“My brother Alan – who was seven years younger than me – died from leukemia when he was 52. He never knew a day’s good health – I wish I could have given him some of my good health. But he was always so cheerful and sweet.

Brian Blessed (author)

Leukemia is the most common cancer in children and teens, accounting for almost 1 out of 3 cancers. Most childhood leukemias are acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Most of the remaining cases are acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Chronic leukemias are rare in children.

A risk factor is anything that affects a person’s chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors.

Lifestyle-related risk factors such as tobacco use, diet, body weight, and physical activity play a major role in many adult cancers. But these factors usually take many years to influence cancer risk, and they are not thought to play much of a role in childhood cancers, including leukemias.

There are a few known RISK FACTORS for childhood leukemia.

Inherited syndromes

-Some inherited disorders increase a child’s risk of developing leukemia:

• Down syndrome (trisomy 21): Children with Down syndrome have an extra (third) copy of chromosome 21. They are many times more likely to develop either acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) or acute myeloid leukemia (AML) than are other children, with an overall risk of about 2% to 3%. Down syndrome has also been linked with transient leukemia (also known as transient myeloproliferative disorder) – a leukemia-like condition within the first month of life, which often resolves on its own without treatment.
• Li-Fraumeni syndrome: This is a rare condition caused by a change in the TP53 tumor suppressor gene. People with this change have a higher risk of developing several kinds of cancer, including leukemia, bone or soft tissue sarcomas, breast cancer, adrenal gland cancer, and brain tumors.Other genetic disorders (such as neurofibromatosis and Fanconi anemia) also carry an increased risk of leukemia, as well as some other types of cancers.Having a parent who develops leukemia as an adult does not seem to raise a child’s risk of leukemia.The possible risks from fetal or childhood exposure to lower levels of radiation, such as from x-ray tests or CT scans, are not known for sure. Some studies have found a slight increase in risk, while others have found no increased risk. Any risk increase is likely to be small, but to be safe, most doctors recommend that pregnant women and children not get these tests unless they are absolutely needed.1-Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow — the spongy tissue inside bones where blood cells are made.Acute lymphocytic leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children, and treatments result in a good chance for a cure. Acute lymphocytic leukemia can also occur in adults, though the chance of a cure is greatly reduced.
• The word “acute” in acute lymphocytic leukemia comes from the fact that the disease progresses rapidly and creates immature blood cells, rather than mature ones. The “lymphocytic” in acute lymphocytic leukemia refers to the white blood cells called lymphocytes, which ALL affects. Acute lymphocytic leukemia is also known as acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
• What is Leukemia?  First their are types of leukemia, which are cancers of the bone marrow and blood and this is the most common childhood cancers unfortunately.  They account for about 30% of all cancers in children.  The most common types that are found in children they are 1.) acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) 2.) acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).
• Exposure to high levels of radiation is a risk factor for childhood leukemia. Japanese atomic bomb survivors had a greatly increased risk of developing AML, usually within 6 to 8 years after exposure. If a fetus is exposed to radiation within the first months of development, there may also be an increased risk of childhood leukemia, but the extent of the risk is not clear.
• Siblings (brothers or sisters) with leukemia have a slightly increased chance (2 to 4 times normal) of developing leukemia, but the overall risk is still low. The risk is much higher among identical twins. If one twin develops childhood leukemia, the other twin has about a 1 in 5 chance of getting leukemia as well. This risk is much higher if the leukemia develops in the first year of life.

2-Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow — the spongy tissue inside bones where blood cells are made.

The word “acute” in acute myelogenous leukemia denotes the disease’s rapid progression. It’s called myelogenous (my-uh-LOHJ-uh-nus) leukemia because it affects a group of white blood cells called the myeloid cells, which normally develop into the various types of mature blood cells, such as red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

Acute myelogenous leukemia is also known as acute myeloid leukemia, acute myeloblastic leukemia, acute granulocytic leukemia and acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

“I would not have traded two minutes of the joy and the grief with that man for two decades of anything with another.”

Lou Gehrig’s wife, Eleanor (wife of baseball player Lou Gehrig who was on the Yankees from 1925 to 1940 fulltime).

“Oxygen, although it is essential for aerobic organisms for respiration as well as energy production, has been therapeutically used for a long time. It also can be either toxic or lethal for humans if it is continuously inhaled pure for about 60 hours.”

U.S. National Library of Medicine/National Institute of Health http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3231820/

“Oxygen, although it is essential for aerobic organisms for respiration as well as energy production, has been therapeutically used for a long time. It also can be either toxic or lethal for humans if it is continuously inhaled pure for about 60 hours.”

U.S. National Library of Medicine/National Institute of Health http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3231820/

Now don’t get me wrong oxygen is an element that is a must for most creatures that live in the world both now and since it began but there is dangers to any element especially if mixed with some other element causing a negative result in the end. So you wonder how oxygenation can have pros and cons and why oxygen would ever have dangers to it, well let’s take a deeper look.

Oxygenation may refer to:

1-Oxygen saturation (medicine), the process by which concentrations of oxygen increase within a tissue

2-Oxygenation (environmental), a measurement of dissolved oxygen concentration in soil or water

-Great Oxygenation Event, an ancient event that led to the rise of oxygen within our atmosphere

-Water oxygenation, the process of increasing the oxygen saturation of the water

-Dioxygen complex, the chemical details of how metals bind oxygen

Of course, oxygen has its good points. Besides being necessary for respiration and the reliable combustion engine, it can be liquefied and used as rocket fuel. Oxygen is also widely used in the world of medicine as a means to imbue the body with a greater amount of the needed gas. But recent studies indicate that administering oxygen might be doing less good than hoped—and in fact be causing harm. No one is immune to the dangers of oxygen, but the people who might most suffer the ill effects are infants newly introduced to breathing, and those who are clinically dead.

Oxygen regarding the medical view:

There are a variety of injuries and ailments for which modern medicine dictates oxygen therapy. Look at the medical aspect, the common wisdom is that by filling the lungs with pure O₂, one is pushing more of the vital gas into the blood, and thus to organs that are weakened and in need of support. It has also long been known that even at partial pressures, pure oxygen can be toxic—a fact with which scuba divers and astronauts are intimately familiar. Recent studies have indicated that the human body responds to pure oxygen, even at normal pressures, in a negative way.

When pure O₂ is introduced to the lungs, autonomic reflex increases respiration. The increased rate of breathing means that a much larger load of carbon dioxide is released from the body, which causes the blood vessels to constrict. Despite the increased amount of available oxygen in the lungs, the circulatory system is hampered, and cannot deliver precious O₂ as well as it could when breathing normal atmosphere.

Ronald Harper, a neurobiology professor at UCLA, conducted observations on a group of healthy teenagers breathing various gas mixes using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). His findings showed that in some subjects the pure O₂ caused the brain to go clinically bonkers. Brain structures such as the hippocampus, the insula, and the cingulate cortex all displayed an adverse reaction; they in turn spurred the hypothalamus, the body’s main regulatory gland, into a fervor. The hypothalamus regulates a myriad of things, including heart rate, body temperature, and is the master of a variety of other glands. The introduction of pure oxygen prompts the hypothalamus to flood the body with a cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters which serve to hamper heart rate, and further reduce the circulatory system’s effectiveness. But Harper also found that by adding a mere 5% CO2, all the detrimental effects found in pure oxygen are negated.

There are circumstances, however, where even the proper mix of gases would prove inadequate. Modern medicine has long taught that after respiration stops, the brain can only survive for six to seven minutes without oxygen before its cells begin to die in droves. In order to combat this, standard procedure has been to aggressively attempted to restore breathing and heartbeat immediately upon cessation, CPR. The base premise on which this protocol is designed may be in error but only if continuing longer than the AHA guides us to do CPR. For there is more than just to lack of oxygen in patients who die having CPR done to them for death (Ex Exacerbation of a disease, multi – organ failure, years of CHF, etc… Even thought lack of 02 is part of the reason for the death in the end. There was a cause for it happening and leading to lack of 02 is the prime entity to death of all diseases leading up to this in a human.).

Upon examining heart cells and neurons deprived of oxygen under a microscope, Dr Lance Becker of the University of Pennsylvania found there was no indication that the cells were dying after five or six minutes. In fact, they seemed to endure the state for up to an hour without adverse affect. Given this unexpected observation, the researchers were forced to investigate why human resuscitation becomes impossible after only a few minutes of clinical death. The answer they uncovered was that the body’s cells were not dying of oxygen starvation; they were expiring due to Reperfusion—the sudden reintroduction of oxygen to a dormant cell = Programmed cell death! The cells reintroducing oxygen back into the cell from outside the cell in the bloodstream caused the destruction of the red blood cells, the RBCs carry oxygen to all our tissues sites. You would think that would save the cells in sending more oxygen out to the tissues but like we’re told from childhood too much of almost anything can hurt or kill you (Ex. Food/work/stress…)

Take a patient with severe emphysema they do get oxygen in their body but the problem is that oxygen gets air spaced elsewhere rather than all the 02 breathed in going in the red blood cells at the lungs exchange for 02 at the bottom of the lungs with CO2 (carbon dioxide) sent from the cells to the lungs to leave the body. Than the cells go off throughout the bloodstream having our tissues utilize from the red blood cells the oxygen it needs (a transfer of 02 to our tissues).   Upon return of the red blood cells that took the CO2 from the tissues to keep the tissues more oxygenated, so they can do their function as an organ. Oxygen deprivation to a severe state is Oxygen Starvation to our bodies leading to death, if not reversed. Also with the severe COPD emphysema pt their body adjusts to having high C02 levels compared to a person without emphysema. A normal person’s brain functions to sending messages out to cause us to breath when our 02 level is low but to a severe emphysema pt the low C02 levels causes their brain to send out messages to breath, so if you give an emphysema pt over 2L of 02 for several hours if will turn the brain off and the pt deceases (except when a emphysema pt is in respiratory distress since it is needed and temporary support of higher oxygen levels than when stable and out of respiratory distress their at 2L of 02 again).

Inside the cells, the culprit seems to be in the mitochondria, which is the cell’s power plant where sugar and oxygen are converted to usable energy. Mitochondria are also responsible for apoptosis—the organized, controlled self-destruction of a cell. Normally apoptosis occurs in situations such as the cell being damaged beyond repair, infected by a virus, an attempt to prevent cancer, or aiding in initial tissue development. The process effectively kills and dismantles the cell allowing the body’s usual waste management functions to carry the cell’s remains away. For reasons not entirely clear, reperfusion triggers apoptosis—the oxygen intended to save the cell actually causes cellular suicide.

Armed with this new information about how cells react to oxygen, it is clear that current emergency care is not altogether ideal, and new protocols are under investigation. Dr Becker proposes that induced hypothermia may slow cell degradation, and if a means can be found to safely reintroduce oxygen to tissues, a clinically dead person—who still has trillions of living cells—could be resuscitated after being an hour dead.

This glorious future is still on the horizon, but to imagine the practical application leads one to ponder the multitude of accidents and injuries that are currently fatal, but will one day be treatable. Emergency Medical Personnel could arrive on the scene, and inject the patient with a slurry of ice and salt that lowers the body temperature to about 92° F. In a hypothermic state, the patient is hauled to the hospital, where instead of frantically trying to restart the heart, doctors patch up the problem, prevent apoptosis , and then restart the heart. Though it won’t save everyone, these findings may lead to a future where a person made up of perfectly good human cells is not written off as dead merely because their heart has stopped beating. The miracle of modern medicine, it seems, is on the cusp of determining the true distinction between dead and mostly dead.

The general population has about a 1% risk of developing epilepsy.   Meanwhile, children of mothers with epilepsy have a 3 to 9% risk of inheriting this disease, while children of fathers have a 1.5 to 3% risk of inheritence.” Based on genes research.

Dr. Robert S. Fischer Ph D. Stanford Epilepsy Center

Since so much information we decided to make it Monday and Tuesday!

Than their is the epilepsy that is diagnosed with a IDIOPATHIC cause – meaning unknown cause and the patient could grow out of it in childhood depending on the type of seizure disorder or not–in where the condition becomes chronic (for life).

Although heredity has been known since antiquity to cause epilepsy, the progress to date in identifying the genetic basis of epilepsy has been limited primarily to the discovery of single gene mutations that cause epilepsy in relatively rare families. For the more common types of epilepsy, heredity plays a subtler role, and it is thought that a combination of mutations in multiple genes likely determine an individual’s susceptibility to seizures, as well as the responsiveness to antiepileptic medications.

Epilepsy can be caused by genetic factors (inherited) or acquired (a etiology—cause) , although in most cases it arises in part from both. The neurology and neurological sciences of Stanford Epilepsy Center Dr. Robert S. Fischer Ph D. presents in the article Genetic Causes of Epilepsy.

He also presents in this article our genes are the instruction set for building the human body. Genes reside on chromosomes.

Going to the basics is every person has 46 chromosomes, carrying a total of about 30,000 genes. We get half our chromosomes from our mother and half from our father. While genes determine the structure of our body, they also control the excitability of our brain cells. Defective genes can make hyperexcitable brain cells, which are prone to seizures.

In recent years, several epilepsy conditions have been linked to mutations in genes, but the matter is complicated by the fact that different genes may be involved in different circumstances.

In general, the most common epilepsy conditions, including partial seizures, seem to be more acquired than genetic.

Gene testing will soon be able to identify predispositions to epilepsy, allowing doctors to help a patient get treatment and to assist with family counseling. One day, doctors may simply be able to swap a patient’s cheek, test his or her genes, and predict response to various epilepsy medicines, eliminating much of the trial and error in medication choice that goes on today. Eventually, we may even be able to repair or replace defective genes that predispose a person to epilepsy, a process called gene therapy.

Lastly, Dr. Robert Fischer Ph D presented in his article, that I found very interesting, the general population has about a 1% risk of developing epilepsy.   Meanwhile, children of mothers with epilepsy have a 3 to 9% risk of inheriting this disease, while children of fathers have a 1.5 to 3% risk of inheritence. Still, the actual risk is upon the specific type of epilepsy. For example, partial seizures are less likely to run in families than are generalized seizures. In any event, with the usual forms of epilepsy, even if a parent does have the condition, there is more than a 90% chance that their child will not. So most epilepsies are acquired than inherited.

Clearly, genes determine a great deal of who we are, including our possible risk for epilepsy but slim versus a actual cause. But what happens to us in life and what we do is still the larger part of the risk for epilepsy.

A person given this diagnosis in the 1970’s, or before  and even up to the early 1990’s was quiet about ever letting people know about this since in the 1970’s and back with lack of knowledge, information to the public and definitely technology than versus now.  Epilepsy is much more an accepted disease in the overall community compared to 20-25 years ago and back.  Heck in the 1970’s and back these patients when having a seizure episode were characterized as “Freaks”. This was due to ignorance and lack of information but due to the past 20 to 25 years with the computer used more as a must in our lives with media, television and even our government they all have made it possible for society everywhere in the world to learn and understand diseases with acceptance in wanting to help those, particularly the US, but we still need a healthier America. It will take time to get there with the many multicultural lives that all live in the U.S. which practice differently on how important or where a healthy diet with exercise balanced with rest and stress well controlled is on their priority list in living.

For a person diagnosed with or without a cause of epilepsy these steps in learning about the disease with higher technology and continuous research with medications over the years has allowed them to be able to live a completely healthy life doing the same things other people do without the disease but only if the patient is UNDER COMPLETE CONTROL  which includes being COMPLIANT; this does exist in America.

Compliant meaning taking their medications everyday as ordered by their neurologist with yearly or sooner follow-up visits with blood levels of the anti-seizure medications there on.  This is the only way one with chronic epilepsy is guaranteed that living this way MAY stop the seizures from occurring (inactive epilepsy you can call it — meaning you’ll always have the disease but can put the seizure activity in a remission by medications preventing the seizure.)

The purpose for (follow up) F/U visits is for the neurologist to see how good of a therapeutic drug level your anti-seizure med is in (you get the blood test before the F/U visit).  Possible do a EEG (electroencephalogram); the only test to decipher if you have spikes in your brain waves indicating you had a seizure (a 26 lead to wires on the brain, which is painless).  Go to the expert for keeping you on the right track.  Its just like based on the principle why a person gets a check up on there car by seeing the mechanic (the car’s doctor).

Types of seizures whether with a etiology or unknown:

I-Partial seizures (seizures beginning local)

1-Simple partial seizures-(the person is conscious and not impaired).  With motor symptoms, autonomic symptoms and even psychic symptoms.

2.)-Complex partial seizures-(the person is with impairment of consciousness)

II-Generalized seizures-(bilaterally symmetrical and without local onset).

3.) Tonic clonic seizures – Grand Mal

To make your life one without seizures occurring without putting your life on HOLD you need to TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!  Doing this gives you higher odds less chance of seizures occurring in most people having seizures.  That is all up to you-the patient diagnosed with it.

“About 1 in 26 people in the United States will develop a seizure disorder. Nearly 10 percent of individuals may have a single unprovoked seizure. However, a single seizure doesn’t mean you have epilepsy. At least two unprovoked seizures are generally required for an epilepsy diagnosis.”

MAYO CLINIC

Believe or not, PLANTS do enhance our lives both mentally and physically!

Plants by 20% can improve memory, attention span and concentration outside in wildlife. Studies have even shown that tasks performed while under the calming influence of nature are bettered performed (from sitting with our pets to being outdoors with mother nature in pleasant weather to that individual’s mind—from rain to a pleasant sunny day with birds chirping or even by a rain fall dropping near the person).

Keeping ornamental plants in the home and in the workplace increases memory retention and concentration. The calming influence of natural environments is conducive to positive work environments by increasing a person’s ability to concentrate on the task at hand. Work performed under the natural influence of ornamental plants is normally of higher quality and completed with a much higher accuracy rate than work done in environments devoid of nature. Going outside or being under the influence of plants can increase memory retention up to twenty percent, a recent University of Michigan study showed (Sewach). The effect of nature in the home and in the workplace serves to stimulate both the senses and the mind, improving mental cognition and performance. (Bisco Werner 1996; Brethour 2007; Frank 2003; Pohmer 2008; Serwach 2008; Shibata, 2001, 2004; Yannick 2009).

Even take parks or places like botanical gardens that both often play as a host to educational programs and special events, which do contribute to the awareness of culture and education of the community, especially children. The better the environment the better the effect. Example take a highly criminal area as opposed to a lesser one. Installing a park or botanical garden in a community has many direct benefits to residents, but an auxiliary benefit of having such a naturalized landmark in the community is the special events and cultural opportunities it brings to people who might not otherwise be exposed. Botanical gardens and zoos often create educational programs for children in order to teach them how the value of being environmentally-conscious and conserving the environment. They can also impact adults in the community as well, creating a cultural awareness of the importance of natural environments. Parks and gardens foster an appreciation for nature that often instills in residents a sense of responsibility for the caring of and protection of the environment. (Appleseed, Inc. 2009, Dubey 2007, Nadel 2005, Phipps Botanical Gardens and Conservatory 2010)

Parks and urban green spaces impact people’s health by providing them with an inexpensive (often free) and convenient recreational service. There is a positive correlation between the presence of a park in a neighborhood and the level of physical activity of the residents; people are much more likely to exercise when there is a no-cost, aesthetically pleasing area or facility for them to use. Many are more out to do simple (walking) or more intense (running) outside to even handball or basketball do just mental exercise (reading) all outdoors in nice parks as opposed to a high urban area of just warehouses and buildings with no park or in a work out place with all just nautilus and weights all over the public place that has high probability of picking up cold, flu, infections. Why? In high probability your exposed to much more germs and bacteria as opposed to a park or your own home in or outside.   Less host build up of germs and bacteria. Public places are high percentage in where you pick up germs and bacteria.

Believe it or not is helps in the healing process. Shrubs, trees, and flowers have a practical application in hospitals. Whether the the presence of plants are in the patients hospital rooms or viewed outside the room seeing beautiful parks via their window greatly reduces the time necessary to heal. The soothing effects of ornamental flowers and plants are so great that simply having daily views of flowers and other ornamental plants in landscaped areas outside patient recovery room significantly speed up recovery time; now if unfortunately the patient is terminal it’s a much greater atmosphere to be around than just four walls.

Ornamental plants affect the levels of compassion that people feel for others. Studies have shown that people who spend more time around plants are much more likely to try and help others, and often have more advanced social relationships. People who care for nature are more likely to care for others, reaching out to their peers and forming shared bonds resulting from their common interests.

Spending time in nature gives people an increased feeling of vitality, increasing their energy levels and making them feel more animated. Their performance levels are, in turn, increased by this improved state of mind. Natural environments induce a positive outlook on life, making people feel more alive and active. When people experience increased vigor, they put more of themselves and their energy into their work. People who spend more time outside in nature have a significantly more positive outlook on life than people who spend a great deal of time indoors, based on the majority.

One of the more obvious benefits of plants and trees is that many of them have valuable medicinal properties. Cultivating plants helps humanity because it provides opportunities for additional scientific studies of the possible positive medicinal values of plants. Natural herbal remedies are simple and holistic methods for treating common illnesses and maladies.

Simply regarding STRESS, plants help people with dealing with it in a positive way. How you ask; by helping many people transform their stress into a more positive emotion, this can be done commonly done in America in a pent house, back yard to farming, gardening-it gives people an excellent coping mechanism for their daily frustrations. Plants to even nurturing them helps reduce stress levels and gives people a way to cope with their negative feelings, in letting them release rather than build up.   Gardening can have therapeutic effects on people who have undergone trauma, either mental or physical. The act of nurturing a plant can provide victims with a way to work through their issues and heal their wounds, whether they are on the surface of the skin or deeper. Cultivating plants also improves their mental states and helps to put them in a better place for recovering. Gardening is a therapeutic tool.

Beautifying traffic medians not only improves the aesthetics of the roadways, it also affects driver attitudes. Studies show that drivers are more at ease on roadways with natural landscaping, and are much more inclined to think positively about the community that they are driving through if the roadways are beautiful. Furthermore, adding trees to roadways creates a sort of natural obstruction which could reduce the likelihood of cars crossing medians into oncoming traffic lanes. This improves driver safety and makes the community a safer place for everyone to live in.

Believe it or not plants enhance our lives!