The Sunday Mail
Dr Tsitsi Dlamini
No diagnosis strikes fear into the hearts of patients more than a cancer: it’s a word we all fear, and every day more of us are forced to face it.
It is often perceived as incurable, of unknown cause, and is – in many ways – viewed in the same way as the plague must have been viewed back in the 17th century.
Cancer is becoming the most common cause of premature death in Zimbabwe with the World Health Organisation revealing that it has overtaken heart diseases as the biggest killer globally.
What is cancer?
Cancer is a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide uncontrollably and invade other tissue. Cancer cells can spread through the blood and lymph systems. There are more than 100 different types of cancer, most of which are named for the organ or type of cell in which they start.
Cancer that begins in the colon is called colon cancer; cancer that begins in melanocytes of the skin is called melanoma, cancer that begins in the breast is called breast cancer. Cancer types can be grouped into broader categories, with the main categories of cancer including the following:
Carcinoma – cancer that begins in the skin or in tissues that line or cover internal organs.
There are a number of subtypes of carcinoma, including adenocarcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and transitional cell carcinoma.
Sarcoma – cancer that begins in bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, or other connective or supportive tissue.
Leukemia – cancer that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of abnormal blood cells to be produced and enter the blood.
Lymphoma and myeloma – cancers that begin in the cells of the immune system.
Central nervous system cancers – cancers that begin in the tissues of the brain and spinal cord.
Origins of cancer
All cancers begin in cells, the body’s basic unit of life. To understand cancer, it’s helpful to know what happens when normal cells become cancer cells.
The body is made up of many types of cells. These cells grow and divide in a controlled way to produce more cells as they are needed to keep the body healthy. When cells become old or damaged, they die and are replaced with new cells.
However, sometimes this orderly process goes wrong. The genetic material (DNA) of a cell can become damaged or changed, producing mutations that affect normal cell growth and division. When this happens, cells do not die when they should and new cells form when the body does not need them. The extra cells may form a mass of tissue called a tumour. Not all tumours are cancerous, as they can often be removed, and, in most cases, they do not come back. Cells in benign tumours do not spread to other parts of the body.
Malignant tumours are cancerous and can invade nearby tissues and spread to other parts of the body.
The spread of cancer from one part of the body to another is called metastasis. Some cancers do not form tumours. For example, leukaemia is a cancer of the bone marrow and blood.
According to the Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry 2009 annual report, the top five cancers among black Zimbabwean men were Kaposi sarcoma (20,8 percent), prostate (13,7 percent), oesophagus (6,3 percent), non-Hodgkins’s lymphoma (6,2 percent), and liver (5,7 percent). Among black women, the most common are cervical cancer (33,5 percent), breast cancer (11,7 percent) Kaposi sarcoma (8,9 percent), eye cancer (6,5 percent) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (4,9 percent). In non-black men the most frequent are non-melanoma skin cancer (50,7 percent), prostate (10,8 percent), colon (6,9 percent), melanoma skin cancer (5,4 percent), lung cancer (4,9 percent). For non-black women, the most common cancers were: non-melanoma skin cancer (35,4 percent) breast (17,7 percent), cervical (7,4 percent) non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (5,1 percent) and colon cancer (3,4 percent).
Of the 157 childhood cancers (age 0-14 years) recorded in 2009, 79 were boys (50,3 percent) and 78 were in girls. The most frequently occurring cancers in boys were Kaposi sarcoma (20,3 percent), retinoblastoma (16,5 percent), leukaemia (11,4 percent), Wilm’s tumour (10,1 percent), connective and soft tissue (7,6 percent); while in girls these were Wilm’s tumour (21,8 percent), retinoblastoma (16,7 percent), Kaposi sarcoma (12,8 percent), connective and soft tissue (10,3 percent) and brain nervous system (3,8 percent). Most paediatric cancers are curable, especially if detected and treated early. The growth in the incidence of cancer parallels the industrialisation and chemicalisation of our world: the more developed a country, the more cancer there is.
Money and cancer
Indeed, the higher the per-capita income, the higher the incidence of cancer.
This is because most cancers are primarily the result of changes we have made to our total chemical environment: the food we eat, the fluids we drink and the air we breathe. What we are feeding our bodies is killing us, and changing patterns of cancer in the economically developed world shows that cancer rates are strongly influenced by environmental factors. However, probably 85 percent of cancers are preventable. What we eat is especially relevant.
Conversely, by eating the right diet you can cut your risk of cancer by up to 40 percent or more.
The World Cancer Research Fund estimates that a quarter of a million lives could be saved each year, through dietary changes alone.
According to the Cancer Research Campaign, at least three out of four of all cancers are potentially preventable, but will only be avoided if the messages get through to people while they are young.
While prevention is obviously better than cure, the fact is that cancer prevention is not profitable.
Interestingly, some of the main cancer charities receive funding from the pharmaceutical industry, which hardly encourages them to concentrate resources on tackling the true causes of cancer – namely our modern diet, lifestyle and over exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. Learning how we can prevent cancer is important for everyone. The easiest way to stay free from cancer is to do all the right things in the first place.
People with early diagnosis or who have had cancer in the past, can often prevent its development or recurrence. Primary cancers are very rarely life threatening, it is the secondaries, the cancers that follow, that claim all too many victims.
The right foods
What you eat and how you prepare your food, can affect how you feel, how you look and how long you live. Very few people look at ways to change their lives to improve their chances of surviving. Yet there are some extremely simple things you can do to give yourself even more of a fighting chance. One of these is adding certain foods or drink to your diet. Eat a more plant-based raw diet. These five foods/ drink are some of the best things you can do for yourself if you’ve been diagnosed with cancer.
1. Green Tea – Many doctors and research centres now, including the Mayo Clinic, believe that drinking green tea is one of the best things you can do to improve your health when you have cancer. Green tea contains high levels of antioxidants as well as other cancer fighting agents. Patients who have begun to drink two-10 cups of green tea a day have seen improvement in their cancer, and some have seen their cancer go into remission. In Japan, the women who oversee the famous “tea ceremonies” have very low levels of cancer and live to a very old age. This is thought to be because they drink so much tea and green tea is part of their tea consumption.
2. Garlic – In World War II, garlic was used by the Russian army as the “poor man’s penicillin” when they ran out of penicillin. It has been shown in numerous studies to boost the immune system and to favourably affect many diseases. The British Journal of Medicine even published a study in 1993 stating it may prevent cancer. It has also been shown to improve cancer of the stomach, breast cancer and throat cancer.
3. Tomatoes – Tomatoes have been shown to reduce the risk of several forms of cancer because they are high in lycopene, a cancer fighting agent. Homemade ketchup, tomato paste and spaghetti sauce have also been proven to contain a concentrated level of lycopene, so are particularly good cancer fighting agents. They have also been linked to a reduction in prostate cancer in men – a really excellent snack is several toasted slices of whole-wheat bread, with tomatoes sliced on them, drizzled with olive oil (another cancer fighting food) and fresh basil.
4. Pumpkin/Butternut – Pumpkin is delicious, and is a great food for fighting cancer. It’s loaded with beta-carotene and the seeds have been shown to fight prostate cancer in men. Add half a cup of raw butternut or pumpkin in your salads everyday with the seeds. One of my favourite ways to eat pumpkin is simply to bake in the oven for 30 minutes. When it’s all soft and mushy, pour a little honey over it and eat.
5. Pawpaw – Pawpaw has a high Vitamin C content and also contains folic acid, which has minimise cervical dysplasia and other cancers.
Some doctors think eating foods like pawpaw is the reason why some heavy smokers don’t develop lung cancer – this is because of the high levels of vitamin A and C in papaya. A wonderful way to eat pawpaw is chopped up in a fruit salad with other fruits, and covered in plain yoghurt. It will fill you up, so is a wonderful healthy meal, yet the calorie count is only around 300 calories for the yoghurt and a bowl of fruit.
You Can Improve Your Health by Introducing a Healthy Raw Diet. Dr Wellness can be contacted on 263771773118 /0739946095 and [email protected].
Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It cannot and should not be used for diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition, mentioned or not mentioned in this article. Consult a doctor or health professional for diagnosis and treatment of a medical condition.
These five foods are excellent ways to prevent cancer or make you healthier if you have cancer.
Don’t forget though, the best way to improve your health is to combine all these foods with other healthy foods such as nuts, vegetables, juices, seeds etc. Eating a healthy diet will go a long way to making sure you live a long and healthy life.
Basic guidelines
Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables each day
Eat high-fibre foods such as whole grain breads, de-starched rice and cereals
Avoid high-fat foods such as French fries, potato chips and pizza
Exercise until one is tired, but not in pain
Select enjoyable exercises, such as group sports or “fun” activities
Include warm-up and cool-down activities
Try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, at least 5 days per week
You Can Improve Your Health by Introducing a Healthy Raw Diet. Dr Wellness can be contacted on 263771773118 /0739946095 and [email protected].
Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It cannot and should not be used for diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition, mentioned or not mentioned in this article. Consult a doctor or health professional for diagnosis and treatment of a medical condition.
