| Tragic event about stomach cancer
In a tragic event of unfortunate misdiagnosis, The Daily Mail is reporting that teen Stacey Stephenson died of stomach cancer after repeatedly being diagnosed with acid indigestion. At the beginning of summer, Stephenson began having digestive problems related to eating. When she visited the doctor, she was told she suffered from acid indigestion and given a prescription to combat acid indigestion.
However, several weeks later, when the young woman of 19 noticed her symptoms had not improved, she returned to see the doctor again. Again, she was told she suffered from acid indigestion. Shortly after, she went with friends to Greece on holiday. During holiday in Greece, the stomach pain became severe and she sought medical attention. An X-ray revealed a stomach tumor and this is when her stomach cancer diagnosis was made.
Dealing with gastric ulcers
It is widely believed that eating chilli causes gastric ulcers in some people and they are adviced to avoid the spice and eat bland food. But an epidemiological survey conducted in Singapore in 1994 shows that the incidence of gastric ulcers is more common among the Chinese than among Indians who eat far more chillis.
In 1984, ulcer patients in a Delhi hospital were given 1gm chilli powder/meal in the three meals consumed per day along with a healing agent, showed no adverse effect of chilli on healing as observed by endoscopic examination.
Peptic (gastric and duodenal) ulcers are the most common afflicting humans all over the world and considered to be caused when there is an imbalance between the rate of gastric secretion and level of protection. Smoking causes ulcers because it stimulates nerves involved in gastric secretions.
How to manage reflux disease
Gastroesophageal reflux disease is one of the most common digestive disorders. It is a condition where stomach acid refluxes upward into the esophagus. Usually, the acid in your stomach is retained by a muscular valve at the end of the esophagus, known as the lower esophageal sphincter. The LES is supposed to remain closed, except when swallowing. If it opens at other times, stomach acid can flow upward (reflux) into the esophagus, causing heartburn. Typical symptoms include an uncomfortable feeling of burning, warmth, heat or pain just behind the breastbone, which is commonly referred to as heartburn. Other symptoms can include nausea, increased belching, regurgitation of food and even chronic cough. Occasional heartburn does not necessarily mean you have reflux disease. In GERD, the symptoms last longer and occur more often.
The Revolution in Radiation
Innovations in radiation therapy are reducing "collateral damage" and saving lives
In early 2005, Phil Ogden noticed he was having trouble swallowing food and went to a doctor, thinking he might have acid reflux. The news was far worse. The 66-year-old retired cop from Modesto, Calif., had esophageal cancer, and it had already spread to nearby lymph nodes. Dr. Albert Koong, a radiation oncologist with Stanford University's Comprehensive Cancer Center, asked if Ogden would mind being the first person to undergo a new type of radiation treatment. "The doctor said: 'For the first time in history, we can bomb the equivalent of an outhouse from 30,000 feet with no collateral damage,'" Ogden recalls. .
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