Posts Tagged ‘Bones’

What are benefits of Vitamin C during cold or viral?

What is vitamin C?
Vitamin C is an important vitamin and antioxidant that the body uses to keep you strong and healthy. Vitamin C is used in
- the maintenance of bones,
- muscle,
- blood vessels.
- the formation of collagen
- helps the body absorb iron

Vitamin C is found naturally in:
- vegetables
- oranges
- other citrus fruits.

This key vitamin is also available as a natural dietary supplement in the form of vitamin C pills and vitamin C chew able tablets.

Vitamin C and Common Cold
- The common cold is caused by several strains of viruses which includes the rhinovirus and the coronavirus.
- However, vitamin C does not prevent the common cold or decrease the severity of symptoms.
- In the 1970s, Linus Pauling argued that vitamin C could significantly decrease the incidence of the common cold.
- Vitamin C for the common cold is such a widely accepted treatment.
- We seek it in fortified juices, cough drops, and tea.
- Vitamin C was first touted for the common cold in the 1970s.

Other facts found are
- The average adult who suffers with a cold for 12 days a year would still suffer for 11 days a year if that person took a high dose of vitamin C every day during that year.
- For the average child who suffers about 28 days of cold illness a year, taking daily high-dose vitamin C would still mean 24 days of cold illness.
- When vitamin C was tested for treatment of colds in 7 separate studies, vitamin C was no more effective than placebo at shortening the duration of cold symptoms.

A prospective, controlled study focuses on:
- 715 students in a technical training facility found that vitamin C in mega doses administered before or after the appearance of cold and flu symptoms relieved and prevented the symptoms in the test population compared with the control group.
- More than 30 clinical trials with over 10,000 participants have examined the effects of taking daily vitamin C in doses up to 2 g/day.
- A review of Cochrane, PubMed, Natural Standard, and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine databases found that regular vitamin C intake may reduce the duration of cold symptoms in both adults and children.
- It does not decrease the severity of cold symptoms.
- However, in a subgroup of marathon runners, skiers, and soldiers training in the Arctic doses ranging from 250 mg/day to 1 g/day decreased the incidence of colds by 50%.
- Researchers concluded that vitamin C does not prevent or treat the common cold.
- It is better to consume natural foods such as red peppers, oranges, strawberries and grapefruit.
- It is acceptable to consume vitamin C from a supplement and still maintain adequate intake levels.

Daily Dosage
- The recommended daily allowance for vitamin C in the United States is 75 mg per day for women and 90 mg per day for men
- Taking doses above the RDA may have healthful benefits.
- Typically 70-90% of vitamin C is absorbed in the body but when taken in doses higher than 1 g, absorption decreases to 75%
- Further, it decreases to merely 16% after a 12 g dose.
- Popular vitamin C supplementation products, such as Airborne or Emergen-C, contain much higher doses of vitamins than necessary.

Overdose of vitamin C
- Taking vitamin C supplements in the recommended amounts is safe.
- The RDA or recommended daily allowance is 90 mg for men and 75 mg for women.
- High doses of vitamin C (greater than 2000 milligrams per day for adults) may cause kidney stones, nausea and diarrhea.

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How to treat Bone cancer by Cryosurgery?

Bone Cancer is the cancer that begins in the bone. Primary bone cancer is relatively uncommon with secondary or metastatic cancer. This is cancer that occurs initially in another organ and then spreads to bone tissue.

The most common types of bone cancer includes:
- Osteosarcoma,
- Ewing’s sarcoma,
- Chondrosarcoma,
- Malignant fibrous histiocytoma,
- Fibrosarcoma,
- Chordoma

Diagnosis of bone cancer:
- Check for a complete medical history.
- A description of your symptoms can help.
- A complete physical examination can help find the cause of your symptoms.
- Testing your muscle strength.
- Sensation to touch
- Reflexes
- Certain blood tests
- Plain X-rays
Benign tumors are more likely to have a smooth border while malignant tumors have a ragged border on X-ray images.

- A CT scan
- An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan.
- An angiogram, which is an x-ray of blood vessels.
- A bone scan.
- Obtain a biopsy sample of the tumor.
- Get examined in the laboratory by a pathologist.
- Determine what kind of tumor it is.

What is the treatment for bone cancer?
The best treatment is based on:
- the type of bone cancer,
- the location of the cancer,
- how aggressive the cancer is,
- whether or not the cancer has invaded surrounding or distant tissues (metastasized).

The main types of treatment for bone cancer:
- Surgery,
- Chemotherapy,
- Radiation therapy
- Cryosurgery
These can be used either individually or combined with each other.

Process of Cryosurgery
- This method is the use of liquid nitrogen to freeze and kill cancer cells.
- This technique can sometimes be used instead of conventional surgery to destroy the tumor.
- The application of liquid nitrogen as a local adjuvant to curettage in the treatment of bone tumors was first introduced three decades ago.
- Cryosurgery was shown to achieve excellent local control.
- It is used for a variety of benign-aggressive and malignant bone tumors.
- Cryosurgery can cause significant morbidity if performed inappropriately.

An effective and safe procedure must follow these consecutive steps:
- Adequate exposure of the tumor cavity.
- Meticulous curettage and burr drilling.
- Soft-tissue mobilization and protection.
- Introduction of LN to the tumor cavity.
- Internal fixation of the cavity after cryotherapy.
- Protection of the operated bone throughout the healing period.

Side effects
- The exposure of normal bone and soft tissues (skin, muscles, nerves, and blood vessels) to the freezing effect of LN can result in significant morbidity.
- Early studies of the use of cryosurgery in the treatment of bone high complication rates, mostly pathological fractures and infections.

How to treat bone cancer by radiotherapy?

Bone Cancer is the cancer that begins in the bone. Primary bone cancer is relatively uncommon with secondary or metastatic cancer. This is cancer that occurs initially in another organ and then spreads to bone tissue.

The most common types of bone cancer includes:
- Osteosarcoma,
- Ewing’s sarcoma,
- Chondrosarcoma,
- Malignant fibrous histiocytoma,
- Fibrosarcoma,
- Chordoma

Diagnosis of bone cancer:
- Check for a complete medical history.
- A description of your symptoms can help.
- A complete physical examination can help find the cause of your symptoms.
- Testing your muscle strength.
- Sensation to touch
- Reflexes
- Certain blood tests
- Plain X-rays
Benign tumors are more likely to have a smooth border while malignant tumors have a ragged border on X-ray images.

- A CT scan
- An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan.
- An angiogram, which is an x-ray of blood vessels.
- A bone scan.
- Obtain a biopsy sample of the tumor.
- Get examined in the laboratory by a pathologist.
- Determine what kind of tumor it is.

What is the treatment for bone cancer?
The best treatment is based on:
- the type of bone cancer,
- the location of the cancer,
- how aggressive the cancer is,
- whether or not the cancer has invaded surrounding or distant tissues (metastasized).

The main types of treatment for bone cancer:
- Surgery,
- Chemotherapy,
- Radiation therapy
- Cryosurgery
These can be used either individually or combined with each other.

Process of Radiotherapy
- The radiation therapy uses high-energy X-ray aimed at the site of the cancer.
- This is to try to kill the cancer cells.
- This treatment is given in small doses daily over a period of days to months.
- Radiation therapy can be used either before or after a potential surgery.
- It depends on the specific type of cancer.
- These high-energy rays are used to damage cancer cells and stop them from growing and dividing.
- A specialist in radiation therapy is called a radiation oncologist.

Types of Radiation Therapy are:
Radiation therapy is a local treatment. It affects cancer cells only in the treated area.
- Radiation can come from a machine (external radiation).
- It can also come from an implant (a small container of radioactive material) placed directly into or near the tumor (internal radiation).
- Some patients need both kinds of radiation therapy.

External Radiation Therapy
- It is usually given on an outpatient basis in a hospital or clinic 5 days a week for a number of weeks.
- Patients are not radioactive during or after the treatment.

Internal Radiation Therapy
- The patient stays in the hospital for a few days.
- The implant may be temporary or permanent.
- The level of radiation is highest during the hospital stay.
- Once an implant is removed, there is no radioactivity in the body.
- The amount of radiation in a permanent implant goes down to a safe level before the patient leaves.

Other facts
- The most common type of radiation treatment is called external-beam radiation therapy.
- Radiation therapy is most often used for patients with a tumor that cannot be removed by surgery.
- This is also used where patient may have cancer cells remaining after surgery.
- Radiation therapy may be done before surgery to shrink the tumor also.
- Radiation therapy makes it possible to do less extensive surgery, often preserving the arm or leg.
- Radiation therapy may also be used to relieve pain for people with advanced bone cancer.
- For patients with Ewing’s sarcoma, radiation therapy may be combined with chemotherapy and surgery.

Side effects from radiation therapy may include:
- fatigue
- mild skin reactions
- upset stomach
- loose bowel movements
Most side effects go away soon after treatment is finished.