Some say that this is not effective especially when some drugs are said to be counteracting the effects of the other drug. The results of the phase III trial, released at a meeting of breast cancer experts in San Antonio, Texas, show that the first benefit for women with hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer in 10 years. This was according to the authors that conducted the new study.

The drugs which were tested in this study were Anastrazole (Arimidex) and fulvestrant (Faslodex). Both drugs are currently used to treat breast cancer but they have typically been administered separately. Meaning, they can’t be given together.

The study was started in the year 2004 and there were about 707 participants, all are postmenopausal women with metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. The results revealed that when the two drugs were used together to treat breast cancer, they extend the median survival time by more than six months compared to the standard treatment with only using anastrazole.

According to Norman Sharpless, the professor of medicine and genetics at the University of California, she said, “We are seeing a major change, very important developments and real therapeutic efforts to try to treat age-related illnesses.”

Can this reassure us young people that we can lengthen our life span based on this study? “It is a very exciting time in aging research,” Sharpless added, citing some most recent studies in France and United States. Sharpless is also associated in Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The said research study which was published in October and was led by Jean-Marc Lemaitre and conducted at the Functional Genomics Institute, it shows that the cells from the elderly people who acted as donors can be rejuvenated as stem cells, erasing the ravages of age and proving that the aging process is reversible.

“It’s a major advance,” Sharpless added, noting some specific points that if many age-related diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease or Alzheimer’s are to be defeated, regenerative medicine will be required also. He also stressed that problem that “Cellular therapy is very difficult to develop”. And expectations must be kept in check.

Sharpless also warned the people that, “the way trials work, it is going to be a couple of years before that research is translated into human aging research because of the risk if cancer frankly.”

The worry is while those cells are great, there are some risks for recipients.”

Different Types of Risk Factors

1. Genetic and Physiological Factors

Heredity, or genetic predisposition to specific illness, is a major physical risk factor. For example, a person with a family history of diabetes mellitus is at risk for developing the disease later in life.

1. Age

Age increases or decreases susceptibility to certain illnesses (e.g. the risk of heart diseases increases with age for both sexes). The risk for birth defects and complications of pregnancy increase in women bearing children after age 35.

1. Environment

The physical environment in which a person works or lives can increase the likelihood that certain illnesses will occur. For example, some kinds of cancer and other diseases are more likely to develop when industrial workers are exposed to certain chemicals or when people live near toxic waste disposal sites.

1. Lifestyle

Many activities, habits and practices involve risk factors. Lifestyle practices and behaviors can also have positive or negative effects on health. Other habits that a person at risk for illness include tobacco use, alcohol or drug abuse and activities involving a threat of injury, such as skydiving or mountain climbing. Stress can also be a lifestyle risk if it is severe or prolonged, or if the person is unable to cope with life events adequately. Stress can also threaten mental health (emotional stress), as well as physical well-being (physiologic stress). The goal of risk factor identification is to merely assist clients in visualizing those areas in their life that can be modified or even eliminated to promote wellness and prevent illness.

DISEASE. Disease is any alternations in body functions resulting in reduction of capacities or shortening of the normal life span.

Common Causes of Disease

1. Biologic agents ( e.g. microorganisms)

2. Inherited genetic defects (e.g. cleft palate)

3. Developmental defects (e.g. imperforate anus)

4. Physical agents (e.g. hot and cold substances, radiation, ultraviolet rays)

5. Chemical agents (e.g. lead, emissions from smoke-belching cars)

6. Tissue response to irritation/ injury (e.g. fever, inflammation)

7. Faulty chemical/ metabolic process (e.g. inadequate insulin in diabetes mellitus, inadequate iodine causing goiter)

8. Emotional/ physical reaction to stress (e.g. anxiety, fear)

Stages of Illness

1. Symptom Experience – This stage is also called the transition stage. In this stage, the person believes something is wrong and he or she already experiences some symptoms which are divided into three aspects: (1) physical (fever, muscle aches, malaise, headache); (2) cognitive (perception of “having flu”); (3) emotional (worry on consequence of illness)

2. Assumption of Sick Role – It involves the acceptance of the illness by a person. He or she already seeks advice, support for decision to give up some activities.

3. Medical Care Contact – The person seeks advice of health professionals for the following reasons: validation of real illness; explanation of symptoms; reassurance or prediction of outcome.

4. Dependent Patient Role – The person becomes a client dependent on the health professional for medical help. He or she accepts or rejects health professional’s suggestions and may regress to an earlier behavioral stage.

5. Recovery or Rehabilitation – The person gives up the sick role and returns to former roles and functions.

Aspects of Sick Role

1. One is not held responsible for his condition. The person did not cause his illness.

2. One is excused from social roles. The person is allowed to rest by seeking sick leave or leave of absence.

3. One is obliged to get well as soon as possible. The person is expected to cooperate and comply with recommended therapies.

4. One is obliged to seek for competent help. The person is expected to seek help from health professionals.

An article that I have read earlier states that there are some Diet foods that even make you hungrier. And what happens if you’ll just get hungry because of these foods? Then your tendency is to psychologically crave for food to fill in  or satisfy your hunger. It turns out that a number of foods that are commonly thought to be great for losing weight can actually stimulate the appetite. Here’s the list of the skinny foods that can even trigger hunger and sabotage your diet. The list was given by Marjorie Nolan, R.D., the National Spokesperson for the American Diabetic Association.

1. Light Yogurt
2. Puffed Cereal with Skim Milk
3. Big Green Salad with Low Fat or Fat Free Dressing
4. Rice Cakes
5. Chewing Gum
6. Diet Soda
7. Apple
8. Low-calorie frozen entrees
9. Fat-free graham crackers or other baked goods

1. Individual Perceptions (client’s cognitive perceptual factors).
2. Modifying Factors (demographic and social factors).
3. Participation in health- promoting behaviors (likelihood of action).

The model attempts to explain the reasons why individuals engage in health activities.

Pender advocates that health promotion involves activities that are directed towards increasing the level of well being and self- actualization.

1. Includes efforts to assist individuals in taking control of and responsibility for their health risk and ultimately improve quality of life.
2. Encompasses activities to improve the health of those who are not initially healthy as well as the healthy individuals.
3. Includes individual and community activities to promote healthful lifestyles.
4. Includes the principles of self-responsibility, nutritional awareness, stress reduction and management and physical fitness.
5. Health promotion activities such as routine exercise and good nutrition, help clients maintain or enhance their present level of health.
6. Illness prevention activities such as immunization programs protect clients from actual or potential threats to health.

The Health Promotion Model (Pender) describes the multi-dimensional nature of persons as they interact within the environment to pursue health. The model focuses on the following areas:

1. Individual Perceptions (client’s cognitive perceptual factors).
2. Modifying Factors (demographic and social factors).
3. Participation in health- promoting behaviors (likelihood of action).

The model attempts to explain the reasons why individuals engage in health activities.

Pender advocates that health promotion involves activities that are directed towards increasing the level of well being and self- actualization.

1. Includes efforts to assist individuals in taking control of and responsibility for their health risk and ultimately improve quality of life.
2. Encompasses activities to improve the health of those who are not initially healthy as well as the healthy individuals.
3. Includes individual and community activities to promote healthful lifestyles.
4. Includes the principles of self-responsibility, nutritional awareness, stress reduction and management and physical fitness.
5. Health promotion activities such as routine exercise and good nutrition, help clients maintain or enhance their present level of health.
6. Illness prevention activities such as immunization programs protect clients from actual or potential threats to health.

Role Performance Model. Defines health in terms of individual’s ability to fulfill societal roles such as performing work.

Adaptive Model. Focuses on adaptation. Views health as creative process; and disease as a failure in adaptation or mal-adaptation. This model belies that the aim of treatment is to restore the ability of the person to adapt, that is to cope.

Eudaemonistic Model. Conceptualizes that health is a condition of actualization or realization of a person’s potential. This model avers that the highest aspiration of people is fulfillment and complete development – actualization.

Across the lifespan, man moves from the health spectrum to the illness spectrum. Some people think of themselves as healthy and well if they are not ill and ill if they are not well. However, there is no exact point at which health ends and illness begins as both are relative in nature.

Health and illness are highly individualized perceptions. Meanings and descriptions of health and illness vary among people, in relation to geography and to culture. The block below will help you have a better notion and perspective of health and illness.

Concepts of Health and Illness

• Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. (WHO)
• Health is the ability to maintain the internal milieu. Illness is the result of failure to maintain the internal environment. (Claude Bernard)
• Health is the ability to maintain homeostasis or dynamic equilibrium. Homeostasis is regulated by the negative feedback mechanism. (Walter Cannon)
• Health is being well and using one’s power to the fullest extent. Health is maintained through prevention of disease via environmental health factors. (Florence Nightingale)
• Health is viewed in terms of the individual’s ability to perform 14 components of nursing care unaided. (Virginia Henderson)
• Positive health symbolizes wellness. It is a value term defined by the culture or individual. (Martha Rogers)
• Health is a state and a process of being and becoming an integrated and whole person (Roy)
• Health is a state that is characterized by soundness or wholeness of developed human structures and of bodily and mental functioning (Orem)
• Health is a dynamic state in the life cycle; illness is an interference in the life cycle. (Imogene King)
• Wellness is the condition in which all parts and subparts of an individual are in harmony with the whole system. (Neuman)
• Health is an elusive, dynamic state influenced by biologic, psychologic, and social factors. Health is reflected by the organization, interaction, interdependence and integration of the subsystems of the behavioral system. (Johnson)

Wellness and Well-Being

Wellness is well-being. It involves engaging in attitudes and behaviors that enhance quality of life and maximize personal potential. Well-being is also a subjective perception of balance, harmony and vitality. Wellness, on the other hand, is a choice; it is a way of life; it is the integration of the mind, body and spirit; and it is the loving acceptance of one’s self.

Models of Health and Illness:

• The Health-Illness Continuum
• Health Belief Model (HBM)
• Smith’s Model of Health
• Leavell and Clark’s Agent-Host-Environment Model or Etiologic Model
• Health Promotion Model

Individual perceptions include the following:

1. Perceived susceptibility to an illness. E.g. family history to diabetes mellitus increases risk to develop the disease.
2. Perceived seriousness of an illness. E.g. Diabetes Mellitus is a lifelong disease.
3. Perceived threat of an illness. E.g. Diabetes mellitus causes damage to the brain, heart, eyes, kidneys, blood vessels.

Modifying factors include the following:

1. Demographic variables (age, sex, race, etc.)
2. Sociopsychologic variables (social pressure or influence from peers, etc)
3. Structural variables (knowledge about the disease, and prior contact with it)
4. Cues to action. (internal: fatigue, uncomfortable symptoms; external: mass media, advice from others)

Likelihood of taking recommended preventive health action depends on:

1. Perceived benefits of preventive action.
2. Perceived barriers to preventive action such as:
   1. Preventive health behavior may include lifestyle changes, increased adherence to medical therapies, and search for medical advice or treatment.
   2. Perceived barriers to preventive action may be due to difficulty in adhering to lifestyle changes; social pressures; physical symptoms such as fatigue, joint pains, etc,; economic factors; accessibility to health care facilities.