Cancer Prevention – Part Two: Decreasing Your Cancer Risk Factor Through Nutrition and Monitoring

The topic of Cancer Prevention warrants additional information on the value of nutrition and detoxification as ways to reduce your odds of being one of the people who gets cancer.

One study in World Cancer Research Fund UK.1 suggests that thirty to forty-percent of cancers can be linked to improper diet.

For those just visiting, you may want to start reading at the beginning of this two part article, click here > Part One: Top Risk Factors of Who Gets Cancer

Who Gets Cancer? The Vitamin Deficiency Link

Article by Rajgopal Nidamboor

Deficiencies of vitamins B12, B6, or folic acid, are reported to “replicate” our DNA, affect the chromosomes, and cause cancer.

Nutrients, like beta-carotene, a vitamin A precursor, and an anti-oxidant, are said to protect against cancer; they keep cell activity in tact and specialized. Selenium, a micronutrient, is said to protect against cancer. Research also evidences that vegetables rich in beta-carotene reduce the risk of cancer substantially. There are others too, such as vitamin C and E, two major nutrients, which have well established anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties.

Here is a list supplied by CAM

Supplementation strategies known to prevent the development and/or progression of cancer disease include:

• Calcium
• Carotenoids
• Curcumin
• Garlic
• Green and black teas
• Folic acid
• Melatonin
• Selenium
• Silymarin
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin K

(Singh RP et al 2004; vis-Searles PR et al 2005).

Silymarin which is a milk thistle extract offers anti-cancer properties to fight against prostate cancer cells and is a recognized supplement which is useful for treating and preventing prostate cancer. This herbal supplement is given by allopathic doctors, nutritionists, and naturopathic doctors.

Milk thistle is also know for its detoxing effects on the liver to assist in preventing liver cancer. And many health experts recommend detoxing the body systems as part of a wellness protocol to keep the body functioning at a higher level of health.

For optimal Detox results, you will gain a lot of information by reading a 3-part Detox
Article before beginning any body cleanse regimen.

Today, cancer research and therapy are geared on one major “focus,” which is malignancy. Although drugs to prevent occurrence or inhibit growth of a precursor lesion is also a focus, or the very basis of chemoprevention, there are several nutrients and phytochemicals [nutraceuticals] — or, nutritional supplements — that have been found to be valuable for preventing cancer.

It is quite clear that fiber in food, for one, prevents colorectal cancer. This is based on a simple premise: fiber flushes toxic substances out of the body.

Cuing-in on Cancer Risk Factors

One quick way to hit upon a cancer risk, according to modern research, is by way of biomarkers, not a symptom picture, which is not always apparent. It may also, in addition, be possible to monitor precancerous tissues [e.g., intestinal polyps or oral lesions] to pinpoint a cancerous invasion. (This is why colonoscopy procedures are recommended at the fifty year mark as well as yearly dental exams.)

Whatever the cue for diagnosis, we are far from a point where one would be able to pop a pill to prevent cancer. You got the point. Besides, people are also wary of taking medications — fearing side-effects.

One way of making chemopreventive and other medications acceptable to the discerning consumer, experts attest, is by making these drugs relatively safe. But, skeptics say that this idea carries a double-edged sword. One the one hand, it can prevent cancer and, on the other, it can lead to drug-induced problems. For example, most adenomas [benign cancer states] do not progress to cancer. Also, long-standing use of aspirin, a cancer-pharmaceutical may, for instance, result sometimes in life-threatening complications.

All the same, further along the road for chemoprevention are encouraging results that have emerged from selective estrogen receptor modulators [SERMs] in breast cancer, to highlight one example. Tamoxifen, a SERM, given to women with estrogen receptor-positive disease has shown evidence to prevent cancer in the unaffected breast — though responses are contradictory for it in medical circles.

This brings us to one important perspective — that for cancer prevention to work we need embrace multiple levels of prevention, keeping in mind the possibility that just one tumor developing over a long period can become cancerous.

Just one cell is all that is needed for a tumor to grow — a tumor that cannot be whisked away by natural mechanisms!

You, again, get the point. In these days and times where the odds of getting cancer seem to be increasing all steps to stop cancer in its pathway, should be taken. Yes, there is hope that one day a cure may come.

But the bottom line, as researchers testify, needs to be practical and achievable. We need to slow down cancer in its tracks with newer and more potent, but less harmful therapies, which should also include integrative, alternative, or complementary therapies.

At the same time, we need to lead healthy, balanced, and active lives to prevent, or keep the dreadful disease at bay. This is the best and the only practical prescription available at the moment.

Other Related HealthyNewAge Articles

• Click here to read a series on Prostate Health
• Learn About Chlorine’s Relationship to Cancer