I heard today on the radio that there's a shortage of blood supply here in Gainesville, Florida. Reserves are so low there's barely enough blood to last one full day at a time. LifeSouth Community Blood Centers reports about this emergency blood shortage on their website.

"The blood supply stands at less than a one-day supply which has blood center officials very concerned," writes John David Larkin Nolen, LifeSouth's Medical Director. "All eligible residents are asked to give blood. Blood donations haven't kept pace with demand and we've had a very tight supply for the past few weeks. But today several patient situations involving children and adults facing life threatening medical conditions depleted the reserve supplies. We're worried about our overall ability to make sure the patients that need blood will receive what they need during the next few days."

I wish I could donate my blood, but I can't. Until I've been free from cancer treatment for five years, no none wants it. But maybe you can help. Try tracking down your local blood center and see what you can do to help. It may just be the gift that saves a life.

Getting screened for cancer is smart. Yearly mammograms for women older than 40, prostate exams for men older than 50, and skin cancer screenings for just about everyone are just a few of the recommended measures individuals can take to ensure cancer stays away -- or at least is caught in its earliest forms.

But aside from merely submitting to these screenings, there's something we can do to increase our screening smarts. We can stick with the same screening centers and not flip-flop from one location to another.

It's a bad idea to report to a different screening center every year. Being able to compare a current mammogram, for example, with prior images can decrease false alarms by as much as 44 percent. As with much of life, consistency is key. Think about it. When we find that perfect hairstylist, we're sold -- and heartbroken when he or she moves on and we have to start from scratch. A trustworthy car mechanic who knows our car inside and out? Don't dare let him leave town. The most loving child care facility? The search is over, and we pray our kids don't get kicked out. Screening is no different really. So make this your mission: find a good thing and don't stray. Of course, don't linger at locations that make you uncomfortable for any reason. Search until you find happiness. Then stay put.

Source: Woman's Day, May 8, 2007

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is launching a three-year pilot phase of a new program that will help bring state of the art care to patients in community hospitals across the country.

The NCI Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) is designed to encourage the collaboration of private practice medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists. Building on this expanded network, the NCCCP will explore ways of sharing information, via electronic medical records, to further enhance patient care. Evidence from a wide range of studies suggests that cancer patients diagnosed and treated in a setting of coordinated multi-specialty care and clinical research may live longer and have a better quality of life.

The pilot program will research new and enhanced ways to assist, educate, and better treat the needs of under served populations -- including elderly, rural, inner-city, and low-income patients. As well as racial and ethnic groups with unusually high cancer rates.

Nearly half of all cancer patients and others in their households have trouble coordinating cancer care, according to a recent public health poll.

Many who participated in a recent telephone poll revealed they were confused about prescriptions, were sent for duplicate tests, and received conflicting information about their treatment plans.

Experts say choreographing care is one of the most important challenges in the world of cancer. Navigating the maze of medical madness can be emotionally draining and can even hurt a patient's chance of recovery.

Now is the time to become advocates for our own health -- before we are left behind. So get ready to take charge -- and consider these seven thoughts on actively coordinating your own cancer care.

• Today, cancer patients spend more time at home and not in hospitals like they did generations ago. This leaves them to manage much of their care on their own -- often a monumental and overwhelming task. Patients, or a designated friend of family member, should document every tidbit of medical information, including names, phone numbers, medical records, instructions, medications, dosages, appointments, questions, responses, and more. Jot down symptoms and worries and concerns. File away pamphlets and handouts and bills and receipts. Don't count on memory alone to provide all the details. Allow for back-ups. They will serve you well.
  

• Most cancer patients need a whole team of doctors -- radiologists, pathologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgeons -- but each doctor may handle only one aspect of care while no one runs the show. It's the perfect scenario for disrupted and piecemeal care, says one doctor. Consider searching for comprehensive cancer centers where a variety of professionals are housed under one roof and patients can often meet with all their doctors at one time. Currently, only about 10 percent of cancer patients are seen at this type of large center.

• Many doctors are stuck in electronic gridlock because doctors in one building may be unable to access the records of doctors in other locations due to incompatible computer systems or paper charts. Patient advocates say all patients should have easily accessible electronic medical records. One cancer center hopes to start a program that would allow for storage of patient records on small, portable USB flash drives. Patients would keep the drives and could plug them in at home or at their doctor's office.

• Cancer patients often suffer from lack of information. Long-term survivors, for example, often have trouble recalling exactly what was done to them. And over time, doctors may relocate or pass away, leaving survivors with little to reconstruct their journeys.
  

• Shortly after diagnosis, patients should request from their doctors a care plan -- an outline of how doctors plan to treat their cancers.

• Patients should also receive a treatment summary at the end of therapy. This should outline all surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, medications, and dosages.

• A plan for ongoing care should be offered to all cancer patients so they know how to monitor their health. This plan should include guidance on screening tests, follow-up visits, and potential long-term side effects.

"A lot of anxiety results from not knowing what comes next", says one patient advocate. "People armed with good information tend to make better decisions."

Smoking is the biggest risk factor for lung cancer -- and 90 percent of all lung cancer cases are related to smoking. But family history is a risk factor too and can nearly double the risk of developing the deadly disease.

A study published in the October issue of Chest found by studying a population of Japanese adults that people with a first-degree relative -- mother, father, or sibling -- who had lung cancer had a 95 percent higher risk of contracting the disease. Those who smoked had the greatest risk, but those who did not smoke were still at risk. And women were more at risk than men. The type of lung cancer most associated with family history is squamous cell carcinoma.

The results of this study do not yet translate into recommended guidelines for screening. But those with a family history of lung cancer should make their physicians aware of their history. And perhaps one day people with family history will be identified as high-risk for lung cancer and will be included in further studies. In the meantime, these individuals should avoid all contact with all inhaled and second-hand smoke and should protect their children from all forms of tobacco smoke.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 180,000 cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year. About 170,000 die from the disease every year. It's the second leading cause of death for men and the third leading cause of death for women.

Most current media reports have us believing that incidences of cancer are at epidemic proportions. What isn't making headlines is the fact that for many cancers, incidences of the disease are on the decline. This is what the American Council on Science and Health states as a result of a new report released from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the American Cancer Society, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If only reports like this were splashed all over our newspapers and television screens -- instead of grim reports of increasing diagnoses and deaths -- then maybe the outlook on cancer would be a bit more hopeful.

Rates of colorectal cancer, uterine cancer, stomach cancer, and cervical cancer have all been declining for two years. Drops in cases are mostly attributed to lower rates of smoking, better screening, and better treatments. For men, lung cancer death rates have also fallen.

So not all incidences of all cancers have dropped -- but some have. And this should at least keep us hoping, dreaming, wishing for a day when cancer is not even loosely associated with the word epidemic. And it should surely be cause for at least some media coverage.

On August 9, Patty was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is 36 years old, a wife, a mother of four children -- and already a fighter in her battle that has just begun. So far, she has endured surgery, and she will soon proceed through months of intensive chemotherapy, one year of Herceptin treatment, and weeks and weeks of radiation. It's a familiar path for so many women -- a path marked by devastation, fear, worry, and panic. Yet if there is a gift that flows from cancer, it must be the support and concern and love that can cushion the blow delivered by this disease.

Patty has an abundance of support -- and it all starts with her husband, ironically an administrator of two cancer centers, who is blogging her journey with great strength and an overwhelming love for his wife whose own mother died of breast cancer in 1992 at the age of 46. Patty and her husband have been vigilant about monitoring her health over the years -- in light of her family history -- and Patty had been tested, screened, biopsied, and examined many times before her diagnosis. When her recent tests and biopsies revealed breast cancer, it was both shocking and expected.

Now Patty and her husband -- who authors the blog Patty's Journey -- are expecting the best of outcomes on this journey of a lifetime.

On August 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) held a dedication ceremony for the new USDA Agricultural Research Service's Western Human Nutrition Research Center (WHNRC) at the University of California-Davis.

One of six human nutrition research centers in the nation, the research center employs a team of 85 scientists, technicians and other specialists includes experts in nutrition, exercise physiology, chemistry, immunology and related disciplines.

When I first discovered Bella Lucce, I cannot say if I was more impressed with the quality of the bath and beauty products or Lela Barker, the woman behind the company. First, Lela's sister is diagnosed with breast cancer, and based on research, Lela begins making natural bath and beauty products in her kitchen to keep her sister safe from chemicals that might threaten to increase risk of breast cancer recurrence. She shares the bath and beauty products of her hobby with her women friends.

Several years later, Lela, a young mother of two small children, is facing a divorce. Needing to find a way to earn an income to support her and her children, and wanting to be a stay-at-home mom, she turns her bath and beauty product hobby into a business. The success of Bella Lucce has been phenomenal on a worldwide scale because the quality of the products are luxurious and affordable. Lela is socially conscious and gives back to the indigenous communities where she takes what is needed to make Bella Lucce products. Lela employs who she calls, "an amazing group of inspiring women." I find Lela to be an amazing and inspiring woman.

On the Bella Lucce website, Lela writes informative articles explaining antioxidants and a how-to bath and beauty product labels guide. Because identifying bath and beauty products that contain significant antioxidants in the formula can be a challenge, according to Lela, women need to educate themselves what to look for and she offers an overview of antioxidants to watch for in Antioxidants Explained. The article Labels 101 is an essential primer for women who want to learn the basics on how to decipher bath and beauty product labels. In addition, Lela wrote an article called The Dreaded Chicken Skin and The Keys to Healthy Summer Skin.

Five years ago, Mimi Barker, a young woman in her 20s, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her younger sister Lela, intent on understanding how her young sister could develop breast cancer, began researching possible breast cancer causes. What she found prompted her into reading ingredient labels of all the beauty and bath care products in her bathroom, and she was stunned to find most had the paraben ingredient researchers were suggesting increased breast cancer risks for women.

Lela advised Mimi to get rid of everything that contained paraben, and she did the same. Faced with the reality that the market did not offer many appealing natural and organic personal beauty care products, Lela began making her own in her kitchen. She shared what she made with her sister and her friends. Lela found she enjoyed creating soaps, bath salts and lotions that rivaled the commercial products in aroma and texture.