What is Cancer Disease ?

Cancer is not actually a disease, but a general term for a group of a wide variety of different diseases. While normal cells grow, divide, and then die in order to be replaced by new cells, in these diseases abnormal cells divide and grow completely out of control. These cells are able to invade other parts of our body, through the lymph and blood systems.

There are over a hundred different types of cancer, and these can be loosely put in five different categories. Cancer is almost always named after the place where it started, no matter where it invaded to afterwards. For example, cancer that had started in the breast and moved forward to one of the kidneys, is still named breast-cancer.

Different Types of Cancer

Carcinoma

This is the most common type of cancer among humans. It is derived from epithelial cells, and begins in tissues that cover or line internal body organs. An example would be breast, liver, colon, lung, stomach, stomach and prostate cancer.

Sarcoma

Sarcomas include tumors that begin in the bone, fat, cartilage, blood vessels, muscle, vascular, or other connective or supportive tissue. Its given names are varied, and include, for example, osteosarcoma (bone), chondrosarcoma (cartilage), liposarcoma (fat), and leiomyosarcoma (muscle).

Blood Cancers – Leukemia and Lymphoma

Those are cancers that begin in hematopoietic cells, blood-forming tissues (such as bone marrow), and causes a very high number of anomalous red blood cells to form and enter the blood stream.

Blastoma

This type of cancer begin in the blast cells, also called precursor cells, and is caused by malignancies. Blastoma is mostly common among children. Examples of this type of cancer are Wilms’ tumor, which is a kidney cancer also known as nephroblastoma, and medulloblastoma, a brain tumor.

GCT – Germ Cell Tumor

GCT is an abnormal mass of tissues derived from germ cells. GCT cancer is also mostly common among children and babies, but is also found in adults, usually in the testis (testicular cancer) and ovary (ovarian cancer).

What Causes Cancer ?

Is Cancer Hereditary ?

Yes and no. Cancer is developed mainly due to environmental reasons, though some genes are able to increase the risk of developing some types of cancer. Even if you have been packed with ‘cancerous genes’, it is still possible for you to minimize the risk of developing cancer, by enjoying a healthy lifestyle, and ‘turn off’ these genes.

A Healthy Lifestyle? Any Causes of Cancer to Minimize or Avoid Altogether?

Diet is the most important factor in developing cancer, and it is no surprise that the average western diet is associated tightly with cancer, as it contains a very low amount of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and contains a very high amount of improperly grown animal foods, processed foods, sugars, chemicals and stuff. Eat real food.

These are all linked with a greater risk of developing cancer. Basing your diet on organic whole foods, which are rich in vitamins, minerals, fibers and phytochemicals, is an essential key for the prevention of cancer development.

Lack of exercise. Exercising is also a key element of keeping our body healthy. Its advantages in terms of cancer and other ailment’s prevention have been proved time after time in the recent decades.

Tobacco usage, such as cigarettes.

Alcohol consumption.

Radiation. Although radiation is all around us, minimizing our exposure to both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation will reduce our risk for developing many types of cancer. For example, minimizing your exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet radiation will reduce your risk for developing cancer, mainly skin cancer.

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Minimizing the chance of developing cancer (and other ‘western’ diseases) is almost entirely an issue of changing dangerous and unhealthy life habits. One book that I HIGHLY recommend reading is ‘Healthy at 100” of Dr. John Robbins. There is a healthy amount of useful information there. John Robbins speaks of four of the healthiest and longest-living cultures of the world in his book, where cancer and other modern diseases are close to zero in numbers. Highly interesting.

update: Corina Thomas just added a new post to our website about restoring pH balance, which seems to be a major concern among many scientists when it comes to cancer prevention and treatment.

updateII: What is pancreatic cancer? a new article added.

Scientific References

Kushi LH, Byers T, Doyle C, et al. ”American Cancer Society Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for cancer prevention: reducing the risk of cancer with healthy food choices and physical activity” (2006).

Sasco AJ, Secretan MB, Straif K. “Tobacco smoking and cancer: a brief review of recent epidemiological evidence”. Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 2004.)

Anand P, Kunnumakkara AB et al. ”Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes” (September 2008).

Kinzler, Kenneth W.; Vogelstein, Bert. “The genetic basis of human cancer”. (2002)

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