Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
Most people seek medical care to make certain that nothing bad is happening
in their body.
They seek reassurance from their doctor that all is well. Unasked questions that
linger fill patients and their families with dread until their concerns are
addressed.
And the 800 pound gorilla in the room: "Is there 'something really
bad' causing my headache?"
For golf legend Seve Ballesteros, there is something bad happening in his
body. Two weeks ago, he
experienced a grand mal seizure for the first time. As part of the evaluation of
a new onset seizure, a CT scan of his brain was done and revealed a
large tumor.
It is amazing that significant parts of the brain can be destroyed and yet the
patient can have normal function. Looking back, though, friends had reported
that Mr. Ballesteros had been complaining of
headaches, and perhaps he had had a
few episodes of unusual or erratic behavior. Often the clues are recognized
after the fact and can help explain previous events.
Brain cancer can arise from many different types of brain cells (primary brain cancer) or occur when
cancer cells from another part of the body spread (metastasize) to the brain.
Causes of brain cancer are difficult to prove; avoiding compounds linked to cancer production is advised.
Symptoms of brain cancer vary but often include weakness, difficulty walking,
seizures, and
headaches. Other common symptoms are nausea, vomiting,
blurry vision, or a change in a person's alertness, mental capacity, memory, speech, or personality.
Tests for brain cancer involve a history, physical exam, and usually a
CT or MRI brain scan; sometimes a brain tissue biopsy is done.
Treatments usually are directed by a team of doctors and are designed for the individual patient; treatments may include surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy, often in combination.
Side effects of treatments range from mild to severe, and patients need to discuss plans with their treatment team members to clearly understand potential side effects and their prognosis (outcomes).
Depending on the brain cancer type and overall health status of the patient, brain cancer frequently has only a fair to poor prognosis; children have a somewhat better prognosis.
Headaches can be divided into two categories: primary headaches and secondary headaches. Migraine headaches, tension headaches, and cluster headaches are considered primary headaches. Secondary headaches are caused by disease. Headache symptoms vary with the headache type. Over-the-counter pain relievers provide short-term relief for most headaches.
A brain tumor can be either benign (non cancerous) or malignant (cancerous), primary, or secondary. Causes and risk factors include age, gender, family history, and exposure to chemicals. Symptoms range from headaches, leg and feet numbness to seizures. Treatment is dependant upon the type and location of the brain tumor.
Nausea is an uneasiness of the stomach that often precedes vomiting. Nausea and vomiting are not diseases, but they are symptoms of many conditions. The causes of vomiting differ according to age, and treatment depends upon the cause of nausea and vomiting.
Cancer is a disease caused by an abnormal growth of cells, also called malignancy. It is a group of 100 different diseases, and is not contagious. Cancer can be treated through chemotherapy, a treatment of drugs that destroy cancer cells.
Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which the person has seizures. There are two kinds of seizures, focal and generalized. There are many causes of epilepsy. Treatment of epilepsy (seizures) depends upon the cause and type of seizures experienced.
Hypothermia is having a body core temperature of less than 35 C or 95 F. Most causes of hypothermia are preventable. Risk factors for hypothermia include age, mental status, medical conditions, and medications. Symptoms of hypothermia generally depend upon the severity of the condition. Treatment depends upon the severity of hypothermia. If not treated early, hypothermia can lead to cardiac arrest, coma, or death.
Though it's difficult to say why some people develop cancer while others don't, research shows that certain risk factors increase a person's odds of developing cancer. These risk factors include growing older, family history of cancer, diet, alcohol and tobacco use, and exposure to sunlight, ionizing radiation, certain chemicals, and some viruses and bacteria.
Brain lesions (lesions on the brain) are caused by trauma, inflammation, autoimmune diseases, cancers, other diseases, stroke, bleeding, pituitary adenomas, and cerebral palsy. Symptoms of brain lesions include headache, nausea, fever, neck pain and stiffness, affected vision and speech, weakness or paralysis to one side of the body. Diagnosis of brain lesions is generally with imaging studies like CT or MRI scans. Treatment and prognosis of brain lesions depends on the cause of the lesion.
Most often, caregivers take care of other adults who are ill or disabled. Less often, caregivers are grandparents raising their grandchildren. The majority of caregivers are middle-aged women. Caregiving can be very stressful, so it's important to recognize when it's putting to much strain on you and to take steps to prevent/relieve stress.
Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells anywhere
in a body. The abnormal cells are termed cancer cells, malignant cells, or tumor
cells. Many cancers and the abnormal cells that compose the cancer tissue are
further identified by the name of the tissue that the abnormal cells originated
from (for example, breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer). Cancer is not
confined to humans; animals and other living organisms can get cancer. Below is
a schematic that shows normal cell division and how when a cell is damaged or
altered without repair to its system, the cell usually dies. Also shown is what
can occur when such damaged or unrepaired cells do not die and become cancer
cells and proliferate with uncontrolled growth; a mass of cancer cells develop.
Frequently, cancer cells can break away from this original mass of cells, travel
through the blood and lymph systems, and lodge in other organs where they can
again repeat the ...
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