Cancer is one of the most serious and deadly diseases of today's society. While surgery, chemotherapy and radiation form the basis for most cancer therapies, many cancer patients have found additional hope and relief in alternative cancer...
DNA provides the blueprint for life: it codes the information required for cells to generate the compounds required for growth, development and metabolism. Genetic diseases may develop due to abnormalities or deletions of single genes, or large...
Baldness is a condition wherein hair follicles under the scalp shrink to the point where they are no longer able to make new follicles to replace the older ones that die and fall off. This is largely due to hormonal changes that occur throughout a...
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the brain and central nervous system which affects movement and speech causing muscle rigidity and tremor. At present no cure exists, but symptoms can be managed with a combination of drugs,...
Ornithine transcarbamylase, or OTC, deficiency is a rare genetic disorder that occurs in approximately one in every 80,000 births, according to Genetics Home Reference. In OTC deficiency, a defective enzyme results in the inability to effectively...
Cancer immunotherapy can be divided into three popular categories--interleukin, interferons and genetic therapy. According to the National Cancer Institute, there are many studies defending the use of the body's own immune system to fight diseases...
Advanced ovarian cancer spreads in multiple ways, and your doctor will probably perform surgery on your uterus, lymph nodes and omentum as well as your ovaries and their connecting fallopian tubes. In some cases, your doctor may also have to...
Acute leukemia is a rapidly progressing cancer of the bone marrow and blood. According to Donna D. Ignatavicius, MS RN, and M. Linda Workman, Ph.D., authors of "Medical-Surgical Nursing: Critical Thinking for Collaborative Care," treatments for...
Lou Gehrig's disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a neurodegenerative disorder. It is characterized by a loss of motor neurons---nerve cells that control muscle movement throughout the body. Patients with ALS develop...
Protein drugs are pharmaceutical therapies that contain a protein as the active ingredient rather than a small chemical molecule. Protein drugs, also known as "protein therapeutics," are manufactured and sold as either naturally made or...
Cancer is a collection of diseases, where the cells grow in an uncontrolled manner. This growth can result in the destruction of normal adjacent tissues. Cancer cells can spread to distant organs. One in three people will be diagnosed with some...
Breast cancer is a type of cancer that develops in the tissues of the breast. Once someone is in remission from her cancer, the main priority is preventing a recurrence. The best way to detect the early signs of recurrent breast cancer is to...
Surgical excision, the first step in treating melanoma, works well for many patients in the early stages of melanoma, the deadliest of all skin cancers. The surgery is an outpatient procedure usually performed in the doctor’s office....
Doctors perform various surgical procedures to treat mesothelioma. A wide local excision performed to excise the cancer as well as the surrounding tissue. A more complex surgical procedure, known as a pleurectomy, involves removal of the exterior...
Elastin is a protein that is found in all parts of the human body, including skin cells, arteries, organs and lungs. Elastin works hand in hand with collagen, creating a balanced pliability of the body's tissues. While elastin gives tissue it's...
Angina occurs when a certain area of the heart does not get an adequate supply of oxygen-rich blood. Though not a heart attack, angina can certainly feel like one, and lead to that if not treated properly. For many, part of that treatment is a...
Genetics is a major cause of premature gray hair, says the Daily Glow health and beauty site. Scientists have identified genes that seem to play a major role in the process. Children whose parents were prematurely gray are likely to follow the...
The immune system is composed of specialized cells such as B cells that make antibodies (protein), T cells that kill pathogens (bacteria, viruses or fungus) and white blood cells that fight off infection. MedlinePlus says that immunodeficiency...
Treatment for skin cancers ranges from simple, topical medications to surgical excisions or microsurgical methods performed with local anesthetic in a dermatologist's office. Sometimes a biopsy to study the growth gets rid of the cancer, too....
Researchers are exploring the possibility of gene therapy to fight Alzheimer's disease. It's an updated version of a study started in 2001, when doctors removed skin cells from several patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's, genetically modified the...
"You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was," said Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, who brought about the emancipation of the slaves. Lincoln, of course, was speaking metaphorically, but taken literally, some...
Sometimes cancer develops when genetic material in the cells goes haywire, allowing the unchecked growth that characterizes malignancy. Now, advanced research has enabled researchers to use genes to fight cancer in several ways. For individuals...
Hereditary muscle disease is not always passed down from parent to child. In some cases, a spontaneous defect in a gene will cause the disease to develop in the child.
According to the American Cancer Society, or ACS, metastatic liver cancer is stage IV or advanced liver cancer that has spread from the liver to distant organs, usually the lungs or bones. The outlook in metastatic liver disease is poor because...
Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is also referred to as sensorineural hearing loss. It happens in response to loud noise. It can occur suddenly or over time. Researchers now believe that the body forms free radicals in response to noise. Free...
The human hairless (HR) gene is found on chromosome 8 and has been implicated in several hereditary diseases that result in permanent hair loss. The HR protein normally acts as a genetic manager, controlling the expression of other genes....
Treatments used for skin cancer depend on the size, depth, location and type of the cancer. Basal and squamous cell carcinomas are easily treatable when detected in the early stages. Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, can spread rapidly,...
People tend to have a love affair with the sun, as they flock to the beach and purchase various bronzing agents to create the perfect tan. Unfortunately, the sun produces damaging ultraviolet rays that penetrate the layers of the skin to create...
Dopamine is a chemical that is used by both the central and peripheral nervous systems, where it performs diverse functions that range from controlling movement and coding reward in the brain to regulating blood flow in the periphery. It is...
