“With over 5 million cases diagnosed in the United States each year, skin cancer is America’s most common cancer. Fortunately, skin cancer is also one of the most preventable cancers. By sharing facts about the dangers of unprotected sun exposure and encouraging people to check their skin for warning signs, we can and will save lives.”
Skin Cancer Foundation (Skin Cancer Awareness Month)
The skin is the largest organ of your body. It acts as a barrier between invaders (pathogens) and your body. Skin forms a waterproof mechanical barrier. Microorganisms that live all over your skin can’t get through your skin unless it’s broken. The skin and mucous membranes act as a physical barrier preventing penetration by microbes. If the skin is cut then the blood produces a clot which seals the wound and prevents microbes from entering.
There are layers of skin and the first five layers form the epidermis, which is the outermost, thick layer of the skin and is listed above in the pictures. Notice in the second picture on the Rt. shows all blood vessels below epidermis.
All seven layers vary significantly in their anatomy and function.
It is made up of three main layers, the epidermis, dermis, and the hypodermis, all three varying significantly in their anatomy and function. The skin’s structure is made up of an intricate network which serves as many functions for the body’s initial barrier against pathogens, UV light, and chemicals, and mechanical injury. It also maintains body temperature and prevents water loss from the body.
Of all the organs in the human body, few take the pounding your skin does. Yes, your skin is an organ, your body’s largest, in fact, and among your most important, considering you cannot live without it.
Your skin is a biological marvel capable of performing remarkable functions every day. It protects your muscles and organs from outside threats. It endures bumps and bruises, cuts and scratches, the sun’s burning rays and the grime left by dirt and dust. It moves and stretches when you do and mostly bounces back to form when you’re still.
Even when your body is at rest, your skin is a bustle of cellular activity. Basal cells change shape as they move to the surface to replace dying squamous cells. Merkel cells help your nerves sense the touch of another. Melanocytes produce melanin, the skin-darkening pigment that protects your skin from the sun.
And like other organs, your skin may develop cancer.
Skin cancer is the abnormal growth of skin cells — most often develops on skin exposed to the sun. But this common form of cancer can also occur on areas of your skin not ordinarily exposed to sunlight.
There are three major types of skin cancer — basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma.
You can reduce your risk of skin cancer by limiting or avoiding exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Checking your skin for suspicious changes can help detect skin cancer at its earliest stages. Early detection of skin cancer gives you the greatest chance for successful skin cancer treatment.
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of skin cancer and the most frequently occurring form of all cancers. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 3.6 million cases are diagnosed each year. BCCs arise from abnormal, uncontrolled growth of basal cells. Basal Cell Carcinoma grows slowly, most are curable and cause minimal damage when caught and treated early.
Knowing the causes, risk factors and warning signs can help you detect them early, when they are easiest to treat and cure.
–UV exposure from the sun or indoor tanning.
-History of skin cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) or melanoma
– Age over 50: Most BCCs appear in people over age 50.
-Fair skin: People with fair skin have an increased risk.
-Male gender: Men are more likely to develop BCC.
-Chronic infections and skin inflammation from burns, scars and other conditions.
Warning Signs can help with early detection and treatment, almost all basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) can be successfully removed without complications. Look out for any new, changing or unusual skin growths, so you can spot skin cancers like BCC when they are easiest to treat and cure.
When detected early, most basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) can be treated and cured. Prompt treatment is vital, because as the tumor grows, it becomes more dangerous and potentially disfiguring, requiring more extensive treatment. Certain rare, aggressive forms can be fatal if not treated promptly.
If you’ve been diagnosed with a small or early BCC, a number of effective treatments can usually be performed on an outpatient basis, using a local anesthetic with minimal pain. Afterwards, most wounds can heal naturally, leaving minimal scarring.
Options include:
Melanoma is a type of cancer that usually begins in the skin. Specifically, it begins in cells called melanocytes. These are cells that produce melanin. Melanin is the pigment that gives skin, hair, and eyes their color.
Melanoma is among the most serious forms of skin cancer.
Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer. It can be “in situ” which means that the cancer is confined to the top layer of skin, thus being highly curable. It can also be “malignant” which means that the cancer can spread to other parts of the body which significantly decreases the survivability rate. Melanoma in situ can grow to be malignant melanoma if not treated. The key to surviving melanoma is early detection, and especially before it becomes malignant. Melanoma caught in the early stages of its development is highly curable with a 97% survival rate.
-Ultraviolet light exposure
-Moles
-Fair skin, freckling, light hair
-Family history of melanoma
-Personal history of melanoma or skin cancers
-Having a weakened immune response
-Being older
-Being male
-Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP): This is a rare, inherited condition that affects skin cells’ ability to repair damage to their DNA. People with XP have a high risk of developing melanoma and other skin cancers when they are young, especially on sun-exposed areas of their skin.
Again warning signs can count help with early detection and treatment this can be successfully removed without complications. Look out for any new, changing or unusual skin growths, so you can spot skin cancers like BCC when they are easiest to treat and cure.
Stage I melanomas have grown into deeper layers of the skin, but they haven’t grown beyond the area where they started.
These cancers are typically treated by wide excision (surgery to remove the tumor as well as a margin of normal skin around it). The width of the margin depends on the thickness and location of the melanoma. Most often, no other treatment is needed.
Some doctors may recommend a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) to look for cancer in nearby lymph nodes, especially if the melanoma is stage IB or has other traits that make it more likely to have spread. You and your doctor should discuss this option.
If the SLNB does not find cancer cells in the lymph nodes, then no further treatment is needed, although close follow-up is still important.
If cancer cells are found on the SLNB (which changes the cancer stage to stage III – see below), a lymph node dissection (removal of all lymph nodes near the cancer) might be recommended. Another option might be to watch the lymph nodes closely by getting an imaging test such as ultrasound of the nodes every few months.
If the SLNB found cancer, adjuvant (additional) treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors or targeted therapy drugs (if the melanoma has a BRAF gene mutation) might be recommended to try to lower the chance the melanoma will come back. Other drugs or perhaps vaccines might also be options as part of a clinical trial.
Wide excision (surgery to remove the melanoma and a margin of normal skin around it) is the standard treatment for these cancers. The width of the margin depends on the thickness and location of the melanoma.
Because the melanoma may have spread to nearby lymph nodes, many doctors recommend a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) as well. This is an option that you and your doctor should discuss.
If a SLNB is done and does not find cancer cells in the lymph nodes, then sometimes no further treatment is needed, but close follow-up is still important.
For certain stage II melanomas, the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) might be given after surgery to help reduce the risk of the cancer returning. Radiation therapy to the area might be another option, especially if the melanoma has features that make it more likely to come back.
If the SLNB finds that the sentinel node contains cancer cells (which changes the cancer stage to stage III – see below), then a lymph node dissection (where all the lymph nodes in that area are surgically removed) might be recommended. Another option might be to watch the lymph nodes closely with an imaging test such as ultrasound of the nodes every few months.
Whether or not the lymph nodes are removed, adjuvant (additional) treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors or targeted therapy drugs (if the melanoma has a BRAF gene mutation) might be recommended to try to lower the chance the melanoma will come back. Other drugs or perhaps vaccines might also be options as well as part of a clinical trial.
Your doctor will discuss the best options with you depending on the details of your situation.
These cancers have spread to nearby areas in the skin or lymph vessels, or they have reached the nearby lymph nodes.
Surgical treatment for stage III melanoma usually requires wide excision of the primary tumor as in earlier stages, along with a lymph node dissection (where all the nearby lymph nodes are surgically removed).
After surgery, (additional) adjuvant treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors or with targeted therapy drugs (for cancers with BRAF gene changes) may help lower the risk of the melanoma coming back. Other drugs or perhaps vaccines may also be recommended as part of a clinical trial to try to reduce the chance the melanoma will come back. Another option is to give radiation therapy to the areas where the lymph nodes were removed, especially if many of the nodes contain cancer.
If melanoma tumors are found in nearby lymph vessels in or just under the skin (known as in-transit tumors), they are removed, if possible. Other options might include injections of the T-VEC vaccine (Imlygic), interleukin-2 (IL-2), or Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine directly into the melanoma; radiation therapy; or applying imiquimod cream. For melanomas on an arm or leg, another option might be isolated limb perfusion or isolated limb infusion (infusing just the limb with chemotherapy). Other possible treatments might include targeted therapy drugs (for melanomas with a BRAF or C-KIT gene change), immunotherapy, or chemotherapy.
Some stage III melanomas might be hard to cure with current treatments, so taking part in a clinical trial of newer treatments might be a good option.
Stage IV melanomas have already spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body, such as distant lymph nodes, areas of skin, or other organs.
Skin tumors or enlarged lymph nodes causing symptoms can often be removed by surgery or treated with radiation therapy.
If there are only a few metastases, surgery to remove them might sometimes be an option, depending on where they are and how likely they are to cause symptoms. Metastases that can’t be removed may be treated with radiation or with injections of the T-VEC vaccine (Imlygic) directly into the tumors. In either case, this is often followed by adjuvant treatment with medicines such as immunotherapy or targeted therapy drugs.
The treatment of widespread melanomas has changed in recent years as newer forms of immunotherapy and targeted drugs have been shown to be more effective than chemotherapy.
Immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors are often the first treatment. These drugs can shrink tumors for long periods of time in some people. Options might include:
Combinations of checkpoint inhibitors seem to be more effective, although they’re also more likely to result in serious side effects, especially if they contain ipilimumab.
People who get any of these drugs need to be watched closely for serious side effects.
In about half of all melanomas, the cancer cells have BRAF gene changes. These melanomas often respond to treatment with targeted therapy drugs – typically a combination of a BRAF inhibitor and a MEK inhibitor. However, the immune checkpoint inhibitors mentioned above are often tried first, as this seems to be more likely to help for longer periods of time. Another option might be a combination of targeted drugs plus the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq).
While immunotherapy is often used before targeted therapy, there might be situations where it makes sense to use targeted therapy first. For example, the targeted drugs are more likely to shrink tumors quickly, so they might be preferred in cases where this is important. In either case, if one type of treatment isn’t working, the other can be tried.
A small portion of melanomas have changes in the C-KIT gene. These melanomas might be helped by targeted drugs such as imatinib (Gleevec) and nilotinib (Tasigna), although these drugs often stop working eventually.
Rarely, melanomas might have changes in other genes such as NRAS, ROS1, ALK, or the NTRK genes, which can be treated with targeted drugs.
Immunotherapy using other medicines might be an option if immune checkpoint inhibitors or other treatments aren’t working. Options might include:
These treatments can cause serious side effects in some people, so they are usually given in the hospital.
Chemotherapy (chemo) can help some people with stage IV melanoma, but other treatments are usually tried first. Dacarbazine (DTIC) and temozolomide (Temodar) are the chemo drugs used most often, either by themselves or combined with other drugs. Even when chemo shrinks these cancers, the cancer usually starts growing again over time.
It’s important to carefully consider the possible benefits and side effects of any recommended treatment before starting it.
Because stage IV melanoma is often hard to cure with current treatments, people may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial. Many studies are now looking at new targeted drugs, immunotherapies, and combinations of different types of treatments. (See What’s New in Melanoma Skin Cancer Research?)
“Statistics on neuropathy in the United States12345:
National Library of Medicine (The prevalence of probable neuropathic pain in the US: results from a multimodal general-population health survey – PMC)
The symptoms and body parts affected by peripheral neuropathy are so varied that it may be hard to make a diagnosis. If your healthcare provider suspects nerve damage, he or she will take an extensive medical history and do a number of neurological tests to determine the location and extent of your nerve damage. These may include:
Depending on what basic tests reveal, your healthcare provider may want to do more in-depth scanning and other tests to get a better look at your nerve damage. Tests may include:
Usually a peripheral neuropathy can’t be cured, but you can do a lot of things to prevent it from getting worse. If an underlying condition like diabetes is at fault, your healthcare provider will treat that first and then treat the pain and other symptoms of neuropathy.
In some cases, over-the-counter pain relievers can help. Other times, prescription medicines are needed. Some of these medicines include mexiletine, a medicine developed to correct irregular heart rhythms; antiseizure drugs, such as gabapentin, phenytoin, and carbamazepine; and some classes of antidepressants, including tricyclics such as amitriptyline.
Lidocaine injections and patches may help with pain in other instances. And in extreme cases, surgery can be used to destroy nerves or repair injuries that are causing neuropathic pain and symptoms.
Lifestyle choices can play a role in preventing peripheral neuropathy. You can lessen your risk for many of these conditions by avoiding alcohol, correcting vitamin deficiencies, eating a healthy diet, losing weight, avoiding toxins, and exercising regularly. If you have kidney disease, diabetes, or other chronic health condition, it is important to work with your healthcare provider to control your condition, which may prevent or delay the onset of peripheral neuropathy
Even if you already have some form of peripheral neuropathy, healthy lifestyle steps can help you feel your best and reduce the pain and symptoms related to the disorder. You’ll also want to quit smoking, not let injuries go untreated, and be meticulous about caring for your feet and treating wounds to avoid complications, such as the loss of a limb.
In some cases, non-prescription hand and foot braces can help you make up for muscle weakness. Orthotics can help you walk better. Relaxation techniques, such as yoga, may help ease emotional as well as physical symptoms.
“Peripheral neuropathy happens when the nerves that are located outside of the brain and spinal cord (peripheral nerves) are damaged. This condition often causes weakness, numbness and pain, usually in the hands and feet. It also can affect other areas and body functions including digestion and urination.
The peripheral nervous system sends information from the brain and spinal cord, also called the central nervous system, to the rest of the body through motor nerves. The peripheral nerves also send sensory information to the central nervous system through sensory nerves.”
MAYO CLINIC (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peripheral-neuropathy/symptoms-causes/syc-20352061)
Peripheral means away from the core (heart meaning from the core or the brain or spinal cord that is from the area that sends messages causing symptoms away from those organs) and the furthest away from the core or the brain or SC is your feet to understand what peripheral neuropathy effects.
There are more than 100 types of peripheral neuropathy, each with its own set of symptoms and prognosis. Peripheral neuropathy has many different causes.
Most common causes of peripheral neuropathy in the U.S. is diabetes.
Symptoms can range from tingling or numbness in a certain body part to more serious effects, such as burning pain or paralysis.
Peripheral neuropathy has many different causes. Some people inherit the disorder from their parents. Others develop it because of an injury or another disorder.
In many cases, a different type of problem, such as a kidney condition or a hormone imbalance, leads to peripheral neuropathy. One of the most common causes of peripheral neuropathy in the U.S. is diabetes.
Trauma: Injuries from falls, car accidents, fractures or sports activities can result in neuropathy. Compression of the nerves due to repetitive stress or narrowing of the space through which nerves run are other causes.
Autoimmune disorders and infections: Guillain-Barré syndrome, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy are autoimmune disorders that can cause neuropathy. Infections including chickenpox, shingles, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), herpes, syphilis, Lyme disease, leprosy, West Nile virus, Epstein-Barr virus and hepatitis C can also cause neuropathy.
Other health conditions: Neuropathy can result from kidney disorders, liver disorders, hypothyroidism, tumors (cancer-causing or benign) that press on nerves or invade their space, myeloma, lymphoma and monoclonal gammopathy.
Medications and poisons: Some antibiotics, some anti-seizures medications and some HIV medications among others can cause neuropathy. Some treatments, including cancer chemotherapy and radiation, can damage peripheral nerves. Exposure to toxic substances such as heavy metals (including lead and mercury) and industrial chemicals, especially solvents, can also affect nerve function.
Vascular disorders: Neuropathy can occur when blood flow to the arms and legs is decreased or slowed by inflammation, blood clots, or other blood vessel disorders. Decreased blood flow deprives the nerve cells of oxygen, causing nerve damage or nerve cell death. Vascular problems can be caused by vasculitis, smoking and diabetes.
Abnormal vitamin levels and alcoholism: Proper levels of vitamins E, B1, B6, B12, and niacin are important for healthy nerve function. Chronic alcoholism, which typically results in lack of a well-rounded diet, robs the body of thiamine and other essential nutrients needed for nerve function. Alcohol may also be directly toxic to peripheral nerves.
Inherited disorders: Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is the most common hereditary neuropathy. CMT causes weakness in the foot and lower leg muscles and can also affect the muscles in the hands. Familial amyloidosis, Fabry disease and metachromatic leukodystrophy are other examples of inherited disorders that can cause neuropathy.
No known cause: Some cases of neuropathy have no known cause.
There are more than 100 types of peripheral neuropathy, each with its own set of symptoms and prognosis. To help doctors classify them, they are often broken down into the following categories:
The symptoms of peripheral neuropathy vary based on the type that you have and what part of the body is affected. Symptoms can range from tingling or numbness in a certain body part to more serious effects such as burning pain or paralysis.
The symptoms of peripheral neuropathy may look like other conditions or medical problems. Always see your healthcare provider for a diagnosis.
“For people who work the night shift, getting enough high quality sleep can be a significant challenge.
Night shifts often interfere with a person’s circadian rhythms, the 24-hour cycle that tells the body when it’s time to sleep or to be awake. Trusted SourceUpToDateMore than 2 million healthcare providers around the world choose UpToDate to help make appropriate care decisions and drive better health outcomes. UpToDate delivers evidence-based clinical decision support that is clear, actionable, and rich with real-world insights.View Source Circadian rhythms synchronize with exposure to light, with darkness serving as a sleep cue and daylight signaling that it’s time to wake up.
For this reason, people who work night shifts often feel sleepy when they need to work and alert when they want to sleep. These challenges can have serious health and safety consequences, so it’s important for people who work night shifts to carefully plan their sleep schedules and adopt strategies to get the sleep they need.”
Sleep Foundation (The Best Sleep Schedule for Night Shift Workers | Sleep Foundation)
Sleep isn’t just a time to rest and give your body and brain a break. It’s a critical biological function that restores and replenishes important body systems. Now, yet another study on shift workers shows that their unusual hours may be cutting their lives short—and that’s especially true for those who have rotating night shifts, rather than permanent graveyard duty.
You wake up, feel hungry, and fall asleep each day around repeating 24-hour “circadian” cycles controlled by your body’s internal clocks. These clocks are synchronized by a central pacemaker in the brain. Cycles of light and dark are important for the function of the brain’s master clock. Other cycles, such as the behavioral activities of eating and fasting or sleeping and waking, are important for peripheral clocks in the liver, gut, and other tissues.
When you stay awake all night or otherwise go against natural light cycles, your health may suffer. Long-term disruption of circadian rhythms has been linked to obesity, diabetes, and other health problems related to the body’s metabolism.
In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, scientists led by Dr. Eva Schernhammer, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, studied 74,862 nurses enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study since 1976. The nurses were an ideal group for studying the effects of rotating night shifts on the body, since RNs tend to have changing night shift obligations over an average month rather than set schedules.
After 22 years, researchers found that the women who worked on rotating night shifts for more than five years were up to 11% more likely to have died early compared to those who never worked these shifts. In fact, those working for more than 15 years on rotating night shifts had a 38% higher risk of dying from heart disease than nurses who only worked during the day. Surprisingly, rotating night shifts were also linked to a 25% higher risk of dying from lung cancer and 33% greater risk of colon cancer death. The increased risk of lung cancer could be attributed to a higher rate of smoking among night shift workers, says Schernhammer.
The population of nurses with the longest rotating night shifts also shared risk factors that endangered their health: they were heavier on average than their day-working counterparts, more likely to smoke and have high blood pressure, and more likely to have diabetes and elevated cholesterol. But the connection between more rotating night shift hours and higher death rates remained strong after the scientists adjusted for them.
You wake up, feel hungry, and fall asleep each day around repeating 24-hour “circadian” cycles controlled by your body’s internal clocks. These clocks are synchronized by a central pacemaker in the brain. Cycles of light and dark are important for the function of the brain’s master clock. Other cycles, such as the behavioral activities of eating and fasting or sleeping and waking, are important for peripheral clocks in the liver, gut, and other tissues.
When you stay awake all night or otherwise go against natural light cycles, your health may suffer. Long-term disruption of circadian rhythms has been linked to obesity, diabetes, and other health problems related to the body’s metabolism.
Previous studies have shown that some metabolites—the products of metabolism—in blood can have daily rhythms. An international research team led by Drs. Hans P. A. Van Dongen and Shobhan Gaddameedhi at Washington State University investigated whether disruptions in these rhythms are influenced by the central pacemaker in the brain or reflect behavioral activities, such as working the night shift. The study was funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Results were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 10, 2018.
Ten men and four women, aged 22 to 34 years, stayed at a research lab for one week. Half had a night-shift sleep pattern for three days and half had a day-shift pattern. The night-shift pattern causes the central pacemaker and behavioral rhythms to be at odds. After three days, the volunteers were kept awake for one day in a constant routine with a constant level of temperature and light. They received identical snacks every hour and provided blood samples every three hours.
The research team found only small differences in the day-shift and night-shift patterns for melatonin and cortisol, which mark the activity of the brain’s master clock. This finding suggests that the master clock is resistant to influence from the night-shift pattern.
The team analyzed the levels of 132 metabolites during the 24-hour constant routine. About half (65) of the metabolites had a significant daily rhythm. Of these, 27 had a significant 24-hour rhythm for both sleep patterns. Only three of these metabolites (taurine, serotonin, and sarcosine) kept the same peak time, similar to the master clock markers melatonin and cortisol. The other 24 showed a 12-hour shift in rhythm for the night-shift pattern.
The researchers noted that the particular metabolites and pathways affected by the night-shift sleep pattern relate to the liver, pancreas, and digestive tract. These findings suggest that night-shift sleep patterns can disrupt certain metabolite rhythms and the peripheral clocks of the digestive system without affecting the brain’s master clock.
“No one knew that biological clocks in people’s digestive organs are so profoundly and quickly changed by shift work schedules, even though the brain’s master clock barely adapts to such schedules,” Van Dongen says. “As a result, some biological signals in shift workers’ bodies are saying it’s day while other signals are saying it’s night, which causes disruption of metabolism.”
Further research is needed to better understand the role of these metabolic pathways in obesity, diabetes, and other medical conditions for which shift workers are at increased risk.
Nearly 15 million Americans work a permanent night shift or regularly rotate in and out of night shifts, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means a significant sector of the nation’s work force is exposed to the hazards of working nights, which include restlessness, sleepiness on the job, fatigue, decreased attention and disruption of the body’s metabolic process.
Those effects extend beyond the workers themselves, as many of us share the road with night-driving truckers, count on the precision of emergency-room workers and rely on the protection of police and national security personnel at all hours.
Now, psychologists are gaining a better understanding of how exactly night and shift work affect cognitive performance and which interventions and policies could keep shift workers and the public safer.
“The basic take-home is that fatigue decreases safety,” says Bryan Vila, PhD, a sleep expert and criminal justice researcher at Washington State University–Spokane. Learning healthy sleeping practices is “just as important as occupational training,” he says.
Poor scheduling, combined with unhealthy attitudes about the need for sleep, can cause major problems for night workers. That’s because working at night runs counter to the body’s natural circadian rhythm, says Charmane Eastman, PhD, a physiological psychologist at Rush University in Chicago. The circadian clock is essentially a timer that lets various glands know when to release hormones and also controls mood, alertness, body temperature and other aspects of the body’s daily cycle.
Of course, many workers can’t give up the night shift entirely. So the question is, how can night shift workers adapt to their schedules?
Charmane Eastman, PhD. Founding Director, Biological Rhythms Research Lab. Her education is PhD, University of Chicago / BS, State University of New York at Albany. Her Research Areas are: Shift work, jet lag, human circadian rhythms (especially effects of bright light and melatonin), social jet lag, circadian misalignment
There are two ways, says Rush University’s Eastman. One is through symptomatic relief by using such stimulants as coffee and caffeine pills to stay awake during the night, then taking sedatives to sleep in the morning. The other way is to shift the body’s circadian clock so that it better tolerates working at night and sleeping during the day.
Eastman and her team are exploring the latter approach. “The circadian clock is very stubborn and hard to push around,” she says.
Previous research has established that you can delay the circadian clock by about one or two hours per day. To determine that, researchers measure the body’s circadian rhythm by monitoring “dim-light melatonin onset,” or the time at which the pineal gland begins to secrete melatonin, which is triggered by the circadian clock. Normally, it kicks in a couple hours before people are ready to sleep. “It’s an output that’s a way of seeing what the circadian clock is doing,” Eastman says. “It’s a very good marker of the phase of the time of the clock.”
By exposing experimental subjects to intermittent bright light during their night shifts and having them wear sunglasses on their way home and sleeping in very dark bedrooms, Eastman and her team have found that within about a week, they can shift someone’s circadian rhythm to align perfectly with working a night shift and sleeping during the day.
Through WebMD.com it points out March 2010 the following: In terms of lifestyle, working odd hours leads to some obvious problems. People who do shift work tend to have sleep disturbances and sleep loss. They might feel isolated, since their jobs cut them off from their friends and families. They might find it harder to exercise regularly, and may be prone to eat junk food out of a handy vending machine, says Scheer.
Including in this note, I myself, being a RN 35 years basically, who has worked all shifts (mostly 12 hr shifts than driving home and for the past 4.5 years a 2 hr drive to and back to the hospital) disagree with this statement in that preventing junk food and of course exercise in your week you need discipline in obtaining right foods, exercise and habits. It is a challenge with no question but can be obtained if the right mind is set to it.
As WebMD points out, “The long-term effects of shift work are harder to measure. But researchers have found compelling connections between shift workers and an increased risk of serious health conditions and diseases.”. It really depends on what where you prior to going into night shift, is it 12 hr shifts or 8 hr shifts or part time or perdiem. It messes up the circadium cycle but you can bounce back depending on often you work night shift. ”
Remember, I point out night shift is not 3 to 11 pm but 11pm and on till am in long hours. Since many don’t fall asleep till after 10pm and on. Another major ingredient I would like to point out is, what is your medically history? Is this a worker with no medical history/in shape/ and great health habits? What is your age? Is this worker someone who is with diabetes?, cardiac disease?, overweight? etc… We need to look at the whole picture always!
Scheer backs my statement up with the following: “”There is strong evidence that shift work is related to a number of serious health conditions, like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity,” says Frank Scheer PhD,. “These differences we’re seeing can’t just be explained by lifestyle or socioeconomic status.”
Scheer in Web MD states “It’s important to keep the risks in perspective. Even if performing shift work is a risk factor for some diseases, it’s only one of many — just like not getting enough sleep or eating too many sweets. If you’re in good health to begin with, the overall risks to any given person performing shift work remain low. Scheer states he cautions that the implications of the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2009, are limited. A small laboratory experiment can’t fully reflect what’s happening to actual shift workers. It’s also possible that some of these health effects might improve as people get used to shift work. On the other hand, it’s also possible that these effects would just worsen over time. For now, we don’t know.
Keep in mind the things listed in books, internet and etc… are all based on experiments with including theory/principle based on knowing how the anatomy and physiology of the body works under stress or not stressed and how the body is taken care of by that individual is a major role in the turn out of night shift working.
“Since 1984, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) has designated May to be National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. It’s a time to focus on respiratory and immune health.
AAFA emphasizes it is critical to ensure people with asthma and allergic conditions can access essential life-saving medicines that (1) treat the underlying disease and (2) stop symptoms.
Asthma, allergies, atopic dermatitis, and other related allergic conditions cause significant distress and emotional, social, and financial burden on the people with these conditions. In the United States, there are about 4,000 deaths per year due to asthma and allergies. Most of these deaths are preventable.”
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
(May Is Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month | AAFA)
More than 65 million Americans overall have asthma and allergies. Some people may have one or both of these conditions. About 25 million Americans have asthma (20 million adults and 5 million children) About 32 million Americans have food allergies (26 million adults and 6 million children). About 24 million Americans have rhinitis (hay fever), or nasal allergies (19.2 million adults and 5.2 million children) There is no cure for asthma or allergies.
Rates of asthma are highest among African Americans and Puerto Ricans, young boys, and people living below the poverty line. Each year, asthma leads to more than 1.6 million emergency department visits and 170,000 hospital stays. For many, the change in seasons—with more allergens in the environment—can increase wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, coughing, or severe asthma attacks.
Asthma is a chronic (long-term) condition that affects the airways in the lungs. The airways are tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. If you have asthma, the airways can become inflamed and narrowed at times. This makes it harder for air to flow out of your airways when you breathe out. Many of those affected with Covid 19 with asthma have a harder time with dealing with it compared to those with no asthma due to the condition affecting breathing to begin with.
Normally, the body’s immune system helps fight infections. But it may also respond to other things you breathe in, such as pollen or mold. These are things that trigger symptoms of asthma to come on. In some people, the immune system reacts strongly by creating inflation. Ending result is the airways narrow causing it more difficult to breath. Over time, the airway walls can become thicker again making oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange not be as effective as someone without asthma.
About 1 in 13 people in the United States has asthma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention external link . It affects people of all ages and often starts during childhood. Certain things can set off or worsen asthma symptoms, such as pollen, exercise, viral infections, or cold air. These are called asthma triggers. When symptoms get worse, it is called an asthma attack.
There is no cure for asthma, but treatment and an asthma action plan can help you manage it.
Seasonal allergies often get lumped into one category. However, each season has its own unique allergens. Follow the guide below to see which months you can expect to see a flare up of which allergens.
For spring allergy sufferers, the joys of warmer weather, birds chirping and flowers blooming come at a price. Bothersome nose and eye symptoms, breathing difficulties and skin allergies can set in as trees begin to pollinate. Tree pollen season occurs between February and May.
Season length and timing varies each year depending on weather. Look at this winter this year how long it has lasted and finally spring has started this month. Due to a long, harsh winter, trees did not begin pollinating until March. Because pollen is microscopic, we cannot see it in the air and often do not know when the season has started until symptoms begin.
A common myth regarding spring allergies is that because symptoms often start in correlation with blooming flowers, the flower pollens contribute to the problem. Our allergies are due to plants that spread pollen by wind (anemophilous plants), which is how the pollen enters our eyes, noses, mouths or skin. These plants are not showy or eye-catching because they do not need to be. The plants we typically notice are usually flowering plants that are pretty for the purpose of catching the attention of pollinators like bees and other insects. These plant pollens are spread from plant to plant by the insects that visit them (entomophilous plants). For this reason, most of our pollen exposure is due to pollen in the air outdoors, and thus our allergies are to wind-pollinated plants.
Many trees are primarily pollinated by wind, and tree pollens are the main springtime allergen. Mold spores also contribute to spring allergies but are most bothersome in the fall. Common trees in the northwest Ohio region that contribute to allergy symptoms include oak, cottonwood, birch, maple, sycamore, ash, elm, hickory, walnut, beech and mulberry. There is limited cross-reactivity between tree pollens. This means that while some trees are related and pollens are somewhat similar, many tree pollens have unique features that prevent the ability to create a single treatment for tree pollen allergy. Allergists are specially trained physicians who can test patients to multiple different tree pollens and treat each patient uniquely for their specific tree pollen allergies.
For seasonal allergy sufferers, it is important to meet with a board-certified allergist to identify which allergens are most bothersome and to allow for more focused attention on avoidance measures and treatment options.
