Cancer is a disease that can rob you of your body, one cell at a time, but you can fight cancer, beginning with what you eat. Here are some cancer-fighting tips to heighten your nutrition level.

Whether you have received a diagnosis of cancer or have a family history, there is one thing that you can always strive to do to affect your situation – change your diet. We are what we eat.

Good nutrition is an important part of life. The body is a wonderful machine that knows how to get the most from its fuel sources to keep itself running in good shape. Eighty or more percent of our nutrients come from the foods that we eat. The body can manufacture some of the substances that it needs, but most need to be ingested.

It is the components of these foods that affect changes inside the body. In fact, food is often a main source of the problem when the body begins to break down. For instance, eating too much fat can set off a chain reaction in the body that leads to obesity, heart disease, cancer and even a fatal outcome.

Use food as your weapon to fight back against cancer, the disease that knows no gender, age, or socioeconomic status. Here are some foods that will help you to fight back against cancer statistics:

* Broccoli – This has been called a “superfood.” That means that it is a well-rounded food that offers a complete nutrient profile. As far as cancer goes, all cruciferous veggies (including cauliflower and Brussels sprouts) contain indole-3 carbinol. This substance has been shown to retard the growth of cancer cells. It also helps lower the odds of getting breast cancer. Colon cancer is also thwarted by another component called sulfophorane.

* Fish – Fish is a food that contains omega-3 fatty acids. These are healthy fats that work to protect the heart, and also reduce inflammation in the body. These fatty acids along with other vitamins help to protect against prostate cancer.

* Tomatoes – Technically a tomato is a fruit because of the seeds.  This food contains lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. It is the job of antioxidants to fight free radical damage in the body, which can lead to all sorts of cancers. The concentration of lycopene is greater when tomatoes are cooked. Eat them in stews, soups, and casseroles.

* Tea – Certain teas, such as white tea and green tea, contain substances that help inhibit cancers in areas such as the prostate, breast, lungs, ovaries, skin and bladder. Green tea also has antioxidant properties.

* Vitamins – All sorts of vitamins are needed for new cell growth and to boost the immune system to fight off disease. These include vitamins A, C, E and the B ones. Taking a multivitamin ensures that you get what you need if you don’t get it from the food you are eating.

Cancer can be a ravaging disease, but you can fight back with the above nutrition tips.

Cancer of the pancreas is a life-altering disease with a very low 5-year survival rate. Therefore, it is critical that people try to prevent pancreatic cancer.

While we do not know all the causes of pancreatic cancer, some groups are clearly at risk:

• People over the age of 60;
• Men;
• Smokers;
• People with diabetes;
• People who have a family history of pancreatic cancer.

There are a number of things you can do to prevent pancreatic cancer.

1-Stop smoking.

It will improve your overall health as well.

2-Stay slim.

Most cases of pancreatic cancer occur in overweight people.

3-Exercise.

Be sure to exercise every day. Even easy activities like walking and yoga can help.

4-Eat fresh food.

Avoid fast foods and anything out of a box or can that will have salt and preservatives in it. Also eat whole grains, fruits and vegetables and drink green tea and fresh water.

5-Add more Vitamin D to your diet.

It has been shown to prevent pancreatic cancer and other cancers by as much as 50%.  It can be gained through exposure to sunshine, using sunblock. Sources in your diet can include eggs, dairy products like milk, yogurt and cheese, liver and fish. Wild mushrooms are the best source for vegans.

Broccoli is an excellent superfood almost everyone will enjoy in both its cooked and raw forms.

What are superfoods? They are foods that are perfect in the nutrition that they provide you. Broccoli looks like a small tree with a thick trunk that happens to be green and not brown. The head is made up of tiny tight projections that form the florets. All parts of broccoli are nutritious. Broccoli is classified as a cruciferous vegetable along with cauliflower. It smells bad when it is cooking (due to the sulfur compounds it contains), but it tastes good with a little low-fat butter spread and salt and perhaps a dash of vinegar. Broccoli is versatile, too, since it can be eaten raw, or lightly cooked as part of a stir-fry.

Broccoli is an antioxidant which fights the damage to your body caused by free radicals. Free radicals come from the environment, cigarette smoke, toxins in the air, stress and eating the wrong foods. Over time, they can increase the incidence of cancers and other age-related diseases, and make you act and feel older than your years.

Eating broccoli can help reverse that process before it even begins to be a problem. Here are some of the other benefits of this superfood.

* Broccoli contains flavonoids – These are a particular type of antioxidant. In broccoli they help shield you from lung, breast and gastrointestinal cancers.

* Broccoli can help preserve your memory – Broccoli contains substances that can help to reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. It inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase from doing its job which is to break down acetylcholine. This is a brain neurotransmitter that is responsible for memory pathways. Eating broccoli performs the same action as some drugs that are given to Alzheimer’s patients to retard that process. Other foods – apples, oranges and even potatoes – also help, but not as much as broccoli.

* Broccoli cleans out the liver – The liver is a filtering organ that helps get rid of impurities in the body. Thanks to our modern lifestyle, it can become overwhelmed. Eating broccoli helps to clean out the liver so it can function better.

* Eating broccoli raw or steamed will give you the most nutrients of all. The less amount of processing done, the better. And remember to eat both the stalk and the florets.

If you want one single food that can fight disease, slow the aging process, restore your memory and give you a great deal of antioxidants? Try broccoli today.

(Note: You may be one of a small percentage of the population whose DNA causes you to experience broccoli and similar foods as very bitter. For more information, see: http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=87

Here is some advice on what the new breast cancer screening guidelines mean for you: New Guidelines Advice

One writer says this is an assault against women: New Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines

Complementary therapy is a term used to describe treatment options for medical conditions that are used with traditional medical treatment.  Before undertaking these complementary treatments, patients are encouraged to consult their physicians.  But, how effective are they as cancer treatments?

The answer depends on what you are looking for in the complementary cancer therapy.  Every day there are new breakthroughs in cancer treatment.  Actually being able to administer the new drugs is several years away and throughout the process of testing there are no guarantees that they will be found useful.

Besides legitimate researchers, there are those who have cut corners and advertise ìtoo good to be “true” treatments.  When sick patients are grasping at straws, they usually come in contact with these people and wind up penniless with their spirit broken.

The truth is that even traditional medical treatment had to be tested before it could be thought of as safe.  Even those that help such as radiation and chemotherapy have serious side effects that are hard to bear.

Watching the cancer is another treatment option.  This sounds like waiting for the other shoe to drop but it is not.  The doctors closely monitor any changes in the size of the tumor.  This works for men who have early cancers.  For your part, any changes in symptoms need to be reported immediately to your doctor.

Another option that men are seeking is hormone therapy.  This term is most common when talking about conditions that affect women, such as menopause.  But, hormones are a part of the normal functioning of the human body, female or male.

For men, the hormone in question is testosterone.  What this hormone does is increase the growth of the tumor.  Using drugs to block testosterone from having an effect on the prostate cancer is one way to keep the tumor from growing.

When considering hormone therapy, be well informed.  For tumors that are contained within the prostate, changing the levels of testosterone may do more harm than good.  This therapy has been shown to help men with advanced and metastatic prostate cancer.

Before giving up hope, consider your treatment options.

The main factor to consider when treatment is discussed is the stage of the cancer.  Staging is done to let you know at what rate the cancer is progressing and the severity at the time of diagnosis.  As you know, prostate cancer grows slowly and is highly curable while the cancer is within the gland itself.  Other factors include age, diet and lifestyle.

Prostate cancer that is caught early has the most treatment options.  One option is surgery.  The gland can be removed and the cancer with it.  There are different surgical options depending on your preference.  Removing the prostate whole involves a surgical procedure called a prostatectomy.  Before performing surgery, the surgeon will perform a procedure on the lymph nodes to make sure the cancer hasn’t spread.

A less invasive procedure is trans-urethral resection of the prostate.  The prostate gland is broken into smaller pieces and removed through the urethra so there is no incision made.  Surgery is an option for younger men that have the disease, since they have a higher chance of the cancer progressing and metastasizing as they age.

Surgical intervention has its side effects.  Men who have undergone surgery can suffer from urinary or fecal incontinence or erectile dysfunction.  These conditions do get better over time with drugs but some men will need further surgery to tighten sphincter muscles to control incontinence.

Another option is radiation therapy.  This is also termed brachytherapy.  For prostate cancer, radiation therapy is usually received through the implanting of radioactive “seeds”near the tumor.  There are also other methods of radiation therapy such as external radiation.

(cont)

More tell tail signs of Prostate cancer are:

Having trouble controlling the stream of urine.  This pertains to getting the urine to flow in the first place or stopping it at will.

Blood in the urine is the sign that usually alarms most men.  The blood may also be present in ejaculated fluid.

Pain or a burning sensation when you urinate or ejaculate is another noted symptom.

At the first sign of these conditions you should consult a doctor.  It could be benign prostate disease or it could be a cancerous tumor getting larger.

There are also signs of advanced prostate cancer.  This means that the tumor has gotten large enough to block normal function or the cancer has spread beyond the confines of the gland.

Typical symptoms include:

* Losing weight
* Fatigue
* Nausea or vomiting
* Pain in the pelvis, bones, lower back, ribs or upper thigh area

Don’t wait.  A clear diagnosis of your situation can make all the difference.

As we have mentioned in our earlier post, prostate cancer is one of the major cancers found in men.  It has a high cure rate as long as it is caught early enough.  You should know the symptoms and signs of this condition so that you can get medical attention before it is too late.

Why are these exams important?

Well, most cancers of the prostate occur in men who are over 65 unless there is a family history of the disease.  But, early intervention can help you avoid ever getting prostate cancer.  Doctors can detect subtle changes in the feel and size of the gland that could be a warning of things to come.

Currently, there are no warning signs if you are in the early stages of the cancer.  Know this: Prostate cancer grows slowly and those who have it are more likely to die of other causes than this cancer.  And, recognizing the symptoms and lowering your risk factors can keep it that way.

The symptoms will begin to present when the tumor begins to grow.  One tell-tale sign is frequent urination.  If you notice that you are getting up more than usual at night to pee, be on the alert for other symptoms that may also be occurring.

Begin to examine your urine.  A weak urine stream even when you know that your bladder is full can indicate that the prostate is getting bigger.  Because the prostate is surrounded by the urethra (carries urine from the bladder to the outside) any changes in size will press on these tubes.