Mucus

Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer to be diagnosed in the UK, according to the NHS. It’s also one of the most serious, as there are usually no symptoms in its early stages. That means it’s usually only diagnosed after the cancer has spread through the lungs or into other parts of the body. But, you could reveal your risk of lung cancer symptoms by checking the colour of your sputum, it’s been revealed. Coughing up rust-coloured sputum - a mix of saliva and mucus - could be a warning sign of lung cancer. You could also be at risk of the condition if you cough up blood, or red-tinged sputum. If you notice any abnormal changes to the colour of your spit, you should speak to a doctor. “Most lung cancers do not cause any symptoms until they have spread, but some people with early lung cancer do have symptoms,” said the American Cancer Society. “If you go to your doctor when you first notice symptoms, your cancer might be diagnosed at an earlier stage, when trea...

Millions across the US are suffering a blast of potentially life-threatening cold weather. The extreme Arctic blast is caused by a spinning pool of cold air known as the polar vortex. A state of emergency has been declared in the Midwestern states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. In Chicago, temperatures have fallen to -30C (-22F). We spoke to local reporter Natalie Moore from WBEZ radio about what life is like in such cold temperatures. (Image: Commuters battle sub zero temperatures in Chicago. Credit: Getty Images) https://bbc.in/2MGhmzW

As temperatures are expected to get below freezing on Wednesday night, Tift Regional Health System wants to make sure everyone is staying warm. Photo: Kailey McCarthy As temperatures are expected to get below freezing Wednesday night, the Tift Regional Health System wants to make sure everyone is staying warm. Chief Transformation Officer M.D. Cameron Nixon says when temperatures dip, you have to be extremely cautious, especially if you have asthma. According to Nixon, the cold weather can cause an asthma attack. The cold air triggers mucus production and can make it harder to keep the airway open. Nixon recommends asthma patients take their medication, limit their time outdoors and wear multiple layers of clothing. He adds staying weather-aware and dressing appropriately is key. "We're not accustomed to this colder weather, so we need to take it serious and be prepared because typically, what I hear from most of our patients, is that we don't have winter w...

While we usually think of a cow’s gut simply as the organ system responsible for digestion and absorption of nutrients, it also plays other critical roles. Essentially a long tube from the mouth to rectum, open to the outside world, the digestive tract is the most substantial interface between the cow’s external environment and her body. The gut is home to the great majority of bacteria found in or on the cow’s body, and, significantly, functions as the largest immune organ of the body. When the gut functions properly then, the cow benefits from much more than optimal nutrient digestion and absorption. The gut also provides an appropriate barrier against harmful insults (toxins and pathogenic germs) from the external environment. In a healthy gut, the bacterial population is stable, favoring beneficial commensal bacteria at the expense of pathogens. In terms of the immune system, the gut must mount a response that’s neither under-responsive nor over-responsive to potential pathogens. ...

Park City • Anton Yelchin died in a freak accident at age 27, but a new documentary seeks to put the focus back on the actor’s extraordinary life. “Love, Antosha,” which is seeking theatrical distribution, premiered Monday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City to tears and applause. His parents, Viktor Yelchin and Irina Korina, the driving force behind the documentary, were there as well. The film is a heartfelt and unusually revealing tribute to the creative force of nature that was Yelchin. It is told through home videos, archival footage, personal letters and interviews by those who knew him, from his “Star Trek” companions Chris Pine, John Cho and J.J. Abrams, to Jennifer Lawrence, Martin Landau and Kristen Stewart, who said that he “kind of, like, broke my heart” at 14. It’s a complex portrait of an artist who liked to take provocative photographs at sex clubs in the Valley and was also, unbeknownst even to most of his closest friends, managing cystic fibrosis. A...

Evolution is a rich and dynamic process. Species respond to pressures in a variety of ways, most of which reduce to finding food, avoiding becoming someone else's food and attracting a mate. To solve that last one the animal kingdom is replete with fantastic, bizarre and mesmerizing adaptions. The bioluminescent courtship displays of ostracods may encapsulate all three. Ostracods are peculiar animals. No larger than a sesame seed, these crustaceans have a clam-like shell and often lack gills. Like many sea creatures, a number of ostracods take advantage of bioluminescence to avoid predation and to attract mates. It is this latter use that attracted the attention of UC Santa Barbara doctoral student Nicholai Hensley in his search to better understand the interplay between biochemistry and evolutionary change. To create their entrancing light displays, cypridinid ostracods expel a bit of mucus injected with an enzyme and a reactant, and then swim away from the glowing orb to repe...

Dear Dr. Roach: I’m asking this question for my sister. Is it safe to use a nasal rinse solution when one has a sinus infection with green phlegm? She also sufferers from a deviated septum, dysfunctional Eustachian tubes and vestibular disorder with vertigo and tinnitus. K.C.H. article continues below Trending Stories Sinus infections are common. Most are caused by viruses. Although antibiotics have long been prescribed for these infections, most people do not need them; symptoms will get better without antibiotics. Only people with symptoms lasting longer than 10-14 days or who worsen after initially getting better should consider taking antibiotics. Green-coloured mucus does not predict bacterial infection, contrary to popular belief. Nasal irrigation is a good way to relieve symptoms, and it is safe for most people. It can help loosen the mucus so it can drain more easily, and irrigation relieves inflammation by literally washing away pro-inflammatory substances. P...

Dr. Uday Navaneethan, the Director of IBD Center at AdventHealth Center for Interventional Endoscopy, joined Good Day Orlando on Monday morning at 8 a.m. He answered your questions on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) below. To learn more about AdventHealth, click here .  ANSWERED QUESTIONS:  Q: How would I know if I have inflammatory bowel disease? A: You may have symptoms of blood in the stools, persistent diarrhea, weight loss, mucus in the stool. If you have any of these symptoms, you need to have it checked out with an IBD specialist/ gastroenterologist.  Q: Is there a difference between IBS and IBD? A: Yes, IBS is a condition in which the intestines are not inflamed, but have symptoms of diarrhea. With IBD, there is inflammation seen in the intestines and the intestines are swollen and inflamed. The treatment approaches are completely different.  Q: Is IBD curable or once you have it, you’re stuck with it forever? A: T...

Horror fans were shocked and saddened when young actor Anton Yelchin ( Green Room , Fright Night , Thoroughbreds ) was killed in a freak accident at his home in 2016. Now, Yelchin’s parents, Viktor and Irina Yelchin, have produced a documentary about their son, his accomplishments, and aspirations. Most significantly, however, is that Love, Antosha (directed by Garret Price) reveals Yelchin suffered from cystic fibrosis, an extremely serious illness that he kept hidden from the public. According to the official website for The Anton Yelchin Foundation : “Anton did not share details about his medical challenges with the public, but he suffered from cystic fibrosis from an early age. Despite these significant challenges, Anton went on to excel in the arts. It is this spirit of resilience and strength that embodies the mission of the Foundation.” The foundation has done amazing work organizing funds for children and adults who suffer from this debilitating condition, donating over ...

Trudi Pratt, Positively Healthy Published 5:30 a.m. PT Jan. 27, 2019 The end of winter is the perfect time to start strengthening your immune system to ward off our up and coming allergy season. Since the smoke of last year's fire season I've noticed that many of my patients are still a bit run down with compromised immunity and they've had a rough cold and flu season. If you find yourself in that category then consider building your allergy immunity now while we still have rain. Many seasonal allergies are really just inappropriate reactions by your body to a normal stimuli. To put it another way, it's like your body's alert system tells you that there's a life-threatening emergency at play and all systems start to warn you of the possibility of doom and gloom. Actually, the intruder is really just  something normal like "dust" blowing around and the reaction by the body is a very serious overreaction. Symptoms of coughing, sneezing, swell...

A new study of mussels shows the bivalves can spit out most microplastic fibers they come in contact with, and if placed in plastic-free water they're eventually able to excrete most of the plastics they ingest.  The research, conducted by scientists at the Shaw Institute and the Bigelow Laboratory of Ocean Sciences, both of which are in Maine, spells possible good news for the numerous oysters along South Carolina's coast where an increasing backlash against marine plastic pollution has led to a spate of single-use plastic bans.  However, more research will be needed to determine how fast oysters might be able to expel the plastic fibers, said Paty Matrai, a senior scientist at the Bigelow Lab who worked on the study.  "We know that the oysters are capable of doing it. We don't know how fast they do it, and that's a very important difference," Matrai said. "Once you have a rate, you can model that."  The study found that mussels only ingest abo...

Older patients with a diagnosis of chronic sinusitis -- a disease of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses that often persists over many years -- have a unique inflammatory signature that may render them less responsive to steroid treatment, according to a new study published by Vanderbilt researchers. The study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology examined tissue and mucus specimens of 147 patients between the ages of 18 to 78 who required sinus surgery for their chronic sinusitis. With an initial goal of identifying subgroups of patients based on their inflammatory signature -- the different cytokines and inflammatory proteins found in tissue or mucus -- Vanderbilt investigators recognized that one of the identified subgroups was enriched in patients over age 60. Intrigued by the findings, the team compared all patients according to age by examining their histopathology, tissue specimens taken during surgery, and the immune markers and inflammatory protei...

Ostomy, also recognized as stoma, is a surgically created opening in the body. The opening is made to collect waste products in the body, including urine, stool, excreta, and mucus, which can be collected either from the urinary bladder or from the intestine externally. Varying hospital data on the usage of ostomy drainage bags provides an opportunity for the manufacturers to identify and improve the quality practices, which could proliferate product usage in future. In 1996, the National Home and Hospice Survey of care reported that almost one-third of 2.4 million home care patients and one-fourth of 7.8 million discharged home care patients had post-ostomycomplications, such as surgical urinary incontinence. Out of which, two-third of all the home care patients were female. Although these data are significant in the quest to define the problem, they still remain nebulous. Based on the type of condition and requirement of surgical intervention, an ostomy can be ei...

Child with Measles, Photo Date: Undated (MGN) CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WICS/WCCU) —  The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District is reporting a local case of measles, as of Thursday afternoon. The individual with measles, which was infectious at the time it was reported, was at the locations listed below. Two hours have been added to the time after the individual left. Locations : Jan. 12 (3 p.m. - close) : Texas Roadhouse on N. Country Fair Drive in Champaign Jan. 13 (3 p.m. - close) : Texas Roadhouse on N. Country Fair Drive in Champaign Jan. 14 (5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.) : County Market on W. Kirby in Champaign Jan. 14 (10 a.m. - 2 p.m.) : University of Illinois Psychology Building on East Daniel Street in Champaign Jan. 14 (8 a.m. - noon) : University of Illinios Mumford Hall on West Gregory Drive in Urbana Jan. 14 (9 a.m. - 1 p.m.) : University of Illinois David Kinley Hall on West Gregory Drive in Urbana. Symptoms of the measles include rash, high fever, cough, runny ...

Your body is an incredible biological machine that has been improved upon through millions of years of evolution. The human body does some amazing things, but possibly just as amazing are the numbers associated with our body. Let’s take a look at some almost unbelievable numbers associated with the ordinary aspects of your body. This will make you think about what is happening inside you in very different ways. Volume is the measurement of how much space something takes up. The volume of milk is measured in gallons. The volume of a house is measured in square feet and so on. Mass is the measurement of how much matter is in a certain object. Your body has some pretty incredible volume and mass numbers associated with it. Here are just a few examples: Mucus – if you are sick your body could fill an entire 2-liter soda bottle with mucus every day. The number is about half of that when you are healthy. Very little of that is actually blown out into a tissue. Instead, most of that travels...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jack Wolf is a young man on the go – getting his driver’s license, attending classes at the University of Akron and zip-lining with his Venture Crew Boy Scout program. He’s training an adorable and smart Goldendoodle as a companion dog. The 19-year-old, who lives in Broadview Heights, is also dealing with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. He uses a wheelchair. He needs one device for occasional help with breathing and a second device to help him cough and clear mucus from his airways. It’s tough for Wolf and his father, Brian Wolf, to lug that equipment on camping and zip-lining outings with his Venture Crew, a Boy Scouts program focused on adventure and leadership. “It looks like we’re moving in,” quipped Brian Wolf. A new device, invented at MetroHealth System, combines breathing and cough assist devices into one apparatus. It could improve the quality of life for patients with neurologi...

It’s time to dip into the animal file and I thought we’d do a little bit on animal records. For instance, we all know what the fastest animal flier is, right? It’s the common swift which is named that for a reason. These birds can reach speeds of over 60 mph. But the speed record for horizontal flight has now been taken over by another animal and it’s not a bird. It’s a bat. The Brazilian free-tailed bat shoots through the night skies at over 100 mph. Their aerodynamic body shape and longer than average wings compared to other bat species enable them to reach such incredible speeds. The data on the bats' flying speeds were collected using a radio transmitter weighing just half a gram. It was attached to their backs with an adhesive and fell off after two to five days. Its regular beeping signal was tracked using a mobile receiver installed on a small aircraft. The scientists also evaluated the data recorded by the closest weather station and noted the wind conditions at the time...

It’s a dilemma that can baffle even the most seasoned parents: Your child’s miserable with a cough and fever. You don’t want to run to the doctor if a run-of-the-mill virus is the culprit and rest and fluids will do the trick. But you don’t want to delay and risk allowing a more serious condition take hold. Advertising Policy Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy How do you know when your child’s illness is something serious like the influenza virus (flu), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or pneumonia , for instance? Fever and cough are common symptoms for all three — and for a host of less serious maladies too, says pediatrician Amy Sniderman, MD . She walks us through common symptoms you should watch for and offers advice on when to check in with your child’s doctor. Is it the flu? Common signs of the flu include fever, cough, conges...

If you’ve ever met more than one person with cystic fibrosis, it’s likely they had very different experiences than you. First, their approach likely will be different; chronic disease affects everyone differently mentally, so some are vocal and “embrace” it, while others are quieter and choose to consider it a personal journey. Both approaches are fine, it’s just that we act differently. CF also affects everyone differently physically. Over the years, people traditionally have referred to CF as a “lung disease” because that’s the most commonly known clinical manifestation of illness. But for most of those with CF, the lungs are only a part of it, and for some, not even the worst part. CF is typically caused by a defective ion transport protein — the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein , or CFTR. When the protein doesn’t function properly , salt transport is dysfunctional, which is what causes CF mucus to be so thick. This means that the majority of CF...

Bronchiectasis is a chronic lung disease characterized by abnormal thickening of the airways and excessive accumulation of mucus in the respiratory tract. What is Bronchiectasis? Bronchiectasis is a disorder of the airways, also called bronchi, which carry air in and out of the lungs. The airways contain glands that produce mucus to prevent the airways from being dry and help trap dusts or germs that are present in the inhaled air. Bronchiectasis, cross-section through bronchus. Light photomicrograph showing dilatated and distorted bronchus containing pus - Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock In healthy persons, mucus is removed from the airways by small hairy structures called cilia that are present in the airway linings. In bronchiectasis, thickening of the airway wall from chronic infection and inflammation causes airways to lose their ability to remove mucus. Thus, an excessive accumulation of mucus occurs and predisposes the person to  infection. Bacterial infectio...

WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - Baby Weston has a virus that's been on the rise this year, RSV. "Don't really know why, it's just more aggressive this year but it's a pretty consistent finding across the country," says Amy Seery, Ascension Via Christi Pediatrician. While RSV can be a frustrating virus, Dr. Seery says its very common. If you think your child may have it, here's what to look for. "If you have an infant or young child whose just having tons of mucus, tons of congestion, really fussy, not eating not feeding well you're starting to see decreased wet diapers, poor sleep," says Dr. Seery. If you spot those signs, be sure to get your child into a doctor right away. Depending on the diagnosis, they may send you into a suctioning unit. "Suctioning, getting out all the inflammatory production that your body has. The excess secretions we can suction those out which increases the ability for that patient to breathe through their nose...

Every year around flu season our offices are packed with patients with all kinds of coughs, colds and sniffles. Inevitably, the conversation will include a description of mucus. “I felt bad three days ago, then started seeing yellow mucus, but today it is green, so I know I need an antibiotic.”   In reality, the color of mucus is rarely used as an indication by itself for the presence of an infection or not. Patients with clear mucus can actually have severe infections, and patients with green, bloody mucus can be fine. Doctors look at the big picture and things like fever, wheezing, inflammation, cough and vital signs to more accurately figure out what is going on.  Clear mucus is normal mucus. Composed mostly of water, clear nasal discharge is produced at rates up to 1.5 liters daily, and commonly runs down the back of the throat and dissolves in the stomach. Allergies and congestion can cause more of it to be produced, and the absence of color generally means there ...

Every year around flu season our offices are packed with patients with all kinds of coughs, colds and sniffles. Inevitably, the conversation will include a description of mucus. “I felt bad three days ago, then started seeing yellow mucus, but today it is green, so I know I need an antibiotic.”   In reality, the color of mucus is rarely used as an indication by itself for the presence of an infection or not. Patients with clear mucus can actually have severe infections, and patients with green, bloody mucus can be fine. Doctors look at the big picture and things like fever, wheezing, inflammation, cough and vital signs to more accurately figure out what is going on.  Clear mucus is normal mucus. Composed mostly of water, clear nasal discharge is produced at rates up to 1.5 liters daily, and commonly runs down the back of the throat and dissolves in the stomach. Allergies and congestion can cause more of it to be produced, and the absence of color generally means there ...

Waves of undulating cilia drive several processes essential to life. They clear debris and mucus from the respiratory tract, move spinal fluid through the brain and transport embryos from the ovaries to the uterus for implantation. According to a new study in mice, however, cilia perform somewhat differently in the male reproductive tract. The study, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , reveals that cilia in the efferent ductules, which carry sperm away from the testes, don't propel the sperm forward, as was once thought. Instead, the cilia agitate the sperm to keep them from aggregating and clogging the tubes so that they can reach their ultimate destination. "Motile cilia are eyelashlike extensions of specific epithelial cells and have a beat that moves fluid over a surface," said Rex Hess, a University of Illinois professor emeritus of comparative biosciences and a major collaborator on the study led by Dr. Wei Yan, a foundation professo...