Potential Causes of Cancers and Steps for Prevention

Cancer is a diverse group of more than hundred diseases occurring in different parts of body and due to different reasons. Accordingly, their aetiology varies but one thing is common in all cancers and that is they start from a few abnormal cells that have lost the control on their growth.

Our body is made of trillions of cells which have been formed from a single cell called zygote. Usually the cells grow, divide, form the tissue to perform specific function and die in very controlled manner, and that is how a child grows up into an adult. In adults the cells divide only for maintenance and to replace the dead cells and for healing the injuries.

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The growth and division of the cells are regulated by the DNA, deoxynucleic acid, which makes our genes, situated in cell nucleus. If some undesired changes occur in the DNA, called mutation, which is not repairable by the cells, it may lead to uncontrolled division of cells forming a lump of unorganised tissue called cancer. In case of blood cancer, however, the cells do not form lump of tissues. Cancers of different tissues behave differently and respond to different medications.

After reading my last blog one of the reader suggested to cover the causes of cancers so that people can get aware and avoid the cancer by making certain life style changes.

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According to American Cancer Society, a number of factors may be responsible for cancer including familial inheritance of defective genes, use of tobacco which contain many compounds that can cause DNA damage, the diet, physical inactivity, hormonal unbalance, increased body weight, and alcohol abuse, all can make the body organs prone to develop certain cancers. Further, environmental factors such as excessive sun, ultra-violet, radiation and chemical and pollutants exposure can also lead to cancer development.

One cannot do much in case of inheritance of a defective gene, but if such genes run in the family, the person can go for screening of such genes early and try to avoid the occurrence of cancer by staying away from the stimulus that may activate those genes. Alternatively, the affected organs can be regularly screened for any benign growth, and if needed may be removed surgically. Recently, Hollywood actor Anjelina Jolie’s double mastectomy was widely covered by Global media, which has been helpful in increasing the awareness about familial cancers.

In the present day scenario, westernised life style has been blamed for developing many cancers. The energy rich diet, along with little or no physical activity, obesity and tobacco and alcohol abuse has been scientifically shown to cause cancers. These factors induce a condition in the body which affects the body cells and make them vulnerable for DNA damage. In many people these changes may result in cancer development. The affected person would not know immediately because the cancer grows slowly. By the time symptoms appear and it may be diagnosed cancer may be uncontrollable and untreatable resulting in fatality.

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One can avoid the life style-related cancers by consuming balanced diet, avoiding energy rich and overcooked or fried meal, stopping tobacco and alcohol abuse and by exercising regularly to stay fit and regulate the body weight.

The pollutants, pesticides and herbicides, fertilizers and other toxic chemical may also act as carcinogen. These days most of the food items are being grown using these chemicals, our cities are excessively polluted and our homes are full of toxic chemicals. These chemicals are scientifically proven to cause severe and irreversible DNA damage which can result into cancer development.

The organic farming using no fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides can be helpful in avoiding the dangers of these chemicals on our health. Governments are implicating policies to decrease the pollution in residential and work area including offices and parks in which citizens should actively and consciously make effort to minimise the pollution. These step may, slowly and certainly, become helpful in prevention of many deadly cancers in due course.

Bacteria do not Outnumber Human Cells in Body

Not Outnumbered by Bacteria

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It’s often said that the bacteria inside us outnumber our own cells by 10 to one, but another new study claims that is wide off the mark. Ron Sender and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, estimate that we have roughly equal numbers of human and bacterial cells – each about 30 trillion. (Biorxiv,http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/036103)The 10:1 ratio comes from a paper written by T. D. Luckey in 1972. Luckey worked out that we each have about 1014 bacteria in our bodies, but this was a back-of-the-envelope calculation and he probably never intended for his estimate to be so widely quoted decades later.Using newer evidence, Sender and his colleagues estimate that there are 3.9 x 1013 bacteria in a human body and 3 x 1013 human cells, 84 per cent of them red blood cells. The two populations are so finely balanced that a visit to the toilet may tip the balance in favour of human cells – we shed about a third of the bacteria in our colon each time we defecate.Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28766-your-guts-trick-for-controlling-the-bacteria-that-live-in-it/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC%7CNSNS%7C2016-GLOBAL-hoot

Cancer Dwindling the Population Dividend of India

With the billion plus population, India is one of the youngest country in the world with 65% population in the working age. However, this promising population dividend is also suffering from malignant life style related health issues which is silently hollowing the India’s pillar of strength, it young people. The diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular problems and lately cancer has started appearing in the young men and women of this country as early as in late thirties or early forties.

Surprisingly, the cancer has become a significant menace and concern of personal, social and economic life of our people and severely impacting the socio-economic scenario of India. According to a study, in 2004 total cancer patients were over eight lacs, which in 2014, just after a decade, has more than doubled to 18 lacs. Every year a million (10 lacs) people are being diagnosed with cancer and nearly 6-7 lacs die of it annually, while the number of oncologists and specialists to treat these patients has not increased as much in these years.

According to an estimate an average cancer therapy for an individual with lung cancer comes around Rs. 6.5 lacs which is much more than average income (Rs. 5 Lacs) of middle class family. One can imagine how a poor family would remain untreated and left to die an untimely death. Thousands of the patients who receive the costly therapy are pushed deep into poverty.

What can be done?

The individual effort to stay healthy is necessary to beat the menace of cancer and live cancer free. The balanced and simple diet, active life style, daily exercise, routine check-up to catch the disease early are a few step an individual can adopt in order to lead a healthy life.

To increase the awareness of the cancer disease the government and private corporates under their social responsibility should run awareness campaign about the cancer using the social media, television and print media to have wide reach. The campaign may include awareness for early diagnosis, annual check-ups of the prone people such as 40 year plus individuals or those having the disease in close family, promoting healthy life style, especially in urban areas.

The state governments should provide for a clear policy for the patient’s treatment and cap the cost of cancer treatment so that private hospitals or care providers do not charge the patients unreasonable and catastrophic amounts for the treatments including the surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or palliative care. The cost of treatment needs to be made realistic and affordable for the average citizen. Privately funded health insurance or publicly funded health initiatives help the people in western country to meet the excessive treatments cost, while in India insurance remains limited to middle class or upper middle class families, that most of the times not realistic to meet the cost of cancer treatments. The government initiative and funding is meagre and the majority of the people remain unaware of such schemes. Efforts and policy are urgently needed to plug these gaps so that cancer care become economically accessible.  

Enhancing the infrastructure and ensuring the availability of specialist doctors is major bottleneck in the current cancer treatments. A country of 1.25 billion population has only 27 dedicated cancer hospitals and only 1000 trained cancer specialists. These numbers suggest that situation is really serious. Sample this, India has one oncologist for nearly 2000 cancer patients while the USA has one doctor for every 100 patients. Therefore, a policy should be adopted to open more speciality care centres in the area where cancer incidence is more such as in the north-eastern states, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and some areas of Punjab. 

Obesity causes lung dysfunction and breathing troubles by increased cysteinyl leukotrienes pathway

Increased body weight is a chronic health problem which has emanated from the globalized food market and dietary habit. This has led to the different types of ailments which occur in obese individual simultaneously and referred to as metabolic disorders. Metabolic syndrome includes conditions such as obesity, insulin-resistance, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular, and some forms of cancers. Lung dysfunction is also associated with increased body weight in which obese persons feel difficulty in breathing and could develop asthma like symptoms if not treated timely. Many studies have shown that such patients are difficult to treat with the regular asthma medicines, which suggests that probably breathing problem in obese people is caused by different mechanism and is different than allergic asthma. 

Elevated levels of cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLTs) in the urine of obese asthma patients indicate elevated levels of biochemical pathway that forms this compound. CysLTs are responsible for the inflammation and swelling and can change the cell’s behavior by modifying their structure and function. In fact, LTs are known to cause lung problems in asthma and COPD in non-obese people and inhibitors of LTs receptors or of enzymes that make LTs are used as drug to treat such patients.

In the obese individual the fat deposits in the special cells called adipocytes which grows in number and size upon energy rich diet consumption. The adipocytes secret certain chemicals which attract macrophages, the policing cells in body which fight with pathogens and infectious agents and also some of the body’s own molecules and materials and removes them. In excessive accumulation of adipocytes, more macrophages get attracted to adipose tissue, get overactive and secrete molecules like cytokines, chemokines and also CysLTs which are released in blood and can cause inflammation in other body parts.

When it reaches to the lungs, CysLTs can activate the lung cells which can also secret the inflammation causing molecules and attract immune cells to the lungs. This scenario is similar to the early stage of development of asthma. Over the period of time these molecules can change the structure and function of lung cells including epithelial cells which can change into either mucous cells of fibrous cells and lung function may get severely affected. Mucous cells secret large amount of mucous which inhibit the gas exchange in the lung while fibrous cells affect the elasticity of the lung and lung cannot expand upon breathing.

How obesity causes these changes in the lungs is still not known and scientists are actively working to find answers. The mechanism once clear can help in treating such patients using the appropriate drugs.

Reference: Yadav UC, Srivastava SK. Cysteinyl Leukotrienes (CysLTs): Role in Obesity-Induced Asthma. Curr Mol Med. 2015; 15(7): 598-605.

  

Health Rhymes

Being evolved from nomads, hunter and gatherers, humans aught to remain mobile, active and runners.

Being sedentary is not healthy, that is not us. Sitting and laying make us filthy and creates pus.

Fast or slow but run, jump, squat, stretch, skip twist, bend and turn. Let the blood flow unhindered from top to toe and calories burn.

All them together or subsequently, but must you do them daily.

Call it Exercise, Yoga or Pilates. Practice them and stay away from trouble of heart and diabetes.

To stay fit, healthy, and athlete you must leave the bed, and your seat.

Kill the diseases whether diabetes, obesity, or heart failure. Play and laugh like a kid, do not get stressed like a mature.