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The immune system can protect our body from injury and different invasions as long as they are not too serious, overwhelming, or the immune system is already weakened due to poor health.

The immune system has its own internal monitoring system that always knows when we are cut or sick. It even knows how to produce its own soldiers, called antibodies that fight harmful bacteria.

Sometimes the body needs the aid of the medical world, like in the instance of a deep gash that requires stitches. Even after the stitches, however, the immune system is really what takes care of the wound.

Even if you take antibiotics, it is your immune system that eventually deals with the bacteria and helps the body heal itself. There is a catch, however. For your immune system to be able to do all of these things, it has to be strong and healthy.

The easiest way to do this is to keep your body healthy, if your overall diet and health are good, you exercise, and you don’t drink too much alcohol or do drugs you should have a strong immune system.

The immune system has four major lines of defense. The first is a barricade system. This is made up primarily of your skin, which is the largest organ in the body.

The skin’s job, in terms of immune defense, is to protect our internal body from viruses, bacteria, chemicals, pollutants, ultraviolet rays, temperature changes, cuts, etc. The skin also contains nerve endings, which warn us when something is too hot, cold, or if something is painful. The skin also releases harmful toxins when we sweat.

The second line of defense within the human body literally “traps” invaders, such as harmful bacteria, in mucous saliva which is the equivalent of them getting wrapped I a spider web. The body excretes the toxic mucous through sneezing, coughing, or a runny nose.

Each internal body part that is susceptible to invaders has its own way of trapping and disposing of them. We also have traps on the outside of our body, such as our nose hair, and eyelashes.

The third line of immune defense is our many body fluids that contain protective elements. For example: our stomach produces hydrochloric acid to neutralize invaders that got into our body through what we ate, the eyes produce tears to protect themselves.

What is the fourth line of defense that is used as an immune booster to help fight AIDS and Cancer? It is a protein called interferon.

Interferon has been used to help the body naturally fend off colds and fight illness. Interferon is produced by cells in our body when viruses invade them and is then released into the bloodstream to get healthy cells to manufacture an enzyme that counters the infection.

AIDS and Cancer patients can take an interferon production stimulator as a dietary supplement to help their immune system fight off invaders.

Brue Baker, is an expert on natural health and fitness who has helped people from all across the country sky-rocket their health and well-being. Find out how you can naturally boost your interferon production: http://www.DynamicImmunity.com

Whether or not to treat prostate cancer conventionally is one of the major medical dilemmas we have today. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. Approximately 222,000 cases will be diagnosed this year, however most prostate tumors tend to grow slowly. They never actually threaten lives. There is no sure way to tell which tumors will grow at a more rapid rate.

Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) tests can help find tumors many years before they cause any prostate cancer symptoms, however routine screening of men who are at average risk is currently not recommended, because there is no proof that it saves lives.

Prostate cancer treatments are particularly rugged, especially on older men. And many men end up after the treatment with sexual, bladder control or other prostate gland or prostate health problems. Many doctors instead recommend “watchful waiting” to monitor signs of prostate disease and treat it only if the signs or symptoms get worse. Smaller studies have given contrary views of the safety of this approach.

This new study looked at the natural course of the disease in the men who had chosen that option. Grace Lu-Yao of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey was the head of the study. It’s the first study involving so many older men. 50% of the men were over 75 and many of their tumors were found through the PSA tests.

As part of this study they used the U.S. government’s prostate cancer database. The researchers studied 9,017 men who were diagnosed over a period of ten years, from 1992-2002, with early-stage cancer who did not get prostate surgery, radiation or hormone therapy for at least six months. Most of the men never had any treatment whatsoever.

Ten years later only 3 percent to 7 percent of those with the low-grade or moderate-grade tumors (which are rated by how aggressive the cells appear to be) had died of prostate cancer, while 23 percent of those with high-grade tumors died. Overall, prostate cancer killed only 10 percent of the patients.

It’s thought that most of the patients are going to die from something else and because of this most of the older men with the early-stage tumors could delay any treatment. It’s not clear what should be done, if anything – whether it’s conventional prostate surgery, radiation and hormone therapy or alternative treatment. This may be true even if people are younger or have a more advanced prostate cancer. Most cases are diagnosed in men who are 68 or older, and most are in an early stage.

In any event this large study shows that a large number of men do well with no initial treatment and with no treatment long term. So this new study shows that for older men observation is a reasonable approach. Many patients do well for a long period of time with absolutely no treatment.

To sum up, older men with early-stage prostate cancer are not taking a big risk if they just keep a good eye on the progress instead of going ahead with treatment. It’s the largest study to look at this issue since the PSA blood tests to detect prostate tumors became so popular in the 1990s. The study may persuade some middle-of-the-road prostate doctors that we are over-treating prostate cancer and that PSA testing may be magnifying the problem. Finally patients have the opportunity to concentrate on adopting a healthy lifestyle and most importantly adopting a healthy diet.

For more info on prostate cancer treatments and prostate cancer symptoms go to a nurse’s website http://www.BestProstateHealthTips.com specializing in enlarged prostate and prostate cancer tips, advice and resources including info on prostate tests and natural prostate cancer treatments

A radiation oncologist is often thought of as the main role within a radiation clinic and for the most part this is true. They do help orchestrate the course of therapy, but without a full staff of professionals who know their specific role, it would be an impossible task for the oncologist alone.

The following will be a little run down on who is in the clinic helping radiation patients and what specifically they do. It will touch on points of what to expect as a patient and some background on training for radiation staff.

The Coach and Playmaker, the Radiation Oncologist

The radiation oncologist is the first point of contact for the patient when they seek or are referred to radio treatment. The radiation oncologist is the doctor that runs the show (trumped only by the patient) and plots the course for overall treatment. They’ve chosen to specialize in radiation treatment for their profession as opposed to a medical oncologist who normally uses chemotherapy as a preferred choice of cancer treatment.

They not only work with their immediate staff of clinicians to plot a course of therapy, but also refer to other doctors that the patient may be seeing such as their chemo doctor (chemo is often combined with radiation treatment), a surgical oncologist, other surgeons and internal medicine doctors and pharmacists to pool overall knowledge.

Training for the profession in the U.S. starts like any other doctor’s course with 4 years of specialized training outside of college and 4 years of residency with internship. During residency they are drilled a great deal on general oncology and the physical aspect of ionizing radiation and its application.

The Radiation Therapist

The radiation therapist is probably the closest one to the radiation oncologist doctor when it comes to planning the application and doses of radiation therapy. The oncologist will give the instruction to the therapist regarding what needs to be done for the specific cancer type. Then much of the application procedure from there is up to the therapist as far as instructing staff on the parameters of the machines and operating software to apply the dosing. The therapist will often have a technician who will talk to the patient and position them when it comes time to go through with the treatment.

The Rest of the Staff

Although there are possibly dozens of those who help in a clinic or hospital, you’ll also receive a good deal of personal contact and support from the radiation nurse. They are what most would contend as the most human part of the therapy. It will be up to them to provide you an insider’s look at the experience. While the radiation oncologist and therapist will probably give you a laundry list of points that you will expect with your treatment, the nurse will give you an expectation on a more personal level. They can give you background on any side effects that can occur and also provide very professional advice on how well the radiation worked after the session.

Along with the nurse and other immediate clinicians, a patient will also be introduced to a dietician or physical therapist depending on the treatment type, treatment side effects, and severity of the cancer.

Vantage Oncology (http://www.vantageoncology.com/doctors.php) lists board certified radiation oncologists that reside in a network of Vantage Oncology owned centers around the U.S. The centers all use state-of-the-art technology and instrumentation. Art Gib is a freelance writer.

External beam radiation therapy has long been the standard for treating most cancer types in the world of radiation treatment. Brachytherapy, the lesser known form of radiation treatment among the general populace, has been around almost as long as particle and wave form radiation therapy. It’s brought success in cancers dealing with a long range of bodily locations such as the head and neck, lung, cervix, breast and most commonly the prostate.

This article will touch on some information about what brachytherapy is along with an overview of the process and expectations one should anticipate.

Implanting Radioactive Seeds

Usually brachytherapy is slightly invasive. That is, it will probably involve breaking of the skin to insert what is known as a “seed”. The seed is usually a small rod-like tube that encases a radioactive compound. The seed is inserted into the tumor in such a way that the radiation will affect the cancer cells and disrupt their cellular division to ultimately kill or stop the cancerous cell growth. Mold Brachytherapy is an exception. In this case the radiation source can go next to the tumor, set next to the skin adjacent to the cancerous mass.

The seeds are about the size of a small grain of rice and have a short range of radiation kill. The radius of the radiation field that emits from the rice that is used to kill the cancer cells is only a few millimeters. In fact, the trunk part of the word, brachy, is Greek meaning “short.”

The Procedure

In this instance I’ll use the example of prostate treatment as a case example to give an overview of what one may expect. So, before the radiation therapy begins, the doctor will do the preliminary check ups. Procedures like EKG, blood tests, and x-rays may be involved depending on the risks. But usually an ultrasound of the prostate will be done to make sure it’s clear and to identify the tumor beforehand. With the images captured, the doctors and clinicians will know what they are up against and know how many seeds need to be implanted.

The nice thing about this sort of application is that it’s an outpatient procedure. Sometimes the treatment will only last as long as an hour. The patient will usually get a local anesthetic so feeling from the waist down is numbed.

After the painkiller has set in, an ultrasound probe will be inserted into the rectum to bring up video of the prostate for easy guidance. The seeds will be planted, sent through tiny needles, after the tumor is targeted. The needles will enter through the skin between the scrotum and the rectum. Usually there are about 50 to 100 seeds sent into the cancerous portion of the prostate.

When all is said and done, the patient will usually have a catheter inserted and left in for several hours to a day. Post procedure, an ice bag will be used to prevent swelling. After all of that, life can come as it does normally, but rest and no heavy activity is typically prescribed. Four or five days are the estimated time for normalcy among most patients.

Vantage Oncology (http://www.vantageoncology.com) networks and finances radiation therapy clinics across the country. Each radiation oncologist that is affiliated with Vantage Oncology is board certified and has access to state of the art technology for their patients.

Breast thermography is a new, non-invasive imaging procedure that utilizes infrared heat-sensing technology to detect metabolic changes in the breast. Abnormalities can be detected long before a tumor is present. Because researchers are acknowledging the importance of prevention and early detection as the keys to long term breast health, breast thermography is fast becoming an important diagnostic test to add to health care regimens.

To perform breast thermography, a special camera equipped with heat-sensing, or infrared, technology takes pictures of the breasts and the images are sent to a computer. Multiple images are taken from several different angles in order to provide a three-dimensional result. These images are digitally processed by sophisticated equipment to create a detailed thermal map.

Because each individual has a unique ‘thermal fingerprint,’ the images help your doctor to establish the normal thermal state of your breasts. That way, if a change occurs, a diagnosis can be determined quickly. The images reveal to the doctor whether the two breasts have the same temperature patterns and whether any areas differ from one breast to the other. Abnormalities on the infrared images, including changes in temperature, blood flow, hormone levels, or metabolic activity, may indicate current or potential tumor growth. The necessary diagnostic steps are then taken to determine the nature of the abnormalities.

During a mammogram, the estimated compression weight on the breast, which can be uncomfortable and sometimes painful, can be several pounds to over forty pounds. In addition, radiation collects in the breast tissue during mammograms; the more radiation the breast is exposed to, the higher the risk of cancer. Unlike mammograms, thermography does not require compression of the breasts nor does the infrared scanning process involve radiation or contact with the body.

Mammograms can only detect tumors that have already developed. In comparison, breast thermography provides images of physiological changes in the breasts that could cause future tumor growth. One such abnormal thermal pattern, estrogen dominance, can be a precursor to breast cancer. If estrogen dominance is found, hormonal levels can be balanced using natural means; thereby, preventing cancer. Breast thermography can also detect small growths – those too small to be visible on mammogram or ultrasound – because these tiny masses radiate heat.

Breast thermography provides important, relevant, and necessary information about your health without exposure to radiation. This diagnostic test, which compliments clinical examination and mammography, should be added to your health care regimen. Prevention and early detection are the keys to long term breast and whole body health. By providing essential information early, breast thermography can save your life.

For more health tips and published research by Dr. Erin Elster, D.C., upper cervical chiropractor, in Boulder, Colorado, visit her website http://www.erinelster.com.