Posts Tagged ‘Protection’

Study Finds Green Tea Offers No Protection From Breast Cancer

Study Finds Green Tea Offers No Protection From Breast Cancer
But latest finding doesn’t answer the question definitively, experts say.

Read more on US News & World Report

Cancer Protection is About Making Smart Decisions

People taking action towards cancer protection by changing their diets and going to the doctor regularly have resulted in the latest statistics released by the American Cancer Society in January 2007 reporting that cancer deaths have gone down in the United States. Medical technology also offers state-of-the-art testing and screenings for various cancers, allowing patients to detect tumors in their earliest stages.

There are several ways you can protect yourself from cancer. One way is to maintain a healthy diet. Diets including plenty of fruits and vegetables allow a person to receive the necessary vitamins linked with cancer protection. It is also important to include healthy fats found in olive, canola and sunflower oils.

These are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked to keep the heart healthy and prevent other deadly diseases. Limiting your intake of red meats is very important when it comes to a healthy diet. Instead, you should focus on including more lean proteins, such as chicken and fish.

Other ways to improve your diet are to eat hearty whole grains found in certain breads, pastas and rice dishes. Make sure to always avoid fried foods that are high in trans-fats.

Aside from a healthy diet, you can practice cancer prevention by taking certain supplements and vitamins. Vitamin E, selenium and lycopene have been connected with lowering a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer.

Fish oils have also been linked with preventing cancer of the prostate. There has even been research suggesting calcium supplements could help a person prevent colorectal cancer.

Going to the doctor is important even if you are trying to lower your risk of cancer. Doctors can perform certain screenings to help protect you from a life-threatening disease. Women are recommended to start having yearly mammograms sometime after age forty.

Younger women should have regular clinical breast exams performed by a physician or do breast exams at home to watch for abnormalities. Men and women should have a colonoscopy, beginning in their fifties, every ten years to watch for colorectal cancers. Men can protect themselves from prostate cancer by using certain chemoprevention drugs.

These are man-made drugs or vitamins used specifically to suppress or prevent cancer. PSA tests or digital rectal exams are other methods available to men who are at high risk for prostate cancer. Discuss all the treatments and screenings available with your doctor to determine what you should do based on your personal and family medical history.

Lifestyle is a major factor in your efforts at cancer protection. Smoking has been linked with several cancers, such as lung, prostate, bladder and breast cancer. It is imperative for smokers to quit this unhealthy habit because it will greatly reduce their risks of developing cancer.

Doctors recommend women watch their alcohol consumption as part of breast and cervical cancer control. Other ways to improve your lifestyle is to work plenty of physical activity into your daily schedule. Whether you join a gym, buy a treadmill or play outside with your children, exercising is an important factor in cancer protection.

Cancer protection could mean small changes or complete overhauls to daily routines, depending on your current lifestyle. Lowering your risk of cancer may include joining a gym or buying vitamins and dietary supplements.

It could mean you have to quit smoking or using other tobacco products. Whatever change you make to your current situation will put you closer to living a healthy and cancer-free life.

Cancer Protection Is All About Making Smart Decisions

When you think of cancer protection, a physician’s office probably comes to mind. But protection is more than just going to the doctor. It involves making the right decisions with aspects of your life to help prevent a life-threatening disease. Even if you think you’re a healthy individual, it could be beneficial to step back and see what needs to be changed in your habits to make you healthier.

There are several ways you can protect yourself from cancer. One way is to maintain a healthy diet. Diets including plenty of fruits and vegetables allow a person to receive the necessary vitamins linked with cancer protection.

It is also important to include healthy fats found in olive, canola and sunflower oils. These are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked to keep the heart healthy and prevent other deadly diseases.

Limiting your intake of red meats is very important when it comes to a healthy diet. Instead, you should focus on including more lean proteins, such as chicken and fish. Other ways to improve your diet are to eat hearty whole grains found in certain breads, pastas and rice dishes. Make sure to always avoid fried foods that are high in trans-fats.

Aside from a healthy diet, you can practice cancer prevention by taking certain supplements and vitamins. Vitamin E, selenium and lycopene have been connected with lowering a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer. Fish oils have also been linked with preventing cancer of the prostate. There has even been research suggesting calcium supplements could help a person prevent colorectal cancer.

Going to the doctor is important even if you are trying to lower your risk of cancer. Doctors can perform certain screenings to help protect you from a life-threatening disease. Women are recommended to start having yearly mammograms sometime after age forty. Younger women should have regular clinical breast exams performed by a physician or do breast exams at home to watch for abnormalities.

Men and women should have a colonoscopy, beginning in their fifties, every ten years to watch for colorectal cancers. Men can protect themselves from prostate cancer by using certain chemoprevention drugs. These are man-made drugs or vitamins used specifically to suppress or prevent cancer.

PSA tests or digital rectal exams are other methods available to men who are at high risk for prostate cancer. Discuss all the treatments and screenings available with your doctor to determine what you should do based on your personal and family medical history.

Lifestyle is a major factor in your efforts at cancer protection. Smoking has been linked with several cancers, such as lung, prostate, bladder and breast cancer. It is imperative for smokers to quit this unhealthy habit because it will greatly reduce their risks of developing cancer.

Doctors recommend women watch their alcohol consumption as part of breast and cervical cancer control. Other ways to improve your lifestyle is to work plenty of physical activity into your daily schedule. Whether you join a gym, buy a treadmill or play outside with your children, exercising is an important factor in cancer protection.

Cancer protection could mean small changes or complete overhauls to daily routines, depending on your current lifestyle. Lowering your risk of cancer may include joining a gym or buying vitamins and dietary supplements. It could mean you have to quit smoking or using other tobacco products. Whatever change you make to your current situation will put you closer to living a healthy and cancer-free life.

Curcumin and Breast Cancer-Can it Offer Protection?

That was a report about curcumin and cancer, and how natural remedies are now featuring highly in the treatments of some serious illnesses. It’s certainly not uncommon to know of someone in your family circle who has suffered or endured such a disease as breast cancer.

I too, speak from a personal viewpoint as someone who’s partner has gone through the harrowing experience of diagnosis, treatment and the long road to recovery. But, in our case that was thankfully a successful outcome and with rapid advances in medical discoveries a larger percentage of women do combat this illness.

When I read the information on curcumin and cancer I was impressed at its medicinal qualities. This herbal extract is derived from the turmeric plant, a close relative of ginger and a chief component of curry powder. It’s medicinal qualities were known about over 2,000 years ago and were used by Chinese healers for a wide range of health disorders.

This is a real powerhouse plant and curcumin is also a good antioxidant. Many health experts say we simply can’t get enough of them, unless you eat plenty of the right things like fruits and leafy vegetables.

Antioxidants are useful when our bodies are trying to fight infections and in offering our immune systems a much needed boost and a helping hand.

This was the crux of the matter when curcumin and cancer were spoken about in the same light. It commented on its protective and preventative effect as being the chief benefit when taken.

Many medical experts put the blame for such a disease on our dietary and lifestyle choices, which may be true to an extent. Others theorize about things like genetic predispositions, listing family history as one link in the chances of contracting breast cancer.

Regardless of that, the one thing we can do and within the grasp of us all, is to convince our female family members to make a slight but significant change in taking a daily curcumin supplement.

The Wine That Might Offer Protection Against Lung Cancer Symptoms

You’ve probably heard that the antioxidants found in certain foods and red wine can offer some protection from breast cancer, heart disease and stroke. According to new research set to appear in October’s Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, we could soon be adding lung cancer symptoms to that list.

”An antioxidant component in red wine may help to prevent lung cancer,” according to lead researcher Chun Chao a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research and Evaluation. “The findings provide an impetus for further research to find out if there is something in red wine that may help to either prevent or treat lung cancer.”

Scientists believe that antioxidants, like those found in red wine and other foods, are somehow able to protect cells from oxidative damage that comes from free radicals and can strike any part of a cell, proteins, the membrane, even the DNA itself. Cellular damage caused by free radicals has been implicated in the development of cancer.

Researchers used the California Men’s Health Study to identify 210 lung cancer patients from the 45 to 69 year old men who were members of a large, prepaid health plan in California. The researchers looked at cancer rates and consumption of red and white wine, beer and other liquor. They found that, on average, there was a 2% lower risk of lung cancer associated with each glass of red wine a subject drank per month. So… a man who drinks 30 glasses each month would lower his risk of lung cancer by 60%.

Of course, any smoker’s risk of lung cancer is higher than a non smoker’s risk. We all know that, right?

The team found the biggest effect on risk seemed to come to male smokers who drank one to two glasses of red wine per day. Makes you wonder if the red wine somehow… rises to the challenge of the toxic chemicals in the smoke?
You notice the emphasis on red wine? There are two reasons for this…

1. The study found no reduction in risk in men who drank the same amounts of white wine, beer or liquor. Only red wine had the effect.

2. Red wine uses the whole grape, seeds, skins and all, which keeps vital antioxidants known as polyphenols in the wine, in a form ready to be absorbed and used by the body.

Of course, many are quick to point out that one study doesn’t prove that red wine has any protective effects. Sometimes early work like this, on further research, doesn’t stand up. And the researchers themselves are quick to insist that this study doesn’t mean smoking is something you should continue to do, or that red wine will protect a smoker from developing lung cancer.

”Clearly, we aren’t recommending that smokers go out and start consuming large amounts of red wine as a potential protection from getting lung cancer,” says Dr. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, “There are other research reports that show any alcohol, including red wine, can increase the risk of other cancers such as breast cancer.”

And of course you don’t have to rely on red wine to increase your levels of anti-oxidants each day. Eating 5 – 9 portions of fruit and vegetables will mean you’re giving your body the right kind of fuel to fight free radicals helping to minimize the risk of lung cancer symptoms.