Posts Tagged ‘Respiratory Diseases’

Where Should I Look Out For Asbestos?

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

There are a few places you can find asbestos in a building; Cement, coatings, floor tiles, insulating boards, lagging and loose. Buildings constructed before 1999 will most likely contain at least one form of asbestos that may have been too expensive/ difficult to remove.

Asbestos filled cement can often be found in the form of guttering, wall cladding and roofing. It is most commonly used for corrugated cement roofing which can be found on old farm buildings, warehouses and on some private sheds and garages.

Textured and sprayed asbestos was used to cover many internal walls and ceilings in lofts and often living spaces but while the textured coating is generally considered quite safe the sprayed coating is very unstable and can release large quantities of toxins into the air if disturbed.

Asbestos floor tiles were often used when insulating floor surfaces underneath carpeting or laminate flooring. A similar version of the material was even used in fire blankets and oven gloves. It is generally quite safe but still considered a risk and should not be handled or worked with.

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Do You Have Mesothelioma?

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

The outer surface of most of our internal organs is covered in a lining called ‘Mesothelium’ which contains mesothelial cells. A form of cancer involving these cells is called Mesothelioma and most commonly occurs in the lungs and upper body.

Mesothelioma is most commonly caused by exposure to asbestos and approximately 80% of people diagnosed with the disease have reported being in contact with the material during their life. People were freely exposed to it before the material was banned and the more someone was exposed, the more at risk they are but some patients cannot recall any prolonged exposure.

Asbestos is an insulating material which is heat and fire resistant and was used widely in all industries from the 1940s until the 1990s. Those most at risk of contamination are people who have worked in the construction industry or near the exposed material at any time but even after construction the risk is still present.

It is not until up to 50 years after exposure that symptoms start to develop and this is often too late for many. Given the timescale of contamination doctors expect the cases to increase until around 2020 when they should start to see a fall.

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Asthma and Children: Critical Information

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

While asthma is far from unheard of in the United States, it affects the most vulnerable of us, our children. Asthma as a whole affects nearly 20 million people, and nine million of those people are children. Due to the smaller airways in children, asthma becomes a very scary but real respiratory disease, sometimes fatal. Children with asthma experience coughing, chest tightness, trouble breathing, and wheezing; the symptoms are most notable early in the morning or at night before bed. Childhood asthma is a very serious condition that can cause a number of complications for your child, unless you have the right information on how to treat and manage asthma.

Children who have the symptoms of asthma may need a chest X-ray and pulmonary function tests, also called lung function tests, in order to diagnose the condition. Lung function tests assess the amount of air in the lungs as it is inhaled and exhaled, helping to determine how severe the asthma is. Children under the age of five are unable to perform pulmonary function tests and in these cases doctors rely only on a history of the symptoms and an examination to make a diagnosis. Older children may be diagnosed by their own medical history, current symptoms, or a physical exam.

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Asthma

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Admittedly, asthma is a difficult disease to identify early. It resembles so many other respiratory infections that it becomes difficult to tell them apart. That is why you should not be trying it on your own; bring your doctor into the picture.

With the number of people that suffer from asthma in the United States, one would wonder if there was any reason for anybody to be able to live without it. It’s like a losing battle; one rife with despair. I wish only more grease to the elbows of researchers seeking to end it.

It is important to have your lung capacity tested from time to time. This is one of the critical means by which they could diagnose you for asthma, or not. You don’t want to pass up on the chance.

Asthma attacks don’t come all the time, but when they do, you get to wishing you were dead because of how badly they make you feel. In any case, if you don’t get the kind of attention you need as soon as possible, dead is exactly what you will be. I’m telling you, asthma is not a disease that takes prisoners.

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Smoking and Women’s Health

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Everyone is affected by smoking, regardless of the gender. Smoking is not only the pastime of males. Even if in the onset of the twentieth century it was rare for women to smoke, the number increased greatly over the past decades. In a survey in 2002, it is estimated that 20 percent of the woman population smokes, and each year, it is estimated that 142,000 women dies due to diseases that are related to smoking.

The Consequences of Smoking

Women smokers suffer all the consequences of smoking that men do and sometimes even a lot more. This would include certain types of cancer like:

* Lung cancer
   
* Mouth cancer
   
* Larynx cancer
   
* Kidney cancer
   
* Bladder cancer

There are also respiratory diseases that women have to suffer from as a consequence of smoking. It could also have an effect on the fertility, menstrual cycle of women, and during the pregnancy of women. Smoking could have a great effect on the bones, and it could cause osteoporosis. Aside from that, appearance can change when you smoke. The skin and lips would look dull.

Pregnancy and Smoking 

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