8 healthy habits that can keep you cancer-free

Over half of all serious disease in the Nigeria could be prevented if people adopted healthier lifestyles. By following these eight recommendations, you can lower your risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis and diabetes. Before you know it, you’ll also have more energy and get a boost to your mood.

So take control of your health, and encourage your family to do the same. Choose one or two of the behaviors below to start with. Once you’ve got those down, move on to the others.

1. Maintain a Healthy Weight

Keeping your weight in check is often easier said than done, but a few simple tips can help. First off, if you’re overweight, focus initially on not gaining any more weight. This by itself can improve your health. Then, when you’re ready, try to take off some extra pounds for an even greater health boost.

Tips

·         Integrate physical activity and movement into your life.

·         Eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

·         Choose smaller portions and eat more slowly.

For Parents and Grandparents 

·         Limit children’s TV and computer time.

·         Encourage healthy snacking on fruits and vegetables.

·         Encourage activity during free time.

2. Exercise Regularly

Few things are as good for you as regular physical activity. While it can be hard to find the time, it’s important to fit in at least 30 minutes of activity every day. More is even better, but any amount is better than none.

Tips 

·         Choose activities you enjoy. Many things count as exercise, including walking, gardening and dancing.

·         Make exercise a habit by setting aside the same time for it each day. Try going to the gym at lunchtime or taking a walk regularly after dinner.

·         Stay motivated by exercising with someone.

For Parents and Grandparents 

·         Play active games with your kids regularly and go on family walks and bike rides when the weather allows.

·         Encourage children to play outside (when it’s safe) and to take part in organized activities, including soccer, gymnastics and dancing.

·         Walk with your kids to school in the morning. It’s great exercise for everyone.

3. Don’t Smoke

You’ve heard it before: If you smoke, quitting is absolutely the best thing you can do for your health. Yes, it’s hard, but it’s also far from impossible.

Tips 

·         Keep trying! It often takes six or seven tries before you quit for good.

·         Talk to a health-care provider for help.

·         Join a quit-smoking program or partner with someone else who has quit.

For Parents and Grandparents

·         Try to quit as soon as possible. If you smoke, your children will be more likely to smoke.

·         Don't smoke in the house or car. If kids breathe in your smoke, they may have a higher risk of breathing problems and lung cancer.

·         When appropriate, talk to your kids about the dangers of smoking and chewing tobacco. A health-care professional or school counselor can help.

4. Eat a Healthy Diet

Despite confusing news reports, the basics of healthy eating are actually quite straightforward. You should focus on fruits, vegetables and whole grains and keep red meat to a minimum. It’s also important to cut back on bad fats (saturated and trans fats) and choose healthy fats (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats) more often. Taking a multivitamin with folate every day is a great nutrition insurance policy.

Tips

·         Make fruits and vegetables a part of every meal. Put fruit on your cereal. Eat vegetables as a snack.

·         Choose chicken, fish or beans instead of red meat.

·         Choose whole-grain cereal, brown rice and whole-wheat bread over their more refined counterparts.

·         Choose dishes made with olive or canola oil, which are high in healthy fats.

·         Cut back on fast food and store-bought snacks which are high in bad fats.

5. Drink Alcohol Only in Moderation, If at All

Moderate drinking is good for the heart, as many people already know, but it can also increase the risk of cancer. If you don’t drink, don’t feel that you need to start. If you already drink moderately (less than one drink a day for women, less than two drinks a day for men), there’s probably no reason to stop. People who drink more, though, should cut back.

Tips

·         Choose non-alcoholic beverages at meals and parties.

·         Avoid occasions centered around alcohol.

·         Talk to a health-care professional if you feel you have a problem with alcohol.

For Parents and Grandparents

·         Avoid making alcohol an essential part of family gatherings.

·         When appropriate, discuss the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse with children. A health-care professional or school counselor can help.

6. Protect Yourself from the Sun

While the warm sun is certainly inviting, too much exposure to it can lead to skin cancer, including serious melanoma. Skin damage starts early in childhood, so it’s especially important to protect children. Even though as Africans, we are less likely to have skin cancer, it still happens.

Tips

·         Steer clear of direct sunlight between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. (peak burning hours). It’s the best way to protect yourself.

·         Wear hats, long-sleeve shirts and sunscreens with SPF15 or higher.

For Parents and Grandparents 

·         Set a good example for children by also protecting yourself with clothing, shade and sunscreen.

7. Protect Yourself From Sexually Transmitted Infections

Among other problems, sexually transmitted infections – like human papillomavirus (HPV) – are linked to a number of different cancers. Protecting yourself from these infections can lower your risk.

Tips

·         Aside from not having sex, the best protection is to be in a committed, monogamous relationship with someone who does not have a sexually transmitted infection.

·         For all other situations, be sure to always use a condom and follow other safe-sex practices.

·         Never rely on your partner to have a condom. Always be prepared.

For Parents and Grandparents

·         When appropriate, discuss with children the importance of abstinence and safe sex. A health-care professional or school counselor can help.

8. Get Screening Tests

There are a number of important tests that can help protect against cancer. Some of these tests find it early, when they are most treatable, while others can actually help keep a disease from developing in the first place. Talk to a health-care professional about which tests you should have and when.

Conditions that should be tested for regularly include:

·         Colon and rectal cancer

·         Breast cancer

·         Cervical cancer

·         Prostate cancer

10 Things We Know About Cancer That We Didn’t Know 10 Years Ago

As Siddhartha Mukherjee detailed in his Pulitzer Prize-winning “biography of cancer,” The Emperor of All Maladies, humans may have lived with cancer for millennia but, until recently, we knew next to nothing about it. Now, it seems the every day brings promising new research on cancer’s causes, its weaknesses and ways to thwart it. Some developments, such as vaccines for cervical cancer, are now established; others, such as experimental therapies using viruses, are still very much experimental. We also know now that restraint in diagnosing and treating cancer is better than aggressive therapies that carry harmful side effects.

We compiled a list of cancer breakthroughs and new directions that have happened in recent years (though some of them obviously have roots in earlier decades).

1. Vaccines can protect against some cancers

Researchers have known for years that viruses cause some cervical and liver cancers. But immunizing people against those viruses, and thus immunizing against cancer, has changed the prevention landscape. In 2006, the first vaccine for some forms of the human papilloma virus (HPV) – which has been shown to cause most cervical cancers – won approval from the U.S. FDA. The CDC now recommends that 11 and 12 year-old girls receive the vaccine, Gardasil and Cervarix, which has also been shown to protect against anal, vaginal and vulvar cancers.

2. Vaccines can also fight cancer

In 2010, the FDA approved Provenge, which can be used to treat advanced prostate cancer. The “vaccine” is made by activating the patient’s white blood cells by exposing them to a protein in prostate cancer cells. The cells are reinjected into the patients after three days in an attempt to fight the disease. It is not a cure, however, and the vaccine can only be used for men with a particular type of cancer that is no longer responding to hormone therapy. Men who received the vaccine lived four months longer, which health officials consider a good start.

3. Viruses may be useful in fighting cancer

Cancer cells jettison genetic code in their rush for unchecked growth, including machinery that protects against viruses. Canadian researchers have capitalized on this weakness in cancer cells by using a genetically modified version of vaccinia – a relative of smallpox – to attack tumors but leave healthy cells unharmed. In early studies, the vaccines have shown promise in attacking metastatic tumors. Other researchers have used other viruses to attack aggressive brain tumors called gliomas. It’s too early to declare this an effective therapy, but it’s promising.

4. Some cancers may be better left untreated

In a surprising turn, Swedish researchers in 2010 found that men with early stage prostate cancer rarely die from the disease. And those men who didn’t receive treatment were only slightly more likely to die from the cancer. The idea that some patients might do better with “watchful waiting” and that the side effects of treatment – surgical removal of the prostate, radiation – might be worse than leaving the disease alone was shocking to some. Still, this discussion is by no means settled, since living with untreated prostate cancer is stressful and there is considerable gray area in determining whether a cancer is early stage or more aggressive.

5. The genome may hold the key to some cancers

As scientists apply sophisticated tools to studying the human genome, they have learned about what genetic variations are associated with cancer. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found that two common genetic variations on one gene can lead to a higher risk for lung cancer in people who have never smoked. Other variations have been associated with certain brain cancers. This information could, down the road, lead to better cancer prevention.

6. The “gene desert” also holds clues to cancer

Scientists have thought for years that the human genome was 98 percent junk, or noncoding, DNA. Recent research has shown that this area could actually contain important information that can have as yet unexplained influence on cells.

7. Cancer screening is a double-edged sword

Here’s a surprising statement: all screening tests do harm, but some may also do good as well. Harm from a screening test can be the stress associated with a false positive mammogram result or an unnecessary biopsy. And over the course of 10 years, the cumulative risk of a false positive is almost 50 percent, according to an widely cited study. In 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force revised its guidelines to recommend that women under 50 should not get routine screening mammograms. Women should instead make their own decisions about the risks and benefits of screening, according to the Task Force.

8. It’s tough to tell sometimes what causes or prevents cancer

We’ve always known this, but in the past decade, the science on what is and isn’t carcinogenic has gotten complicated. Take the example of cell phones: does the nonionizing radiation from phones lead to brain cancer? The World Health Organization has said that radiofrequency fields are “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” Other organizations, including the CDC have concluded that the available evidence does not support a link. The British newspaper Daily Mail even has a website that catalogs all of the stories it has published on every food, object or activity that causes or prevents cancer. Sometimes it’s hard to know.

9. Targeted therapy is a potent weapon in the war on cancer

Targeted cancer therapies block cancer’s growth by attacking certain molecules in tumors. This approach is distinct from traditional therapies that attack all rapidly dividing cells. The best known targeted therapy, Gleevec, was approved by the FDA in May 2001 and is now approved for ten cancers. At the time, Time magazine called it “new ammunition in the war against cancer.” These therapies can give physicians a better way to tailor specific treatments for different kinds cancer.

10. Low-tech treatments can work wonders

A technique that involves brushing vinegar on a woman’s cervix to reveal precancerous spots then freezing the spots off with a supercooled metal probe could save tens of thousands of lives in poor and middle income countries. This low-tech treatment, called VIA/cryo was developed at Johns Hopkins medical school and is simpler and less expensive than a Pap smear. It also doesn’t require women to be reachable if a biopsy from an abnormal Pap smear discovers precancerous lesions. 

Source of this article.

Benefits of Early Detection in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer - unlike lung and liver cancers - is not as scary as people might think. If women take care and check their breasts regularly, the cancer can be detected early, which gives a better chance not only of getting rid of the cancer, but also of preserving the affected breast. Especially women in high-risk groups should have their breasts regularly examined.

Currently, despite the high number of breast cancer patients, the mortality rate is low because most cancers are detected soon - but often not soon enough because most early breast cancers have no symptoms. Primary prevention is also impossible because we still do not know the causes. What we do know is that approximately 10 percent are hereditary; the rest might be from inconclusive hormonal and lifestyle factors.

But without knowing the cause, the important thing is to catch breast cancer early - most deaths are due to late detection. If breast cancer is detected early, the notion of a 100 percent cure would not be farfetched; there would be no need for chemotherapy or other very expensive targeted therapy.

Women who might be less than 40 but have two or more primary relatives with breast cancer should have their genes tests for any abnormalities that lead to the development of breast cancer, and have their breasts checked and screened with breast imaging annually.

The general recommendation is for women to examine their breasts monthly beginning from maturity (17-18 years of age) although there have cases of girls as young as 15 years of age being diagnosed. Regular self-examination will ensure a woman becomes familiar with her own breasts, so she will easily notice any abnormality, even a small change. Cancer usually takes months to develop, sometimes years to grow large enough to be detected. Women who are 35 to 40 years old should have a physician examine their breasts and undergo mammograms and/or ultrasounds yearly.

A mammogram is a breast X-ray displaying the breast structure on film or on screen in the digital system. It can detect early and symptom-less tumors that are less than 1 centimeter. In combination with ultrasonography, the detection rate is quite promising. Previously, physicians only used their hands to diagnose the cancer, which is not accurate enough because the cancer cell must be at least 1 centimeter - it would take years for cancer cells to grow that large.

A mammogram can detect cancer cells as a cluster of microcalcification. The cluster of calcium spots results from the confinement of calcium to the cancer cells that have grown fast and died. When they die, our immune system eradicates the dead cells, leaving the traces of calcium, which can be seen in an X-ray only. If a woman fails to detect this calcium deposit, her chances of being successfully treated would be compromised because the cancer cells would keep growing without any warning symptoms until the tumor reached roughly 2 to 3 centimeters; by the time it reaches that size, it has already been there for many years.

The important thing is that when the cancer is small - until it reaches a size of 1, 2 or 3 centimeters - there might be no symptoms except a palpable lump. Only about 10 percent will have symptoms such as nipple bleeding or discharge or pain when the tumor reaches 2 to 3 centimeters; this is why self-examination is so important.

Because early detection can result in a full cure, survival depends on the stage at the time of detection. The chance of survival is roughly 100 percent in stage 0, 80 percent in stage I, 70 percent in stage II and 50-60 percent in stage III; therefore, the later the cancer is detected, the less successful the treatment will be, and the cancer will come back again. A woman should not wait until the symptoms and signs of cancer are already clear to see a physician; it is advisable to see the physician prior to having any symptoms.

Currently there are two options for surgery for the treatment of early breast cancer. Breast preservation surgery in combination with breast irradiation is becoming more popular than mastectomies - removing the whole breast. Nearly half of patients with breast cancer can preserve their breasts with a satisfactory result.

The cancers might spread to the lymph nodes in the armpits and elsewhere, if they are aggressive or have been there a long time. Previously, therefore, this group of lymph nodes had to be routinely removed in most cases of surgery. However, the current method is to identify cancer cells in the armpit nodes by injecting blue dye into the breast and letting it go into the armpit nodes, and then simply remove the stained nodes (sentinel nodes) for examination. If the cancer cells have not reached the armpit, the lymph nodes can be spared. Therefore, currently, we try to keep the breast, not remove armpit nodes unnecessarily and do as little surgery as possible without compromising the outcome. This technique means the arm can still function normally; it takes a little over an hour, requires only one night in hospital and leaves only a small scar. If the breast must be removed and the patient does not want to have only one breast, the dermal-fat tissue from the lower belly can be used as a unit of the patient's own tissue and transferred to reconstruct the breast.

Women must change the old saying "the breast should not be touched often" to "examine the breast everyday". It is not shameful to touch your breasts and it can be easily done. Do not worry about whether you are doing it correctly. Simply, when you are in the shower, scrub your breasts thoroughly and examine your nipples. Shower everyday, and the cancer cells cannot be missed. And if something feels different, see the doctor as soon as possible - do not wait for symptoms. Do not wait until you start bleeding, feeling pain or your breast size changes - just imagine how large the cancer would be by then. By that time, it may be too late for treatment and what treatment there is will be difficult and complex.