| A breast self-exam is important to help you notice any unusual lumps or change in appearance of your breasts.
It is advised that women from age 20 begin breast self-exams. According to the American Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines, a breast self-exam is an important part of general breast health. |
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Breast Self-Exam
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| When is the right time to do a breast self-exam?
The best time to perform a breast self-exam is about a week after your period ends, when your breast usually are not tender or swollen. If you have attained menopause, breast self-exam should be performed on the same day each month (e.g. 1st of every month or 1st sunday of every month) |
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| What should I focus on while examining breast?
Focus on how your breasts look and feel. The following are steps that will take you through a complete breast self exam:
Step 1: Stand in front of a large mirror and observe the size and shape of your breast. You will also need to pay attention to the color and texture. Step 2: Now assess your breast by looking at mirror in four different postures: |
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Arms Raised Above
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Arms placed over your waist
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What you should look for:
If you see any of the following changes, bring them to your doctor’s attention:
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While in the bath
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How Breast Self Examination perform…..reduce risk of breast cancer
About,,,,,,, Benign breast tumours…….
Most lumps discovered in the breast are benign. Even for lumps where a biopsy is considered appropriate, studies suggest that over 80 percent are not cancerous.
Although this is a reassuring thought, it is vital to report any changes in your breast to your doctor as soon as possible, so these changes can be checked.
Several tests are used to distinguish these conditions from each other and from breast cancer. Often a clinical breast exam and ultrasound are sufficient for diagnosis. For other conditions, a biopsy may be appropriate to ensure that cancer or hyperplasia is not present.
There are several common types of benign breast disease.
Fibrocystic Changes
As they age, some women feel multiple lumps in their breasts. Sometimes called benign breast disease, the connective tissue in these women’s breasts becomes ropy or fibrous.
This is more obvious with age, as the milk-producing glands begin to be displaced by softer, fatty tissue. It may also be more apparent during pregnancy. Lumps are usually felt around the nipple, the areola and in the upper, outer part of the breast. Unless a woman is taking hormone replacement therapy, this lumpiness usually dissipates after menopause.
Cysts and fibroademonas are both examples of fibrocystic changes:
Cysts
Cysts are fluid-filled sacs like blisters. They can be easily identified by ultrasound because they are fluid filled.
They occur most often in women 35-50 and may swell in the weeks before a woman’s menstrual period. If they are painful and require treatment, they can usually be drained with a fine needle aspiration.
Fibroadenomas
A fibroadenoma is a solid tumour that contains both connective tissue (fibro) and tissue from the milk glands (adenoma). A fibroadenoma usually feels round and rubbery.
It is the most common type of lump found by women in their teens and twenties and is more common in black women. Fibroademonas can often be clearly identified by ultrasound, although sometimes a core needle biopsy is suggested. They may be removed if they are growing or are very large.
Fat necrosis
This condition most often occurs in overweight women with large breasts or following surgical breast procedures or breast trauma. Fat necrosis causes hard, painless lumps and may make the skin appear bruised or red. These tumours are usually removed to ensure they are not cancerous.
Infections can also cause lumps and breast pain. With an infection, the nipple may also release a cloudy discharge. Clear or slightly cloudy nipple discharges may also occur with other benign conditions.
Hyperplasia
Hyperplasia means excess cell growth. If you have a breast lump your doctor may suggest a biopsy to examine the tissue for signs of hyperplasia or cancer. If signs of hyperplasia or excess cell growth are observed in the tissue, your risk of breast cancer may be slightly increased and your doctor will encourage you to monitor your breasts carefully for further changes.
Hyperplastic cells appear in about 25 percent of biopsies of benign conditions.
If the cells are hyperplastic and also appear abnormal this is called atypical hyperplasia. Atypical hyperplasia (AH) is present in about five percent of biopsies of benign conditions. Women who have been diagnosed with AH have a moderately increased risk of breast cancer.
A large American study which followed thousands of women with AH for many years showed that eight percent of women with AH but no family history of breast cancer, and 20 percent of women with AH and a family history developed breast cancer in 10 years. If you are diagnosed with AH, your doctor will likely recommend more frequent clinical breast exams and/or mammograms.
The use of preventative drugs such as tamoxifen may also be considered in some women with AH.
what’s Common Breast Conditions?
| Breast disorders are of two types: Benign (noncancerous) and malignant (cancerous). Fortunately, regular self-examination of the breasts and mammograms will help in detecting these problems early. | |
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Breast pain (mastalgia) affects many women at some point in their lives. Younger, premenopausal women experience mastalgia more often than postmenopausal women. Some amount of breast pain is experienced before menstrual period and before Menopause. Some women go through moderate-to-severe breast pain for a few days while others feel severe breast pain throughout their menstrual cycles. |
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Breast pain alone is not an indicator of breast cancer. Yet, if you have unexplained and prolonged breast pains consult your doctor immediately.
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Mastitis is an infection of the breast which most often occurs in breastfeeding mothers. The symptoms are pain, swelling and redness of the breast. Mastitis often affects mothers a few weeks after they give birth and can be a highly exhausting experience. Mastitis can also occur later during breastfeeding. Breastfeeding mothers may sometimes be forced to wean their baby away because of the pain.
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Mastitis
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Nipple discharge, in this condition fluid is discharge by the nipples when the mother is not breastfeeding. You can notice the discharge on either or both your nipples when you gently squeeze your nipples. A nipple discharge may look milky, or it may be yellow, or bloody and varies from being thick and sticky to thin and watery. There is no need to panic as cancer is seldom the underlying cause for such secretions. Consult your doctor to diagnose the reason for the condition.
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Nipple discharge
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Mammary duct ectasia or blocked milk ducts, in this condition sometimes a milk Common breast conditions duct below the nipples may expand and get filled with fluid clogging or blocking the milk ducts. It often causes no symptoms, but some women may have nipple discharge and breast tenderness. There is no need for unnecessary concern since the condition is not a sign or a risk factor for breast cancer. Inform your doctor about your condition. Mammary duct ectasia often gets cured without treatment, but if the symptoms are prolonged and troublesome your doctor may have to extract the blocked milk duct surgically.
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Blocked Milk Ducts
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| Breast lumps are abnormal bulges or masses of tissue located anywhere in one or both breasts. These lumps may even extend up to the lower areas of the arms. | |
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Features of breast lumps
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Breast Lumps
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Most benign or less serious breast conditions do not increase the risk of developing breast cancer. However, it is recommended that you consult doctor immediately if you notice that one or both your breasts have lumps that exhibit the following qualities:
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| Inform your doctor about your general health and breast conditions.Depending on the nature of the lump, your doctor may recommend somediagnostic tests to identify the lump and treat the condition. | |
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Cysts are fluid-filled sacs that develop in the breast causing pain. Breast Cysts can be tiny or large. They are a common phenomenon in many women. Some women report frequent occurrences of cysts, while for some others it is very rare. The cause of breast Cysts is unknown, although injury can be a cause. |
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Fibroadenomas are small, solid, rubbery noncancerous lumps made of fibrous and glandular tissue. Fibroadenomas usually appear in young women, including teenagers. The cause for fibroadenomas is not known
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See your doctor if you experience the following.
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Fibroadenomas
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ABOUT AIDS……………….HOW IT SPREAD…………
AIDS stands for Acquired immunodeficiency (or immune deficiency) Syndrome. It results from infection with a virus called HIV, which stands for human immunodeficiency virus. This virus infects key cells in the human body called CD4-positive
(CD4+) T cells. These cells are part of the body’s immune system, which fights infections and various cancers.
When HIV invades the body’s CD4+ T cells, the damaged immune system loses its ability to defend against diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and other microscopic organisms. A substantial decline in CD4+ T cells also leaves the body vulnerable to certain cancers.
There is no cure for AIDS, but medical treatments can slow down the rate at which HIV weakens the immune system. As with other diseases, early detection offers more options for treatment and preventing complications.
What Is The Difference Between HIV And AIDS?
The term AIDS refers to an advanced stage of HIV infection, when the immune system has sustained substantial damage. Not everyone who has HIV infection develops AIDS.
When HIV progresses to AIDS, however, it has proved to be a universally fatal illness. Few people survive five years from the time they are diagnosed with AIDS, although this is increasing with improvements in treatment techniques.
Experts estimate that about half the people with HIV will develop AIDS within 10 years after becoming infected. This time varies greatly from person to person, however, and can depend on many factors, including a person’s health status and health-related behaviors.
People are said to have AIDS when they have certain signs or symptoms specified in guidelines formulated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC’s definition of AIDS includes:
- All HIV-infected people with fewer than 200 CD4+ T cells per cubic millimeter of blood (compared with CD4+ T cell counts of about 1,000 for healthy people)
- People with HIV infection who have at least one of more than two dozen AIDS-associated conditions that are the result of HIV’s attack on the immune system
AIDS-associated conditions include:
- Opportunistic infections by bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Opportunistic infections are infections that are rarely seen in healthy people but occur when a person’s immune system is weakened.
- The development of certain cancers (including cervical cancer and lymphomas).
- Certain autoimmune disorders
Most AIDS-associated conditions are rarely serious in healthy individuals. In people with AIDS, however, these infections are often severe and sometimes fatal because the immune system is so damaged by HIV that the body cannot fight them off.
Need To Know:
Because many of the first cases of AIDS in the United States occurred in homosexual men and intravenous drug users, some people mistakenly believe that other groups of people are not at risk for HIV infection. However, anyone is capable of becoming HIV-infected, regardless of gender, age, or sexual orientation.
Welcome To Rohlkhand Medical College Bareilly
Welcome To Rohlkhand Medical College Bareilly
Harmful Effects of Smoking
There are believed to be 1.1 billion smokers in the world, 800 million of them in developing countries. Everyday, around 1000 people are dying because of smoking. One out of every six men is dying because of smoking. This makes clear that smoking is one of the major causes of death.
Nicotine is the addictive drug in tobacco smoke that causes smokers to continue to smoke. Addicted smokers need enough nicotine over a day to satisfy cravings or control their mood. Along with nicotine, smokers also inhale about 4,000 other chemicals in cigarette smoke. Many of these compounds are chemically active and trigger profound and damaging changes in the body.
The effects of smoking vary from person to person as it will depend on the person’s vulnerability to the chemical in cigarette or tobacco smoke. It will also depend on the number of cigarette sticks a person smokes per day, the age when the person first started to smoke, and the number of years the person has been smoking. Here are some of the different effects of smoking:
- Heart: The effects of smoking on your heart are devastating. Nicotine raises blood pressure and makes the blood clot more easily. Carbon monoxide robs the blood of oxygen and leads to the development of cholesterol deposits on the artery walls. All of these effects add up to an increased risk of heart attack.
- Lungs: Smoking causes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of diseases that includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthmatic bronchitis. COPD is called the “silent killer.” Many smokers don’t know they are affected until it is too late. There is no cure for these diseases and no way to reverse the damage. Ten percent to 15% of all smokers will develop COPD.
- Blood Circulation: A major effect of smoking is that veins and arteries get narrower, harder and coated with fatty deposits. This can lead to problems such as:
- Low fitness, cold skin, hands and feet, and ulcers.
- Gangrene which leads to about 2000 amputations each year in the UK.
- Cramps, pains and blockages in your veins which can cause strokes and heart attacks.
- Bones: Smoking can cause bones to get weak and brittle. Women need to be especially careful because they are 5 to 10% more likely to suffer from osteoporosis than non-smokers.
- Stomach: The damage to your stomach area can affect your vital organs. You have increased chances of getting stomach cancer or ulcers. You are also at risk of developing cancers in your kidney, pancreas and bladder.
- Mouth and Throat: Smoking causes unattractive problems like bad breath and stained teeth. It can also cause gum disease and damage to your sense of taste. The most serious damage smoking causes in this area is an increased risk of cancer in your lips, tongue, throat, voice bok and oesophagus (gullet).
- Eyes: Dangerous smoking effects on eyes include common eye diseases such as Graves’ ophthalmopathy, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataract. The worst smoking effect on eyes can be permanent blindness.
- Skin: Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen to the skin. This means that the skin ages more quickly and looks grey and dull. The toxins in your body also produce cellulite.
- Reproduction and Fertility: The effects of smoking on reproduction and fertility are serious. Smoking can increase the risk of impotence. It can also damage sperm, reduce sperm count and cause testicular cancer.
Smoking not only harms you but also those around you. Adults who breathe in other people’s smoke also have an increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease. Pregnant women who smoke are more likely to suffer miscarriage and stillbirth. Children who breathe in other people’s smoke are more likely to develop lung diseases like asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia, and their physical growth and intellectual development can also be affected.
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