September is Prostate Cancer Awareness month

Globally, prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in men and the fifth most common cancer.

It accounts for 13.6% of the total cancer incidences in men worldwide, following lung cancer.

In contrast to the prostate cancer trends in western countries, incidence and mortality rates are increasing in some Asian and Eastern European countries.

What’s the score?

• The worldwide prostate cancer burden is expected to grow to 1.7 million new cases
• About 6 cases in 10 are diagnosed in men aged 65 or older, and it is rare before age 40.
• 499 000 new deaths by 2030 simply due to the growth and aging of the global population
• Incidence rates are highest in Australia/New Zealand (104.2/100,000), Western and Northern Europe, North America.

Where do we stand?

• Prevalence of prostate cancer in India is far lower as compared to the western countries.
• Increased migration of rural population to the urban areas, changing life styles, increased awareness, and easy access to medical facility are the reasons for the growing number of prostate cancer cases in India.

Risk factors

Ethnicity:  Incidence of prostate cancer is higher in Black people.

Family history: Having a father or brother with prostate cancer increases the risk of a man getting this disease.

Age: Growing prevalence seen after the age of 50. It is very rare in men younger than 40.

Diet: Red meat, high-calcium containing dairy foods or high-fat dairy products might also increase risk.

How well you know your prostate health

Signs and Symptoms

Symptoms often become apparent only when the prostate is large enough to affect the urethra (the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the penis). Major symptoms of prostate cancer in human include:

• Frequent urination or nocturia (getting up multiple times at night to urinate)
• Difficulty in starting urine stream
• Blood in semen or urine
• Bowel incontinence
• Erectile dysfunction
• Pain in bones, especially in the lower back, hips, and ribs

Classification of cancer

Classification of the stages of prostate cancer is based on TNM:

T– Primary tumor

N– Tumor at regional lymph nodes

M– Distant metastases of cancer

To reduce the risk of Prostate cancer it’s time to get tough on prostate cancer

• Maintain a healthy body and appropriate body weight
• Proper exercise and physical activity daily
• For men, who have at least one first-degree relative affected with prostate cancer, the screening tests are recommended as early as 45 years.
• Reduce alcohol consumption to two drinks per day and avoid sugary drinks
• Increase regular intake of diet rich in fibers such as vegetables, fruits, cereals/grains and legumes A healthy diet with more of vegetable oils and nuts could also benefit people
• Limit salty food consumption and foods processed with salt
• Restrict intake of red meat (beef, pork, lamb) and processed meat
• Avoid deep fried food, heating the food at high temperatures and also reusing the cooking oil

It’s time to man up for diagnosis!

• Some screening tests recommended at the age of 50 include,
• Rectal examination
• Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test
• Transrectal ultra sonography (TRUS)
• Ultrasound guided biopsy.
• Bone scan using low-level radioactive material
• Computerized tomographic (CT) scan
• Lymph-node biopsy

World contraception day (WCD) was first conceived in the year 2007 by 10 international family planning

organizations in order to spread awareness and education about effective and safe contraception

methods.

The event has a theme which culminates from an individual perspective of living a responsible life. The motto is: “It’s your life, it’s your future, know your options.”

There are 3 sub-themes:

• Your options: where young people can learn about all the contraceptive options available, using a reliable, unbiased source of information.
• Your future: understanding how unplanned pregnancies can happen and how the body changes during puberty
• Your partner: learning to talk to your partner about contraception and how to build a trusting relationship based on reliable information

WCD is supported by a coalition of 11 international NGOs/GO as well as scientific and medical societies with an interest in sexual and reproductive health. Partners are:

• Asian Pacific Council on Contraception (APCOC)
• Centro Latinamericano Salud y Mujer (CELSAM)
• European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health (ESC)
• Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW)
• International Federation of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (FIGIJ)
• International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
• Marie Stopes International (MSI)
• Population Services International (PSI)
• The Population Council
• The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
• Women Deliver (WD)

Benefits of Family Planning / Contraception

Maternal well-being: Family planning ensures access of preferred contraceptive methods for women and couples. It helps women secure their autonomy and well-being while taking care of their family.

Preventing pregnancy-related health risks in women: Controlling the timing of pregnancy can allow women to have better control over her well-being and health. By reducing rates of unintended pregnancies, family planning also reduces the need for unsafe abortion.

Reducing infant mortality

Family planning can prevent closely spaced and ill-timed pregnancies and births, which contribute to some of the world’s highest infant mortality rates.

Helping to prevent HIV/AIDS

Male and female condoms provide dual protection against unintended pregnancies and against STIs including HIV.

Empowering people and enhancing education

Family planning enables people to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health.

Slowing population growth

Family planning is key to slowing unsustainable population growth and the resulting negative impacts on the economy, environment, and national and regional development efforts.

WCD coalition formed a framework for action in order to achieve significant results. It underlines key areas of enabling young people everywhere to benefit from access to high quality sexual and reproductive health advice and services. The framework emphasizes four key points to build understanding of various types of contraceptives and their ease of usage.

• Knowledge
  Education is the key to success of any program, hence forth, people are informed about short acting methods to long acting reversible methods
• Practicing Safe-sex

Besides preventing pregnancies, contraception also aids in providing protected sex. Young generation should be well equipped with the knowledge and resources to practice safe sex.

• Intercourse not for reproduction

Misconception and religious beliefs needs to be addressed and people are advised to inform their partners about contraception. It should be used readily without fear or prejudices.

• Equality and empowerment

In a relationship, both the partners have equal say and should take an informed decision about family planning. Empowering women to exercise their right to get pregnant is an important tool in ensuring well-being of a family.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions as a socially responsible company spreads the word and awareness and looks forward to collaboration or associations with other agencies/companies with similar goals and aspirations. Our experienced team has delivered publications, regulatory and marketing documents and also conducted medical writing trainings.

Understanding environmental health

The International Federation of Environmental Health, better known by its acronym IFEH, works to impart knowledge regarding environmental health and promote co-operation between countries where environmental health issues are a major concern. The federation chose 26^th of September as World Environmental Health Day.

How we live the world?

Environmental health aims at preventing disease and building–up a safe and healthy environment for living. It encompasses the assessment and control of all the factors that affect the behavior of an individual.

These are

• physical factors
• chemical factors
• biological factors
• environmental factors

It pertains to all factors leading to a healthy living of an individual, irrespective of the socio-cultural background.

Better health through healthy environment!

The theme for World Environmental Health Day 2015 is ‘Children are our future, let’s protect their Environment and Health’. It will include environmental or public health infrastructure or specific projects on air, water, nature restoration, sanitation, housing or waste management.

The IFEH Board of Directors has decided to focus on the several areas as the key points of their agenda.

Love the place where you live

Here are some points that should be taken care of in order to make our environment healthy and safe:

• Discarding accumulated water from trash cans and waste bottles to prevent breeding of vector-borne diseases.
• Taking proper health and sanitation measures to prevent spread of infectious diseases in children.
• Educating children for developing and maintaining hygienic feeding habits at school and home.
• Management of kitchen and household waste to reduce garbage and landfills in the surrounding areas and providing cleaner playgrounds, roads, parks and neighboring places.
• No smoking at home, office or crowded places.
• Reduce noise pollution to lower the risk of dementia, memory-loss and other cognitive dysfunction.
• Ensuring safety of people, especially children, on the road and at home.
• Making sure children are getting safe and clean drinking water to avoid water borne diseases.
• Careful handling and disposal of biomedical waste to reduce microbial contamination of the environment.

Save our environment and keep healthy!

Newborn screening test (also known as Guthrie test) is one of the successful innovations in the modern era. It is a procedure where in the newborn infants are pricked at the heel to test their blood for rare genetic, endocrine and metabolic conditions that can be harmful or serious. Also tested for hearing loss before discharge from the hospital. These screening tests has the potential to identify risk of certain diseases before the clinical symptoms appear. Thus, early detection and treatment can prevent mental retardation, spasticity, serious illness, and premature death.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), every year 140 million children are born and out of which 5 million die in the first month of life in developing countries. Four percent of the India population are mentally retarded and 5-15% of sick newborns are thought to have a metabolic problem.

Disorders which can be detected through Newborn Screening test,

• Biotinidase deficiency
• Congenital adrenal hyperplasia
• Congenital primary hypothyroidism
• G6PD deficiency
• Cystic fibrosis
• Galactosemia
• Disorders of amino acids, organic acids and fatty acid oxidation by tandem mass spectroscopy
• Sickle cell anemia

To avoid these anomalies which are hidden at birth, many non-profit organizations are developed taking care of all the newborn screening tests. The main goal of these organizations are to educate the parents, paediatric healthcare workers, lawmakers, and institutional policymakers. Also the educational programs accentuate the importance of newborn screening through comprehensive testing to identify disorders and initiate treatment promptly when necessary.

There are many campaigns like the “Be Bold, Wear Gold Campaign” to create awareness into the public regarding the newborn screening tests. In the month of September, the newborn screening community (which includes families, advocates, state health departments, legislators, and state laboratories) rallied around the principle that all babies deserve a healthy start. As a support to the campaign, members of the community wear a color gold and gold pins throughout the month.

To avoid such serious diseases and save the newborns spread the information (mouth publicity) about the screening test to all the members of your family, friends, colleagues etc. Mass education, media propagation, and training centres also can raise the awareness. Along with these share the stories you know and spread the awareness in the individuals wherein one can keep their newborns happy and safe.

Fast Facts ²

• A genetic disease, resulting from environmental (gluten) and genetic (HLA and non-HLA genes) factors.
• Estimated 1 % Americans (1 in 133) has celiac disease.
• 5-22% of celiac patients have an immediate family member involved.
• Infertility, reduced bone density, neurological disorders, some cancers, and other autoimmune diseases are other disorders associated with celiac disease.
• Average weight time for correct diagnosis is 6-10 years.

Prevalence ³

• Higher prevalent in women as compared to men with male: female ratio of 1:2.8

North America: Overall CD prevalence

• 1:133 :- Not at risk groups
• 1:22 :- first-degree relatives
• 1:39 :- second-degree relatives

South America

• Brazil: 1:681 in healthy blood donors & 1:473 among adult outpatients attending clinical laboratory for routine blood testing
• Argentina: urban areas – 1:167

Overall prevalence in western population: close to 1 % and higher in Northern European countries.

Africa

• North Africa: 0.28%-5.6% in general population
• Algeria : 16.4% (highest with CD associated with Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus)

Oceania

• Western Australia: overall prevalence is 1:251 (0.4%)
• New Zealand: overall prevalence is 1:82 (1.2%)

Asia

• India: 1:100-1:310

Middle East: 1:87-1:166

Prevalence of CD is 0.5-1% in all parts of world, except for population having very low and high gluten in their diet.

Signs & Symptoms of celiac disease

Digestive symptoms: more common in children and include

• Chronic diarrhea
• Abdominal bloating
• Constipation
• Gas
• Stomach pain
• Nausea & vomiting
• Pale, foul-smelling, or fatty stool

Adults are less likely to have digestive problems and may instead have one/more of the following:

• Headache
• Anemia
• Bone or joint pain
• Anxiety or depression
• Feeling tired or fatigue
• Missed menstrual periods
• Infertility or recurrent miscarriage
• Seizures
• Osteoporosis
• Tingling numbness in hands & feet

Attempting Suicide and having suicidal tendency are the most extreme form of self-harming behaviour exhibited by humans. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, defines suicide as “death caused by self-directed injurious behaviour with an intent to die as a result of the behaviour.” As per the statistical interpretation (for year 2012) by the WHO, suicide accounts for over 800,000 deaths per year worldwide; making it the fifteenth leading cause of death across the globe. Grossly, it can be estimated that there is one death by suicide in the world every 40 seconds! Suicidal attempts and suicidal tendency are noticeably higher in youths i.e. in age group of 15-29 year, and are acknowledged as the second leading cause of death in this age group. India is one of the most suicide prone nations of the world having suicide rate of 21.1 per 100,000 people. As per WHO, 258,075 people committed suicide in India in 2012, with 99,977 women and 158,098 men taking their own lives.

The most common motives behind suicide or suicidal attempt include: depression, bereavement, intimate partner problem, physical health problem (self/family member), job problem, financial problem, or disclosed intent to take one’s life.

It’s worth mentioning that, though suicide is a global threat that prevails among all strata of society, but it can be 100% preventable. In order to generate a worldwide awareness about suicide prevention, the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Federation for Mental Health to observe 10 September each year as ‘The World Suicide Prevention Day’ (WSPD). The sole objective of this awareness drive is to educate masses about the identification of risk factors for suicide/warning signs for suicide, suicide prevention measures and strategies, and support groups.

The ideology behind WSPD campaign is to identify warning signs of suicide and extending help to the needy which can save a life. To support the cause, each year WSPD is observed with a different theme. “Preventing Suicide: Reaching Out and Saving Lives” is the theme of the 2015 WSPD. The theme focusses on the need to reach out the vulnerable population for suicide prevention. Identifying the high-risk individuals, talking to them, and asking ‘RUOK?’ can indeed bring a lot of difference to their life.

It has been noticed that, suicide as a devastating experience for families, friends and community members of the deceased. Family history of suicide is one of the commonest cause of suicides. The people who are left behind are often haunted by the when, how, and why related to the suicide of their loved ones. Reaching out such individuals who had lost someone due to suicide and extending help and support to them can help them to overcome their loss and help in saving lives.

Another dimension of ‘reaching out and saving lives’ include providing specialist mental health services to the vulnerable individuals. Though, it is largely believed that extended help from family and friends is one of the best way to soothe the individual with suicidal tendency, but in some cases professional help is also required. Many non-profit organizations, support groups, self-help groups, and community welfare services provide professional mental health care to the high-risk individuals. These organisations not only provide support and care to the needy, but they also track the prognosis and mental health status of the individual till the apprehensive person is rehabilitated well.  The WSPD is an effort to inform the masses about these organizations and services provided by them.

Talking someone who has gone through the same emotional turmoil and hearing how they triumphed over suicide is the most motivating experience for any susceptible person. The WSPD this year is also focussing on the globalization of various pro-active suicide prevention communities across the world. Sharing testimonials of individuals who had travelled the same road and how they coped up with the situation that is anticipated to help many who are presently experiencing such emotional warfare.  Easy accessibility to these communities endorsing people who choose life over suicide will help to bring down the global burden of suicide.

Therefore, with the help of WSPD break the silence and stigma attached to suicide. Let us be more vocal about suicide prevention. Let us extent the help to the dispirited souls and make them aware that life is worth living, so fight back! Let us ask them “RUOK?”

Remember,one simple question can save a life.