What Causes Cancer

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What Causes Cancer

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Written by Kay Brown

Thursday, 03 April 2008

by KayBrown

Although only a film about the cure for cancer, 'The Medicine Man' did bring home the need for more research into cancer; cancer has killed untold millions, but each year the cure for this disease gets another step closer. The cure will come eventually and the world will rejoice that this awful disease that can strike anyone at any time has been silenced. The causes for cancer seem to be many but despite all the knowledge we gain, it is still almost impossible to know if or when a person will contract it.

First off it is a good idea to understand exactly what cancer is and try to ascertain whether it is hereditary or something you can acquire. This is a disease where unhealthy cells grow, divide and then expand into other cells, often transferring to parts of the body using a method called metastasis.

A benign tumor, unlike a malignant cancerous one, does not continue to grow and invade other cells. They affect many people without them even knowing they are there. In rare circumstances a benign tumor may turn malignant. It causes more deaths per population than any other illness and the older you get the more prone you are to contracting the disease; thirteen percent of people die from one of it's many strains every year around the world.

Cancerous cells may have been transformed by radiation or poison, cigarettes for example and this creates genetic abnormality in those cells which then continue to grow and divide.

Although genetic abnormalities may be caused by it they may also be randomly acquired through problems in the body's DNA replication; a genetic trait may be inherited and thus present in all cells from birth. It is still not fully understood why one person will contract the disease and another be free from it but it is believed that the interactions between any carcinogens and each person's particular DNA is complicated.

Long term research has given a better picture of what cancer is and the study of cancer is one of the top ten diseases being researched throughout the world. We are always learning more about diseases and how they affect our bodies and minds. We are continually trying to find out why this disease attacks some and not others. By understanding the origins of cancer, perhaps we will be able to avoid contracting it until we come up with a cure.

There is a saying You Are What You Eat and this is now being looked at more closely as food may have a direct effect on the incidence of the disease in certain groups. There are certain foods that are considered risky such as excess salt in the diet, too much saturated fat and overindulgence in dairy foods. In particular, excess calcium is believed to have a direct effect on the incidence of prostrate cancer amongst men around the world.

Cancer can strike anywhere in the body and each is a specialist type to the organ or part of the body it has infected. Some people can have cancer for several years before they have any symptoms and this does not help their chances of being cured. However, mortality rates from cancer are decreasing and although a cure may not be possible, there are treatments available to slow its spread.

Cancer is not the certain death sentence it once was and although many of its various forms are incurable at this time, medical science continues to improve.

About the Author:

Kay Brown provides fine Digital Information Products and provides unique content Niche Articles from his site Net Reports. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service