National Cancer Prevention Month

Everyone associated February with Valentine’s Day and Heart-Health month but there are other health awareness in the month of February.

February is National Cancer Prevention month. More than one million people get cancer every year. Cancer is the general term for more than 100 diseases. There are many kinds of cancers and it is believed that cancer starts when abnormal cell growth gets out of control. The human body is made up of a trillion living cells that grow, divide and die in orderly steps. Cancer seems to start when the cells start to grow out of control and is different than normal cell growth pattern. Cancer cells seems to never die and create new, abnormal cancer cells. These cancer cells start to invade other tissues. Cells turn into cancer cells from DNA damage and then directs all its actions. The most obvious DNA damage contributors are smoking, sun exposure, chemicals, toxins, etc.

Majority of the time, these cancer cells form into tumors replacing normal tissues. Some cancer cells invade the blood and circulate other tissues where they grow. Metastasis is the process of cancer spreading, gets into the bloodstream or lymph nodes and can travel throughout the body.

Not all tumors are cancerous and called benign. Benign tumors cannot do not usually grow into other tissues.

Studies state that many cancers can be prevented with a healthy lifestyle, not smoking, staying at a healthy weight, staying active, eating health enriched foods, staying away from environmental carcinogens that may lurk in our homes, workplace, in pollution and even some medical treatments.

Steps to Help Reduce Cancer Risk:

• Stay at a healthy weight
• Exercise regularly
• Eat healthy
• Protect yourself from the sun
• Avoid tobacco
• Limit or avoid alcohol
• Get medical screening tests and research the most non-invasive ones available.

Tags: cancer, Diet, health, nutrition