Cancer prevention - and possible cancer causes
On the left you will find some preliminary articles about possible cancer causes and cancer prevention.
Youve got cancer? The Government and cancer bodies would like you to believe its all your fault. 50 per cent of cancers are thus, they claim - its your poor diet, your lack of exercise, your bad habits.
But even if this were true, what causes the other 50 per cent? Other charities have barely a full page on this subject. Here we will cover everything you need to know about possible cancer causes and cancer prevention. We have no vested interests, and we take The Precautionary Principle, telling you ALL about the expert research, whether it be on Environmental toxins or EMFs.
Of course, you may feel this is all too late for your personal circumstances, if you already have cancer.
Dont.
What caused your cancer may still be there, driving it, maintaing it. We have helped people whose cancer was really a parasite, who had a mast next to their house, pesticides sprayed in the field next door, even someone who merely had a bad yeast infection, So what is driving your cancer?
The cause of cancer a naive approach to a serious problem
If you mention that you work in the field of cancer to the average person in the street, sooner or later you will be asked, So what does cause cancer?
Somehow we have been trained to think there are things that cause cancer, just as there will be drugs that can cure it. In both cases this is naive. There is no such thing as a single cause of cancer - not even smoking.
The cancer process involves a large number of steps from possible damage or faults developing in your DNA, then the formation of a rogue cell, through the process of outwitting the immune system, to developing a blood supply for a tumour and more. Much more.
Everyday of your life you make 200 or more cancer or pre-cancer cells, just from the process of living. As you age you make more. But your immune system deals with these in its stride. Of course, it does weaken as we age allowing a greater chance of rogue cells to beat the system and not surprisingly we see 80 per cent of all cancers in the over 65 age group.
Of course some factors are DIRECT and make cells more likely to develop faults and turn rogue one could point possibly to asbestos and certain forms of radiation but, by and large looking for totally provable, definitive causes of cancer is a long and almost impossible job, in part because there will always be exceptions. Already in November 2004 we had research studies from Wang et al in Columbia University showing that stomach cancer forms not from faults developing in your DNA, but from pre-cursor stem cells present in all of us which, under the influence of excess oestrogen, fail to turn into normal stomach cells but instead stay in their rapidly-dividing form leading to cancer. Wang described his findings as A Breakthrough, adding that Now the text books need to be re-written! If we are not sure of the theory surrounding the development of cancer, how could we ever be sure of a cause? There could be a hundred ways of developing cancer, and hundreds of participating factors heightening risk who really knows?
Possible Contributory Factors in the cancer process
But what we do know is that a weakened immune system is more likely to allow a rogue cell to take hold in the body. And there are plenty of factors known to weaken the immune system. Can you say that any of these is a cause of cancer. No, of course not. But they may well be described as INDIRECT contributory factors even if they are merely third party factors, weakening the defence rather than strengthening the attackers.
If we wait around while scientists try and prove beyond all doubt that something is a direct cause of cancer we will wait a long time. Meanwhile cancer rates are growing exponentially a doubling in the last 30 years, a forecast doubling in the next 20. A rise of over 7 per cent per year in our young with some cancers having tripled in the last 25 years amongst the under-16s.
1.3 million people live with cancer today while the forecast is three million in 2020. We cant wait we need a step change in the way we think.
CANCERactive research shows people have no idea how to prevent
And it is clear. The people of Britain need help in cancer prevention. We conducted our own research and it showed - unlike heart disease and AIDS, people just dont have a clue. They dont know that some foods help and some hinder, nor anything about toxins in the home, or Pesticides, or electronic smog. But then many of the very charities that claim to want to help people beat cancer often have overt or covert vested interests. If a Trustee works for a company promoting mobile phones, or is a Director of a company that makes pesticides are they really likely to take an outspoken stance - even if top experts in the world are issuing clear scientific warnings? We think you deserve those truthful warnings.
CANCER active and a precautionary 3D approach
So, we are not for one minute going to join the naive throng and start telling people that any single factor causes cancer please do not take that impression from CANCERactive.
But we also find the current dont smoke, dont overdo the sunshine, eat 5 lots of fruit and vegetables per day and practise safe sex too limited, too simplistic and even unreliable to be taken seriously whatever the powers that be suggest. Especially when even some of these elements are open to debate! For 5 lots of fruit and vegetables read 10 in France and 13 in the USA; for beware of the sun understand that sunshine is an essential stimulator of vitamin D in our bodies - vitamin D having been shown conclusively to actually strengthen the body against cancer.
Our approach is far more multi-dimensional. In fact we call it the CANCERactive precautionary 3D approach. We use the Precautionary Principle, used by a few other bodies in other countries. We simply aim to take the scientific evidence that certain factors may be concerns, pose threats of harm or be possible contributory factors to the wider cancer development process, whether directly or indirectly, and alert the people of Britain under three overall headings
Diet
Dangers
Disease
Articles - briefing articles - will be prepared by experts and appear from time to time in icon magazine and on this web site under prevention and possible contributory factors.
Possible concerns - and your right to know about them
At CANCERactive we pride ourselves on bringing people reliable and accurate information, in an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand way. We want people to be able to make more informed choices about their own lives and long-term health today, and not have to wait until committees have sat or some spurious notion of a cancer cause has been fulfilled.
We provide the available scientific evidence now so you are free to decide for yourself and take the steps you believe best suit you. Its your right to know about the possible risks and the possible concerns, and to live your life accordingly.
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