Breastfeeding is Good for Everyone Involved

December 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Whether you do it in public or behind closed doors, you cover yourself or go full frontal or decide not to do it at all, breastfeeding has health benefits for everyone involved. Everyone knows that breastfeeding your child passes on immunities, helps the baby bond with its mother, and provides your baby with all the nutrients it needs. There are many benefits for the mother too like losing weight and there is evidence to prove that breastfeeding is linked to lower probability of breast cancer in the mother and the female baby.

According to a study posted online by the New York Times, the lower number of women with breast cancer who breastfed specifically targets those who have breast cancer in their families. The study included over 60,000 participants but will continue to further prove their findings. A study quoted by Dr. Jay Gordon shows if you are breastfed as a child, you are 20-35% less likely to develop breast cancer in adult life, specifically post menopausal. This study is just proof that feeding your baby is a substantial way to take care of yourself as well as your baby.

Breastfeeding also burns up to 600 calories a day. This can be a diet all by itself, but would of course be further helped with diet and exercise. Sitting in a chair, bonding with your baby, giving it the nutrition you know it needs and be able to burn calories to lose that baby weight really seems like the ideal situation for mother and baby. The breastfeeding also sends a hormone through your body to hasten the shrinking of you uterus and the hip bones.

It is up to the mother and the family whether or not breastfeeding suits your lifestyle or not, but losing weight quicker and a chance to not have specific types of cancer sound like positive things to consider when making your choice.

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Early Detection of Lung Cancer is Being Studied

November 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Cancer is a huge problem in our world. More and more people are being diagnosed each year with some form of cancer, and many times the detection of this cancer comes at a late stage. This is very difficult, because at certain points, there is no longer much that can be done in the way of treatment.

Recently, though, researches have developed an amazing way to help doctors detect much earlier signs of cancer in the lungs. Lung cancer is said to be one of the absolute deadliest cancers that we face, and as with all forms of cancer, early detection is extremely important. The new method of finding lung cancer early is actually fairly easy, and non invasive.

If it is a concern that you may have lung cancer, a quick swab of the cells in your cheek can help your doctor screen you for this deadly disease. It has been found that just shining diffuse light on these cells that are taken from the cheek can help doctors detect lung cancer long before they would normally be able to. Being able to detect the cancer at this early stage is thought to be able to give many people a much better chance at treatment for the disease.

Currently, there is only about a 15 percent five year survival rate for patients with lung cancer, once it is found. By the time it is found, the cancer has generally developed to a severe stage. With this new science that will allow doctors to detect the cancer early, it is expected that the survival rate will significantly increase, as the cancer will be able to be found at a much earlier stage.

In studies that have been conducted, there was a better than 80 percent rate of accuracy at finding patients with early stages of cancer. These results are very close in number to other cancer screening techniques that we use; the pap smear, for example.

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Science – Creativity and Accidental Inventions

September 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment
One role of scientists is to determine how substances and objects behave. We may have the ability to measure and observe things, but it might not occur to us to look at them in different ways. This is where creativity can really help in science. It is amazing when someone looks at a phenomenon or substance that nobody ever thought was relevant or important, and discovers that it directly impacts a problem or need. Another very important role of a scientist is to determine practical applications for phenomena that are discovered. In 1907, Henry Joseph Round placed electrodes on a silicon carbide crystal, and discovered that colored light was emitted at the cathode. This was the first light emitting diode. Perhaps he never imagined what would be done with light emitting diodes in subsequent decades.

X-rays Discovered While Studying Something Else

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered the x-ray while evaluating a different kind of cathode ray. When he found that this new ray could pass through the human body, and create images of bones on photographic paper, he had benefited medical science immeasurably, although that was far from his original purpose.

A medical doctor, George Papanicolaou was studying changes that take place in cells during the course of the menstrual cycle. By chance, one of his subjects had uterine cancer, and he discovered that cancer cells were clearly visible in the sample of fluid he examined under a microscope. This led to the development of the Pap smear, an extremely successful, life-saving early detection test for cancer.

3M Corporation researcher Spencer Silver thought he had failed in his attempt to create a powerful adhesive, until a colleague discovered that the weak glue Silver had made would cause paper to stick temporarily, and leave no mark when removed. Post-it notes had been invented.

All of the above examples have the following in common: creativity and open-mindedness allowed the unexpected results of experiments to turn into great benefits for mankind. Many great inventions have resulted from quests for something quite different.

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