Posts Tagged ‘health’

Is Drinking Bottled Water Hazardous To Your Health?

Friday, September 30th, 2011

You can find two key causes to be concerned about Drinking Bottled Water: Your Well being and Your Environment.

Here are two of one of the most prevalent Well being Considerations.

The bottled water business is unregulated. A lot of of the businesses that are bottling water are basically using municipal sources. Which is truly the very good news within the US; the EPA standards governing municipal water are significantly more strict than the FDA’s rules of bottled water. The regulations for disinfection, testing frequency, E. Coli, Coliform, Crytosporidium, and synthetic organic chemicals are either not in location, enforced, or needed in many situations. The only saving grace is that some of those organizations actually filter the municipal water before bottling.

The other obvious and unconfirmed extent of danger from water bottled in plastic containers is PET - “polyethylene terephthalate”. The toxic chemical antimony is utilized to make containers created of PET. The low-level cumulative effects of antimony incorporate heart and lung damage and is also linked to well being problems with the eyes, skin, respiratory technique, and also the cardiovascular method. This toxic chemical leaches into the water that is contained by the plastic bottle. The longer it is in that container the greater the leaching or prospective for leaching. Also what exaggerates and accelerates the leaching process may be the “heating” of the plastic by becoming left in direct sunlight, in a hot, enclosed vehicle in hot weather, and also by microwaving.

The Environment.

The damage and danger of water from plastic containers comes in two parts: the amount of petroleum which is employed to produce the plastic containers and disposal and degradation of the containers following use.

The manufacture of plastic bottles to meet the demand for the bottling of water needs about 17.6 million barrels of oil every year, which does not include transportation costs. That is roughly the same amount of oil which is utilized to fuel far more than one million vehicles within the U.S. every year. The world over, bottling water uses about two.7 million tons of plastic annually.

The disposal of plastic is practically a misnomer: plastic does not genuinely degrade fully. It disintegrates in to smaller and smaller pieces. The sheer volume of plastic containers which are discarded each and every hour is counted in the millions inside the US alone. A lot more and more documentation has surfaced about huge masses of plastic debris floating within the oceans as far from land as one could possibly get. This plastic is getting consumed by several of the sea birds and marine wildlife. Thousands of birds are found dead with huge plastic objects that they’ve ingested nonetheless present in their dead carcasses. Minute fragments of plastic are being eaten by ocean fishes, which are then harvested by the fishing market for human consumption.

In Conclusion.

The market of bottled water has been conjured up by huge corporations to fuel their profits. The health risks to our planet and to the well being of humans and animals far out-weigh any actual or perceived need for water to be placed in a container that leaches carcinogenic chemicals and then becomes a pollutant that creates fatal consequences for the ecosystems of the earth. Far greater selections and decisions can and have to be created.

Related articles you may be interested:

- Stainless Steel Water Bottle

- Designer Water Bottles

- Water Bottle Lables

The Proggression Of Stem Cell Transplant

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

By stem cell transplant, doctors refer to the transfer of stem cells into the body of a patient undergoing anti-cancer treatment such as chemotherapy. The thing is that the powerful chemo-drugs used for reducing tumors also destroy the cells responsible for blood regeneration. Therefore, the stem cell transplant will be the only way to support the body to cope with the anti-cancer treatment and the number of chemotherapy sessions prescribed. There are many cases when stem cell transplant is not necessary or possible. But the course of action is usually established by one doctor or a team of experts after analyzing the patient’s condition, the chemotherapy sessions and the responsiveness to the treatment.

The use of a donor or the collection of individual stem cells is one main issue to consider once the necessity of a stem cell transplant has been established. The collection operation for individual transfers will only be possible prior to the administration of the chemotherapy high-dose treatment. Until usage, the stem cells will be stored frozen. In case a donor is needed, then the collection of the stem cells is performed just prior to the intervention. It is preferred to undergo a stem cell transplant from a donor because when using the human stem cells, there is the risk of a reaction from the immune system.

Bone marrow collection was the only way to get the stem cells a few years ago, but science has made quite a progress in this direction. The problem with this kind of intervention is the pain and discomfort that accompany the procedure. Yet, at present, stem cells can be extracted from the peripheral blood as well, and then, be used for transplants. It is true that for the moment, bone marrow transplants are more used or common, but the one relying on peripheral blood is gaining territory and will impose itself eventually.

The stem cell transplant could also rely on umbilical cord blood, but this is by far a less usual procedure, because the number of stem cells that can be extracted from the umbilical cord is pretty reduced. New discoveries have also confirmed the possibility of combining umbilical cord stem cell from several sources so that a treatment compatible with a patient’s condition may be created. And last but not least, an even more unusual and rare case of stem cell transplant is from one identical twin to another, thanks to the huge compatibility rate between such individuals.

The Proggression Of Stem Cell Transplant

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

By stem cell transplant, doctors refer to the transfer of stem cells into the body of a patient undergoing anti-cancer treatment such as chemotherapy. The thing is that the powerful chemo-drugs used for reducing tumors also destroy the cells responsible for blood regeneration. Therefore, the stem cell transplant will be the only way to support the body to cope with the anti-cancer treatment and the number of chemotherapy sessions prescribed. There are many cases when stem cell transplant is not necessary or possible. But the course of action is usually established by one doctor or a team of experts after analyzing the patient’s condition, the chemotherapy sessions and the responsiveness to the treatment.

The use of a donor or the collection of individual stem cells is one main issue to consider once the necessity of a stem cell transplant has been established. The collection operation for individual transfers will only be possible prior to the administration of the chemotherapy high-dose treatment. Until usage, the stem cells will be stored frozen. In case a donor is needed, then the collection of the stem cells is performed just prior to the intervention. It is preferred to undergo a stem cell transplant from a donor because when using the human stem cells, there is the risk of a reaction from the immune system.

Bone marrow collection was the only way to get the stem cells a few years ago, but science has made quite a progress in this direction. The problem with this kind of intervention is the pain and discomfort that accompany the procedure. Yet, at present, stem cells can be extracted from the peripheral blood as well, and then, be used for transplants. It is true that for the moment, bone marrow transplants are more used or common, but the one relying on peripheral blood is gaining territory and will impose itself eventually.

The stem cell transplant could also rely on umbilical cord blood, but this is by far a less usual procedure, because the number of stem cells that can be extracted from the umbilical cord is pretty reduced. New discoveries have also confirmed the possibility of combining umbilical cord stem cell from several sources so that a treatment compatible with a patient’s condition may be created. And last but not least, an even more unusual and rare case of stem cell transplant is from one identical twin to another, thanks to the huge compatibility rate between such individuals.

The Value Of Stem Cell Funding

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

Lots of institutes, organizations and universities are confronted with the difficult issue of raising money or getting stem cell funding to continue their research. The money goes to regenerative medicine institutes that commit to the research in the field of stem cell biology for the purpose of developing cures and viable therapies for the future. Ethical concerns and questions have always been fired in relation with stem cell research because of the controversy related to the embryos. Pro-lifers are strongly opposing all laboratory tests that sacrifices human embryos.

Some institutes receive more stem cell funding than others, with continuous support from the organizations interested in the development of this part of the medical science. CIRM for instance provides millions of dollars in the form of stem cell funding to Stanford’s Institute both for clinical studies and specialized projects planned over a two or four-year period. Part of the funding goes for research in the transplantation of stem cells while others in the pioneer treatment of autoimmune diseases such as sclerosis or scleroderma. The National Institute of Health is one other financial supporter of research centers that specialize in stem cell biology.

All sorts of smaller associations provide stem cell funding to research centers, and here it suffices to mention the American Cancer Society, the Diabetes Foundation or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. These groups act on behalf and in the interest of disease-specific groups that would benefit incredibly from the achievements and findings of stem cell therapy. Moreover, it is together with such financial supporters that one institute or another designs clinical trials and group tests for patients declared irrecoverable. For the moment, stem cell research is going through a new phase of growth since the American president Barrack Obama raised the ban on this kind of research.

Consequently, we may expect a new wave of stem cell funding that will change the perspective for many research centers. How can we explain the huge sums of money necessary for research? Well, like all new technologies that are in the test phase, stem cell biology has lots of challenges and demands. The biological material, the laboratory equipment like spectrometer and UV Vis spectrometer, the qualified personnel, the special work environment and overall gear necessary for research are not at all cheap, and without a serious investment in this research field, development and discoveries would stagnate.

The Stem Cell Transplantation For Several Cares

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

Cancer patients who are subject to chemotherapy treatments usually need stem cell transplantation to regenerate blood. The drugs used for tumor reduction affect all the body cells that have a high division rate, which includes bone marrow, hair follicles and digestive linings. The problem is that chemotherapy triggers the blood’s incapacity to regenerate. When the bone marrow blood generating cells are destroyed, the only chance of blood production is through stem cell transplantation. To make it even clearer than that, stem cells will turn into specialized blood cells with their various functions: white cells, red cells and platelets.

Bone marrow transplant represents the most basic form of stem cell transplantation, and the practice of this treatment has brought numerous successes. The cancer patient often needs a compatible donor. If the compatibility with a donor is not possible, and the intervention is pressing, then, the patient’s bone marrow tissue can be used but on the one condition that it be collected prior to the beginning of the chemotherapy treatment. The stem cells will be frozen and stored at the stem cell bank until the intervention.

Modern stem cell transplantation options include the use of umbilical cord stem cell or peripheral blood collected either from a donor or from the patient. Nevertheless, such procedures are less common since they usually require modern technologies and special equipment. Hence, the bone marrow transplant remains the well-known kind of stem cell transplantation in the world. It enjoys a high rate of success, even if it often requires several transplants before complete blood regeneration. Normally, there will be a stem cell transplantation for every intensive chemotherapy session.

It is important that the doctor, the patient and his/her family as well as the donor be informed about the risks, the success rate, the advantages and the inconveniences of a stem cell transplantation. Risks, health threats, discomforts, pain, all have to be known or explained in advance. This is why the doctor has the obligation to inform the people involved and discuss possibilities as well as methods that work for the benefit of all, so that the result of the transplantation be a successful one.