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Aged 50 Health Insurance

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

For anyone who is in between the ages of 50 and 65 and you might be going to be seeking well being insurance or are searching for wellness insurance you will need some aid. This is really a tough age (needless to say what age is not beginning with all the terrible twos) mainly because you happen to be at a prime age to begin creating wellness difficulties.

Statistically speaking and statistics may be the only language insurance organizations speak, the insurance organization can predict they’re going to invest a lot more on 50-65 year old than a 20-45 year old. For that reason premiums are a lot greater for the older individual.

But, we Baby Boomers are a wise group and exactly where there’s a will, there’s a way. So let’s appear at a number of the selections:

In case you at the moment have a job and are seeking to retire or begin your own enterprise, you’ve got a couple of avenues you’ll be able to investigate. 1st you’ll be able to inquire if your corporation will let you purchase wellness insurance by way of the firm strategy.

If your organization will let you do this your employer (assuming we’re talking early retirement) may possibly subsidize portion of one’s premiums. If not, you nonetheless get group rates that are a entire lot less expensive than individual rates. In case you are married and your spouse is nonetheless working strongly take into account adding your self to his/her program if that selection is obtainable to you.

The subsequent choice (in case you at the moment have a job which delivers well being insurance) is COBRA or Consolidated Omnibus Spending budget Reconciliation Act. COBRA lets former workers and their dependents continue their employer’s group coverage for as much as 18 months. The very best factor about COBRA is it’s guaranteed.

Your former employer’s insurer cannot turn you down even when you might have a chronic medical condition. The worst factor about COBRA could be the expense. Your employer normally covers 70% or far more of one’s wellness insurance premium. With COBRA you must pay the complete premium plus administrative fees.

Market surveys indicate based on an typical premium (for 2007), a former employee would need to pay far more than $373 a month for individual coverage and far more than $1,008 a month for loved ones coverage.

If you’re not presently employed by a corporation who gives well being insurance you’ll find nonetheless alternatives for you. In case you have pre-existing conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure you’ll be able to obtain coverage by way of a state high-risk wellness program developed to assist those with medical conditions that avoid them from finding insurance. Once more although like COBRA the premiums is usually really high.

You may also look at specialist organizations you can join or are already affiliated with to see if they give wellness insurance policies for members. Due to the fact these are group plans, the premiums could be much less than what you’d pay inside the individual industry.

Lastly, there is certainly the individual wellness insurance alternative. There has been some progress when it comes to offerings of policies for the 50-65 year age group industry primarily simply because insurers see this age group as a prospective growth industry.

A lot of Baby Boomers are in great well being and have greater income than younger folks. Also insurance businesses hope that retirees will nonetheless buy their merchandise, for instance supplemental insurance, even soon after they’re eligible for Medicare.

Some of policies presently supplied might have premiums as low as $200 per month for individuals who are in great well being and willing to pay a high deductible. Numerous insurance guidance columnists suggest combining a high deductible individual well being insurance policy having a wellness savings account.

HSA contributions are produced with pretax dollars, and any funds left over within the account in the end with the year is rolled over for future use. Withdrawals aren’t taxed if employed for qualified medical costs.

Please visit our articles about Aetna Doc Find and Erie Insurance

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The Symptoms Of Ovarian Cancer

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

The uncontrolled growth of cells is a disease called cancer. Other malignant characteristics of cancer are an invasion that destroys adjacent tissues and metastasis i.e. the spreading to other areas of the body by means of the blood or the lymph glands. Benign tumors are unlike cancer in that they do not invade or metastasize.

Either environmental or hereditary factors can be the cause of cancer. Primarily, it is an environmental disease with enhanced danger from genetic influences. The main environmental reasons behind the cause of cancer are obesity, smoking, pollution, illness and radiation etc..

Ovarian cancer is one of the most common sorts of cancer. It takes place in the ovaries of women which is why it is known as ovarian cancer. There are two ovaries in females, one on either side of the uterus. Both eggs and hormones i.e. estrogen, testosterone and progesterone are made by the ovaries.

Usually, it occurs in those women who have reached their menopause. Usually an ovarian cancer is a sort of epithelial cancer i.e. cancer in the outer cells of an ovary. Most common kinds of epithelial cancer of the ovaries are serous. Less commonly known sorts are clear cell and endometrioid ovarian cancers

Almost 85% of the women treated for ovarian cancer are over the age of 50, although there are possibilities of its occurrence in younger women as well. Multiple genetic mutations are the cause of this cancer. The risk of the disease is greater in those women who have never had a baby.

The danger is higher for those whose menstrual cycle starts at an early age and whose menopause occurs late. Infertility is the biggest danger factor behind this disease. Personal or family history of breast cancer increases the risk of ovarian cancer too.

The symptoms of the disease are not specific to it and it normally begins stealthily. Some of the indications of ovarian cancer are pelvic pain, abdominal pressure, indigestion or wind, constipation, lower back pain, the frequent need to urinate, loss of appetite, pain with intercourse, alterations in the menstrual cycle and a deficiency of energy.

The indications of ovarian cancer tend to be persistent and they worsen with time. An appointment with a doctor must be made if any of the above mentioned indications occur every day for two to three weeks. If someone has a family history of this cancer, she should make contact with her physician for further diagnosis of the problems.

The most common diagnostic procedures and check ups are pelvic examination, ultrasound, CA 125 blood test and surgery for removing samples to test (biopsy). Four stages of ovarian cancer are recognized according to the intensity of the disease.

The treatment of ovarian cancer is possible. Researchers are working on creating methods of identifying it at earlier stages because it is very problematic to treat it at later stages. The most common form of treatment for ovarian cancer is a combination of chemotherapy and surgery.

Healthy habits like eating a balanced diet, exercising and getting enough sleep can be useful to control your symptoms of the disease. Although there is no sure way to protect you from this disease, the risk of getting ovarian cancer can be reduced by considering the risks and advantages of using birth control pills and discussing issues with your medical doctor.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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What Are The Symptoms Of Ovarian Cancer?

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are fairly problematic to recognize regrettably. This is because they are similar to the indications of regular menstruation or menopause that many (or most) women experience frequently anyway. The chance that women who still menstruate have, is if they notice that some of the regular feelings are not quite right.

Menopausal women have a bigger problem because they are new to their condition and it is so erratic anyway. The indications of ovarian cancer include: abdominal pain, a feeling of being bloated, twinges and tiredness.

That is why it is so difficult to use these symptoms as predictors or ovarian cancer. However, if you have these indications at a time when you would not normally do so, or if they last longer than usual, then it would be worth checking with a doctor or your gynecologist.

If you are worried, naturally, you will have to have a check up, but if you are ‘umming and ahhing’, endeavor to find out whether someone in your family has had ovarian cancer before. There is a tendency for it to run in families, but that is the case or most types of cancer really.

However, if you are looking into your family’s history of cancer, remember that cancer can out itself in different ways. for instance, a man obviously cannot get ovarian cancer, but if your dad died of cancer you have an increased likelihood too, albeit it in possibly another kind.

Age is another issue in the likelihood of someone having this form of cancer – the older the more likely to be expected. There is also another bizarre twist here. Women who have had a number of children are least at risk, women who have chosen not to have children are more at danger, and women who have always been incapable of having children are most at danger.

The fact is that this is such a difficult form of cancer to home-diagnose that it is hardly worth the effort. You have to listen to your body and trust your gut feelings. If things are not the same as you are used to, go and have a check up as soon as you can.

Apart from that, go for a ordinary check up anyway. Different countries have different recommendations, but whatever advice that your doctor or gynecologist gives you, you should follow. Ovarian cancer can be treated successfully and not just that but if it is caught early enough in young women, treatment does not automatically mean loss of fertility.

So, the watchword is do not miss your check ups. Almost 75% of women who are diagnosed early can expect a complete recovery. Young women have an even higher chance than older women, which means that older women should go for check ups more frequently than younger women.

Do not be apathetic about this form of cancer even though the symptoms of ovarian cancer are not simple to recognize, in fact that is a very good reason for you to let an expert check you out. The tests are not invasive and consist of merely a blood test and an ultra sound scan.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on quite a few subjects, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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Do Vegetarians Get Less Cancer?

Monday, July 4th, 2011

Most people have a nebulous idea that eating meat is bad for you and that eating vegetables will prevent you from developing some serious illnesses such as cancer. Not everybody believes this, but still there is an under current or popular belief that it is so.

It absolutely is the case that you will consume less animal fat if you become a vegetarian. However, even vegetarians normally eat some animal fats when they eat shop-bought cakes or meals in restaurants. There are in essence two schools of ideology on dietary fat.

The traditional view is that decreasing saturated fats is good for you but there is the Atkins Diet concept that saturated fats will not hurt you but carbohydrates will. Unfortunately, the average guy in the street who does not have a medical degree only has to go with his or her best judgment and hope for the best. After all, if the specialists can not agree on what is healthy and what is not good for us, what chance do we have of knowing?

It is almost certainly fairly true that eating less saturated fat and eating more fibre-rich vegetables and fruit is a good notion, but there is no real need to cut out meat all together. Some studies in Europe have suggested that vegetarians are up to 40% less to be expected to develop cancer than meat-eaters.

Furthermore, studies into breast cancer rates around the world suggest that there is less breast cancer in countries where they eat less meat like China and other eastern countries, whereas in Japan, where the American presence has meant that more people eat a la American, the rate of breast cancer is eight times higher.

This tends to suggest that the American diet of plenty of saturated fat and processed meat like hamburgers and hot dogs is responsible for higher rates of cancer.

It is also said that meat and dairy products contribute to the development of a number of types of cancer including breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancers. Colon cancer seems to be the most affected by a high consumption of meat and dairy with one report stating that it can raise the risk by an enormous 300%.

One recognized difficulty for adults with drinking milk is that it can raise the body’s amount of oestrogen which is the ‘female’ hormone. This can produce breasts in overweight men and arise the risk of breast cancer in both sexes.

It has been reported that one study into cancer in premenopausal women showed that those who consumed meat had a thirty-odd percent more chance of getting cancer. Eating dairy products has been linked with ovarian cancer, because it seems that breaking down lactose damages the ovaries somehow.

There is a similar trend in men. Men who eat meat every day have a higher danger of prostate cancer, some say up to three times as high and drinking milk might double the risk too. Those men who do not eat vegetables at all or very occasionally quadruple their chances of prostate cancer.

It is very difficult to know what to do, because various studies by different bodies reveal different findings. If you do not know who to follow, it seems best to try to follow a balanced diet in which fruit and vegetables make up the majority of the bulk and calories.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on quite a few topics, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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Avoiding Cancer Of The Lungs

Saturday, June 18th, 2011

Cancer is the top or second biggest killer in most countries in the world in spite of the fact that there has been a blitz on smoking. There are not that many countries left in the Western world where there are not some limitations on smoking. This is hardly surprising actually, we all know what smoke and pollution is doing to the world’s ozone layer and to the world’s foliage – it’s lungs – so why should it not be doing the same to us? In spades, even?

Cancer is a condition where cells start growing out of control, as most of us already know. The majority of individuals affected are more than forty rears old and it affects women smokers equally as much as men smokers. By tradition, more men smoked than women, but that ratio is altering.

Nowadays, it is more common to see women smoking than men. This is normally because women endeavor to use smoking as a hunger suppressant – in other words an aid to losing weight.

Smoking is the foremost reason for cancer and so it is expected that over the next decades, that there will be a higher percentage of women dying of lung cancer than men for the first time in history.

An off-shoot of smoking is passive smoking, which is the situation in which someone breathes the secondhand smoke of a smoker. This used to take place most often in bars and offices, but smoking there has now been banned, so it is expected that most passive smoking now takes place in the home, which puts children most at risk. There are comparable experiences to passive smoking from pollutants from vehicles.

The difficulty with lung cancer is that there is no cure. Your body can repair itself if you give it a fair chance, but it does need a fair opportunity. Many people have been able to do well with a little lung cancer, but you cannot do well with merely a couple of percent of your lungs.

This is why some of the symptoms of lung cancer are coughing, wheezing, blood in the phlegm that smokers cough up, being out of breath and having chest pains. Heavy smokers who are developing lung cancer are often under weight as well.

Unfortunately, chemotherapy and radiotherapy do not have a great deal of effect on this form of cancer. The most a sufferer can look forward to is a wheezy life in an oxygen tent. And not a long life at that. Drugs can alleviate the pain and improve breathing, but not much more.

Surgery can help, but you just have so much lung capacity and if that is cut away it will not grow back. You can do fairly well with just one lung, but a full and active normal life is difficult. You would need an inhaler to walk any distance.

The other thing is that blood flows through the lungs to pick up oxygen which it distributes to each part of your body. While it is oxygenating this blood it will also pick up cancerous cells and distribute these over your whole body too. It could well be that it is one of these secondary cancers that will do for you.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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Cancer Prevention And What Green Tea Can Do

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Most people are scared rigid of contracting cancer. That is quite understandable – who wants to spend a few years experiencing chemotherapy only to die a few years later? Or even if you recover it is a couple of years out of your life that have been worrying and gruelling. And not only for the patient but for friends and family too.

So, some people do everything possible to reduce the risks of getting cancer. Most of us do not think we know how to do this, others are not sure, but they have heard or read something that sounds ‘about right’ and others are convinced that they know how to avoid getting cancer.

My wife is convinced that I might get cancer from eating burnt toast and others are convinced that they can stave off cancer by saturating their flesh with green tea. It has often been pointed out and for decades as well, that countries where green tea is the norm, say the Far East, have a much lower incidence of cancer than we do in the West.

And this is probably the case at the moment. But why is it true? I live in Asia and diabetes is the number one cause of death near me. Do Asians not get cancer as much as we do because they drink green tea or for other reasons?

In fact, where I live in Northern Thailand, I have never seen anyone drink tea or coffee or accept a cup off me, except my wife. Villagers here drink water or alcohol, depending on the time of day. Kids love Cola or Sprite or whatever because they watch as well much television, but drink a lot of water.

It is said that green tea is an anti-oxidant and it is alleged that anti-oxidants help get rid of free radicals which can cause cancer. If this is true, then the claims for green tea are maybe more believable.

However, the claims are so all-embracing that it makes me sceptical. I am reading a report just now that claims that green tea will prevent the formation of cancerous cells in the: “… aesophagus, bladder, on the skin, in the ovaries, the pancreas and the prostate”.

That is a very tall order indeed.

The problem for me with all these claims is that they are not corroborated – there are no references that you can follow that do not lead to companies selling green tea. This is a problem.

Some will say that the government or the pharmaceutical businesses are suppressing the knowledge because they want to sell more expensive drugs – and this may be the case – grist to the mill for conspiracy theorists and retailers of Chinese tea.

Now that we appear to be entering into a ‘new era’, a more sceptical and more enlightened era (thanks a great deal to the World Wide Web), couldn’t someone do some investigation on green tea and Acai berries and all the rest of the stuff you read of in your junk emails and put an end once and for all to the false hopes, if that is what they are, that we are being sold each day by unscrupulous advertisers hoping for a quick buck?

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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Is Hair Transplant Surgery Good For Women?

Saturday, June 4th, 2011

People associate balding with men and that is not surprising as most western men do go bald sooner or later. Most men actually hate going bald. Some take to brushing their hair in a different fashion, having it cut short or even shaved off altogether or they wear a hat. Increasingly, men are seeing balding as a natural process over which they have no control and just get on with their lives. This is a step in the correct direction.

However, women go bald as well, or at least it is possible that they can do. Traditionally western women care more about their looks than their men folk do and so women can take it very badly when or if they start losing their hair. Some women take to wearing a wig and others attempt a hair transplant.

The problem is that men and women lose their hair for different reasons and hair transplants favour the causes of men’s baldness over women’s.

Typical male baldness is known as ‘male pattern baldness’ and everybody knows men whom it has affected. It means that men lose hair initially at the front, a receding hairline, and then on the top; leaving a band of hair running about three sides of the head. The three lower sides actually have healthy, growing, self-replicating follicles.

It is this hair that is used if a man goes for a hair transplant – healthy hair and it has to do with testosterone, the male hormone, as oestrogen is the female hormone.

Female baldness tends to have an effect on the whole of the head at the same time, which means that there is not a crop of healthy hair follicles from which to transplant hair to other regions of the head. This makes most women unsuitable clients for a hair transplant.

Fortunately for women up to about retirement age, baldness merely affects a small percentage of them unless it is through illness or the treatment of an illness. On the other hand, only about 5% of women are good candidates for a hair transplant. Women who have lost their hair due to using rollers for a long period of time, usually have a couple of regions of good hair left that can be utilized for transplanting.

Other women who have a decent chance of a successful hair transplant are those who have a form of male pattern baldness and those who have lost hair due to trauma surrounding regions of surgery. Those who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy, will often make a full or near full recovery when the chemo sessions are over.

The easiest option for older women is to wear a wig. It is not ideal, naturally, but it does restore some confidence to those who could not otherwise go out without hair. Other choices are hats, scarves and turbans, jus like many women wore in the Twenties and Thirties.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of topics, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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Melanoma Or Skin Cancer

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Melanoma is the most common kind of skin cancer and skin cancer is the most prevalent kind of cancer in the Western world. It begins in skin cells called melanocytes.

Melanocytes are found under the skin, which is made up of two layers: the epidermis on the outside and the dermis below that. To be accurate, melanocytes are found in the lowest strata of the epidermis, but not actually in the dermis.

These cells produce melanin, which has an effect on the epidermis? pigmentation, both natural skin colour and because of exposure to the sun as in tanning.

Sometimes, a group of near-by melanocytes combine with a little local tissue to form a mole (also called a nevus; plural nevi). The average individual has between ten and forty moles, which usually seem before the fortieth birthday. They often fade or disappear with age.

Moles are non-malignant (non-cancerous) and can be flat or raised in shape and almost any colour. Normally, they are slightly darker than one?s natural skin colour. Dark skinned individuals are likely to have more moles.

Cancer starts in cells where the normal cycle of decay and replacement by regeneration has been Upset. Under these conditions, cells do not always die when they ought to and new cells are produced needlessly.

This, in turn, creates a growth (also known as a tumor), which can be either benign or malignant (that is to say cancerous or non-cancerous).

Benign tumors can be surgically removed and hardly ever come back. They do not spread or affect surrounding tissue.

Malignant tumors are cancerous and can have an effect on adjacent tissue and organs. In these cases, cancerous cells can break away from the primary tumor and affect other organs or enter the blood stream (lymphatic system), whereby it will spread to other parts of the body (metastasis) very quickly. The rate of metastasis is a deciding factor in how a surgeon deals with cancer.

Melanoma happens when melanocytes become malignant. It can occur at any age, but the likelihood rise with age. Fair-skinned people are more probable to develop it than dark-skinned people. In fair-skinned races, men tend to get it on the torso and neck, whereas women get it on their calves (lower legs).

Dark-skinned individuals seldom suffer from melanoma, but if they do, it is normally under the finger and toe nails or on the soles of the feet or palms of the hands. When cancerous cells from melanoma enter the lymphatic system and have an effect on other organs, it is still attributed to melanoma. For example, if the liver becomes affected by cancerous cells from melanoma, it is referred to as metastatic melanoma, not liver cancer.

Often, the first indication of melanoma is a change in the size, shape, colour, or texture of an existing mole, although it frequently first manifests itself with a new mole or moles. Self-diagnosis is not to be relied on – always seek professional advice if you have any worries relating to your skin. However, it is wise to remember ?The ABCD of Melanoma?, which goes like this:

Asymmetry: the shape of one side of the mole is not the same as the other side.

Border: the border or edges of the mole are not plainly defined; a bit ragged or the colouration ?leaks? into the adjacent skin.

Colouration: the mole is not uniformly of one colour, although it is not so vital what that colour is.

Diameter: there is a change in size or a new mole grows larger than 5mm in size.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on quite a few topics, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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Who Is At Risk Of Ovarian Cancer?

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Ovarian cancer that accounts for over 25,000 newly diagnosed cases of cancer each year only in the United States Of America is by and large detected in the later stages when it has already spread outside the ovaries. Ovarian cancer or a group of malignant tumors start in tissues of different types in the ovary.

Most cancers of the ovary start in the epithelial or outer layer of cells, with rarer kinds beginning in the egg forming germ cells or the stroma in the ovaries. However it is incorrect to assume that all tumors and cysts could become cancerous, for non-cancerous or benign tumors are more common than cancer of the ovary.

Cancer of the ovary or ovarian cancer is the 7th most common cancer among women in America; with only one out of five cases diagnosed in the early stage when effectual treatment can be implemented. However most women might like to know the danger factors for ovarian cancer and take care to go in for early diagnosis.

It is best to realize that danger does not mean a certainty, it only indicates an increased likelihood to develop this type of cancer.

They say that a strong family history of cancer of the breasts, uterus, colon and rectum could expose a woman to cancer of the ovaries also. A family history could include one’s blood relations like grandmother, mother, daughter or sister, with a family history of cancer at a young age contributing to a higher likelihood for ovarian cancer. A genetic counselor could suggest genetic check ups for you, certain genetic alterations indicating an increased risk for cancer of the ovaries.

It is important to note that each woman that has a personal history of cancer and has been already afflicted with cancer of the breast, uterus, colon or rectum stands a higher likelihood to get ovarian cancer.

It is to be noted that cancer has the tendency to spread quickly and chemotherapy and radiation can just treat or remove cancer for some time. In addition to the development of new cells there is every opportunity for it to spread to other organs of the body as well.

It is true that women that have attained menopause and older women that have never had children have a greater likelihood to develop cancer of the ovaries. Postmenopausal use of hormones like hormone replacement therapy for a period of 10 years and more could rise the likelihood of getting ovarian cancer, with estrogen replacement therapy or ERT having the highest danger followed by estrogen-progestin replacement therapy or EPRT. It is also the case that obesity and use of talcum powder also create a higher risk factor.

The indications of ovarian cancer after it develops to some extent could be pressure with or without pain and bloating experienced in the abdomen, pelvis, back and legs, feeling of nausea with indigestion, flatulence, constipation or diarrhea and a feeling of tiredness most of the time. In rare instances you could experience shortness of breath, the frequent urge to urinate and heavy periods after stoppage of periods.

However it can be hard to diagnose ovarian cancer and the only one who can do it in the right manner is a GP.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on quite a few subjects, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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Throat Cancer Does Not Actually Exist – But You Have To Be Careful.

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

Really there is no such medical illness known as ?throat cancer?, although several sorts of cancer can arise in the throat and neck. The proper medical term for the throat is the ?pharynx?, which can be defined as: ‘the passage that ensures that food and drink go to the stomach and air to and from the lungs’.

The pharynx is made up of three parts: the oropharynx (the back of the mouth, including the soft palate and back of the tongue); nasopharynx (connecting the back of the nose to the back of the mouth); laryngopharynx (connecting the oropharynx and nasopharynx to the start of the gullet (oesophagus) and the windpipe (trachea) via the voice box (larynx)).

The laryngopharynx is sometimes known as the hypopharynx. ?Throat cancer? can be cancer of any of these, although the most common kind of ?throat cancer? is nasopharyngeal cancer.

Just to make the term ?throat cancer? even more inadequate and puzzling, some individuals apply it to cancer of the thyroid gland (situated at the front of the base of the neck), cancer of the voice box (larynx), cancer of the gullet or cancer of the windpipe (trachea), which actually comes into the lung cancer group.

Most head and neck cancerous cells are squamous, which is to say that they do not travel far from their origin, although they often have an impact on the lymph nodes. In fact, the first symptom of head or throat cancer is frequently an enlarged neck lymph node, which is also occasionally called throat cancer.

A different sign could be the appearance of white areas or spots in the mouth that will not respond to medication. Known as leukoplakia, 33% of them become cancerous. It is estimated that 7,000 Americans die of a throat cancer each year, often because it was detected late. Ethnicity might also play a part, since African American men are 50% more at risk of throat cancer than Caucasian men.

These cancers are relatively painless in early stages and can be confused with toothache, earache, sore throat or croakiness. Once established however, they develop very quickly, although if caught at an early stage, they can almost always be successfully removed.

There is a extensive variety of causes why someone can be at a heightened risk for a throat cancer, including smoking; chewing tobacco and other items, such as betel nut, gutkha, marijuana or pan; excessive alcohol consumption; poor diet resulting in vitamin deficiencies (worse if this is caused by substantial alcohol intake); weakened immune system; asbestos exposure; prolonged exposure to timber dust or paint fumes; exposure to petroleum, industrial chemicals, and being over the age of 55 years.

The presence of acid reflux disease (gastroesphogeal reflux disease – GERD) or larynx reflux disease can also be a key factor. In the case of acid reflux disease, stomach acids flow up into the oesophagus and harm its lining, making it more liable to throat cancer.

Because successful treatment depends on early detection, routine oral examination is suggested. Your dentist will have been trained to be on the look out for early symptoms, making a bi-annual visit to the dentist even more worthwhile

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with the stages of ovarian cancer. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Signs and Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

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