Cancer: We All Have It

We are all born with cancer inside us, we just need it triggered before it starts doing any damage.

There are several steps we should take in an attempt to fight the disease.

1. Healthy Diet
2. Regular Exercise
3. Don't Smoke
4. Don't Have Chemo (Apparently it can make things worse)
5. Keep a Healthy Immune System

So my thoughts are maybe cancer is our test. We are given this life and this body, do what we please. If we abuse it, we are punished and become infected by this terminal disease. If we exercise and eat right we don't.

I know this can't be the case because so many healthy people also get cancer and so many unhealthy people do not get cancer, but maybe we have evolved so anyone can get the disease? Maybe at the beginning of time it was only a disease which the unhealthy got.

I really do hate the 'C' word but find the subject very interesting, and after reading the five points in a local paper I thought I'd share my views.

Every cell has what is called oncogenes (onco---oncology---cancer) that trigger cell replication. When the cell duplicates, the onco-switch turns off until next time it is needed. Except once in a while, it forgets to turn off and just keeps making new cells.

What causes them to not turn off? Who knows. Smoking, Sunlight, high-voltage power lines, NutraSweet, and any number of other things. Heck, everything these days can cause cancer.

Chemo can make some stuff worse. It is not really discriminating in what it kills. Just any rapidly growing cells. Radiation treatment at least targets a little better. Which does beg the question, If radiation is supposed to be a strong carcinogen, then why is it used to treat cancer?

I think a healthy diet and exercise(lifestyle) are all helpful in leading much *better* lives. I have seen some very healthy people get cancer though. Look at Lance Armstrong. Can't get much healthier or fit than that!

Living a healthy lifestyle doesn't guarantee your going to live to an old age, if it did then people who abuse their bodies by smoking etc would die pretty quick.Lots of people who smoke and drink live into their eighties, i don't want to be one because thats when life gets painfull. To me having no control over your bladder and having to live in a nursing home like a vegetable is not worth all the jogging , non smoking keep fit stuff.I want to die before im a veggie.

Ariande - nicely done

There are also the genetic factors; a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, for example, leaves you much more prone to a certain type of breast and ovarian cancer.

Then there are cancers triggered by virii - one of the HPV family of virii causes cervical cancer; the Eppstein-Barr virus has been associated with several cancers, including Burkitt's Lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

To say that we all "have" cancer is sort of true, as Ariande said....but only in as much as we all have cells which in turn have the potential to become cancerous....and it's not the same as thinking "we all have secret cancers inside us just waiting to explode".

There are no guarantees, unfortunately. You could have both ovaries removed and still become a victim of ovarian cancer; likewise, whilst a double mastectomy reduces the likelihood, it cannot rule out your getting breast cancer.

Sometimes, things happen for no apparent reason.

Dang I forgot to add....

A quicky expl. of how radiation therapy works:

Radiation therapy works by destroying cells, either directly or by interfering with cell reproduction using high-energy X-rays, electron beams or radioactive isotopes. When a radiated cell attempts to divide and reproduce itself, it fails to do so and dies in the attempt.

Normal cells are able to repair the effects of radiation better than are malignant and other abnormal cells. Thus, normal cells are able to recover from exposure to radiation and maintain integrity and viability better than malignant cells.

Here's the Linkypoo that explains in a little more depth regarding radiation exposure.

HTH.