Symptoms of Mesothelioma - Health - Diseases and Conditions

What is Mesothelioma?

Mesothelioma (mez-uh-thee-lee-O-muh) is a type of cancer that can be either malignant or benign. The malignant type of mesothelioma is the most hazardous form of cancer and may be deadly in most cases. This cancer affects the tissue known as the mesothelium, which protects the heart, stomach, lungs, and other organs by making a special fluid that allows the organs to move.

Causes of Mesothelioma

Almost always this type of cancer is caused by previous exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is a kind of fiber present in a lot of the insulating and building substances which are naked to the human eye. It is unclear how early the correlation between asbestos and mesothelioma was made.

Mesothelioma is a very aggressive form of cancer where early diagnosis increases the amount of effective treatments. Unfortunately, due to the way it forms, the cancer may not manifest until anywhere between 20 to 50 years after an asbestos exposure. Regardless of when the asbestos exposure occurred, it is important to tell your doctor so that the correct diagnosis can be made.

As with most diseases, symptoms of mesothelioma vary case by case. Symptoms can also be determined by whether the mesothelioma is defined as pleural, peritoneal, or pericardial.

Types of Mesothelioma

1)Pleural Mesothelioma is the most common form of mesothelioma. This is where the cancer affects the lungs and the protective lining and cavity of the lungs filling it with excessive liquid.2)Peritoneal Mesothelioma is a rarer form of mesothelioma where the cancer affects the stomach and abdomen. Symptoms include some or all of the following: abdominal pain and swelling, nausea, loss of appetite, chest pain, anemia, fever, and blood clotting abnormalities.3)Pericardial Mesothelioma is the rarest form of mesothelioma cancer. This is where the cancer affects the heart and the cavity that surrounds it, known as the pericardium. Patients have reported chest pain, shortness of breath, trouble breathing, persistent coughing, and palpitations.

Symptoms

Mesothelioma symptoms are generally non specific and resemble common sicknesses such as viral pneumonia, heart disease, flu, and bronchitis. These symptoms include: shortness of breath (dyspnea) or difficulty breathing, coughing and/or coughing up of blood, chest or abdomen pain caused by excessive fluid, weight loss, husky voice, difficulty swallowing, fever, anemia, bowel obstruction, inability to sleep, and loss of appetite. Since these are general symptoms of common viral diseases, it is important to report any asbestos history you have to a doctor so the correct diagnosis can be made.

When is it time to worry?

Usually the first two symptoms bring patients into the doctors office because they are the most common. Asbestos exposure, even if the occurrence was decades ago, is important information that doctors need to know in helping the diagnosis of mesothelioma. Providing this information early can assist in avoiding uncomfortable and expensive tests in addition to early detection increases the chances of eliminating the cancer.

The Asbestos & Mesothelioma Cancer Resource Center at Asbestos.Net

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Mesothelioma Disease - What Is It And How Can It Effect You? - Health - Diseases and Conditions

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer in which cancerous cells are found in the mesothelium, a protective sac that covers most of the body's internal organs. Mesothelioma cancer is almost always the result of asbestos exposure, and life expectancy after mesothelioma disease is diagnosed is usually pretty short - months to a few years.

Mesothelioma is very difficult to diagnose because the symptoms associated with the disease are similar to those of many other afflictions. Mesothelioma is caused by asbestos exposure which occurs when fibers are inhaled or ingested into the body and become lodged in body cavities, causing inflammation or infection.

Asbestos was in thousands of different products so many people were exposed at many times in their lives. Asbestos exposure can occur in many ways including, but not limited to, service on ships in the Navy, work aboard military or commercial ships, work as an insulator, or work in residential or commercial construction.

Asbestos is a naturally-occurring fibrous substance that was widely used in the 20th century in a number of different industries. There are four main types of asbestos amosite (brown fibers), Anthophyllite (gray fibers), white Christie, and blue Crocidolite. When asbestos exposure occurs, microscopic asbestos fibers are inhaled into the lungs and will sometimes become embedded.

The asbestos fibers may scar the lungs, leading to asbestosis, and they may penetrate further into the mesothelium to later form mesothelioma cancer. People with mesothelioma, like patients with other types of cancer, have greater chances of recovery if being diagnosed and treated early.

Treatment for Mesothelioma depends upon the location of the malignant cancer, the stage of the illness, and the patient's age and general health. This cancer occurs about four times more frequently in men than in women and all forms of mesothelioma, except for benign mesothelioma, are invariably fatal.

Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma may include pain or swelling in the abdomen due to a build-up of fluid, nausea, weight loss, bowel obstruction, anemia or swelling of the feet. Unfortunately, the mesothelioma usually does not result any symptoms or health problems until the disease has greatly progressed.

Sometimes resembling viral pneumonia, pleural mesothelioma patients may present with shortness of breath, chest pain and/or persistent cough; some patients show no symptoms at all. Less common symptoms of pleural mesothelioma include fever, night sweats and weight loss. Typically, symptoms of Mesothelioma do not appear until 20 or more years after exposure to asbestos.

Advanced malignant Mesothelioma disease can again be divided into 3 stages namely stage II, III and IV. The mesothelioma disease usually takes twenty or more years to develop, and people that worked with asbestos in the 1970s may currently start showing signs of disease.

After diagnosis, patients and their loved ones are often anxious to do everything possible to fight mesothelioma. Billions of dollars have been set aside for the victims of mesothelioma and their families.

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How to Select a Mesothelioma Treatment Option - Health - Cancer

Malignant mesothelioma is a terribly dangerous illness which makes choosing the best mesothelioma treatment option extraordinarily important. Find out which mesothelioma treatment approaches will offer the greatest prognosis.

A treatment that cures mesothelioma does not yet exist, but people may still be able to obtain miscellaneous procedures for their malignancy or additionally take part in clinical trials. The mesothelioma cancer treatment techniques regularly suggested are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Even though these are the most popular, you'll notice additional therapies that are gaining in attractiveness, most of which are still experimental. Some of these procedures are immunotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and gene therapy.

There are three distinct kinds of surgery for mesothelioma cancer patients; analgesic surgery, diagnostic surgical procedures, and curative surgery. Palliative surgical procedures are to relieve the pain and involves completely removing some of the cancerous cells. Nonetheless, this kind of surgery doesn't provide a cure.

The goal of curative surgical procedures are to take away as much of the cancerous tissue as possible with the hope that it might be enough to completely cure the patient. When curative surgery is performed they are typically followed up with radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

Diagnostic surgeries are merely used to determine if mesothelioma cancer actually is present in an individual or not. It furthermore assists in finding where it's located, if it is found, and is customarily non-invasive.

Drugs created for chemotherapy are usually given intravenously with the objective of destroying cancerous cells. Cancer cells will multiply quite fast so it's a good idea to start chemotherapy as soon as you can.

The point of radiation treatment is comparable to chemotherapy, to kill mesothelioma cells plus slow the proliferation of cancer cells as much as possible. It's also called "ionizing radiation" and is generally used after surgical procedures have been carried out. It's now and then employed as palliative therapy to relieve the actual pain caused by the affliction.

Photodynamic therapy is typically used only if the mesothelioma cancer is confined to a small area and isn't deemed very effective when the mesothelioma has metastasized. Photodynamic therapy entails giving the patient medicine intravenously that makes mesothelioma cells very susceptible to a certain form of light. Several days after photodynamic therapy the patient is then subjected to this specific light, destroying the mesothelioma cancer cells that previously absorbed the medicine.

Gene therapy is still experimental and includes infecting the patient with a virus which has been genetically altered. The virus makes its way into mesothelioma cells which causes the production of a protein. A short while after infecting the patient with the genetically altered virus, the person is treated with a drug which won't be toxic to regular cells, but is designed to be toxic to mesothelioma cancer cells.

Immunotherapy attempts to fool the person's immune system into killing mesothelioma cancer cells. With active immunotherapy the patient has a portion of their malignant mesothelioma cells taken out and then used to make a vaccine. The patient is then injected with the vaccine which may result in the person's immune system identifying the "mesothelioma cell vaccine" as a toxic substance, and therefore identifying the mesothelioma cancer itself as a noxious substance.

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The History of Mesothelioma Lawsuits - Law - Civil Law

The law caught up to mesothelioma a long time ago, even if it seems that mesothelioma is more of a modern concern. True, today's tests can more easily detect mesothelioma than before, but asbestos manufacturers have been receiving lawsuits against them since 1929. Asbestos has been seen as a danger since as early as the 1890s, even if they didn't know what to call the disease which erupted from the inhalation and exposure. People have been seeking compensation not only for medical costs, but also for the pain and the suffering which come from having to deal with a chronic health condition.

No Federal Laws... Yet

What's interesting about mesothelioma cases is that while they have been tried up to the United States Supreme court, there are no federal laws in place which discuss the compensation available to victims of mesothelioma and other related asbestos conditions. However, estimates today put the compensation levels for mesothelioma at upwards of a billion dollars. This is no small price which has been paid to those suffering from mesothelioma and asbestosis. Without any regulation as to how much needs to be paid to those suffering, many patients end up without the compensation they truly deserve for their health woes.

The Discovery of the Link Between Mesothelioma and Asbestos

While many scientists and patients were beginning to see the link between asbestos and their disintegrating health, it wasn't until the 1960s that the link became proven in a lab situation. In an article published by Wagner and other experts, the condition of mesothelioma was seen in over 30 case studies of people who had been exposed to asbestos in South Africa and were subsequently found to have symptoms of mesothelioma. This was an amazing finding since there were so few cases of mesothelioma that had been reported. Then, in 1962, McNulty discovered that mine workers were also being stricken by mesothelioma and the condition proved to cause cancer. The only possible causal link was the worker's term at an asbestos mine from 1948 to 1950.

No Protection for Workers?

These are just a few examples of the dangers of mesothelioma and why the legal system began to step in to take action. Because these workers are unable to work once diagnosed with mesothelioma, they need to be properly compensated, especially when their employers were not willing to provide them the proper protective gear in order to prevent the mesothelioma in the first place. With the proper equipment, workers can safely work with asbestos and other dangerous materials, without fear of causing health effects later in life.

With the proper legal support, those with mesothelioma can get the compensation they deserve and the resources they need to fight for their rights. While not all cases are going to result in large payouts, those who have been significantly injured because of the negligence of their employers deserve to receive some sort of financial settlement, especially when working with lawyers who are experienced in mesothelioma cases.

Johnson Law Group440 Louisiana, Suite 1700 Houston, TX 770021-888-311-5522Mesothelioma

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Types of Mesothelioma - Health - Cancer

Mesothelioma is a rare but aggressive form of cancer that affects the mesothelium, a protective membrane over the lungs, heart, and other internal organs. It is divided into subcategories based on several different factors, including the progression of the disease, the type of cancerous cells involved, and the location of the primary cancerous growths. This article will explain the three types of mesothelioma based on the last factor, known as pleural, peritoneal, and pericardial mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma Subcategories

While mesothelioma can spread throughout the body as it progresses, it generally begins in one primary location. The three types of mesothelioma according to its location are:

When a patient is diagnosed with mesothelioma, it is important for his or her doctors to identify the subtype that he or she is suffering from. This knowledge can affect the treatment options that doctors will recommend. For example, different kinds of mesothelioma may present different kinds of surgical options, or respond differently to treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy.

For more information about mesothelioma and treatment options, visit the website of the Mesothelioma Resource Center.

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Mesothelioma Victims: How Children and Wives Became Sufferers - Health - Cancer

As deadly as mesothelioma is on the life of whoever affected so also it continued to torment the children and wives victims of mesothelioma left behind, after they long gone to their graves. Many patients of mesothelioma unknowing also exposed their loved ones to cancer inducing asbestos dust and fibres through the settlements of those substances on their clothing which they take home every night from their workplaces.One case in point is that of a woman who got mesothelioma as a result of taking care of her husband laundry needs. At the age of 42years Kathleen, a housewife was diagnosed of mesothelioma as a result of her exposure to asbestos from her laundering of her husband clothing who worked as a carpenter everyday at his place of work. She complained of shortness breath, chest pains and she went to the hospital. After many test and diagnosis, she was confirmed a mesothelioma sufferer. She was devastated by that medical revelation. How will she cope with paying for he r treatment, and maternal responsibilities to her children to be precise, more so the prospect of paying her huge medical expenses coupled with the footing of her two daughters' school bills. The burden of Kathleen medical condition was too heavy for Kathleen and her family to bear. The more harrowing part of her story was that she did not contract the disease as a result of her reckless lifestyle. She never smoked when she was young. That was how Kathleen started out on long difficult journey into her mesothelioma treatment. Other victims of asbestos exposure are children of mesothelioma sufferers who got the disease as a result of helping their mother with the laundry of their fathers clothing. One of such people is Jane. Jane a housewife became a mesothelioma victim because her father worked as an asbestos installer in a shipyard, installing asbestos insulation. Jane's father came home every evening with asbestos dust all over him and Jane with other siblings ignorantly p layed with their father's clothes in the damper. This daily exposure to asbestos made everybody mesothelioma sufferers as a result of asbestos dust inhaled. After 27 years of working in an environment full of asbestos dust and no effort was made by his father's employer to provide respirators that will protect the workers' lungs even though the risks of asbestos was becoming known to everyone working in asbestos related environment. According to Jane, no shower or locker room was provided which would have reduced the risks and hazards pose to human health in these workplaces. Her father died in 1971 of mesothelioma related illness.Jane's eventful journey into mesothelioma problems began one day. She was busy with her household cores when mesothelioma symptoms suddenly struck her. She had problem breathing and she went to the hospital for treatment. She was first diagnosed of pneumonia but further tests and chest x-ray revealed that she has malignant mesothelioma. Jane became worried about her younger brothers and sisters whom health conditions. A nine and half hours surgery was later carried out on her to remove her left lung and from that surgery she was positively diagnosed with malignant diffuse mesothelioma. After she was diagnosed of mesothelioma and she realized how she got the disease. Another unfortunate story is that of a woman who also got asbestos exposure through the laundering of her husband clothing. She was diagnosis after her husband who was confirmed mesothelioma sufferer fifteen years was treated for the disease. The housewife unlike her husband, who survives the treatment, died a month after she was diagnosed of mesothelioma.

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Recommended Mesothelioma Diet - Health - Cancer

The Recommended Mesothelioma Diet

Living with mesothelioma cancer, like any type of cancer, is a difficult and life altering event. While a specific diet alone will not cure the disease, mesothelioma patients can relieve symptoms of pain and improve their quality of life by following an appropriate mesothelioma diet. This is one of the topics covered in my article on mesothelioma advice.

By following a proper mesothelioma diet, a patient can counter the tissue damage and other harmful effects of mesothelioma treatment. A diet composed primarily of fruit and vegetables, as well as fresh and healthy food should be part of any mesothelioma treatment regimen.

What Specific Foods Are Recommended?

In addition to the fresh fruit and vegetables mentioned above, cheese, milk, eggs, yoghurt, beans, nuts, nut butter (ex. peanut or almond), fish, and meat are all good sources of the necessary nutrients and vitamins that a mesothelioma patient needs to feel physically stronger and to help limit the negative side effects of treatment.

Healthcare experts recommend that mesothelioma patients include high concentrations of protein with their diet. Turkey and other lean means that are organically raised and grass fed, in addition to wild caught fish like tuna and salmon are excellent sources of protein.

Additional supplements in the way of mesothelioma diet pills and specific diets and foods for individual types of mesothelioma can be provided by professional mesothelioma diet nutritionists.

Do I Need To Take Diet Pills If I'm Eating Well and Following My Nutritionists Plan?

Getting all the essential nutrients and vitamins a body needs on a regular basis is important but challenging for even healthy people. Doing so for mesothelioma patients is even more important. Diet pills and programs can help to ensure that a patients diet is providing the ingredients that support treatment and recovery. Besides supporting treatment and recovery, these may increase a patients quality of life by helping to reduce pain, nausea, and other mesothelioma related symptoms and conditions.

Further Information

For further information on mesothelioma check out my other posts on mesothelioma advice and learn more about the different types of mesothelioma cancers that have currently been identified.

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