There are over 10,000,000,000,000 cells in your body. Although these cells can do different jobs, each one has a nucleus with the same set of 46 chromosomes. Yet all of this came from a single cell with one set of 46 chromosomes. Within about 6 minutes of fertilization, this cell copied itself to make two cells. This was your first experience of mitosis. Soon after, these two cells copied themselves to make four and so on. You have been subject to mitosis ever since (billions of times).
By copying the original 46 chromosomes, your body has created more than a hundred billion kilometers of DNA – that’s enough to stretch around the Earth 2,500 times. Mitosis has copied a total of about 100 ZB of data. As a rough estimate, this is equivalent to making a million copies of all the hard drives in the world. [1 ZB is a zeta byte of data. This is 1 with twenty four zeros after it]. However, although this is an amazing feat, it does sometimes go wrong. This can result in a cancerous growth. Cancer is a disease that originates in our own cells.
A change in the DNA causes a special gene called an oncogene to be switched on. This leads to uncontrollable cell reproduction by mitosis. And this is called Oncogenesis and in the layman’s word is called cancer. When cells begin to grow in an uncontrolled way, they form a lump called a tumor. Some tumors stay within one specific area. They do not spread into surrounding tissues and may not cause any problems. If it is easy to do so, these benign tumors are usually removed by surgery. There are usually no further problems.
Cancers are dangerous types of growths called malignant tumors. In this type of tumor the cells invade the surrounding tissues. Cancer cells Step 1 – The primary tumor develops as a group of cells that are growing out of control. Step 2 – The tumor gets bigger and stimulates blood vessels to supply it from the surrounding tissues. Step 3 – Tumor cells squeeze into blood and lymph vessels and move to other parts of the body Step 4 – When the tumor cells reach other areas of the body, like the liver and lungs, they begin to grow and form secondary tumors.
If they are not treated quickly enough, the damage that these secondary tumors cause can be fatal, as there is amechanical impediment to the functioning of the organs as well as a competition for the blood supply “Every interference or intervention which disturbs man’s biological-dynamic balance, his place in the cosmic scheme of things, in the dipolar field current of Electro-magnetic powers which surrounds the world, and its creatures, and which govern the entire cosmos, every interference with these far reaching relationships, promotes the disease of cancer.
” -Johanna Budwig, Ph. D. Most degenerative diseases, including cancer, do not have a readily identifiable enemy. In a bacterial infection, you can attack the “cause” of the disease with an antibiotic. Cancer seems to be caused by a collection of lifestyle and environmental factors that accumulate over the years. Since success against any degenerative disease requires getting to the root of the problem, let’s examine the accepted causes of cancer. There is a basic flaw in our thinking about health care in this country. We treat symptoms, not the underlying cause of the disease.
Yet, the only way to provide long-lasting relief in any degenerative disease, cancer, arthritis and heart disease, is to reverse or treat the basic cause of the disease. No two persons in the world have exactly the same set of cofactors (i. e. Set of causes for cancer), thoughts and life situations. Significantly different set of cofactors, thoughts and life situations can promote (cause) the same kind of cancer at two different persons. Almost identical set of cofactors, thoughts and life situations can cause different kind of cancer in two different persons.
Of the 5 million registered chemicals in the world, mankind comes in contact with 70,000, of which at least 20,000 are known carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents. Each year, America alone sprays 1. 2 billion pounds of pesticides on our food crops, dumps 90 billion pounds of toxic waste in our 55,000 toxic waste sites, feeds 9 million pounds of antibiotics to our farm animals to help them gain weight faster and generally bombards the landscape with questionable amounts of electromagnetic radiation.
Bruce Ames, PhD of the University of California at Berkeley has estimated that each of the 60 trillion cells in your body undergoes from 1,000 to 10,000 potentially cancer-causing DNA breaks every day. Yet somehow for most of us, our DNA repair mechanisms and immune system surveillance are able to keep this storm of genetic damage under control. Wallowing in our own high tech effluvia is a major cause of cancer in modern society, since carcinogens add to the fury of the continuous assault on the DNA.
Samuel Epstein, MD of the University of Illinois, says that a major thrust of cancer prevention must be detoxifying our earth. Toxins not only cause DNA breakage, which can trigger cancer, but also subdue the immune system, which then allows cancer to become the “fox in the chicken coop”, with no controlling force. Early research indicated that once cancer has been unregulated, or “the lion is out of the cage”, then no amount of detoxification is going to matter. Newer evidence says otherwise. Cancer growth can both be slowed and even reversed under the right conditions.
According to the National Cancer Institute, there are 7 million Americans alive today who have lived 5 or more years after their cancer diagnosis. Cancer is reversible. If toxins caused the problem, then detoxification is the solution. Detoxification includes expelling accumulated: ? wastes that are natural by-products of living ?toxins from our heavily polluted environment ?Dead cancer cells from the battle within. Detoxification involves accelerating the excretion of poisons out of the body via urine, sweat, and feces, including the use of chelation, herbal purgatives, hot baths and enemas.
Other main causes of Cancer are, ? Distress -Since the 1920s, scientific evidence has been gathering that emotional stress can depress the immune system and make that individual more vulnerable to infections and cancer. ?Exercise. While one out of three Americans will eventually develop cancer, only one out of seven active Americans will get cancer. Exercise imparts many benefits, including oxygenation of the tissues to thwart the anaerobic needs of cancer cells. Exercise also helps to stabilize blood glucose levels, which can restrict the amount of fuel available for cancer cells to grow.
Exercise improves immune function, lymph flow and detoxification systems. Exercise helps us better tolerate stressful situations. ?Nutrition. The human body is built from, repaired by and fueled by substances found in the diet. In the most literal sense, “we are what we eat… and think, and breath, and do. ” Nutrition therapy merely tries to re-establish “metabolic balance” in the cancer patients. Medical doctors Gerson, Moerman and Livingston have each provided their own nutrition programs to treat cancer. Other schools of thought include macrobiotics, vegetarianism, acid /alkaline balancing, fasting, fruit and vegetable juicing and others.
Cancer mimics the chemistry of a fetus, and hence becomes invisible to the human immune system. Cancer also mutates by changing its DNA composition almost weekly, which is a major reason why many cancers develop a drug resistance that often limits the value of chemotherapy. Cancer also weakens its host by installing its own abnormal biochemistry, including: ? changes in the pH, or acid base balance, making the environment more favorable for cancer growth and less favorable for host recovery and creation of anaerobic (oxygen deprived) pockets of tissue which resist radiation therapy like someone hunkered into a bomb shelter ?reduced effetiveness of the immune system, which is the primary means of fighting cancer. ?
Elevating metabolism and calorie needs while simultaneously lowering appetite and food intake to slowly starve the host ? Ejecting by-products that create weakness, apathy, pain and depression in the host ? Siphoning nutrients out of the bloodstream like a parasite. With its invisible, predatory and every-changing nature, cancer is truly a tough condition to treat. Cancer is essentially an abnormal cell growth.
It is a piece of the cancer patient that was once normal, but somehow developed altered DNA blueprints and began growing wildly. Its unchecked growth tends to overwhelm other functions in the body until death comes from: 1)Organ failure, i. e. the kidneys shut down 2)Infection, i. e. pneumonia because the immune system has been blunted 3)Malnutrition, because the parasitic cancer shifts the host’s metabolism into high gear through inefficient use of fuel while also inducing a loss of appetite. The three most common types of cancer treatment are surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Treatment is aimed at removing the cancer cells or destroying them in the body with medicines or other agents. 1)Surgery can be very successful in treating some kinds of cancer, but it isn’t an option for all people. If the cancer is in the form of a malignant tumor and the tumor is in one place (localized), it may be possible to safely “cut out” the tumor and any surrounding affected tissue. Surgery may not be possible if the cancer has spread to other areas of the body or if the tumor cannot be removed without damaging vital organs, such as the liver or brain.
2)Radiotherapy uses radiation ? in the form of a special kind of x-ray, gamma rays or electrons ? to damage cancer cells so that they can’t multiply. There is usually no pain during therapy. Radiotherapy may sometimes be the only treatment needed, or it may be used with other therapies, such as surgery. A combination of surgery and radiotherapy may be used for tumors that grow in one place. 3)Chemotherapy uses medicines to attack the cancer cells. Just the word “chemotherapy” can cause a lot of fear because the side effects can be severe.
However, not all people experience severe side effects. The side effects of chemotherapy can often be reduced with other medicines. Chemotherapy is usually used when the cancer has spread to other areas in the body. Chemotherapy can also be used in combination with surgery and radiation. Sometimes the tumor is surgically removed and then chemotherapy is used to make sure all the cancer cells are killed. 4)Biological therapy. This treatment uses proteins to trigger the body’s immune system to produce more white blood cells (or lymphocytes).
Two lymphocytes that can attack and kill cancer cells are the T-cell and the B-cell. The proteins boost the ability of the T-cell and B-cell lymphocytes to kill cancer. Biological therapy can also be used in combination with surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy. 5)Hormone therapy is sometimes used to treat breast or prostate cancer. The hormone estrogen can make breast cancer tumors grow faster. Similarly, the hormone testosterone can make cancerous tumors in the prostate grow faster. Drugs that contain other hormones may be used to block the effects of estrogen and testosterone.
Removing of sex organs reduces the amount of estrogen or testosterone in the body. Hormone therapy is often used in addition to chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Kirat 1.
Works Cited “Cancer – choosing a treatment program. ” Family Doctor. . “Cancer and its Causes. ” Aging well village. New York State Office of Aging. . “Cell Division and Cancer. ” School Science. . Friedlander, Ed. “Cancer: Causes and Effects. ” . Quillin, Patrick. “Cancer and Its Causes – Know your Enemy. ” 15 Oct 2005. Health World.