Crohn's Disease - Diseases Treatment - Symptoms, Causes and Cure for Diseases on A to Z

Regional enteritis, granulomatous colitis

What is this Condition?

Crohn's disease is an inflammation of any part of the digestive tract. The inflammation extends through the intestinal wall. Swelling caused by a blockage in the intestinal wall leads to inflammation, sores, narrowing of passages and, possibly, abscesses and fistulas (abnormal passages between body cavities).

The most common site is the end of the small intestine. It may affect nearby lymph nodes as well as the membrane that holds the small intestines. Mild cases are relieved by changes in diet and lifeA­style.

What Causes it?

Glow in the dark monkeys

Dubbed a "biomedical supermodel" by the journal Nature, a genetically modified monkey that glows in ultraviolet light has been developed by a team of Japanese researchers.

But it isn't the "Victorian freak show" qualities of the research that has scientists so excited. It's the potential for the breakthrough to help with future medical research.

That's because -- unlike past glow-in-the-dark primates -- these marmosets were able to pass their modification on to their offspring. That means scientists may be able to develop monkeys that have been genetically modified to have human conditions. This would make them ideal for medical research.

The ethics of death

Partly as a follow up to the saga of Kaylee Wallace at Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital and partly because I have been thinking about the issue for a while, I wrote a couple of stories published in the Toronto Star today looking at death, how we handle it and how we define it.

Dead is dead, except when it's not.

"Death used to be a little more self-evident," says Kerry Bowman, a medical ethicist specializing in end of life issues at the University of Toronto's Joint Centre for Bioethics.

"Today, you're dead when the doctor says you are."

Deciding when somebody is dead or about to die is quickly emerging as one of the top ethical issues in medicine today as technology makes it increasingly possible to keep people alive who would otherwise have died not so long ago.

Tortured ethics

In the wake of new revelations about Bush-era torture of terrorism suspects, the American Medical Association has written a letter to US President Barack Obama telling him that the use of doctors in torture violates basic medical ethics.

Any involvement by physicians in torture is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as a healer. Such involvement would violate core ethical obligations of the medical profession to “first, do no harm” and to respect human dignity and rights.

These core principles are enshrined in the Code of Medical Ethics of the American Medical Association (AMA) and the codes of other professional medical organizations throughout the world. Our AMA Code forcefully states medicine’s opposition to torture or coercive interrogation and prohibits physician participation in such activities. Our Code calls on physicians to support victims of torture, to report the use of torture, and to strive to change situations in which torture is practiced. At stake are the rights and well-being of individuals, the integrity of medicine, and society’s trust in the profession.

Being a middle aged guinea pig

For anyone who has ever been tempted to participate in a health study -- or wondered about those who do take part -- it might be worth reading the Booster Shots medical blog at the LA Times.

The blogger, Rosie Mestel, takes readers through her experience being interviewed as a control subject for a cancer study.

A few weeks back, I came home to find a letter stuffed in my mailbox explaining that a group of researchers was seeking an adult woman to match against another individual in the neighborhood who'd had a cancer diagnosis. As far as I could figure, it was an epidemiology study in which they make lots and lots of similar matches and try to tease out lifestyle and other factors that may have a bearing on cancer risk.

The ethics of baby Kaylee's life

With the chance of little Kaylee Wallace donating her heart to Lillian O'Conner, as had been hoped earlier this week, now seemingly passed, the ethical debate has taken off in earnest.

In a story in today's Toronto Star, I look at the ethics of transplants, and why donors and recipients are generally not known to one another.

"The death of one person needs to be separated from the need of an organ in another person," Bowman says. "Our system is going to be an ethical mess if we allow one to pull the other."

Linda Wright, director of bioethics at University Health Network, says allowing the families of dying patients to decide where organs will go would mean that some deserving patients may be left out.

Picking who gets your baby's heart

Lillian O’Connor is one month old, and won't survive without a new heart. Kaylee Wallace is two months old, and due to a brain condition, won't survive once she is taken off a ventilator.

Their story has raised a number of ethical concerns.

They are in the same hospital, Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Their parents heard each others' story, and Kaylee's parents offered their girl's heart to Lillian.

Kerry Bowman, an ethicist with the Joint Centre for Bioethics, called that a wonderful human gesture, but can't be done.

Bowman, quoted frequently on this case in the media, worries that such promises put us on a slippery slope, by connecting the death of one person to the survival of another. It's a small step from there, he warns, to saying that since the donor will die anyway, why not allow euthanasia to speed up the process?

Lesbians denied medical care

A lesbian couple is taking a Winnipeg doctor to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Manitoba alleging they were denied care because of their sexual orientation.

The story broke earlier this week, and I was able to weigh in on it for today's Toronto Star.

The case, it seems, is another example of conflicting religious and cultural rights. We can probably expect more in the future, especially as we import doctors (and other professionals) to make up for shortages here, the head of the college says.

How we handle such issues may well determine the kind of society we will have.

Obama pledges to "restore science to its rightful place"

For stem cell scientists watching the inaugural speech of US President Barack Obama, the words they've waited almost eight years to hear came about a third of the way in.

"We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise healthcare’s quality and lower its cost."

Obama did not mention stem cell research specifically, but that line is well in keeping with promises he made during the election to restore federal funding to embryonic stem cell research, including this pledge to Science Debate 2008:

"As president, I will lift the current administration’s ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001 through executive order, and I will ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight."

Obama can expect a bioethics fight

Pro life lobbyists in the United States are pledging to not give up their fight against embryonic stem cell research despite pledges by US President Barack Obama, who took office yesterday, to open the door to funding the work again.

Faith-based blog Lifenews.com is reporting that pro life forces see an opportunity in Obama's musing that he might go to Congress to restore federal funding to embryonic stem cell research, rather than issuing an executive order as has been expected.

Citing the conservative Wesley J. Smith, who has his own blog, Lifenews says going to congress will give pro life groups time to "educate the president and the public" on the issue and alternatives to using embryonic stem cells in research.

The public's right to private information

The health questions surrounding Steve Jobs has sparked an ethical debate about the public's right to know when a public figure's health is failing.

When it turned out the founder and CEO of Apple computers was sick, Apple fans and investors got worried. In fact, Apple shares fell on the news.

Writing in the New York Times last week, business columnist Joe Nocera says Jobs has a responsibility to come clean with his health problems, if only to soothe investor worries and stop rumours from hurting the stock.

"Last week, he said he had a “hormone imbalance.” Now it’s “more complex” than that — whatever that means. If he really wants people to stop speculating about his health, as he claims, he sure has a funny way of dealing with it. Let’s be honest here: when you are a) a survivor of pancreatic cancer; and b) the world’s most charismatic, and possibly its most irreplaceable, corporate executive, putting out a press release announcing that your problems are “more complex” is only going to fan the flames, not douse them."

Anal Fissurea€“ Treatment of the Disease with Effective Remedies - Diseases Treatment - Symptoms, Causes and Cure for Diseases on A to Z

What is this Condition?

An anal fissure is a cut or crack in the lining of the anus that extends to the sphincter muscle. A fissure at the back of the anus, the most common injury, occurs equally in males and females. A fissure in the front of the anus, the rarer type, is 10 times more common in females. The chance for cure is very good, especially with surgery and good anal hygiene.

What Causes it?

A fissure at the back of the anus results from passage of large, hard stools that stretch the rectal lining beyond its limits. A fissure at the front usually results from strain on the perineum during childbirth and, rarely, from scar tissue that narrows the passage. Occasionally, the fissure is caused by inflammation, anal tuberculosis, or cancer.

Book guides us into That Good Night

Here's something I didn't know until I read the latest book by Toronto-based magazine writer and Ryerson University instructor Tim Falconer, That Good Night: Ethicists, Euthanasia and End of Life Care:

The word Euthanasia comes from the Greek for "Good Death."

Leaving aside the question of whether I should have known the origins of the word euthanasia (today's schools aren't big on ancient Greek), it says a lot, I think, about how modern society has come to view death since this word was first coined.

In our society, post-eugenics and post Nazi-ism, the word euthanasia has much darker connotations than a literal translation would suggest. Today, it conjures up images of cruelty, designer babies and a world in which some people are ranked ahead of others (and other ranked as lesser beings).