Friday 17 June 2011

LIFESTYLE AND CANCER

About 10,00 cases of breast and bowel cancer could be prevented each year in the UK if people did more walking, claim experts.
The World Cancer Research Fund scientists say any moderate activity that makes the heart beat faster should achieve the same.
For example, data suggests 45 minutes a day of moderate exercise could prevent about 5,500 cases of breast cancer.
Physical exercise helps prevent obesity, which is a cancer risk factor
- BBC Ceefax September 2010

Men who have been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer can help keep their disease at bay by taking brisk walks, claim researchers.
Based on their observations men who power walk for at least three hours a week can halve how much their cancer will grow and spread over the next couple of years.
Strolling does not have the same effect, Cancer Research journal warns.
Experts say it shows that keeping active can improve health
- BBC Ceefax May 2011

NB: Exercise reduces cancer risk. That exercise boosts the immune system and helps to keep weight in check might partly explain these findings. Though I suspect the main reason is that exercise oxygenates the body. Cancer cells are anaeorbic i.e. they do not breathe oxygen and are unable to survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen. This theory would seem to be confirmed by the study findings that just strolling does not activate the anti-cancer effect. More vigorous activity, that makes the heart beat faster and lungs work harder, is required - NTFC

Begin by eliminating as many unnatural chemicals as possible from your home and environment. Keep in mind that many manmade chemicals (especially in plastics and pesticides) have a hormone-like effect within the body - therefore the incidence of hormone-related cancers (including breast, ovarian, testicular and prostate cancer) are all increasing - Hazel Courteney

* Families of the children who had developed leukaemia were about three times as likely to have employed the use of a professional exterminator in their home than the families who did not have a child with cancer.
* The highest risk to children appeared to occur when a professional exterminator was employed while the child was two years old.
* Whenever a mother was exposed during pregnancy to any kind of household pesticide, the risk of her unborn child later developing leukaemia was twice as high as for mothers who were not exposed to household pesticide use during pregnancy - J. Pickrell, University of California childhood leukaemia study 1995-1999

Emotions affect our health too and tragic stories of people who suffer a major shock in life, like the loss of a partner through death or divorce, and develop cancer within a few years are common.
My mother was angry after my father died aged only 50 from a heart attack. In later life she developed a cancer that killed her and I firmly believe it was her overall attitude to life that eventually caused her death. Hence I believe that healing emotional scars as well as physical ones is crucial to our long term health
- Hazel Courteney

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