Guide To Menopause Treatments

December 7, 2009 by Anne Harvester · Comment
Filed under: Medicine 

Menopause treatment begins with a change in a woman’s dietary habits. One has to take calcium in the form of tablets or in natural dairy products and vegetables. She must decrease consumption of caffeine products like tea and coffee. This is helpful in preserving bone density and increases absorption of calcium.

Other menopause treatments include physical exercises to build strong bones. This must be in the form of a brisk walk or weightlifting exercises to strengthen her bones. Exercising regularly also helps in weight reduction. It is good for the heart and can reduce one’s cholesterol level.

Menopause treatments for hot flushes involve consumption of natural products like soy and tofu that contain natural estrogens. One can have them in raw or cooked form. Scientific studies indicate that soy definitely reduces hot flushes.

Menopause medicines can form a part of menopause treatments. The intake of belladonna and clonidine can considerably reduce hot flushes. However, one must study their side effects before consuming them. Some medicines induce sleep while others can be dangerous for those having blood pressure.

It may be time to make a tiny change. Consider Vivelle-Dot , the #1 prescribed transdermal estrogen patch.* Taking Vivelle-Dot as prescribed can help you stay in control of your moderate to severe hot flushes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness and atrophy associated with menopause. And as long as you are on Vivelle-Dot, you are helping to protect your bones from postmenopausal osteoporosis (thin, weak bones). The tiny Vivelle-Dot patch is an estrogen-only treatment that’s applied to your lower abdomen twice a week. Vivelle-Dot delivers a continuous flow of estradiol (a form of estrogen like your body’s own). The translucent patch is the smallest, most discreet patch available. And it sticks with you — during exercise, in the shower, even in the pool.

Another very popular menopause treatment is hormone replacement therapy. This therapy involves taking the estrogen and progesterone hormones orally or in the form of topical creams. Women who have their uterus intact must take both hormones in regulated doses. It is important to decide the dose as per the doctor’s directions since the intake varies from person to person.

Hormone therapy is available in the form of tablets and creams. Women under 50 years experiencing early menopause can safely take these types of menopause treatments. However, one must undertake a mammogram once in two years, if on hormone therapy. A host of menopause treatments is now widely available due to rapid advances in science. However, a woman must take a suitable treatment according to her needs and strictly under a doctor’s supervision.

Kidney Transplant

November 17, 2009 by Antonio Lopez · Comment
Filed under: Medicine 

A kidney transplant is a surgical procedure in which a healthy donated kidney is transplanted into your body. A successful kidney transplant will allow you to return to a more normal lifestyle and will free you from dialysis treatments. However, a kidney transplant is not a cure. It is the treatment of choice for kidney failure for those who are considered suitable candidates for a transplant.

To find out if you are a candidate, your healthcare team will perform a series of tests as part of a complete medical assessment. Kidney transplantation is typically classified as deceased-donor (formerly known as cadaveric) or living-donor transplantation depending on the source of the recipient organ.

Living donors are carefully evaluated to make sure they are medically and psychologically able to donate their kidneys for kidney transplant. The living donor transplant used to be done via an open procedure but it is now increasingly done through laparoscopic surgery, which is easier to tolerate. Kidneys from living donors have a better success rate than do kidneys from deceased donors.

Kidney transplant from deceased donors can come from those whose hearts are still beating but are brain dead, as well as from non-heartbeating donors. The kidney can survive on ice for several hours before transplant so that technically, a person can be deceased and still donate their kidneys. The kidney is then kept in a cold solution prior to donation. The best organs for kidney transplant come from the brain dead donors.

Doctors judge compatibility for kidney transplant by assessing the ABO blood type of the donor and recipient as well as the HLA and minor antigens. If many of these match, the risk of rejecting the transplant and further dialysis is much decreased. In addition, immunosuppressants are used to keep the immune system in check. In the US, only about 17% of transplants have no HLA mismatch whatsoever. This improves the success rate remarkably.

Because kidneys can be kept cold for several hours, the kidney transplant is usually done in a different place from where it was harvested. In addition, the kidney is also placed in a different place from where a normal kidney would be. The most common spot for kidney transplant is the iliac fossa in the lower abdomen. The blood supply must come from somewhere other than the renal artery.

In situations where the kidney transplant recipient is a diabetic, the pancreas is also sometimes transplanted at the same time in order to turn around some of the diabetes the individual has. This almost always requires a deceased donor although partial pancreas transplants in living donors has been done. The patient can also receive a kidney transplant first, followed by a pancreas transplant at a later date.

People who receive a transplant must take medication and be monitored by a physician who specializes in kidney disease (nephrologist) for the rest of their lives. That’s reason you should know about myfortic® and CellCept®, it delivers the same highly effective immunosuppressive drug called mycophenolic acid (MPA). The difference between myfortic and CellCept is that myfortic is an enteric-coated formulation of MPA in a delayed-release tablet. If you want to get some excellent resources on kidney, please visit MyFortic.com to learn about myfortic (mycophenolic acid) a kidney transplant medication , and find information on kidney transplant.

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