Thursday, February 24, 2011

Mesothelioma Symptoms Are Not Easy To See

By Delia Hewitt


The personal impact of being diagnosed with an illness cannot be understated. It can seem incredibly intrusive once we find out that, unbeknownst to ourselves, some affliction has taken root and we have lived in blissful ignorance. In the world of disease cancer is king. The spread and variety of cancer makes it an incredibly difficult foe to eradicate. For all of the proclamations about cures being at our finger tips, there are just too many different types of this disease to create a all encompassing cure. One of the more insidious forms of this disease is mesothelioma and mesothelioma symptoms do not make it any easier to find.

While cancer can virtually be found in any area of the body, there are some types that are not the result of natural genetic variations. There are a number of cellular level mechanisms that are in place to monitor a cell's normal response to injury or proliferation.

When cells are dividing and even when they are injured, there is an instigation of a series of checkpoints. These act as a moment of policing so that if there any mistakes the cell is put on lock down and destroyed. Some times a mistake can get through every checkpoint and become a mutation that is ingrained in the DNA of a particular cell.

If a problem gets past these checkpoints then the abnormality, or mutation, can become part of a cell's DNA and becomes transmitted into any additional cells in the future. With mesothelioma, the area of the body that is affected is the mesothelium which is the protective covering that surrounds all of the body's internal organs.

It is not a disease that comes from nowhere and, in fact, there are many lawsuits concerning this disorder because they are the direct result exposure to a certain toxin, in this case asbestos or glass particles. Inhalation of these items tends to direct mesothelioma into the pleura or lung lining, as well as lining for the internal chest cavity.

The symptoms of this disease are hardly exceptional in the grand scheme of a variety of diseases that include more than cancer. Shortness of breath and weight loss can be indicators of a variety of illnesses and many people will ignore these discomforts and attribute them to something minor like a cold or seasonal allergies.

Once a patient goes into a doctor's office for evaluation, the disease has progressed to a late stage and even with standard therapies like chemotherapy the prognosis is not good. When it comes to this kind of cancer as well as other like pancreatic or lung, the key to future survival is finding a viable early detection method.

For now, the only thing that can help people to look at their own health is the discovery of being exposed to asbestos. If you have been exposed to this particular toxin in any extended period of time there is no reason not to get checked out.

Mesothelioma symptoms




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