By: Surjit Flora
Build up your self-confidence, and not just die of cancer. diseases. You may spend ten- or twenty-years battling cancer.
We just marked World international day Cancer Day on February 4 to raise awareness of cancer and encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment.
Actually, when we hear the word ‘cancer,’ severe health anxiety and cancer worry begin. The first question comes to mind is that am I going to survive? How will this affect my daily life and family? I have small children to look after them? Questions keep popping up, and sadly we got no answer until we go for diagnosis and get an opinion from the health officials.
The first and best advice I would say never google your symptoms!! I know it’s hard to resist, but it really doesn’t help, and if this is being caused by anxiety, which is highly possible, googling things will only make it worse and stressful.
Cancer means the growth of our body cells indefinitely. Of course, our body cells break down and form every moment, but when the growth of body cells in part takes on an indefinite form, it is called cancer, which slowly spreads to the surrounding cells or organs. It is what we commonly call ‘cancer spread’.
Cancer can affect any part of the human body, but breast, uterine and ovarian cancers are more common in women. Similarly, prostate, liver, and lung cancers are more common in men. The rest of cancer also depends on the way we eat and drink and the way we work.
Although science has made great strides, there are still many diseases for which there is no cure and no known cause. There is no single cause of cancer. Scientists believe that a variety of factors work together to cause cancer. The factors involved may be the genetic, environmental or physical characteristics of the individual.
The smoke contains high levels of chemicals that can cause cancer. Alcohol abusers are more likely to develop liver and esophageal cancer while eating more fish can lead to stomach and intestinal cancer. Cigarettes, tobacco, yolk, snuff, hookah, khaini increase the risk of cancer of the gums, mouth, throat, lungs, respiratory tract and esophagus. Workers in cadmium and arsenic factories have a higher risk of developing skin or lung cancer.
Women who avoid breastfeeding their babies or women who consume more fatty foods in their daily diet or use birth control pills that contain high levels of estrogen increase the risk of breast cancer. Many fast drugs such as arsenic, benzene, etc., increase the risk of blood cancer. In foreign countries, such as Canada, where ozone depletion produces direct radiation, skin cancer is more common. Similarly, modern techniques, such as X-rays or computers, have come to examine the human body. Mobile phone waves also invite cancer. Diseases such as hepatitis C and AIDS can also cause cancer. The indiscriminate use of pesticides is believed to be the most significant cause of cancer.
Anxiety, hoaxes, which cause every disease, but according to experts, brain cancer and respiratory cancer can be caused by too much worry. A team of scientists from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Cancer Research Institute have concluded in a study that non-vegetarians are more at risk of cancer than vegetarians.
People who eat spicy fruits and vegetables without spray are less likely to get cancer. According to the organization, overweight and tall people have a higher risk of developing cancer. Just as a coconut tree cannot grow in the desert or grow in moist soil, so Cancer can occur only when a person’s conditions are conducive to the growth and spread of cancer. For example, in our daily lives, we see whether all alcoholics die of cancer. No! Some even have a heart attack. Many have kidney failure. Many have brain hemorrhages and so on.
At times, it has even been reported that a patient suffered a serious injury, a leak that later turned into cancer. According to experts, there are three or four stages of cancer. In the early stages, cancer stays where it grows. In the second stage, cancer involves the surrounding cells.
In the third stage, or according to many, cancer spreads to vital organs such as the liver; in the fourth stage, it wraps around the lungs and then the bones. The treatment of cancer depends on its stage. If it is in the first stage, it is possible to cure it, but only one karma detects cancer in the early cancer stage. Otherwise, over time, the symptoms begin to appear.
No effective treatment for stage II cancer is possible. For example, if a woman has cancer in one breast, her breast is cut off, but same cancer spreads to the other breast after five or ten years. Then the other breast is cut off. So, cancer cannot be eradicated from the body. It can only stop for a short time, even if you do a million chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments.
Getting treatment in the third or fourth stage is just a waste of money. The patient’s heirs also know, but they only take the patient to the big hospitals for fear of social taunts, but nothing happens.
At this stage, only painless death can be given to the patient. Although modern science has done much research and developed new techniques to solve cancer, they have not proved very useful. The number of cancer patients is increasing every day.
My personal opinion to cancer patients is not to be frightened by the name of cancer, not to be frightened by the disease that has entered the body but to have the courage to fight. Build up your self-confidence, and not just die of cancer. Learn to fight diseases. You may spend ten- or twenty-years battling cancer.
Surjit Singh Flora is a veteran journalist and freelance writer based in Brampton.
