You may have heard about stem cells in the news, and perhaps you have wondered if they might help you or a loved one with a serious disease. You may wonder how they are being used to treat disease or injury. Stem cells are the body`s raw materials – cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated. In stem cell transplants, stem cells replace cells damaged by chemotherapy or disease or serve as a way for the donor`s immune system to fight some types of cancer and blood related diseases, such as leukemia, lymphoma, neuroblastoma and multiple myeloma. These transplants use adult stem cells or umbilical cord blood. The best-defined and most extensively used stem cell treatment is hematopoietic (or blood) stem cell transplantation, for example, bone marrow transplantation, to treat certain blood and immune system disorders or to build the blood system after treatments of some kinds of cancer.
Many things cause eating disorders. It may be hereditary. People who are anorexic or bulimic feel secure knowing they can completely control their weight (Baxter N.P.). “People with eating disorders are obsessed with food and, in one way or another, abuse it” (Nardo 11). “People…feel out of control around food or feel that food rules their life” (Health 1037). They like to know they can control something when others cannot. This causes weight loss, trouble sleeping, trouble with relationships, and bad mood swings (Eating N.P.).
There are a few different types of eating disorders, each with their own habits and health problems. Anorexia, bulimia, and overeating are the most common eating disorders. Anorexics lose a lot of weight by avoiding food. It causes serious health problems, which can cause death. Bulimics binge, which is eating large amounts of food at one time, and then they purge, which is getting rid of food. Their weight will go up and down, which causes heart problems. Overeaters are those who cannot control their desire to eat (Baxter N.P.).
On the average, teenagers are usually healthy, but checkups should be made every year to check physical and mental health, to allow questioning, and to discuss safety, family and peer conflicts, school, teenage pregnancy, alcohol, drug abuse, nutrition, and STDs (Health 1022). Preventing any illness possible is one step closer to a very healthy life.
Being an adolescent can be a stressful or dangerous time in one’s life. There are several choices to be made and several issues to be faced. The largest amount of change, typically involving health issues, occurring in a young person’s life is adolescence.
