A Journey through Cancers Revolution and Ways to Prevent it
Every day in America over 4,000 people are diagnosed with cancer and 1,500 people die from cancer and although it’s creating a revolution it can be preventable, according to cancer specialists.
“It’s predicted that one in two men will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life,” said Jeremy Geffen, MD Oncologist, in a documentary posted on the Chopra Foundation website, an organization dedicated to improving health and well-being.
How does cancer occur?
The authors explained that cancer is when the cells in your body start to grow out of control.
“On a daily basis every cell in our body undergoes 10,000 DNA damage events per day per cell,” said Kevin Gardner, MD, PhD, and Pathologist of the National Cancer Institute.
This damage can result in genetic mutations that change a normally diving cell into a cancer cell, the authors explained.
For example, according to the experts, by the time someone would have finished reading this article the body has launched some cancer cells, but the immune system tracks these cancer cells and fights them off.
“Our body has this vigilant system where we are able to recognize these cells and knock them out,” said Candace Pert, PhD, Neuroscientist.
Fighting Off Cancer
The immune system is the key to fighting off many cancers and keeping the immune system healthy and strong by treating it right will make it easier for the body’s good cells to fight off the bad cells, and in turn preventing cancer diagnosis.
“One of the functions of our immune system is to try to snuff out early cancer,” said Mark Liponis, MD Corporate Medical Director, Canyan Ranch.
“If we have cancer that’s diagnosed, that represents a failure of the immune system.”
What Causes Cancer?
The experts explained that while genetics is a significant risk factor for cancer, it is estimated that more than 60 percent of cancer cases are attributed to our lifestyle choices.
As cancer cells already exist in the body, the authors strongly suggest that we stop them from attacking the body and take precautionary measures by living a healthy lifestyle and avoiding things that can contribute to cancer.
“We can take means to minimize the occurrence of cancers,” said Gardner.
“We can take measures to decrease our risks and some of those measures are obvious,” he said, later mentioning the avoidance of tanning beds, the sun, and the use of sunscreen.
But while those factors are obvious and accepted there are many other factors that are not so obvious and must be addressed.
The authors mentioned the excessive use of alcohol is linked with cancers, along with obesity, diet, and safe sex.
Safe sex can prevent can prevent contracting HIV which increases risks for many cancers by weakening the immune system, explained the authors.
“Safe sex also reduces your risk of contracting HPV, the human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost all cervical cancer is caused by HPV, at least 50% of sexually active people will have genital HPV at some time in their lives, and many people who have HPV don’t even know it.
The CDC said that most of the time, HPV goes away by itself within two years and does not cause health problems, which is a contribution of the immune system.
It is thought that the immune system fights off HPV naturally, the CDC says on their website.
But Dr. Geffen said that the fact that lifestyle choices can make a difference, gives us hope.
“If we made a commitment to improving our diet and lifestyle we’ll benefit our health and very likely we’ll reduce our chances of getting cancers.”