Thursday, September 6, 2007
Autism is usually diagnosed around the age of three when an abnormal development of the child is noticed. An early diagnose is essential for the future medical care as well as for the outcome of the parents. An initial diagnose of autism includes a physical evaluation and a neurological examination completed with a registry of the medical history of the child since birth and a medical history of the family. Clinical testing may also be helpful to classify the condition and rule out other assembling diseases.
Specialty physicians must carefully evaluate the mental and physical development of the child as well its communication and language skills. He must know if the patient has babbled, waved or grasp objects before the age of one year and other major signs during his development. Frequent office visits are necessary for the doctor to determine eventual response to treatment and one potential progress of the condition.
Similar conditions to autism are Rett disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, Asperger disorder, pervasive development disorder, hearing loss and metabolic disorders. Autism is most common encountered in males sometimes connected to the fragile X syndrome that causes mental retardation. A series of testing can be performed to rule out conditions with similar symptoms:
Blood tests are made to determine eventual disorders in the blood lipids or amino-acids and other metabolism-linked conditions. Genetic diseases are ruled out by DNA and chromosomal analyses. Hearing tests are used to rule out possible connections between language difficulties and deafness. An electroencephalogram would detect potential brain damages and a magnetic resonance imaging would detect eventual brain disorder.
The Asperger disorder assembling autism only appears in boys and develops progressive neurological damages after the first three years of life. Symptoms of Rett disorder are extraordinary memory and musical skills, the inability to interact with others, primitive language skills, lack of facial expressions and inability to express emotions.
Patients with the disintegrative disorder are characterized by the lack of bowel and bladder control and no language, motor or communication skills.
The Rett disorder produces microcephaly, inability to express feelings, lack of motor skills and is mostly encountered in girls. It develops during the first 18 months of life. Children suffering from the Rett disorder require medical treatment as they may experience weakness, cognitive regression, constipations and breathing problems.
Pervasive development disorder occurs between 2 and 12 years of age and produces a delay of social and communication skills.
For greater resources on Autism or especially about autism causes please click this link http://www.autism-info-center.com/autism-causes.htm
Defend youself from colon cancer
Over 100,000 people will find out that they have colon cancer just in the United States alone. Colon cancer is one of the most spread cancer types in the U.S. while being the second and third factor of cancer death. But, thanks to new screening methods cancer can be diagnosed in its earliest stages resulting in a rising number of people being cured of this disease.
Since an abnormal cell needs 10-15 years to evolve into colorectal cancer, regular cancer testing would help diagnose and cure it before becoming a problem.
It is recommended that routine colonoscopies should be made every ten years since the age of 50. If you know that in your family someone had colon cancer or any other cancer forms you should start regular screenings more frequently and since at an earlier age.
The reason thatcolon cancer emerges is unknown and since it’s useless to prevent the abnormal cells from appearing there are measurements you can do to prevent it.
Two kinds of risk factors cause colorectal cancer: the ones you can do something about and the ones you can't control. The last type of factors includes:
* Age. The risk of getting colon cancer increases with the age. Sure, the risk exists even if you are young but it's way smaller.
* Family history. If some close relative of you has adenamotous polyps or colorectal cancer while they are still young your doctor will recommend colorectal cancer screenings before you are 50 years old because of the increased risk of developing the disease.
* Other risk increasing diseases. If you have Crohn's disease or any other chronic inflammatory bowel disease the risk for developing colon cancer increases. It is recommended having regular screenings after you have been diagnosed with any inflammatory bowel disease. If you have diabetes your risk of having colon cancer increases by 40 percent.
* Ethnic Background. Eastern Europeans, Jewish population and the African Americans tend to have an increased factor risk for colorectal cancer due to a genetic mutation.
Your doctor should be informed if you think you have some of these factors. Depending on these factors your doctor will advise you to begin the colorectal screenings earlier.
The risk factors that you can control include:
* The diet. Animal fats increase the risks of colon cancer. It is known that many fruits and vegetables lower the risk of cancer formation so it's recommended to have them every day and trying to substitute animal based food with "green" products.
* Exercise. Exercising will increase your fitness and in the same time lower the risk of most diseases including colorectal cancer.
* Obesity. Overweight is increases the chances of dying from colorectal cancer. You need to speak with your doctor about helping you lose some weight.
* Smoking. This is responsable for 12 percent of all deaths caused by colorectal cancer. Besides, the chemicals contained by cigarettes are responsable for all sorts of cancer.
* Alcohol. You can lower the risk of colorectal cancer by consuming less alcohol because, large alcohol intake increases the risk.
It really doesn't matter what your risk factor is. You can change the development of colon cancer by maintaining a healthy life. This includes exercising, having care of your diet and weight and limiting smoking and drinking.
For greater resources on colon cancer or especially about colon cancer diet please visit this link http://www.colon-cancer-center.com/colon-cancer-diet.htm
Colon Cancer Is Caused By Two Genes
After researchers discovered another colon cancer gene, the second so far, they concluded that they have found the causes of over 90 percent of the disease in its inherited form.
Every year 156,000 people are diagnosed with colon cancer and six of those cases are caused by those two genes together. In the same time, around 30 percent of non inherited cases are caused by these two genes of colon cancer.
It is expected that in the near future researchers will come out with some new tests to identify the presence of these genes in an individual and if either one of these is found, doctors can do tumor checks more frequently permitting them to discover them earlier while they can still be surgically removed. With this new knowledge it is assumed that over 90 percent of all that cases caused by inherited colon cancer can be evoited.
Researchers are confident that this new discovery will lead to new anticancer drugs in a very short time period, a period of two to five years.
The genes are found on different chromosomes, but both of them act almost in the same way, being just like a guardian checking every new piece of synthesized DNA to make sure that no mutations appeared. But, if one of these genes is corrupted the new synthesized DNA pieces will be altered really bad and you will develop cancer as a result. Usually inherited cancer appears at the age of 50.
Thanks to these new discoveries new screening tests will be available for the general population. Most specialists agree that this is a huge step for the medical science resulting in the saving of countless lives and a great cost reduction in the medical system.
One of these genes is present in about 1 every 200 people all around the world making it the number one genetic defect. Screening will save a huge amount of lives but researchers already raise economic concerns regarding the medical health care; it may be possible that future agencies will deny the right to a health insurance just on the reason that a client presents a higher risk because he has one of these genes.
For greater resources on colon cancer or especially about colon cancer symptoms please visit this link http://www.colon-cancer-center.com/colon-cancer-symptoms.htm
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