The Healthy Traveller

All You need to know about Chemotherapy in India

Overview

Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses potent chemicals in the body to destroy fast-growing cells.

Chemotherapy is most widely used to treat cancer, because cancer cells grow and multiply much faster than most of the body’s cells.

There are many different drugs for the chemotherapy. Chemotherapy medications can be used in conjunction or alone to treat a wide range of cancers.

Though chemotherapy is an effective way to treat many cancer types, treatment with chemotherapy also carries a risk of side effects.

Some side effects of chemotherapy are mild and treatable while others may cause serious complications.

Why you should choose India for Chemotherapy?

Doctors say India is on par with international cancer hospitals. The treatment offer in India is same as other country.

Anything that can be done at the world’s best cancer centers can be done in India.

This is a fallacy that we will be getting better treatment for cancer abroad. We ‘re among the best in the world today when it comes to treating cancer. We have the finest surgeons here and right from the clinics, to the methods of diagnosis and operation, equipment used and post treatment care as well as costs, we are among the finest ones.

Now, lets try to understand how is Chemotherapy done?

Chemotherapy is usually given in the form of a pill or by injection or an IV directly into the veins. Chemotherapy can also be done in many other ways, in addition to these two ways.

The manner in which chemotherapy is performed depends on the medication itself and specific patient factors.

Chemotherapy can be delivered directly into the tumor, depending on the location of the tumor. When you undergo surgery to remove the tumor, your doctor can, over time, implant slow dissolving disks that release medicines.
Directly into a body cavity, such as the bladder or abdomen (peritoneum)
Drugs for liquid chemotherapy may be delivered in single shots, or you may have a port where a needle is inserted for each treatment. During the first visit, the infusion method with a port only involves pain at the injection site but the port needle can loosen depending on your activity level.
Some types of chemotherapy can be taken by mouth through pills
Into the cerebrospinal fluid (this is the fluid that surrounds our spinal cord and brain)

Why Chemotherapy is used?

Chemotherapy is primarily used to:

lower the total number of cancer cells in your body
reduce the likelihood of cancer spreading
shrink tumor size
reduce current symptoms

If you have been surgically treated to remove a cancerous tumor, such as breast cancer lumpectomy, your oncologist may prescribe chemotherapy to ensure that any remaining cancer cells are also destroyed.

Chemotherapy is also used to make you ready for further treatments. It may be used to compress a tumor so that it can be removed surgically or to brace you for radiation therapy.

Chemotherapy in the case of late-stage cancer may help alleviate pain.

For addition to cancer care, chemotherapy may be used to prepare patients with bone marrow diseases for stem cell treatment by the bone marrow and may be used for immune system disorders. Doses even smaller than those used to treat cancer can be used to assist conditions where healthy cells, such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, are damaged by the body’s immune system.

Preparation before Chemotherapy?

You must undergo a series of tests before you start treatment to help decide whether you’re well enough for chemotherapy. This will require heart and blood test tests to assess the liver health. Such assessments will also help direct the doctor in deciding what types of chemotherapy to use in the care.

Preparation Tips

Create Employment Arrangements. Most people may work during chemotherapy, but you may want to place yourself on a lighter workload before you know what kinds of side effects you may have.
Advise side effects. Tell your doctor about potential side effects and how to dress accordingly. When infertility can be a side effect and you want to conceive a child, you might want to store sperm, eggs or fertilized embryos and freeze them. When hair loss is possible, you may want to buy head-covers or wigs.

What to do after Chemotherapy?

Your health care provider will track the efficacy of your medications on a daily basis. This will require scans, blood tests and probably more. Your health care provider will change the treatment at any time.

The more you’ll share how chemotherapy affects you with your doctor, the better the care experience will be. You ‘re going to want to tell them about any side effects or medication-related problems you ‘re experiencing so they can adapt to the care if appropriate.

All you need to know about Stem cell Therapy in India

What is Stem Cell Therapy?

Stem cell therapy, also known as regenerative medicine, catalyses the repair response of diseased, dysfunctional or injured tissue using stem cells or their derivatives. Stem cells divide to form more cells called daughter cells. These daughter cells either become new stem cells (self-renewal) or become specialized cells (differentiation) with a more specific function, such as blood cells, brain cells, heart muscle cells or bone cells. No other cell in the body has the natural ability to generate new cell types.

These stem cells are manipulated to specialize into specific types of cells, such as heart muscle cells, blood cells or nerve cells and many more. The ability of stem cells to change themselves depends on the environment that they’re placed into so that a stem cell that’s placed for instance in the liver may behave differently and change itself differently based on the interactions it has with the surrounding liver cells whereas a stem cell which is placed into a leg may behave differently.

Stem Cell Therapy in India

Growth in stem cell therapy in India is exceptional and seeing its promising results it is not wrong to say that soon it can be used for treating a multitude of acute and chronic ailments. Regenerative medicine or stem cell therapy is one of the most promising branches of advanced medication. Its main aim is to restore organ and tissue function for patients with continual and persistent diseases. Over the years, scientists and surgeons have been using stem cell therapy to renew and repair tissues affected with age, disease and congenital defects.

Though there are several factors on which Stem cell therapy treatment depends. Type of disease and Cost play a vital role.

Let us try to understand more about Stem Cell Therapy in India.

What they claim? The hope for the future?

Some of the neurodegenerative and genetic disorders such as diabetes, osteoarthritis, stroke, chronic renal failure, congestive cardiac failure, myocardial infarction, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease etc for which there is no effective conventional treatment present. Stem cell therapy holds a promising future for the treatment of such non serious to life threatening diseases.

Types of Stem Cells

Embryonic stem cells
Non-embryonic (adult) stem cells
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)
Cord blood stem cells and amniotic fluid stem cells

Embryonic stem cells

Embryonic stem cells are derived from human embryos at a very nascent stage of its development.
The process of harvesting them is known as in-vitro fertilization. This involves fertilizing an embryo in a laboratory instead of inside the female body.
Embryonic stem cells are known as pluripotent stem cells. These cells can give rise to virtually any other type of cell in the body

Non-embryonic (adult) stem cells

Adult stem cells those are stem cells that live in you right now.
These stem cells are derived from developed organs and tissues in the body.
They are implanted in the body to repair and replace the damaged tissues in the affected area.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)

When adult stem cells are reprogramed into embryonic stem cells (pluripotent stem cells), these newly developed stem cells are called as Induced pluripotent stem cells.
They can propagate and differentiate into all types of specialized cells in the body. This means they can potentially produce new cells for any organ or tissue.

Cord blood stem cells and amniotic fluid stem cells

Cord blood stem cells are derived from the umbilical cord after childbirth.
They can be frozen in cell banks for use in the future.
These cells have been successfully used to treat children with blood cancers, such as leukaemia, and certain genetic blood disorders.

What are the steps involved?

Stem cell transplant is carried out in 4 phases.

Phase 1 : Collection

It involves the collection of healthy stem cells with the help of a catheter. This phase is not needed in case of allogeneic transplant or if stored stem cells derived from the umbilical cord are used.

Phase 2 : Conditioning

The patient is subjected to chemo or radiation therapy. It helps make room in the patient’s bone marrow for new blood stem cells to grow, helps prevent the patient’s body from rejecting the transplanted cells.

Phase 3 : Infusion

It involves the actual transplant which is somewhat similar to blood transfusion. The procedure is painless.

Phase 3 : Recover Period

It involves monitoring the patient for any complications or side effects while the stem cell grow and begin working.

Ethical Principle of Cell Therapy

Rapid progress in the field of biotechnology has introduced a myriad of pressing ethical issues associated with stem cell research. Worldwide and particularly in Asian countries, where stem cell therapy is more advanced, the ethical basis of utilizing stem cell therapy as a treatment modality is based on the Declaration of Helsinki (DoH) on the ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. This Declaration of Helsinki is a set of ethical principles regarding human experimentation developed for the medical fraternity and is drafted by the World Medical Association (WMA). It is widely regarded as the cornerstone document on the bioethics of human research. The following is an excerpt from the Declaration of Helsinki:

“In the treatment of an individual patient, where proven interventions do not exist or other known interventions have been ineffective, the physician, after seeking expert advice, with informed consent from the patient or a legally authorised representative, may use an unproven intervention if in the physician’s judgement it offers hope of saving life, re-establishing health or alleviating suffering. This intervention should subsequently be made the object of research, designed to evaluate its safety and efficacy. In all cases, new information must be recorded and, where appropriate, made publicly available.”

7 Tips for Staying Healthy While Traveling

I love to travel it opens you up to new experiences allows you to learn from different cultures and it pushes you outside your comfort zone and I hate travel you’re pulled from your daily routines it’s so much more difficult to stay healthy and it pushes you outside your comfort zone.

So in order to satiate the thirst for travelling and keep the health freak inside us on check lets read a few hacks:

1.SLEEP A LOT OF SLEEP. Indeed, while on the roads, make sure that your sleeping hours are being well taken care off. A proper sleep is imperative for rejuvenation of body, it makes my body ready for the long travelling days ahead. Try to fit naps in where you can, or at least close your eyes for some time to rest and relax.

2.Plan Your Meals. Relying on the local cuisines is the key to healthy food while traveling. Research about the place you are going and plan your diet accordingly. Pack a few healthy snacks in your carry-on. I always bring protein bars, collagen powders, and some nuts and seeds. Try to look for snacks high in protein as that will help you feel more satiated.

3.Fruits and Vegetables. Well here comes my personal favorite fruits and vegetables. They happen to be one of the best appetite crushers while on the go. And at the same time, they hardly possess any health hazards. Also, explore the local farmer’s markets which serve meals made up of fresh fruits and vegetables is another easy way to both experience the local culture and stay healthy.

4.Stay Hydrated. While on the move in a hurry to cross the places and explore more, often drinking water goes for a toss. Take a pause and listen to your body get some energy drinks and water. Always carry a bottle of water with you to stay hydrated even if it’s not always convenient to find a restroom on the road. Your overall health and ability to fight off diseases while traveling depends on a well-fueled immune system.

5.Count Your Steps. While working out is not possible for everyone, we can make our steps count and do the best in place of workout. So, make sure you pack a comfortable pair of shoes before you hit the road next. I think walking around the cities is the best way to explore like locals by taking a plunge into the core culture of the place .

6.Protect your Skin. Among all the body parts skin is the one that takes the toll. All the dirt and pollution are embraced by skin which is often overlooked by the travellers. A sunscreen above SPF 30 is must have before setting your foot for the journey. If you’re visiting an area with a large population of mosquitoes and insects, be sure to wear insect repellent to prevent bites.

7.Keep it calm with Meditation. While you are travelling there will be many unforeseen situations like flat tire, delayed flight, lost luggage, large crowds, turbulence, the list goes on and on. Everyone has their own travel horror story and everyone can reflect back to the level of stress they were feeling during that situation. High stress levels can certainly negatively impact your health, so it’s important to try to stay calm, whatever the situation. You can do breathing exercises anytime and anywhere. Take a deep breath, hold it, exhale and repeat. Focusing on breathing and staying calm can help counter the stress and anxiety of traveling.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.