Yoga cannot “cure” diabetes, but there are several ways yoga can be beneficial in controlling diabetes. If medically prescribed regimens are followed by diabetic students, they can safely add yoga to their treatment. Due to the potential impact on their glucose levels, and overall body function, great strides can be made through regular committed yoga practice.

The benefits of yoga on circulation are tremendous. This is one of the reasons yoga is so healthy for people suffering from a variety of ailments. Circulatory problems, in diabetics, are the primary cause of many devastating side effects. Yoga’s focus on breathing, stretching and rotational movements, by nature, improves circulation.

Yoga also helps maintain the elasticity of blood vessels. This further assists in good circulation. In turn, increased oxygen is supplied to internal organs and the important glands of the endocrine system. When the blood vessels remain elastic, this means better heart health and decreased risk of stroke.

Back bends are especially good for the cardiovascular system. Yoga teachers should encourage diabetic students to incorporate back bends into their postures. If a student has mobility problems, because of age or obesity, consider assisted back bends with props to support his, or her, body, neck, and head.

Digestion is improved through movements and breath control of yoga (pranayama). Pancreas and liver operation is also enhanced. The rotations of certain postures also massage the glands of the endocrine system, encouraging hormone production.

Diabetics, who commit to the regular practice of yoga, will likely experience less dependence on insulin. Studies have found that significant drops in the average bloodglucose levels occur in type II diabetics, when they practice yoga on a regular basis. Additional findings demonstrate an increase in nerve function.

Neuropathy is another major complication of diabetes. Neuropathies are a family of nerve disorders that often result in numbness, tingling, and sometimes, pain. Yoga has been shown to help prevent the onset of neuropathy. Indiabetics with sub-clinical neuropathy, yoga can relieve symptoms.

Not least important is the stress reduction power of yoga. Through focus on breathing slowly, and deliberately, stress levels are reduced. Glucagon secretion is enhanced by stress, which raises the blood sugar. Through effective stress management, and increased balance in the body, this can be prevented and reversed.

The following sequences and poses are beneficial to diabetic students:

Sun Salutations – This sequence of poses is great for diabetics. The flowing series of movements increases blood flow to all parts of the body, improving insulin administration.

Peacock Pose (Mayurasana) – The peacock pose is said to tone up the pancreas, kidneys, and liver. Improved digestion is another benefit.

Locust Pose – The locust benefits the nerves by reducing tension. The constriction and release, in the muscles of the back, relaxes muscles. The movement also stimulates the pancreas.

Chest-Knee Pose – Also called the Knees to Chest pose, this posture provides a great deal of support for digestion. The lower digestive tract is soothed and stimulated by this posture. Lower back pain is also relieved by the stretching of those muscles. It reduces tension.

The Cobra Pose, Bow Pose, Leg Lift and Half-Moon pose are also recommended. Try abdominal pumping as a part of the student’s regimen to further stimulate the organs.

Diabetic students must remember that yoga is more than just exercise. In addition to breathing control, and muscle stretching, yoga includes behavioral modifications, and diet control, through mental discipline. The positive effects of the physical, must be tempered with enhanced mental will power. The best benefit of regular yoga practice is an increase in quality of life and happiness.

Copyright 2008 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. He is an author of many books on the subject of Yoga and has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995.

http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org

Researchers already knew that people with several relatives diagnosed with pancreatic cancer were more likely than others to develop the disease, but it wasn’t clear whether the relatives’ age when they got the disease played any role.

They found, though, that risk increased ninefold when just one of several family members with the disease developed it before turning 50.

The finding, published online Jan. 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, stemmed from a review of the medical records of more than 9,000 people in 1,718 families.

The researchers also found that people with multiple relatives with pancreatic cancer were found to have a sixfold higher risk for pancreatic cancer, and chances of developing the cancer doubled if a person had just a single relative with the disease.

“These data should help to further inform risk assessment and subsequent early detection screening of individuals at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer,” wrote the researchers, from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

The study, they said, had a caveat: Family members of people with pancreatic cancer may have undergone screening that could have made it more likely that they’d be diagnosed with the disease.

Source: Businessweek

Chemoradiotherapy extended median survival by more than 30% compared with surgical resection only, researchers reported in the January Archives of Surgery.

In a multivariate analysis, adjuvant chemoradiotherapy proved to be one of only three predictors of improved survival, the other two being treatment at high-volume and academic centers.

“This analysis provides strong evidence in a real-world setting that postoperative chemoradiotherapy and possibly adjuvant radiotherapy alone improve clinical outcome in patients with pancreatic cancer,” Relin Yang, MD, of the University of Miami, and colleagues wrote.

“We further substantiate that this benefit is independent of the improved clinical outcomes obtained at high-volume centers and teaching facilities,” they added.

“Nonetheless, this benefit remains modest, underscoring that further investigation is needed to establish a better adjuvant regimen after complete resection of pancreatic cancer.”

Complete surgical resection remains the only curative option for patients with early-stage pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Fewer than 25% of patients have cancer amenable to resection. For that small subset of patients, the role of adjuvant therapy remains controversial, the authors wrote.

To address the issue, Yang and colleagues analyzed data from a population-based cancer registry. They augmented the data’s predictive potential with information related to patient demographics, comorbidities, treatment, and type of facility.

The authors identified 2,877 patients whose pancreatic adenocarcinoma was diagnosed and treated surgically with curative intent from 1998 to 2002. About 60% of the patients were older than 65. Some 90% were white (86.7% non-Hispanic), and 90% had no history of alcohol abuse.

The authors reported that 51.9% of patients received neither chemotherapy nor chemoradiotherapy. About 25% received chemoradiotherapy, and another 10% received chemotherapy alone. Most patients were treated at low-volume centers (57.6%) and nonteaching facilities (72.8%).

Median overall survival was 15 months, and 90-day postsurgical survival was 88.8%. Patients younger than 40 had the best survival (25.7 months versus 13.4 months for patients older than 65, P<0.001).

Race, ethnicity, and abstention from alcohol and tobacco did not significantly influence survival. Survival decreased as a patient’s poverty level increased. Localized disease, well-differentiated tumors, and smaller tumor size were associated with significantly better survival (P<0.001).

Patients treated with surgery only had a significantly lower (P<0.001) median overall survival of 12.6 months compared with patients who received chemotherapy or radiation preoperatively (19.9 months) or postoperatively (17.0 months).

Median survival was 18.2 months among patients treated at high-volume centers versus 13.1 months at low-volume centers (P<0.001). Treatment at a teaching facility was associated with a median survival of 19.8 months compared with 13.6 months for nonteaching facilities (P<0.001).

Multivariate analysis correcting for comorbidities showed that postoperative chemoradiotherapy significantly reduced the mortality hazard ratio (HR 0.69, P=0.04). The reduced hazard exceeded the benefit associated with treatment at a high-volume center (HR 0.85, P<0.001) or at a teaching facility (HR 0.84, P<0.001) and was independent of facility type.

The authors confirmed findings from other studies showing a beneficial effect of treatment in high-volume and teaching facilities, and a benefit for all patients who receive adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, Nita Ahuja, MD, of Johns Hopkins, wrote in a commentary.

However, the study had several prominent weaknesses: missing information on cancer stage in more than 50% of patients, unknown margin status, and no information on the type or duration of adjuvant therapy.

The study also did not address another major controversy involving adjuvant therapy for pancreatic cancer.

“At the end of the day, the present study will do little to quell the debate over the relative benefits of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy compared with chemotherapy alone after surgical resection of pancreatic cancer,” Ahuja wrote.

North Americans have a bias toward adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, supported primarily by data from a single small randomized clinical trial and several retrospective studies, Ahuja continued. European clinicians favor adjuvant chemotherapy based on one large clinical trial showing a benefit for chemotherapy and another showing no survival advantage for chemoradiotherapy.

“The present study will do little to change the minds of either camp,” Ahuja concluded.

Source: MedPage Today

Pancreas location

The pancreas is a part of digestive system, it function is essential in two ways: producing digestive juice and blood sugar regulated hormones such as insulin and glucagon.

With appropriate cells staining, it can distinguish that pancreas containing two main different type of tissue, first clusters of cells called as islets of langerhans, which produce hormones that underline the endocrine functions of the pancreas, and the second clusters are acinar cells, it belong to the exocrine function that produce digestive enzymes into the gut via system of duct.

As described above, the pancreas have two main functions, there are:

Endocrine. The part of the pancreas with endocrine function is made up of millions of islets langerhans cell clusters. There are four main cell types including to these islet, alpha cells that secreted glucagon (increase Glucose in blood), beta cells secreted insulin (decrease Glucose in blood), delta cells secreted somatostatin hormone (regulate alpha and beta cells) and the last, PP cells secreted pancreatic polypeptide.

Pancreas in detail

Exocrine. The exocrine pancreas produces digestive enzymes and alkaline fluid, together makes pancreatic juice, and secreted them into the small intestine trough exocrine duct. Including to the digestive enzymes are pancreatic lipase (degrades fat), pancreatic amylase (degrades carbohydrates), trypsin (protease that cleaves proteins at the basic amino acids) and chemotrypsin (protease that cleaves proteins at the aromatic amino acids). All of enzymes are produced and secreted by acinar cells. Specific cells called centroacinar cells that line the pancreatic duct, secrete a bicarbonate and salt rich solution into the small intestine.

Pancreas map

There is two main type of pancreatic cancer. About 95% pancreatic cancer occurs in exocrine gland, a part of pancreas that secrets digestive juice and the rest of 5% occurs in the hormone-producing region, called endocrine gland.

Exocrine pancreatic cancer can occurs in the head, body or tail of the pancreas. If it takes place at head part, it can block on the bile duct and can block pancreatic juice to colon, causing jaundice and related symptoms, meanwhile endocrine pancreatic cancer begin in the hormone-producing part called the endocrine pancreas which are contain islet cells that produce insulin as well as other hormones. Cancer that occurs in endocrine pancreas could bug the hormone production.

Pancreatic cancer, like many type other cancer, it can spread invading organs that near around the pancreas, such as small intestine, stomach or blood vessels. In advance stage cancer cells may also break away from the tumor and metastasized or spread to other parts of the body, including lungs, liver, spleen, and organs around.

The cancers that result from spread of cells from the original tumor are still considered part of the original or “primary” cancer. For example, if pancreatic cancer spreads to the liver, the cancer cells in the liver are pancreatic cancer cells. The disease is not considered liver cancer, but rather metastatic pancreatic cancer.

The exact causes of pancreatic cancer are still largely unknown, but there are risk factors that known to increase the probability of developing these cancers such as age, gender, race, family history, smoking and other factors.

Treatment or cure to this cancer can be vary, depend to cancer stage and position, early detection and treatment will increase the survival rate of the patients

Updated: 16 Jan 2010