News and Articles on Health. Medical research topics.

Possibly no word strikes greater fear in people’s hearts than cancer. So it is important to employ every possible strategy that may prevent you from ever hearing it in connection with your health.

If you are still smoking, you need to stop.

Although it is true that some non-smokers have gotten lung cancer, the majority of people with lung cancer are smokers.

Cure your home if it is sick. Radon is a natural gas that can also cause lung cancer. It enters your home from soil and rock in the surrounding area. The danger is you cannot see or smell it. But you can order test kits to check the levels in your home. If you discover they are high, it is not expensive to clear them out.

Go for the green – tea that is. While all tea has cancer-preventing properties, green tea is the highest in polyphenols that kill several types of cancer cells including breast, liver, colon, lung, pancreas, and skin cancer. And a couple of cups of coffee each day will ward off cancer of the liver.

According to Swedish scientists, coffee is high in the antioxidants that prevent the formation of carcinogens.

Once you’ve had your cup of Java for the day, get moving. Scientific research has proven that exercise protects your immune system. And your immune system is your body’s defense against cancer. In fact, a healthy immune system can destroy a cancer cell without your awareness. Then when you’re thirsty after the exercise, try a glass of grape juice instead of a soda. Purple grape juice has also been proven to improve your immune system’s function.

And when it’s time for dinner, try substituting fish for beef. Frequent consumption of red meat increases your risk of colon cancer, lung cancer and breast cancer due to the high saturated fat content. Fish, on the other hand, is high in omega-3 fats that are beneficial to your health and since they are difficult to find, it is common for people to be deficient in omega-3 fats. Be sure to make your meal colorful. Your diet should include a variety of fruits and vegetables of all colors. Each fruit or vegetable has different anti-oxidants and together they all offer you protection from cancer.

Take the right supplements. Calcium and Vitamin D offer protections from the risk of developing breast cancer and also are important in preventing other diseases. Most people do not get the recommended daily allowance of vitamin D, especially those who live in winter climates, so a supplement is important. Of course, individuals should always check with their health care provider before adding any supplement to their diet.

Choose the right spices. Add a little garlic to your diet. Garlic contains sulfur compounds that have been found to prevent rapid cell division, a process that cancer cells need in order to spread. Add the garlic to tomato sauce and become a tomato lover. Tomatoes contain lycopene, an antioxidant that has been proved to reduce the risk of colon, lung and breast cancer. Lycopene destroys free radicals before they can effect the cellular changes that lead to cancer. And processed products are as effective as the fresh vegetable.

You can get the same benefit from ketchup, tomato sauce, tomato paste and cooked tomatoes.

There is no cure per se for cancer, but there are ways to successfully fight and provide cures in individual cases. A number of treatments are typically used. In this article, we take a look at the commonly used radiation therapy.

Radiation therapy is perhaps the most common form of cancer treatment. It is often referred to as the bigger hammer treatment. The idea is to use energy to cadestroy or damage cancer cells, particularly those found in tumors. The energy is usually in the form of gamma rays, x rays or protons. In theory, this will either slow, stop or destroy the cancer. The key is understanding how cancer cells work.

Cancer cells are mutations of normal, health cells. One of the characteristics of the mutation is they grow and divide much faster than one finds with normal cells. The goal with radiation therapy is to attack this growth process. To do this, the cells are exposed to high doses of radiation. The radiation varies by the type of cancer, but is used with the intention of reeking havoc on the DNA of the cancer cells. If the DNA is broken, the cell cannot reproduce and the cancer is stopped in its tracks. In some cancers, the radiation is enough to not only stop expansion, but destroy all the cancerous cells.

Is radiation therapy the same thing as chemotherapy? The answer is no. Radiation therapy is generally an external application focused on a specific part of the body, ie, the cancerous growths. Chemotherapy is the ingestion of cancer fighting drugs that are absorbed throughout the body. The confusion between the two often comes from the fact that there are limited radiation therapies that are undertaken by the ingestion of radioactive materials, but this is very rare.

Does radiation therapy work? Yes and no. The success rate depends on many factors including the particular type of cancer being addressed. In most cases, this treatment produces the most success when combined with other cancer treatments.