Health Article On Cancer

The cure for cancer is still some way off but it is something that science expects to happen possibly within the next few decades; medical research continues to advance in it's war with this disease that plagues humanity. Although there are other more awful diseases, this one holds the crown at the moment because of how often it is diagnosed. The three most common cancers in men in America are prostate cancer, lung cancer, and colon cancer while the women are affected by breast cancer, lung cancer, and colon cancer.

It causes more deaths per population than any other illness and the older you get the more prone you are to contracting the disease; Statistics show that the number of people cancer kills globally each year is about 13 in every one hundred.

A cure would bring a sigh of relief everywhere.

The reasons cancer is triggered in the body are only theories as it can be caused by many things.
Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body.These normal cells grow out of control and even intrude in other surrounding tissues.

Benign tumors do not normally grow larger, metastasize or threaten the body and organs like malignant (cancerous) tumors do although it is possible for a malignant tumor to have started out as benign. Cancerous cells may have been transformed by radiation or poison for example and this creates genetic abnormality in those cells which then continue to grow and divide.

Just to confuse the issue more, it is possible to inherit genes that may be pre-disposed to it as well as faulty genetic DNA replication. It would seem that certain people's genetic makeup makes them less prone to contacting the illness even if they are allowing harmful carcinogens into their bodies.

Owing to the worldwide problem of cancer, it is regularly studied throughout the world and extending our knowledge on the subject. We are always learning more about diseases and how they affect our bodies and minds. We are continually trying to find out why this disease attacks some and not others. We all want to know more about the causes of cancer what we can do to help prevent this illness from striking.

It is now believed by many that the food we eat could be responsible for many cases. Even if this is not the case, what we eat does have an effect on our overall and long term health. Some of the foodstuffs that could be causing these problems are salt, saturated fats and dairy products. A high calcium intake could possibly be responsible for cases of prostrate cancer in men.

Cancer can affect any part of the body from the bones, blood, skin or organs. The problem is that it can also be insidious and a person may have it for some time before it is diagnosed. Cures for many types have advanced in recent years and are more likely to be successful if the cancer is found in its early stages. Cancer is not the certain death sentence it once was and although many of its various forms are incurable at this time, medical science continues to improve.

By Maria Mbura

Turmeric Benefits - Cancer Prevention - Can Turmeric Prevent Cancer?

The active component curcumin in the spice turmeric is shown to prevent and retard cancer in hundreds of studies and research reports. Many of the methods by which carcinogenesis (attack of carcinogens on the DNA and cellular structure) progresses has been shown to be retarded or short circuited by turmeric. A powerful carcinogenic agent TPA (tissue polypeptide antigen) is known to cause cancer by increasing the production of a substance in the body called protein kinase. Turmeric appears to suppress the production of protein kinase. Turmeric is also shown to lower the levels of oncogen which is a cancer causing gene called c-jun. A team of scientists not only demonstrated these suppressive effects but caused a 99% inhibition of TPA induced tumors on rodents.

It is obvious that turmeric is shutting of some of the cancer causing pathways and probably blocking of malignant tumors at the initiation, promotion and progression stage itself. Turmeric is capable of slowing or preventing genetic mutation in cells that are risk factors for cancer. Mutation is a genetic change in the DNA - Deoxyribonucleic acid of a cell that gets passed on to future generations of the cells in the process of cell division. Although not all DNA mutations are carcinogenic cancer has always followed DNA mutation.

Couple of important studies has dramatically indicated that this cancer causing DNA mutation pathway can be closed by turmeric. In one study mutagenic changes in the bone marrow of mice were significantly decreased by administration of turmeric extract. Another study was dramatic because it was done on people. Normally such studies are never done on people as it is illegal and unethical to inject people with carcinogenic agents as in the case of animals used for laboratory studies. Smokers are injecting themselves with wide range of carcinogenic agents. A study was done on 100 smokers in India who refused to quit against all warnings. They were given turmeric extract pill for 30 days (Though diet in India regularly contains turmeric that is not sufficient). During this period there was a startling 40% reduction in the urinary extraction of tobacco related mutagens - a byproduct of cell/DNA mutation. Clearly turmeric -curcumin detoxified enough carcinogens in the lungs to cause such a reduction of mutation process.

Turmeric tops the short list of really powerful cancer preventive agents. Many government funded agencies like Nation Cancer Institute, Medline Plus and American Cancer Institute have recognized turmeric as one of the best means of prevention against cancer.

By Andy Kahn