What caffeine does to your body and brain

 

Whether you get your daily caffeine fix from coffee, tea, or a canned energy drink doesn't make much of a difference. It's still a stimulant with some positive and negative effects.
For starters, caffeine makes most of us feel more alert and awake. But while it can keep us focused, too much can also backfire. And it also affects everything in our bodies from our digestion to our metabolism and vision.

It makes us feel alert.

It’s natural to grow increasingly tired throughout the day — our brains naturally produce more and more of a molecule called adenosine from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep. Scientists think this helps us get to bed at night.     
Caffeine hijacks this natural process by mimicking adenosine in the brain. It latches onto the receptors designed for adenosine, pushing them out of the way. As a result, we’re left feeling more alert and awake.

At least until it doesn't.

Eventually, adenosine wisens up to caffeine’s act, though, and makes new receptors for the sleep-inducing molecule to start latching on again .     
This is why your morning cup of coffee can suddenly turn into two — the more receptors you have, the more caffeine you need to plug them up.

Breast Cancer Treatment in Israel

Call Us Now:

+972-73-272-3860

+234-144-08218

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers; according to statistics it occurs in 9-12% of women.

Breast cancer treatment in Israel using the most effective strategies, is performed in the Medical Oncology Department at "Herzliya Medical Center" Private Hospital. Timely diagnosis of breast cancer and individually tailored treatment in most cases achieves recovery. The likelihood of recovery of patients with breast cancer at an early stage is more than 90%.

Breast Cancer Symptoms

Breast cancer is a malignant tumor of the glandular tissue. Primary tumor is defined as the seal in the mammary gland distinguishable by palpation. Other signs of breast cancer include:

    Deformation and resizing of the breast
    Nipple retraction
    Change of skin: redness, the appearance of "orange peel"
    Bloody discharge from the nipple

Breast Cancer Diagnosis

In order to diagnose breast cancer the following checks must be conducted:

    Mammography
    U.S. (Ultrasound)
    MRI
    Biopsy - obtaining a sample of tumor tissue and its subsequent histological and immunohistochemical analysis. Firstly, the presence of malignant cells in the specimen can confirm the diagnosis of breast cancer. Secondly, on the basis of a biopsy the histological type is diagnosed (ductal carcinoma, medullary carcinoma, invasive lobular carcinoma, etc…) and largely determines the course and prognosis of the disease. In addition, modern methods of treatment of breast cancer in Israel are based on the specific symptoms of cancer cells: the presence of receptors for estrogen and progesterone receptor expression HER 2. As part of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in Israel a genetic testing is also performed: analysis to determine mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 . The presence of mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 indicates hereditary breast cancer.


    COST OF DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF BREAST CANCER
        The cost of specialists consultations and diagnostic procedures starts from $4,000
        Cost of treatment (if necessary):
            Operation - starts at $10,800
            Chemotherapy - starts at $2,000 per session

    
    Breast cancer treatment in Israel
    Surgery: Surgery is determined by the size of the tumor, the extent of its infiltration into the surrounding tissue and the presence of malignant cells in the lymph nodes. If the tumor is small in diameter, it is possible to perform a lumpectomy - tumor resection while preserving the breast. For large tumors a mastectomy is performed - a radical removal of the breast. After mastectomy a breast reconstruction is conducted using the patient's own tissue or a synthetic implant. Depending on the medical reconstruction, mastectomy may be done immediately or postponed to a later date.
    
    Radiotherapy: Radiotherapy is done to patients who have had a lumpectomy, in order to eliminate residual cancer cells and prevent recurrence. Doctors also recommend postoperative radiotherapy patients with large tumors, when there is a high probability of the presence of cancer cells in the lymph nodes.
    
    Chemotherapy: Adjuvant (postoperative) chemotherapy is appointed to the majority of patients after mastectomy. The purpose of chemotherapy is to kill cancer cells and prevent local recurrence. In the later stages of breast cancer chemotherapy is used as means of combating metastasis. Preoperative chemotherapy is used to influence the larger tumors: it causes their regression and facilitates radical removal.
    
    Hormone therapy: In some patients the cancer cells are hormone-dependent, that is, they have receptors for the hormones estrogen and progesterone. To affect the hormone-dependent tumors, drugs that block receptors of cancer cells are used or inhibit the natural estrogen synthesis in the body.
    
    Target (Targeted) therapy: Some cancers are characterized by overexpression of the receptor HER2, which plays an important role in the growth of malignant cells. Targeted drugs are capable of binding to this receptor and irreversibly disrupt the livelihoods of cancer cells. At "Herzliya Medical Center" the leading private hospital in Israel, target therapy has been successfully used as an effective treatment for breast cancer.



Breast Cancer



Herzliya Medical Center Private Hospital boasts hundreds of successful cases of healing from breast cancer. After treatment, the patient remains under medical supervision and is treated in the hospital to undergo a control check and receive further expert advice. Looking at these beautiful, young women who have recovered, it is impossible to believe that in the past, the devastating discovery of breast cancer disease has brought despair to their lives.

The Medical History of Maria S.

The History of Maria S. from Liverpool, England is a good example that if you believe, miracles do happen in medicine, but only when they are backed up by professional doctors, effective methods of treatment and, of course, the willingness of the patient to fight the disease.

Maria has recently turned 50 years old. “A year from now my son Alexander will have finished school and my daughter Natasha is going to get married, I'm making plans for the future” said Maria “but to my dismay I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I really wanted to see my children grow up, and suddenly realized that maybe I will not have the chance. " Maria independently discovered a lump in her breast and hastened to consult a surgeon. After the biopsy, the medical verdict was disappointing - invasive ductal carcinoma. To remove the tumor, a mastectomy was required. Maria decided to have the surgery in Israel, at HMC, due to excellent results with this sort of operation in this hospital. The mastectomy surgery was performed at Herzliya Medical Center and she also had radiotherapy and chemotherapy. "It was a difficult time” - says Maria – “It was very hard to tolerate the treatment, but the doctors and nurses tried to convince me that you have to fight till the end, they did everything possible and the impossible". Maria then had a breast reconstruction at the Department of Plastic Surgery in “Herzliya Medical Center”.


Wendy, 41 years old, from Lagos, Nigeria:

When I found out I had breast cancer, it was like the end of the world to me.

I had just got married and wanted to start building up a family. No woman in my family have ever had breast cancer and so it took me by surprise!

My doctor in Lagos told me that he had just returned from a medical conference in Israel a month ago and that he was amazed at the wonderful treatment they give out to breast cancer patients. I called up HMC and within four days was on my way to Herzliya Medical Center, Israel.

Thank you for all the people at the hospital who reached out continuously and didn't give up on me. I am so grateful to Dr. Karni and Dr. Pelech for your faith in healing me. You gave me my inner strength to pass this difficult time, maybe it’s the holy land who creates miracles and wonderful people like dat. I adopted a strong will to live after what I've been through. I’m grateful for the support in my cancer survivorship.

"I am eternally grateful to the doctors” says Wendy “ they gave me a second life, and it’s truly a priceless gift."




      

How safe is our Food?

Today is World Health Day, and the theme for this year is “Food safety: from farm to plate, make food safe”. The World Health Organization, concerned by the toll that foodborne diseases cause to human health, adopted a resolution recognising food safety as an essential public health function in 2000.

The concept of food safety covers the entire food chain from production to consumption, and, at each stage, there are associated hazards.

The WHO states that unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances causes more than 200 diseases from diarrhoea to cancers. In addition, an estimated 2 million people are killed annually by food and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases, many of them, children.

Unsafe food can cause illness either through infection (contamination with biological agents such as bacteria, viruses and parasites or toxication (contamination with chemicals).

Food poisoning usually manifests as fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea and is most commonly caused by salmonella, escherichia coli (E. coli) and campylobacter.

These bacteria are mostly found in milk, raw or undercooked poultry and drinking water (campylobacter), unpasteurized milk, undercooked meat and fresh fruits and vegetables (E.coli), eggs, poultry and other products of animal origin (salmonella).

The largest medical Exhibition in West Africa, to hold in Lagos.

Next month, another edition of Medic West Africa will hold in Lagos. This event has grown to become the largest medical exhibition in West Africa, incorporating courses and conferences for medical professionals in Nigeria and beyond. Dr. Jide Idris, Commissioner for Health of Lagos State, calls it “the key platform for sharing knowledge and information” on the West African healthcare market.
I remember walking around the exhibition last year, amazed at the potential for the Nigerian health sector. Through the vast space that is the Eko Conference Centre were exhibitors from the Far East, the Middle East and our old friends in the West all competing to catch the eyes of the beautiful bride. Last year, Medic West Africa attracted almost 2,500 visitors with more than 300 local and international companies showing their latest products and services, almost double the number for 2012. For the 2014 event, the organizers have added 100 more stands, providing room for 400 exhibitors and most of these have sold out, a month to the event.
It’s evidently a popular event with 95% of exhibtiors re-booking their stands for 2014 while still on-site, and 98% of visitors confirming that they will return for the next Medic West Africa Exhibition and Convention.
One of the exhibitors, Sorisha Naidoo, director of Crystal Tomato in South Africa, said last year, “We loved the exhibition, we met so many people from the industry we want to be in and the feedback is just great. We are looking forward to next year.” Similarly, Shaba Johnson Adetonkunbo, Chief Nursing Officer of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, said “The experience is wonderful and innovative, and it gives room for improvement in the Health sector in Nigeria.

Demonizing Nigerian Doctors – an Agenda for Change

Reflecting on the recent doctors strike, and the threat by other health sector workers of further strikes, we took a fresh look at a piece that Ike Anya wrote 11 years ago, and were surprised how relevant it still is today! Judge for yourself….
In the past month or so, several articles have appeared in the Nigerian press criticizing some aspect or other of the practice of Nigerian doctors. It started (I think) with Bolaji Abdullahi’s “Thank God I Am Not a Doctor” in THISDAY, which unleashed a flood of responses. More recently, Rotimi Oyekanmi in a passionate article decried the perceived role of doctors in the care and subsequent demise of his friend and colleague. Even more touching is the letter from a Mr Sule in The Guardian recently, outlining the circumstances of his wife and baby’s deaths in a hospital in Kaduna.

Photo credit: Dr Ike Nwachukwu

Reading these articles as I sympathized with the families of the bereaved, I was also conscious of the fact that often, bereaved families feel not enough has been done to save their relation. This is a natural human response and most health workers learn in the course of their careers to accept this with equanimity. I am also conscious of the fact of the very difficult circumstances under which doctors and other health workers in Nigeria work. I am pleased that these articles are being written and that hopefully a debate is being opened which for a long time has been avoided or ignored.

We cannot be complacent about the NIGERIA TOBACCO CONTROL BILL

Unfortunately, public health issues rarely make headline news in Nigeria. Very few people know that there is an important bill – the NIGERIA TOBACCO CONTROL BILL currently going through the Senate. It has just gone through its second reading. The Bill seeks to regulate the manufacturing, advertising, distribution and consumption of tobacco products in Nigeria

One of the great public health victories of recent times has been the battle against the cigarette industry, forcing them to admit to the harmful and addictive properties of their products. The health benefits of reducing access to cigarettes are now irrefutable. Over the last few years, almost every Western country has also banned smoking in public places, making significant measurable impact on the health of their citizens. As a similar bill makes its way through the Nigerian Senate the economic argument is being brought to the fore. Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba has argued that “…we have to deal with the use of tobacco in such a regulated manner that it doesn’t create any economic distortion.” In addition to any direct impact on tobacco farmers, reviewing the economic case must include the costs of tobacco-related illnesses such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other illnesses, and evidence from other countries suggests that the harms far outweigh the benefits.

Politics, the new National Health Act and Local Government Areas

The next few months will be filled with politics in Nigeria. At Nigeria Health Watch, we will focus on keeping health on the political agenda, enabling you, the voter, to ask the right questions on the issues that matter to you. Health and healthcare matters to all of us, and together we must ask our politicians what their plans are for this important sector.
Although the current government appears not to want to make any political capital out of it, the new National Health Act, after ten years in gestation, is one of its key achievements. A major aspect of the act is the clarity it provides on where the responsibility for providing primary healthcare services in Nigeria lies: at the Local Government Area tier of government. If you have read the new National Health Act, you may have noticed that one of the most important contents of the new act is the creation of a new “Basic Health Care Provision Fund”, which will be financed by law through a Federal Government Annual Grant of not less than one per cent of its Consolidated Revenue Fund, plus any other third party funding sources available. The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) will be responsible for disbursing these funds through State and Primary Health Care Boards to Local Government and Area Council Health Authorities. The new act is also very specific on how the funds will be used, stating as follows:

One Meal a Day – a Community led School Feeding Programme that solves other Health Problems

Try studying on an empty stomach. This is the reality of millions of school children in Nigeria today. When Professor Uche Amazigo retired after many years of public service, she brought a few partners together to form the Pan-African Community Initiative on Education and Health (PACIEH). PACIEH is designed to enable rural communities manage a sustainable school-based deworming, feeding and health programme, offering school children the chance to maximize opportunities available to reach their full potential. Our team member, Ada Ezeokoli, visited the school-feeding programme in Enugu State to examine the impact of its multi-partner, community-managed strategy on the lives of school children and its potential to shape the education and health of the next generation of Nigerians. This is her story.

As Professor Uche Amazigo and I arrive the rural community of Oma-Eke, Enugu State, in the relentless midday heat, the students of the Community Primary School are still in their classrooms. We watch as they finish their classes and observe as they come out to wash their hands with water and soap. Then they sit together to have lunch. The meals have been cooked and are served by a group of women, made up of mothers of children who attend the school. They are all volunteers and have organised themselves, taking turns in doing the cooking and serving.  The children sit together, chatting as children do, but eagerly devouring the tasty looking meal.

On World TB Day, there is little to celebrate in Nigeria

As the Ebola epidemic in West Africa slows and falls away from the headlines, there is a temptation to view this outbreak as an isolated event and go back to life as usual. In Nigeria, the fairly successful response to the Ebola epidemic has brought a bit of credibility to the Nigerian health sector, with many Nigerian public health professionals smiling when confronted with the question “How did you guys do it?” While there is definitely some satisfaction to be gained in the response to the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria, it does not change the fact that we are still in a precarious situation with several other infectious disease threats, which kill thousands of people in Nigeria. No other disease illustrates better our collective inability to deliver the essentials of a modern public health response to those who need help the most, in the most timely and efficient manner, than our response to tuberculosis (TB).
While diseases like Ebola kill swiftly and produce horrific and acute symptoms, TB consumes many of its unknowing victims over a long period. It often goes undiagnosed for months, if not years, while it multiplies in families and communities. People infected with TB are often poor, marginalised and voiceless. Individuals who are ill with TB and not treated, can spread the bacteria through the air. Without correct treatment, more than 80 percent of people who fall ill will eventually waste away — coughing up blood while their bodies are ravaged by the disease — until they die. The difference is that they do not die in days, but in months … sometimes years.

A Health Innovation Challenge for Nigeria’s Healthcare Space

While the experience of the average Nigerian with several sectors of the economy has evolved through the use of technology over the past decade, there has been minimal impact on the health sector. This guest post describes an initiative that intends to change that.

By Alex Chiejina

Many incubation and innovation platforms in Nigeria target information technology for finance, agriculture and e-commerce, but very few platforms focusing on health innovation/technology in healthcare delivery. While groups in African countries like Malawi, Uganda and Ethiopia have developed locally appropriate health technologies and innovations such as m-Health apps to improve health outcomes, the low application of innovation and technology in healthcare remains a missed opportunity in transforming healthcare delivery in Nigeria.

In an attempt to galvanize Nigerians into action in this space, the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria’s Nigeria Health Innovation Marketplace is calling on innovators, techies, academic institutions, private sector companies, businesses, civil society, clinicians, researchers, NGOs and individuals to apply in the $1million Health Innovation Challenge (video).

The Health Innovation Challenge (HIC), is a multi-stage competition whose primary focus is to spur a broader range of innovations (process, technology, market, service delivery) to respond to specific health sector challenges that will have both a social impact [progress in health indices] and/or commercial viability and scalability.

Do APC and PDP care about the Health of Nigerians?

As we approach the new date for the presidential elections, we decided to use the additional time provided by the postponement to scrutinize the two leading party manifestoes on health in a bit more detail. While there are other parties also in the race, we have chosen for convenience to focus on the manifestoes of the two front-runner parties – the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The APC in its manifesto has a section on healthcare. It is unclear why they have chosen the term “healthcare” rather than the broader term “health”, but the PDP which has a section on health also says it will formulate a policy on “healthcare”.

Within the healthcare section of its manifesto, the APC says that it will:

• Prioritize the reduction of the infant mortality rate by 2019 to 3%; reduce maternal mortality by more than 70%; reduce HIV/AIDs infection rate by 50% and other infectious diseases by 75%; improve life expectancy by additional 10 years on average through our national healthy living program;
• Increase the number of physicians from 19 per 1000 population to 50 per 1000; increase national health expenditure per person per annum to about N50,000 (from less than N10,000 currently);
• Increase the quality of all federal government owned hospitals to world class standard within five years;
• Invest in cutting edge technology such as telemedicine in all major health centers in the country through active investment and partnership programs with the private sector;
• Provide free ante-natal care for pregnant women, free health care for babies and children up to school going age and for the aged and free treatment for those afflicted with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS;
• Boost the local manufacture of pharmaceuticals and make non adulterated drugs readily available.