Mesothelioma Help Cancer News
Mesothelioma Patients Get Holiday Safe-Eating Tips from the American Cancer Society
During this winter holiday season, friends and family members host potluck meals and buffet events, and take homemade meals, cakes and cookies to loved ones who may be too sick to get out. Although many of us look forward to all the delicious food, for mesothelioma patients, eating too many fatty and greasy foods can lead to gastric distress. But, if you are undergoing cancer treatments you don’t have to be left out of the holiday festivities.
To help cancer patients make appropriate decisions during the holidays, the American Cancer Society offers the following holiday eating tips for patients undergoing cancer treatments.
- Keep an eye on foods as they arrive and identify items you think you might be able to tolerate.
- Choose from the inside of the table at a buffet, where little hands, and their germs, are less likely to reach.
- Eat before you leave the house; try a snack with some fiber and protein just in case there aren’t many options for you.
- Start slow and take small portions so you don’t get that “overfull” feeling.
- Look at a potluck as an opportunity to try new tastes and dishes, take advantage of the occasion to identify new flavors that might taste good to you.
Additional tips offered help cancer patients avoid getting sick from the overabundance of food smells or from a food-borne illness.
- If the sight or smell of food is enough to turn your stomach, grab a ginger ale or tea and move out of the area where food is being cooked or served.
- Try chewing a mint gum or drinking a hot beverage to mask the scent of food.
- Steer clear of undercooked foods like homemade eggnog, sushi, or even mayonnaise or desserts made with raw eggs.
- Identify foods, such as cheese and crackers, salsa and chips, snack mix, or mixed nuts, that are able to sit out a little longer.
- Consider bringing foods you know you can eat.
- You can also bring extra serving utensils so people won’t feel tempted to use their hands.
While the holidays can be an enjoyable time of the year, mesothelioma patients and their family may experience additional anxiety and stress during this time. Hopefully, by following some of the tips offered above, anxiety associated with what to eat can be minimized.
Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lungs, chest or abdomen that is highly aggressive and is resistant to many cancer treatments. Treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Nearly 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease each year.
Penn Medicine Receives Grant to Educate Communities About Mesothelioma and Other Asbestos-Related Diseases
The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine announced it has received a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop an educational program “to help empower residents to shape the future of their communities, and explain the potential consequences associated with asbestos exposure.” Residents of West and South Ambler, Pennsylvania are at an increased risk of developing mesothelioma from an asbestos factory that operated in the area for over 100 years.
According to CBS Philly, Dr. Fran Barg says Ambler has been profoundly affected by mesothelioma. Barg is associate professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, and principal investigator for the project.
“I think scientists need to understand the human side of what it’s like to live in a community like this,” said Barg. “City planners want to understand what community members want and epidemiologists want to understand what community residents are still worried about.”
The only established cause of mesothelioma is past exposure to asbestos. The fibers are inhaled or ingested and become lodged in the thin membrane that lines and encases the lungs, heart or abdomen. Mesothelioma has an extended latency, or incubation, period and most cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed 10 years or more after exposure, sometimes taking as long as 60 years for the disease to develop.
The program developed by Penn Medicine, according to the press release, will include:
- Documenting the history of lower-income African-American and Italian immigrant asbestos workers, their families, and their neighbors in West and South Ambler through recorded interviews.
- Developing an accessible repository of documents, photographs, life stories, news accounts, and scientific data about the communities that can be used as resource material for students, researchers, and community activists.
- Working to inform citizens, scientists and policy-makers on long-term health effects and other potential consequences from living and working near aging, hazardous industrial sites.
The project will also serve as a “case study for other communities that face similar challenges.” The investigators anticipate the information developed will be relevant to community members, policy-makers, health care and public health professionals, business executives, management and workers, university students, school children, and other communities affected by pollution and toxic waste sites.
Penn Medicine is the home of Penn’s Mesothelioma and Pleural Program which, according to Penn Medicine’s website, “brings together internationally renowned experts in medical, surgical and radiation oncology and pulmonology” to collaborate on each case. This multidisciplinary approach, according to Penn Medicine, “provides better outcomes and gives patients access to the most advanced treatment, surgical techniques and clinical trials.”
Sources:
- University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/grant/ - Penn’s Mesothelioma and Pleural Program
http://www.penncancer.org/patients/cancer-types/mesothelioma/ - CBS Philly,
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/11/23/penn-medicine-receives-grant-for-asbestos-study-in-ambler/
Increased Rate of Mesothelioma Detected Near Former PA Asbestos Factory
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to document how people were affected by asbestos exposure who lived near an asbestos factory in Ambler, Pennsylvania. Exposure to asbestos dust is linked to serious respiratory diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has identified an increase in the rate of mesothelioma around Ambler, where an asbestos factory operated for decades, according to a Penn Medicine news release this month. Ambler is just north of Philadelphia.
Dr. Fran Barg, an associate professor at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, told the CBS News affiliate in Philadelphia that Ambler has been profoundly affected by mesothelioma. The Ambler Boiler House, near the town’s revived Butler Avenue district, operated for nearly a century as an asbestos-manufacturing plan, but was shuttered in the mid 1970s.
Today, residents the West and South Ambler communities remain at risk of environmental exposure to asbestos and are potentially at increased risk of developing mesothelioma, the Penn Medicine researchers say. Although the factory has long been closed, symptoms of asbestos disease take decades to appear. Current and former Ambler residents who had occupational or environmental exposure to asbestos in the 1960s or 1970s or more recently could develop mesothelioma as a result of that past exposure.
Asbestos fibers when inhaled may lodge deep in the chest cavity, causing inflammation that eventually leads to disease. Mesothelioma is incurable, but there are treatments for mesothelioma to help manage the disease if it is diagnosed before it has reached an advanced stage.
“We know there is an existing health risk, but that’s just one piece of the problem,” Barg said in a Penn press release. “These communities suffered great social and economic consequences when the asbestos factory closed, and today, they are still trying to recover from that loss.”
The five-year study is to document the asbestos impact on the community and help local leaders make decisions about the future of the former asbestos factory site in the community. Barg and fellow researcher Edward Emmett, a professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, will develop a storehouse of information online and at the Chemical Heritage Foundation about the asbestos-related health risks in the community.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, environmental regulators have overseen the cleanup of more than a million cubic yards of asbestos waste that was dumped on a 25-acre site nearby.
Ambler residents can contact Dr. Fran Barg directly for information about the study by emailing her at [email protected].
Demolition of Houses Damaged By Hurricane Sandy Poses Asbestos Exposure Risk
Approximately 200 houses in Staten Island, Queens and Brookyn battered by Hurricane Sandy will be demolished in coming months, The New York Times reported Sunday. The houses slated for demolition are all older structures and have building materials containing asbestos.
Thousands of people have stepped forward to take part in the cleanup since Hurricane Sandy struck New York and New Jersey in late October. Dr. Raja Flores, chief of thoracic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, said the cleanup was in some ways comparable to the cleanup after the Sept. 11 attacks. “You have all these innocent people trying to help and they are subjecting themselves to asbestos, a known carcinogen,” Dr. Flores told The Atlantic about asbestos exposure after the hurricane.
Asbestos exposure causes serious respiratory diseases including asbestosis, a chronic scarring of the lungs, lung cancer, and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs. Symptoms of mesothelioma typically take decades to appear after exposure, but the cancer is aggressive once symptoms appear.
Asbestos was used in floor and roofing felts, drywall, floor tiles, insulation, spray or ceiling coatings until the 1980s when its production was curtailed. But when older houses are renovated or demolished, the asbestos fibers may be released into the air and inhaled if workers are not wearing proper breathing protection. Being exposed to asbestos fibers in the air is the major risk factor for mesothelioma, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Demolition and constructions workers and anyone clearing construction debris may be at risk of exposure to asbestos if they disturb asbestos containing materials. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has standards to protect workers from exposure to asbestos during construction and demolition. The standards describe the hazards of asbestos work activities and detail specific requirements for each category of work. OSHA has field staff in New York providing technical support and training for those involved in the cleanup.
New York building inspectors have declared nearly 900 building unsafe to enter, affixing red tags to signal they are unsafe to enter. But not all buildings that are tagged will be demolished.
About 2,500 to 3,000 people are diagnosed with the mesothelioma each year in the U.S. Most are older workers, retired workers and veterans who were regularly exposed to asbestos in a workplace or during military service decades ago. Asbestos disease typically takes 20 years to 50 years to appear. But once symptoms show, the disease often advances quickly and is difficult to manage with current treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation.
Know more about mesothelioma and how you can deal with it.
A Story of Faith and Hope of a Mesothelioma Caregiver
Jennifer Gelsick lives a quiet life in St. Marys, Pennsylvania with her husband, Michael, and their dog, Gus. She and her husband run their own business, and Jennifer has time to enjoy her hobbies including cooking, reading and taking long walks around their neighborhood with Gus. She also dedicates much of her time to her church. But over the last year, her father’s diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma upended Jennifer’s serene life and tested her faith.
Ultimately it was Jennifer’s faith, and her father’s strength, faith and positive attitude while battling asbestos cancer that helped her get through the year. Not only did she and her father survive the year, but Jennifer believes it was through a series of miracles that her father is now cancer free.
Like many people in the United States, Jennifer had heard of mesothelioma through television ads, but she didn’t have an understanding of the disease. She didn’t even realize it was a form of cancer. She usually left during the commercials to clean the dishes or grab a snack before settling back in front of the TV.
Now, Jennifer knows more than she ever wanted to know about the dangers of asbestos and the health issues that the widely used building material can cause many people. And Jennifer wants to educate as many people as possible about mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.
Jennifer will be offering readers of Mesothelioma Help the story of her family’s journey through months of treatment and recovery as her father battled mesothelioma. Specifically, Jennifer looks forward to sharing stories of faith and hope and helping others realize that there is life with mesothelioma, and there is life after mesothelioma.
Please join us in welcoming Jennifer to Mesothelioma Help as she tells her story as a caregiver and a daughter of a mesothelioma survivor.
Know more about Mesothelioma and how you can deal with it.
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