Description of a Herniated Disc

A herniated disc is a disc that extrudes into the spinal canal. It is also referred to as a bulging disc, ruptured disc or slipped disc. As a disc degenerates, it can herniate (the inner core extrudes) back into the spinal canal, as shown in this picture on the left. The light blue oval area is the disc and it is bulging into the spinal canal on the lower right side of the disc. In the lumbar area, this can cause pain to radiate all the way down the patient's leg to the foot. In the area of the cervical spine, the pain would radiate from the neck down the arm to the fingers.Approximately 90% of disc herniations will occur at L4- L5 (lumbar segments 4 and 5) or L5- S1 (lumbar segment 5 and sacral segment1), which causes pain in the L5 nerve or S1 nerve, respectively.Recommended treatment is generally open back surgery, with high risks, hospital stays and lengthy recuperation time.

Canadian Cancer Society

The official web site of the Canadian Cancer Society(http://www.cancer.ca/ccs/internet/frontdoor/0,,3172___langId-en,00.html) is a beautifully-designed, easy-to-use resource.? The focus is three-pronged:? providing information about cancer and related issues, providing support to those dealing with cancer, and providing opportunities to help in the fight against cancer. A drop-down list in the top lefthand corner allows users to move easily between the Canada-wide site and the various provincial web sites, which provide information such as local Cancer Society phone numbers, provincial cancer statistics, and local fundraising initiatives.? Each of the provincial sites has interesting and helpful information, but those recently diagnosed with cancer might be interested in looking at the Ontario site, specifically ‘Financial information’ (the bottom link under ‘Get information’).? Since the layout of each component site is the same, navigation is simple wherever you click. There is information galore on the site, not just about cancer itself, but also about advocacy issues, clinical trials, and even how to donate one’s hair for the making of wigs.? The link to the Cancer Glossary, which is one of the buttons in the top menu, contains an exhaustive list of terms that patients and their families will encounter in cancer literature and conversation with medical personnel. Smokers who are courageous enough to visit the site – they know what they are going to read, after all – should look for the link to Quit Smoking in the list headed ‘Get support’.? The Cancer Society provides a five-step self-help programme and Smokers’ Help Line to help smokers kick the habit.? For non-smokers whose friends or family members smoke, there is also information about helping someone quit.? If you are a smoker and need some incentive to stop, try using the smoking calculator to see how much money you burn by lighting up those cigarettes. Necessarily, certain information on the Canadian Cancer Society is relevant only to Canadians.? However, information about cancer and its prevention will benefit anyone anywhere who would like to know more about this dreaded disease, how to prevent it, how to fight it, and the treatments available.

Beijing extends compulsory drug rehab period to one year

Chinanews, Beijing, Feb. 8 – Starting from today, all entertainment venues once involved in drug deals in Beijing will be marked with a special sign. In these entertainment venues, Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau will apply a management system different from other entertainment venues to supervise their business activities, according to the Beijing News. In 2006, Beijing local police investigated and punished 38 entertainment venues involved in drug deals, with 345 drug addicts being found in these venues. 11 of the venues were ordered to close their business temporarily for rectification and 2 of them were banned from doing business. Although Beijing has cleared drug-related activities in all of its entertainment venues, Beijing police will apply even stricter measures this year to monitor drug activities in these places, said Fu Zhenghua, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.Last month, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau secretly sent an investigation team to check drug-related activities in many entertainment venues in Beijing and they hadn’t found any. However, they learned that a few entertainment venues were still involved in such activities by taking their visitors to somewhere else so that they could take drugs in places outside the venues. On February 4 and February 5, Beijing police cracked two big drug trafficking cases. Drug-related crimes were often accompanied with corruption, money laundering, gun crimes and gang crimes. Although Beijing police had made some achievement in cracking down drug-related crimes, such achievement was only temporary. When it is possible for such crimes to occur again, they would be even more severe than before, said Fu. In future, Beijing police will keep a record of all the drug addicts in the city. If local police find someone taking drugs for the first time,they will write down their names. If these people are found to take drugs again, local police will take compulsory measures to help them to break themselves of drug addiction, and the drug rehab period will be extended from six months in the past to one year. Before the 2008 Olympic Games are held in Beijing, local police might impose compulsory drug rehabilitation on all drug addicts in the city.

Firms can open drug rehabilitation centers

CHINA'S enterprises and other social organizations may open drug rehabilitation centers under the supervision of local governments, China News Service Center said today, citing a conference by the country's Ministry of Public Security. "Anti-drug commissions at all levels may cooperate with enterprises and other institutions to build drug rehabilitation centers," Zhang Xinfeng, Vice Minister of the Public Security Ministry and the Vice Director of the National Narcotics Control Commission, said yesterday in Beijing. Public security authorities at all levels shall try their best to win the support of local governments to facilitate these institutes with tax cuts, offering financial aid, providing land at a low price and by giving the green light to market developments, Zhang said. Until 2008, a total of 350 million yuan (US$44.30 million) will be invested in the construction of basic facilities for anti-drug use, especially for building rehabilitation centers, the report said. Zhang emphasized that the country needs more administrators with a strong sense of responsibility and good management skills in its narcotics control sector, which will then lead the patients to participate in the administration of the rehabilitation centers. Leaders of the centers have to balance the social impact and the economic profits of daily operations, Zhang said. The country's public security ministry will further enhance supervision upon the rehabilitation centers, Zhang said. The centers will be checked in aspects of construction scale, profits and the number of patients they can host. Chinese story