Skip to main content

Cancer 101



Former President Cory Aquino and an aunt of mine died of colon cancer. It is one of the few types of cancer that has a low 5 year survival rate. Speaking of cancer, here are few facts that we should know, based on the studies by Johns Hopkins University.

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.


4. When a person has cancer, it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies.These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.


5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.


6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver,kidneys, heart, lungs etc.


7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells, also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size.. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.


9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.


11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Abdominal Epilepsy?

The other day, I encountered an uncommon medical diagnosis, abdominal epilepsy. Maybe I was absent when this was taught in med school or maybe it was mentioned but it just didn't register in my memory bank. Anyway, for those colleagues who haven't heard of this as well, here's what I found out about it, so that next time you are faced with a weird abdominal pain, you will think of abdominal epilepsy as a differential. There are many medical causes of abdominal pain; abdominal epilepsy is one of the rare causes. From a medical perspective, the term epilepsy refers not to a single disease, but to a group of symptoms with numerous causes. The common factor in all forms of epilepsy is an excessive electrical excitability of the brain. The increased excitation is called a seizure and may manifest as a partial or total loss of consciousness and muscle spasms or other involuntary movements. Many conditions can produce epilepsy. For example, a genetic predisposition is...

The Beauty of Giving

It is heartwarming to read how people are coming together to help and support all those involved in this war against the corona virus 19. Indeed, the blessing in this crisis is the transparency of people and the willingness to help those in need without a second thought. We have proven once again that we can care beyond ourselves. Hopefully though, this selflessness goes beyond the end of this pandemic. Giving sincerely is powerful not only for the heart but also for the mind and soul. It provides an intrinsic reward that’s far more valuable than the gift.   It’s ‘finding one’s self by losing it in the service of others. As we nest in the comforts of our home, let us continuously find ways to help others in even small and meaningful ways.

Just Saying!

I chanced upon this blog as I was 'Googling' and I realized that I have not written any post for the past year. When the pandemic happened and I started working from home, I thought it would be the best opportunity for me to start writing again. My excitement produced 2 blog posts, but that was it. Nothing followed. Fast forward to this time. Since I have some time to spare, let me just say this regarding what's happening out there. We are all tired of the quarantine life and wish we can go back to how we live before this virus came to being. We blame the government for all the inefficiencies and lack of foresight, insight and what not. We compare our state with other countries and their seemingly better response and outcome. We all have brilliant ideas on what to do and what should be done. We cannot even agree if face shields add a layer of protection or not! But do we really have to stress ourselves with all of these? Is it even worth the energy? Do we think something go...