Facts About Cancer

• Cancer comes from the Latin word ‘crab’.
• It is the result of the mutation of the energy-producing DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in the cells. DNA contains the biological instruction that tells cells how to function and grow.
• A cancer cell is not a foreign cell, it is a cell that has its genetic information tampered in such a way that it will not function normally.
• The horrifying thing about cancer cells is that they grow and multiply very rapidly and spead themselves to other parts of the body (metastasize).
• Most cancers are named after the part of the body where cancer first affects, the organ that is most likely the weakest. If it has spread from the breast to the bones, it is still called breast cancer.
• Cancer is a degenerative disease which means it develops in the body over a period of time.
• Cancer cells feed on sugar i.e. glucose in the blood.
• There are more than 200 different types of cancer!
• Conventional treatments include surgery, radiation, radioactive iodine injections and chemotherapy. Alternative or complementary treatments include nutritional therapy, chinese herbs and hyperthermia.
• It is wise to have regular medical check-ups and maintain a healthy body state. The increased intake of fatty foods, processed foods, refined sugar (a high blood sugar level suppresses one’s immune system) has found to be linked to many cancers.
• The body’s immune system can control and protect against cancer. Persons with good vitality can fight cancer more effectively than those with low vitality.
• Alcohol consumption, even in moderate amounts is a risk factor for developing breast cancer. Various studies have shown that pre and postmenopausal women who drink alcohol daily are at risk, whether beer, wine or liquor makes no difference. It may not be clear why alcohol increases the risk, however an important observation is that with a higher amount of alcohol intake, higher levels of estrogen are found in the blood. Too much of estrogen can initiate cancerous growth.
  Source : Heather F “Alcohol Consumption Increases The Risk Of Fatal Breast Cancer” Cancer Causes and Control (Dec 2002); Hamajima N et al “Alcohol, Tobacco and Breast Cancer - Collaborative Reanalysis of Individual Data from 53 Epidemiological Studies, including 58,515 Women with Breast Cancer and 95,067 Women without the Disease” British Journal of Cancer (Nov 2002) 87:1234-1245; Keith S et al “Alcohol and Breast Cancer : Review of Epidemiologic and Experimental Evidence and Potential Mechanisms” Journal of the American Medical Association (2001) 286(17):2143-2151

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