All Blood Tests

Self depression test is just like a boon for those who want to know whether they have depression. The test is a great way to analyze the traces of depression in an individual. This is usually known as self-test.

Everybody experiences some amount of depression in one’s life. However, for some people, the amount tends to increase with time. When this amount increases to a great extent, it is not normal. The stage affects a lot in a person’s mental and physical status.

When it comes to the normal blues, these are sometimes triggered by anything from a particular thing someone had seen, said, thought or feared. Oftentimes, these blues occur without any valid reason, warning or explanation. This is the time where one just waits for the bad period to just pass by quietly.

However, if you are keen on knowing whether you have serious depression, it’s a wise idea to go for some kind of self tests. These self depression tests will explain you clearly about whether you have a serious depression or plain blues.

Answer the following questions to do self depressions test:

a)  Are you feeling totally withdrawn from pleasures of life? This is actually the most accurate self depression’s test. All you require to do is to try out something that you are aware of and used to give a lot of happiness in earlier days.

This may be anything from your favorite movie, hobby, shopping venture etc.  In case, you find out that all these things do not have anything to do with your pleasure now, then this is definitely a sign of serious depression.

b)  Have been forgetting a lot of things off late? Do not forget that depression tends to cause hiccups in your memory and you’d come to know that certain things are completely wiped out from the memory. The often leaves you totally baffled. This is another test that works towards providing you precise results.

c)  Is it becoming difficult for you to skip at night? Or have you been sleeping very little during the night? If yes, then it may be due to a lot of coffee or stimulants. Why do you like coffee or stimulants too much? If you don’t have an answer for this, than the self depression test is going to provide you a great answer for it.

d)  Have you lost your appetite recently? There are times when one does not feel like eating. This is normal. However, if it becomes a common affair, the self depression test, confirms that it’s a ‘yes’.

e)  In case, your answer to all the questions mentioned above is in ‘yes’, then you are definitely suffering from a serious depression. Here, it is really important for you to get some hold or yourself and go for a professional help.

f)  There are some other tests you might go for. One of the most popular tests remains the gold berg test. This test was designed by Dr. Ivan Goldberg. The test consists of some eighteen questions. Each question is supposed to be answered by the individual. The use of a sliding scale of responses is mandatory. This actually shows how they have felt during the week that has just gone by.

As soon as all the questions are answered, scores are added for the final score wherein each score has a specific significance. The final score settles whether you are depressed or not.

Blood tests for colitis and Crohn’s disease are a relatively new and exciting development that have added significantly to the screening, diagnosis and management of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Differentiating the two may allow better predictions regarding responses to medical treatments, decisions regarding surgery options and the risks of various complications. Antibodies to various proteins including Baker’s or Brewer’s yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae) and bacteria like Escherichia. coli (E. coli) are present in the blood of many people with Crohn’s disease but rarely in normal people. Antibodies to a normal cell component, a nuclear protein, is present in most people with ulcerative colitis, a few people with Crohn’s whose colitis behaves more like ulcerative colitis than Crohn’s, and rarely in normal people.

Antibody tests or serologic markers are blood tests looking for markers of diseases. The serologic markers or antibody tests for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are pANCA and ASCA, OmpC, and CBir1 Flagelin respectively. The latter three blood tests for Crohn’s are only available through one laboratory, Prometheus Laboratories, Inc.

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) of anonymous cause that only involves the colon. It affects the superficial lining of the colon and rarely causes bowel obstruction (blockage) or perforation (rupture) but frequently causes severe bloody diarrhea, blood in the stool, weight loss, abdominal pain, in addition to joint aches or arthritis, skin rashes, eye irritation and occasionally a severe liver disorder known as main sclerosing cholangitis that can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Ulcerative colitis can be cured by complete removal of the colon but not Crohn’s disease.

Crohn’s disease can also cause colitis but usually also affects the very end of the small intestine called the ileum (ileitis or regional enteritis). When Crohn’s affects only the colon it may be difficult to distinguish it from ulcerative colitis though Crohn’s tends to affect the colon in a patchy manner whereas ulcerative colitis is continuous. Crohn’s can affect the gastrointestinal tract anywhere from the mouth to the anus and is not curable by removing the colon. It’s also frequently associated with bowel strictures (constrictions) causing obstruction that may require surgery. It also may be associated with fistula that are abnormal connections of the intestine to other organs and the skin or it can result in abscesses or perforation requiring surgery It’s important to distinguish Crohn’s disease from ulcerative colitis since medical treatments and surgical approaches may differ and the types of complications that can occur can be much different.

Traditionally, the diagnosis of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease is highly exact by the appearance of the colon on colonoscopy or x-rays that confirm the presence or absence of involvement of other parts of the intestinal tract. Diagnosis is confirmed by a averagepattern of inflammation of the intestine lining as seen under the microscope on tissue obtained by biopsy during colonoscopy. However, before blood tests were available about 10% of people with IBD were diagnosed as having an indeterminate colitis because the biopsies couldn’t distinguish between the ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

The blood tests currently available are pANCA, anti-ASCA, anti-OmpC, and anti-CBir1 flagelin antibodies. pANCA is the peripheral anti-nuclear antibody. It is an abnormal antibody to nuclear protein of cells and is highly sensitive and specific for ulcerative colitis. The pANCA anbibody has been further divided into subsets by Prometheus Laboratories Inc. Neutrophil-specific pANCA ELISA (NSNA) is positive in the majority of people with ulcerative colitis (UC) and a small subset of people with Crohn’s disease that have disease characteristics more like UC. Immunofluorescent cellular staining of neutrophils (NSNA IFA) and enzyme Dnase testing (NSNA DNase sensitivity) is also done as part of the Prometheus IBD Serology 7. The latter test when present in high levels is significantly associated with development of inflammation of the rectal pouch (pouchitis) created when someone has their entire colon removed for ulcerative colitis that does not respond to medical treatment.

ASCA is anti-saccharomyces cerevisiae antibody. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is Brewer’s or Baker’s yeast. Crohn’s patients have a high prevalence of abnormal antibodies to this yeast. Some have suggested that another yeast, Candida albicans, somehow plays a role in this abnormal response. Several people with celiac disease have this antibody present in their blood in the absence of signs of Crohn’s disease. OmpC is the abbreviation for an antibody that develops in many Crohn’s patients to the outer membrane porin protein of the bacteria E. coli though that bacteria isn’t thought to be the cause of Crohn’s disease. Just recently Prometheus Laboratories added antibody testing for a specific protein on bacteria that constitutes the flagelin or hair like structure on certain bacteria enabling movement and attachment of bacteria in the intestine called CBir1 flagelin.

Future blood tests may include antibodies against certain sugar (mannose) residues in the cell wall of the yeast saccharomyces cerevisiae. Anti-laminaribioside and anti-chitobioside antibodies were recently reported to be present in Crohn’s patients who were anti-ASCA negative possibly further strengthening the ability to distinguish them from people with ulcerative colitis. This is also interesting because of suspicions and the lay public interest in the role of sugars or glycans and yeast in IBD. Particularly the reports in lay literature of success of carbohydrate specific diet in IBD.

If you have a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease these blood tests may be very helpful in your treatment. If you have unexplained abdominal pain, diarrhea, or blood in your stools then these tests should be considered. If you have a diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), these tests may exclude ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Since as many as 10% of people with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease might also have celiac illness, celiac blood tests should also be considered. Lactose intolerance is also common in IBD, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and celiac disease.

If you have a doubt about your pregnancy you will do a pregnancy test. There are more than one pregnancy tests that will help you arrive at a conclusion. Pregnancy tests look for a hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), in urine or blood. HCG can be found in your urine as early as 6 days past ovulation. You can get accurate results in the privacy of you home.

For the purpose of doing a pregnancy test, it’s best that first morning urine is used as sample.

For taking a pregnancy test later in a day, it’s necessary to make sure that one does not urinate 3-4 hours prior to doing such a test.

Pregnancy test kits can be bought at practically at any retail store, supermarket or in mega stores like the Target or Walmart. Purchasing bulk pregnancy tests costs less but give same results like the well packaged pregnancy tests.

Pregnancy tests give results as in one line means negative, i.e. not pregnant and two lines means pregnant. Some pregnancy tests have plus and minus signs on them to show the results instead of two lines. It’s important to follow instructions before taking a pregnancy test. Before taking a pregnancy test, it is better to collect urine in a clean cup, and use a dropper to put drops of urine on the test strip. You will have to make sure that dropper is provided in pregnancy test kit. This will avoid any mess and give a clear result of test. Proper time should be given for the pregnancy test to show correct results.

A pregnancy test if take too early can yield incorrect results. Therefore, if in doubt a pregnancy test should be taken after the first period has been missed. If pregnancy test does not yield positive results then one should wait for one or two days and take the test again so that it gives correct results.

With the advancement of science pregnancy tests will become more accurate and will be able to give results earlier. There will not be any requirement to wait till the first period is missed.

Is the lie detector test (polygraph) accurate? That depends on who you ask. Studies show results of all sorts. A recent Department of Defense Polygraph Institute study, found one experiment in which less than 37% of test takers who were non-deceptive were classified as such. Others were either classified as “deceptive” (false-positives) or “inconclusive.” Would you really want to “prove” your innocence using a test with those odds?

The APA (American Polygraph Association) says on their web site that the problem is one of differing methods of measuring accuracy. Polygraph critics, they say, “who often don’t understand polygraph testing, classify inconclusive test results as errors.” An “inconclusive” result is not an error, they say, but I imagine that if you are accused of murder, and you are innocent, you might want something more accurate than “inconclusive” from your polygraph test. The APA will not call it a lie detector test, by the way, even though detecting lies is what it is supposed to do.

One APA explanation: “If 10 polygraph examinations are administered and the examiner is correct in 7 decisions, wrong in 1 and has 2 inconclusive test results, we calculate the accuracy rate as 87.5% (8 definitive results, 7 of which were correct.) Critics of the polygraph technique would calculate the accuracy rate in this example as 70 percent, (10 examinations with 7 correct decisions.)” This argument is not entirely unreasonable, since there are several ways to measure accuracy.

What’s interesting here, is that even in an argument from the biggest promoters of the polygraph, the example given is of of 87.5% accuracy, and 20% “inconclusive” results. This means that of a 100 people tested in a murder case, about 10 innocent people would be found to be “lying,” and 20 with an “inconclusive” reading. Those with inconclusive results might include both murderers and innocent people.

Lets look at this another way. Of a 100 murderers, 10 would be found to be telling the truth, and 20 would have inconclusive results from their lie detector results. In other words, out of 100 murders, 30 wouldn’t be identified, according to the accuracy assumed in the example above.

Now let’s consider the APA method again, with a new example. Suppose we question 100 innocent people about a crime, and just one was found to be telling the truth, while the other 99 tests had “inconclusive” results. A relatively useless test, don’t you think? It correctly identifies just 1 out of 100 innocent people. It leaves a cloud of suspicion over the other 99 people. However, the accuracy would be 100% if we measure the results the way the American Polygraph Association does.

The lie detector test isn’t considered science by most researchers. On the APA web site, you are able to find a little about the scientific evidence for the polygraph. A small excerpt: “Scientists conducted 41 studies involving the accuracy of 1,787 laboratory simulations of polygraph examinations, producing an average accuracy of 80 percent. Scientists conducted 16 studies involving the reliability of independent analyses of 810 sets of charts from laboratory simulations producing an average accuracy of 81 percent.”

Think about this for a moment. Is 80% supposed to be accurate enough?! Such a test would identify 200 out of a thousand innocent job applicants as liars, and many more as possible liars (“inconclusive”). Is this lie detector test really something that should be encouraged? Now you are able to understand item number 7 from the APAs “Checklist for the Polygraph Examiner”: “Carry a minimum of $50,000 or equivalent professional liability coverage.”

Foods can cause Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)  symptoms –  In the United States, most doctors have been, and continue to be, skeptical that foods cause symptoms of  and elimination of specific foods can improve these symptoms. This is despite almost 70% of people diagnosed as having Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) reporting symptoms related to specific foods. There is gathering evidence, though still criticized because of limitations of studies that make it difficult to prove, that specific foods may be the cause of symptoms in many people labeled as having Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

Food intolerance testing and elimination diet based on IgG antibodies may be beneficial –  Atkinson et.al. (Gut, 2004) randomized people to either an elimination diet based on elevated IgG antibody levels (YorkTest Laboratories) for specific foods or a sham diet. Those who prevented specific foods based on their IgG antibody tests had betterment in Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms (10-26% reduction) and global rating of quality of life significantly improved. Re-introducing foods for which they tested positive resulted in worsening. Zar et.al. (Am J Gastro, 2005) stated significant betterment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms such as pain, bloating, and alterations in bowel habits based on six month elimination of elevated food-specific IgG4 antibodies in 25 people.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)  is very commonly diagnosed in adults –  No diagnostic tests can confirm Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It is a diagnosis of exclusion. It is a syndrome, that is, a collection of symptoms that can’t be explained by other diseases resulting in the diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Common missed diagnoses that are blamed on Irritable Bowel Syndrome include lactose intolerance, Celiac disease, gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance, colitis, Crohn’s disease, parasite infections such as giardia, bacterial overgrowth in the intestine or alterations in gut bacteria levels and types (dysbiosis), food allergies, food intolerance, and food hypersensitivity.

Celiac disease, colitis and Crohn’s disease should be excluded before diagnosing Irritable Bowel Syndrome –  Celiac disease, colitis and Crohn’s disease can be diagnosed or excluded by blood tests, stool tests, and biopsies of the intestine. Food allergy, intolerance and sensitivity are not only more difficult to confirm or exclude but frequently missed because of limitations of blood tests, stool tests, allergy skin tests and biopsies. Adverse food reactions have to be considered as a potential cause of the symptoms attributed to Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

There are common foods that cause adverse food reactions –  Common foods announced by Irritable Bowel Syndrome sufferers, whose symptoms improve with elimination, are wheat, barley, and rye (gluten); dairy including cow’s milk protein (casein) and/or lactose (milk sugar); the legumes (peanut) and soy; yeast used to bake or brew foods; corn; shellfish and fish; nuts (almond, Brazil nut, cashew, and walnut); fruits (apple, orange, and strawberry); vegetables (celery, cabbage, and lettuce); the meats (pork, beef, and chicken); and nightshades (potato and tomato).

Individual specific and food-specific elimination diets are based on a variety of tests and a food-symptom diet diary –  Elimination diets based on the common foods causing allergic reactions and non-allergic food reactions have been used for quite some time and are often prescribed with or without a food symptom diet diary. Interestingly, to my knowledge, no one has looked at approaching these people and their adverse food reactions individually, based on tests for Celiac illness, gluten intolerance or sensitivity (elevated blood gliadin IgA or IgG antibodies and/or stool gliadin IgA antibody without diagnostic blood tests or biopsy for Celiac), casein intolerance (stool IgA anti-casein antibody or blood IgG antibody), oral allergy syndrome (OAS) history and thorough food allergy testing (skin prick testing, IgE RAST or CAP RAST tests, intradermal skin testing or patch skin testing).

Pregnancy Test: The Initial assessment.

There is a hormone that is produced in your body almost a week after your periods or a few days after the fertilized egg has been rooted in the wall of your uterus, this hormone is called Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG).

The human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) hormone is detected by a Pregnancy test. This kind of test is taken to measure the amount of the hormone HCG in your blood or urine which in turn determines whether you are pregnant. This step is necessary to confirm that you are pregnant and your symptoms are a result of that pregnancy.

Pregnancy Test: The Kit.

There are many ways to use a pregnancy kit but improper use of these kits can cause negative results especially when there is a baby in the womb. It is advisable that care is taken to ensure that you consult with your doctor and do regular check ups to confirm the state of your body. There are a number of pregnancy kits available today with different easy-to-use methods but one of the basic criteria used to determine accuracy and give you the desired result, is to collect a urine sample early in the morning when the HCG in the body is still pure.

The pregnancy kit contains a little strip that you dip into the urine you’ve collected and depending on the kit you buy the results will either show a positive sign (+), a purple or pinkish line showing that your results are positive or a negative sign (-). In any case, make sure you get medical advice from a qualified personnel if in doubt.

Pregnancy Test: Chemical Pregnancy

There is a hormonal imbalance that takes place in your body that suppresses the normal development of an embryo due to an abnormal increase in the level of HCG in the body. Whenever a Pregnancy test is taken it will show a high level of HCG in urine. This is known as Chemical Pregnancy in which a fertilized egg produces HCG but fails to develop further.

None of these pregnancy test kits are 100% accurate so it is very important to get a doctor to confirm the pregnancy and do the tests recommended to you. Never hesitate to ask questions to clear your doubts and your fears because although this stage in a woman’s life is an awesome experience it can be short lived if not properly attended to.

Ensure that you do all in your power to be ready and as prepared as possible for pregnancy.

Pharmaceutical companies invest huge dollars in R&D, production and marketing of any newly developed drug. As law, the patent term is 20 years, but it’s roughly 16-18 years in case of drug patents, as they have to pass the FDA regulations, before coming in markets. When the patent expires, generic companies come up with the generic version of the same drug and sale in the market with very low price. Therefore, to be in the competition, innovator companies try to extend the drug life time. This is known as extension of the known drug for longer time protection. That is the reason any specific drug is not protected by one particular patent, instead it’s covered by different patents, including the blocking patents. Patents do not protect drugs as such, but “inventions”.

A better understanding of different types of pharmaceutical patents and ways to extend the life time of the drug patents is essential for the patent professionals involved in pharmaceutical research. The drug patents can be broadly classified into following categories:

1. Composition

2. Formulations

1. Product form

2. Drug release

3. Compound

1. New chemical entity

2. Physical form

3. Particle size

4. Selection patents

5. Active metabolites

6. Prodrugs

4. Dosage/dose

5. Method or process

6. Be sure to use or application

7. Drug delivery

8. Devices

1) Compositions

Composition patents, discloses combination of one or more than active ingredients (known or novel) and pharmaceutically acceptable carriers or excipients, such as solvents, buffers, fillers, binders, desintegrants and lubricants. The inventiveness of these patents is in the selected combination of molecules and their specific new function application.

In India, a novel pharmaceutical composition with a single active ingredient (whether known or novel) with an inert carrier is not patentable, as there is no synergy between the components viz.  The active compound and the inert carrier.

2) Formulation

A formulation patent relates to the preparation of particular composition in any specific desired form for better effect, form or release.

2.1) Product form: It relates to the different dosage form of new or already known drug or pharmaceutical composition having better active drug release method. The same active ingredient may be formulated in different forms, example, as tablets, capsules or aqueous solutions for parenteral administration. For example, an anti-inflammatory cream containing A would be regarded as clearly distinct from a tablet containing “A” for controlling diabetes. The cream is new because “A” has never been formulated in this form before, and it would be inventive if the previous use of “A” would not suggest its use in topical form.”

2.2) Drug release: In some patents, the claimed formulation is associated with certain effects, such as controlled release in blood of a drug. Other drug release methods include timed, extended and slow release .

3) Compound

These patents related to identification of new chemical, biological, herbal or drug molecule. Patent may or may not say anything about the composition (when added with other ingredients), application or use of the said molecules. In most cases, these new molecules are represented by different formulas in the claim (Markush claims). These compounds can be either new molecules form some sources (e.g., biological, herbal) or new chemical entity (NCE). It can be further categorized based on nature of compound, i.e., polymorph, isomers, physical forms (crystalline or amorphous) or salts.

3.1) New chemical entity: A new chemical entity (NCE) is generally represented by Markush structures in patent claims and discloses different chemical formulas and derivates of novel drugs.

3.2) Physical form: Polymorphism and enantiomerism property of the chemical compounds are exploited by the pharma companies to extent the drug life cycle by inventive new polymorphs, isomers, physical forms (crystalline or amorphous), enantiomers of the know drug.

3.3) Particle size: The dissolution rate of a drug is a function of its intrinsic solubility and its particle size. Particle size reduction can lead to an increased rate of dissolution and higher bioavailability, thus a lot of patents in pharmaceutical industries related to composition with specific particle size of the ingredients, along with dosage forms (e.g., suspensions or dispersions).

3.4) Selection patents: In a ‘selection patent’ claims a single element or a small segment within a large known group is ‘selected’ and independently claimed based on a particular feature not mentioned in the large group. For example, patent on a specific range (e.g., C3-C12) is claimed if a chemical having n-carbon atoms is already patented.

3.5) Active metabolites: In some cases, patents focuses on a compound and on the active metabolite that produces the desired effect in the body. It produces the same effect as the parent drug compound.

3.6) Prodrugs: When metabolised in the body, inactive compounds (called ‘prodrugs’) can produce a therapeutically active ingredient. Some patent claims cover a drug and its prodrug/s.

4) Dosage/dose

Some patent documents claim inventions consisting of the dosage form for administration (e.g., solid dosage form for oral administration) to patients of an existing product. These claims are normally equivalent to claims over methods for medical treatment, as the subject matter is not a product or process but the way in which a product is therapeutically used.

5) Method or process

These patents discloses the method or process to manufacture or preparing, either a compound or composition. They in most case also disclose the application of the said compound or composition. Another type of patents in this category is method of identification of new molecules, method of treatment, method of screening or diagnosis. These patents also include the different assays methods.

6) Be certain to use or application

The focus of this kind of patents is on the effect of compound or composition on a human body or other subjects, for instance, treatment and avoidance of from specific diseases),

7) Drug delivery

These patents either disclose any method or device or system for delivering the drug into the human body. It includes both the general drug delivery and the targeted drug delivery system or methods.

7) Devices

It includes patents which disclosed any device, apparatus, kit or sometimes system for the drug delivery, manufacturing, monitoring, screening or diagnosis of particular drug and its activity.

Conclusion It’s a myth among patent analyst, that reading and understanding rug patent is tough. It’s true, but if you have clear knowledge about different patent types, drug formulations and basic terminologies used in the pharmaceutical patents, it will make your life easy. Careful reading of patent claims to identify the novelty and inventiveness along with title and abstract can provide high level information about the any patent.

Are you suffering from persistent constipation or diarrhea? Have you noticed a tinge of blood in your stool recently? Are you always tired and feeling fatigued? Are you experiencing weight loss, but have not been dieting or engaging in exercise routine? These and many other symptoms should necessitate a visit to a doctor.

Colon cancer is regarded as the second leading cause of most cancer deaths in the United States. Colon cancer is a long-standing disease, which starts as a polyp or a small non-cancerous growth. This small non-cancerous growth will gradually transforms itself into a malignant tumor over a period of 5 to 10 years. Individuals  in their thirties and forties are most often predisposed to colon cancer, amounting to about one-quarter of all colon cancer patients.

Colon cancer does not show any visible symptoms during the early stages. During the later stages however, a person suffering with colon cancer may exhibit any or all the following symptoms –

1. Diarrhea or constipation that persists for a long time.

2. Unusual abdominal gas, or cramping.

3. Episodes of physical fatigue without known reasons.

4. Apparent loss weight and appetite.

5. Stools that are narrow, almost the diameter of a pencil.

6. Bloody stools.

7. There’s pain and tenderness felt in the lower abdomen.

8. Changes in fecal diameter, color and frequency of movement lasting more than two weeks.

Although colon cancer claims to be second among the causes of cancer deaths, the frequency rate can be lowered if only its detection is done early. The polyps and early stage cancer that are discovered before any symptoms are produced most often offer a cure rate as high as 100 percent.

Your doctor should each year test your stool for hidden blood. A procedure called sigmoidoscopy can also be done to diagnose colon cancer. Sigmoidoscopy utilizes a flexible lighted tube with a camera that sits on its tip. This instrument is then inserted into the lower third of the colon. Observations reveal that almost half of all cancers in this area are found in the lower third portion of the colon. Another procedure called colonoscopy is done to check for growths throughout the entire length of the large intestine. an x-ray can also be an alternative diagnostic procedure. A barium enema is given to a patient. an opaque liquid fills the colon, which then becomes visible on X-ray film.

Colon cancer treatments may include chemotherapy and surgery. Those suffering from the advanced form of colon cancer may require chemotherapy. If surgery is the form of treatment, your surgeon will usually remove any polyps found during colonoscopy. If the detection of the tumor is done early, part of the colon affected with the tumor is removed surgically, the colon is restored back to its normal function, and complete healing is expected. However, if the cancer has already reached a broad area including the colon wall, lymph and blood vessels, chemotherapy is thus required. If the cancer involves a large tumor, temporary or permanent colostomy may be required. Re-routing the colon through an opening in the abdomen does this. The wastes pass through the opening and into a pouch outside the patient’s body.

If you’re finding yourself walking into your local drug store and walking down the aisle of feminine products, trying to figure out what pregnancy test is the most accurate, you’re not alone. So many different companies have now developed tests that they claim are more effective and provide faster results. The prices range greatly, so you’re more inclined to spend more thinking that a more expensive brand will definitely be better. However, they’re all based on the same factors and chemicals. They all require you to urinate on a stick. You’d think that they’d find a better way to give a woman good news other than making her drink several glasses of water just to have the urge to use the bathroom. Perhaps someday, the drugstores will have a different type of pregnancy test. Until then, you can walk up and down the aisle and rest assured that the many manufacturers who make these kinds of tests all use the same technology. You can make the decision as to how much you want to spend on purchasing a test. Some women will spend massive amounts of money purchasing a variety of these kinds of tests, hoping that different brands will provide different answers. The facts will still remain the same – if you’re pregnant, that’s not going to change depending on a simple brand.

A home pregnancy test uses urine to detect if hormones are present, but ordinarily, this can only be done a week or more after a missed period. If taken too soon, the hormone will not yet be at a high enough level to be detected. Some tests do state, however, that you use first morning urine, because it is more concentrated and will have the largest amount of hormones present.

Pregnancy tests are very accurate when used correctly. But, remember, they have to be used at the right time of the month. Too early, and a false negative result will occur, due to the need for the pregnancy hormone to be present in a high enough quantity for the stick to measure. If the menstrual period is two weeks late, and the test is still negative, an appointment with the doctor might be indicated.

Some women are now using the online test. This particular test does not provide a definite yes or no answer, but it does help to determine if the woman ought to go to her doctor or to her local drugstore to have a real test that is official. This may seem like a waste of time to some people, but the online pregnancy test does potential mothers a great service. The online tests help women focus on the actual symptoms of pregnancy without the anticipation of a definite yes or no answer. The test helps a woman decide if she ought to test further.

What does a woman do when she takes a home pregnancy test and it indicates that she is pregnant. The tests are on average a dependable inexpensive way to confirm a pregnancy. They are very reasonably priced, and are very similar to the urine pregnancy tests used by physician’s offices. However most women decide to go and see their doctor to determine the next course of action. Guess what? The first thing the nurse does on her arrival is ask for another pregnancy test – no different to the one she has already taken, except that this one incurs a doctor’s fee.

Drug and alcohol cravings will occur even when working a solid addiction recovery program, sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.

Having stopped drug and alcohol use, the frequency, intensity and duration of cravings differ from person to person. The bad news is they occur; the good news is that over time they generally lessen in frequency and duration. The trick is to stay safe while riding out the wave.

One way to view abstinence and sobriety is simply preparing for that moment when a craving occurs, nobody is watching, and nobody would know if you used, except you. What do you do? That is the moment of truth.

What follows are some tips and tools that may get you through that moment of danger. Not all tips work for all people, the trick is to find one that will work for you.

That being said, here are the tips to fight craving:

1. Purchase yourself some time, distract yourself, with exercise, work or cleaning, get busy. Make certain to put yourself in a safe place where drugs and alcohol are not available. Cravings pass with time.

2. Play the movie forward. Don’t forget that we are never talking about ‘just one’. Once you pick up, control goes out the window.

3. Talk to someone. This is the purpose of building a social support network, utilize it. Go to a meeting, call your sponsor, best friend, relative or counselor. Talking it out with someone who really understands helps.

4. Pray or meditate. Request help in just getting through this. Be sure to use the Serenity Prayer. The point is to ask for help outside yourself.

5. Don’t forget the pain and bad times, and the fact that you’d be risking everything good that you have worked so hard for. Try focusing in the positive, not drinking or drugging and all the reasons you ought not do it.

6. Go to a 12 step meeting, even if you have never gone before. They will listen, that’s what they do. Call information and ask for AA .

7. H.A.L.T. Hungry, angry, lonely, tired: if you are in any of these states, fix it. Eat, sleep, chill out, go visit someone.

8. Don’t forget a craving will pass with time and when it’s through, you come out the other side even stronger.