Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones From Carbon Monoxide PoisoningWritten by Ed Bishop
Carbon monoxide poisoning is responsible for at least 400 accidental deaths and over 5,000 people are treated in hospital emergency rooms per year. Unfortunately, carbon monoxide poisoning is often misdiagnosed as flu, food poisoning, allergy/asthma or chronic fatigue syndrome. Children, elderly, individuals with respiratory problems and pets are at risk, even at low levels. Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are; headaches, nausea, drowsiness, vomiting, tiredness, pain, cramps and sleep disturbance. Some people experience headaches and dizziness for almost 2 years prior to carbon monoxide poisoning diagnosis. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is highly toxic, making it impossible to detect with our senses. Carbon monoxide is produced by incomplete combustion in household appliances like furnaces, boilers, water heaters, stoves, ovens, fireplaces as well as well as automobiles. Tips to protect yourself and your loved ones:
| | African American Women Need Earlier Screening for Breast CancerWritten by Drahcir Semaj
Breast cancer is second leading cause of death for women, ages 40-55, and African American women under age of 45 are more likely to develop breast cancer than any other group of women in US.Every three minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer; every 12 minutes a woman dies from breast cancer and every year over 5000 African American women die from disease. Although cause of breast cancer is still unclear, researchers have determined that African American women tend to develop breast cancer at earlier ages than white women and they typically develop more aggressive types of tumors. Breast cancer often occurs in African American women under age of 40 and as early as age 25. In a study of breast cancer tumors in African American and white women, conducted by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 2004, researchers determined that breast tumors in young African American women were more likely to be fast-growing and more aggressive than those found in white women. "One of important conclusions from this study is that even when you correct for stage — that is, look at tumors of same stage from white women and African American women — tumors from African-American women tend to have features characteristic of more aggressive and rapidly growing cancers," said Dr. Peggy Porter, lead author of study. "If their tumors tend to grow more quickly, this may help to explain why their cancers are being diagnosed at later stages, which can lead to poorer outcomes." Other studies have indicated that there are other possible reasons that African American women suffer high death rates from breast cancer: unemployment or underemployment, lack of health insurance, and lack of proper health education have all been cited as possible socioeconomic contributing factors.
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