAgainst cough.
(8) Cassia angustifolia Vahe (Leguminoceae)Medicinal part: leaves.
Uses
(1)      Leaves are purgative.
(9) Catharanthus roseus (L.) (Apocynaceae)Medicinal parts: Leaves.UsesImportant alkaloids with anticancer property are vincristine vinblastine, surpentine, and ajmalicineAntidiabetic action.
(10)    Dioscorea bulbifera (Linn.) (Dioscoreaceae) Medicinal parts: Rhizome.
UsesUsed in the treatment of rheumatic arthritis.In the synthesis of sex hormones.Oral contraceptives.
(11)    Gloriosa superba (L.) (Liliaceae) Medicinal parts: Rhizome, leaves.
UsesAgainst germsRoots against snake and scorpion bites.Against spines’ injuryIf rhizome kept in path of vagina for 3-4 days, embryo comes out easily (5) In Typhoides (6) In general weakness.
(12)    Helicteres isora (Linn.) (Sterculiaceae) Medicinal parts : Root, Bark, Fruit.Stops bleedingCure wound, scratchesControl diarrhoeaAnthelmintic.
(13) Plumbago zeylanica (Linn.) (Plumbaginaceae)Medicinal parts: Roots.
UsesFor removal of unwanted embryoAgainst white spotBark of root against skin diseases
(14)    Shorea rubusta Gaertn.f. (Dipterocarpaceae) Medicinal parts : Bark & Ral.
UsesRal against scratches, In earache, burning, against germs.Ointments against wounds.Bark-decoction against coughStops bleedingDecoction of bark and powder of Ral if taken internally bone joints are connected.
(15)    Tinospora cordifolia (Willd.) Miers (Menispermaceae) Medicinal part: Stem, leaves.For purification of bloodRemoving weakness after feverIt controls burning sensationGood appetizerControls cough and acidity.
(16) Withania somnifera Dunal (Solanaceae)Medicinal parts: Roots
UsesHypotensive and depressantAntispasmodicAnthelminticUsed in asthmaUterine sedativeAs a general tonicAntitumour action.
It can be concluded from the present study that plants found in thick forest and even on common places are very useful for human beings. Correct identification of the plants and proper diagnosis of the patient is needed. Medical expenses can be curtailed by use of herbal medicines. Such remedy is cheaper and can be utilized by all. Further, Buldhana District requires more thorough search for medicinal plants.*23\218\2*

OTHER APPROACHES TO EPILEPSY THERAPY: THE KETOGENIC DIET – IS MY CHILD ELIGIBLE FOR THIS DIET?  WILL MY CHILD HAVE TO REMAIN ON THIS DIET FOR LIFE?”Is my child eligible for this diet?”The diet appears quite effective in children with myoclonic and atonic (drop) types of seizures, the types most resistant to current medications. However, it can be used in virtually all forms of epilepsy. The diet is not used during the first year of life, because the infant is not capable of maintaining the ketosis. There is no upper age limit to its use, but children over the age of four or five who have normal intelligence may have developed sufficient food preferences and sufficient independence that maintaining the diet can be difficult. We have used it successfully in pre-teens and adolescents when the individual and family are well-motivated.”Will my child have to remain on this diet for life?”No. Most children whose seizures are controlled on the diet remain on it for two years. After that time they can gradually be taken off the diet, and the seizures usually do not return, even without additional anticonvulsant drugs.*146\208\8*

TYPE II DIABETES: FOOD AND EMOTIONSHow you feel about food and how your emotions affect your eating habits have a lot to do with the shape you’re in now and the success of your efforts at weight control in the future.You won’t find your ideal weight in a container on your supermarket shelves. You will find your ideal weight by looking inside yourself, determining the role food plays in your life, and then changing your lifestyle to reflect your desire to lead a healthier and happier life.You can lose excess kilograms and keep them off. It’s not easy, but it can be done. You need to cut down on the amount of food you eat. You need to change the type of food you eat and how you prepare these foods. You need to set goals and achieve them. You need to add physical activity to your lifestyle.You are not alone. There are thousands of persons with Type II diabetes in this country who have the same problem you have and are trying, like you, to solve these problems. Some of them live in your community and are ready and willing to discuss problems and solutions with you. Check with your doctor, diabetes educator, hospital or diabetes association about support groups you can join. You’re not alone. There are many health professionals who are experienced in helping people like you who are interested in following an eating plan that will enable you to lose excess weight and keep it off.*19/210/5*

INSULIN INJECTION TECHNIQUES: CONTINUOUS SUBCUTANEOUS AND IMPLANTABLE PUMPS
Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion pumpsThe new device that everyone asks about is the continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) pump. This is the first step towards the portable artificial pancreas. Put simply, the pancreas needs to be able to do two things as tar as the diabetic is concerned. First, to sense the blood glucose level. Second, to increase or decrease insulin output in response to that glucose vel. People involved in diabetes research in Japan, and elsewhere, have succeeded in making a fine   needle sensor that can be inserted subcutaneously to register the concentration of blood glucose in tiny blood vessels (capillaries). This device can then activate an insulin pump to release the correct amount of insulin. As yet this is not ready for widespread use. There are teething troubles with the glucose sensing part of the artificial pancreas. The insulin infusing part is, though, already on the market.Insulin infusion pumps slowly and continuously push down the plunger of a syringe or vial of insulin at a preset rate. Extra squirts of insulin can be given through a button on the pump, whenever necessary Fast-acting insulin is always used. The pump is set up so that it delivers a background or basal infusion over a twenty-four hour period, then at each meal and sometimes at snack times the wearer presses the button to give the correct amount of insulin to cope with that particular meal. Sally, for example, is on abase rate of twelve units per twenty-four hours (or 0.5 units per hour). She has four units before breakfast, four before lunch and six before her evening meal, which is the largest of the day.
Implantable pumps Heart pacemakers – whose technology is being used to develop CSII pumps – are implanted under the skin. This approach has been tried with a specially adapted CSII pump, which is entirely buried beneath the skin. The pump has a flexible reservoir that can be filled with insulin injected through the skin and the wall of the reservoir. Its batteries keep the small pump going and it can be programmed by external computer, another contribution from pacemaker technology. This device is still at the research stage.
*18/102/5*

CORONARY BLOCKAGES AND HEART ATTACK: CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE – SYMPTOMS CAUSED BY CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE – EMERGENCY SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF A HEART ATTACKNot all of the signs and symptoms mentioned below are present in all cases of heart attack, and some people do not have any symptoms. The more symptoms you have, the higher the likelihood that you are having a heart attack. Get help if you have any combination of these symptoms:Intense, prolonged chest pain (often a feeling of heavy pressure)Pain radiating from the chest to the left shoulder and arm, back, and even jawProlonged pain in the upper abdomenShortness of breathFaintingNausea, vomiting, intense sweating Frequent angina attacks that are not caused by exertionPeople sometimes think back and realize that they did have a few signs that things were not quite right before they had their heart attack. A spouse or co-worker will often say the person looked older, paler, exhausted, or depressed before the heart attack. Unfortunately, only about one-third of people with these symptoms consult their doctor.If you think you or someone you are with is having a heart attack, find medical attention immediately. Fifteen percent of heart attack victims die suddenly within the first hour of symptoms. Sudden death can even be the first symptom of a heart attack. If you are with someone who stops breathing, begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) immediately. After a person stops breathing, he or she can live only a few minutes without CPR. This limited time emphasizes the need for everyone to have training in CPR.Thousands of people die each year because they did not seek medical help in time. Don’t worry about confusing a heart attack with indigestion or something else. Get immediate help. It may save your life.*159\252\8*

WHY DO WE GET SKIN CANCER? The common kinds of skin cancer (called basal cell cancers or squamous cell cancers) occur as a result of exposure of susceptible skin to ultraviolet light- Pigmentation protects the skin and so it is the fair-skinned races who tend to get these common kinds of skin cancer. Once skin has become pigmented as a result of exposure to sunshine – once you have obtained your tan – then the tanned skin will give some very limited protection against burning. A tan provides the equivalent of a sun protection Factor of about 2. People do not always realize that even if skin is quite tanned, sunburn is still possible. Artificial tans out of a bottle can also protect the skin slightly but are even less effective than a natural tan. They do, however, have the advantage of making it unnecessary for people to bake themselves in the sun. While we may chink of a can as attractive, a tan produced by the sun is actually a sign of skin damage.There are other factors that can contribute to common skin cancers, including chemicals and radiation and deranged function of the body s immune system. These are rarely significant and almost all common skin cancers are directly related to sunlight. We do not understand how sunlight damages the DNA within cells of the skin to produce these common skin cancers, but we do know that individuals need a lot of exposure to sunlight to get the common skin cancers and that they are mainly a problem for fair-skinned people who have lived in the tropics and had a lot of outdoor exposure. Because they do not spread very readily and are easily removed, common skin cancers tend to be regarded by doctors as a relatively minor problem. Only occasionally will doctors have difficulties in curing this kind of skin cancer. For this reason, it is probably sufficient to adopt a relatively simple policy of watching out for new spots or blemishes on the skin and showing them to a doctor if they cause concern; this kind of skin cancer does not represent any new or developing threat to the population. We must however give more attention to melanoma, which is more complicated in its origins and more threatening in its behaviour. It represents one of the most serious trends in cancer in the latter part of this century.*66\194\4*

FALSE REMEDIES FOR ARTHRITIS: PARACELSUSDuring the first half of the sixteenth century there was still another immortal Roman physician. His name was Paracelsus. And he went to great lengths to make his fellow-practitioners believe that arthritis was curable.First, Paracelsus travelled the length and breadth of Europe, asking everyone their opinion as to the cause and cure of arthritis. He questioned alchemists, the pharmacists of his day, lay healers, barber surgeons, shepherds, even gipsies—asking whether they obtained results with herbs and vegetable drugs. He also collected and studied all the knowledge of arthritis from practising physicians of many different nations. So, when Paracelsus said that arthritis was curable, he was giving the combined opinion of his day.An Early Expert, close to the TruthParacelsus classified the many arthritics as victims of a tartaric disease. The word tartar originated from the Greek word for wine precipitation.What irony! The great Paracelsus was calling arthritis a wine-like precipitate. He was very close to the correct answer . . . way back in the sixteenth century! It may well have been excessive wine-intake—practised in those days—which actually prevented oils from ever reaching their correct equilibrium and final nourishment of the joints. The wine was altering the oil composition of protein, carbohydrate, or simple oil products— robbing arthritic joints. Tartaric deposits pointed emphatically to the cause of pain. Today, in our research, we are following through where Paracelsus left off.*58\146\2*

THE MOMENT OF DRIVER’S LICENSE TRUTHNot long ago, I had to renew my driver’s license, and when the new one came, I was pleasantly surprised. Compared to my picture on the one of four years ago, I had IMPROVED! The explanation wasn’t difficult. Four years before I was so tight in the wringer and so far off in zombieland, and what one of my friends calls “the twilight zone,” any picture of me had to reflect the shock I was in from coping with my family’s problems.Perhaps you’ve known the embarrassment of pulling out your driver’s license for identification and watching the person stare at the picture and then at you. That person is wondering, Is this really you? Of course, you stumble around explaining why your driver’s license picture failed to show all your “true beauty.” That’s the typical experience, but in my case I had looked so bad on the prior license that the new one was actually flattering. That was a day that made my heart smile indeed!Applying for that new driver’s license did remind me, however, of the changes the years can bring. The typical driver’s license application has spaces where you fill in your eye color, hair color, weight, etc. Isn’t it strange that women leave their weight the same as it was when they originally got their driver’s license at the age of sixteen? And why is it that some men have a license they got years ago that says, “Hair: Brown,” when their hair has long since disappeared and they’re totally bald?Tell me, have you ever seen a driver’s license that had accurate information? What about people who have one brown eye and one blue one?—there is no space for that on the driver’s license. Or how about women who have “convertible tops”; that is, they change the color of their hair so often, only their hairdresser knows for sure, and some weeks she’s wondering.Yes, the years can bring many changes, and it is often said that, as we grow older, we develop something called “hardening of the attitudes.” There is no space on a driver’s license for filling in the condition of one’s attitudes. But all you have to do is get out on the freeways, and you’ll quickly learn that a lot of people have become hardened, and then some!I don’t want that said of me. In fact, the following poem by an anonymous poet is my daily prayer.ON GETTING OLDERLord, Thou knowest me better than I know myself, that I am growing older and will someday be old. Keep me from getting talkative, and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from craving to try to straighten out everybody’s affairs.Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details, and give me wings to get to the point. I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of others; help me to endure them with patience, but seal my lips on my own aches and pains. They are increasing and my love of rehearsing them is increasing as the years go by. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken.Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a saint— some of them are so hard to live with—but a sour old woman or man is one of the crowning works of the devil.Make me thoughtful, but not moody; helpful, but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all; but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.
A “few friends at the end” is all you can really hope for. Obviously, your best friend should be the Lord, but you do want some others, too. In recent years, a lot of books have been written about friendship—how to find friends, how to be a friend, and while I haven’t written any books on friendship myself, I do think I know the secret.*55\316\2*