Cancer

The word “cancer” often brings fear, but understanding it is the first step toward prevention and early detection.

Cancer is not a single disease, it’s a group of diseases that occur when some of the body’s cells lose the normal controls that regulate growth. Instead of growing, dividing, and dying in an orderly way, these abnormal cells continue multiplying, forming a mass called a tumor (Not all cancers form tumors, such as leukemia).

Under normal circumstances, our bodies constantly repair damaged cells or remove them through a process called apoptosis (programmed cell death).

Cancer develops when genetic damage accumulates over time and your immune system weakens allowing abnormal cells to escape these control mechanisms. These cells may invade nearby tissues or spread to distant organs through the blood or lymphatic system, a process known as metastasis, which is responsible for most cancer-related deaths.

Cancer does not develop overnight. It is often the result of years of interaction between:

• Genetics
• Lifestyles
• Environmental exposures
• Infections
• Aging
• Medications
• Smoking
• Alcohol consumption
• Obesity
• Physical inactivity
• Poor dietary habits
• Chronic inflammation,
• Certain infections (such as HPV and hepatitis B and C).

On genes, we all have genes for different conditions. We can dismantle the things that are responsible for turning on the genes, we call them epigenetics.

The encouraging news is that many cancers are preventable, and many others are highly treatable when detected early.

Cancer should not be viewed as a death sentence in this era. Advances in:

• Surgery,
• Chemotherapy,
• Radiation therapy, t
• Targeted therapies,

+Immunotherapy, and

• Precision medicine have dramatically improved survival for many types of cancer. The earlier cancer is detected, the greater the chance of successful treatment.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy have saved lives and remain essential treatments for many cancers.

However, they are not without cost. While their goal is to destroy cancer cells, they can also damage healthy cells, particularly those that grow and divide rapidly. They are not specific to just cancer cells. This is why cancer therapy can get complicated than the disease itself.

As much as we have seen people improve from their use, we have also seen people go down the drain immediately they start therapy.

Because chemotherapy cannot always distinguish between cancer cells and other fast growing cells, it may also affect the:

• Bone marrow, causing anemia and severe bone marrow depression. Fatigue, reduced immunity and recurrent infections.
• Hair follicles, causing loss of hair.
• The lining of the mouth and intestines, causing mouth and stomach ulcers that are severe. This can make cause anemia as well and malnutrition. Sometimes rapid weight loss, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
• And reproductive cells, causing infertility.
• Cancer.

Radiation therapy works differently.

It uses high energy radiation to damage the DNA of cancer cells in a specific area of the body. Although it is more targeted than chemotherapy, healthy tissues within the treatment field can also be affected.

Depending on the area treated, patients may develop skin irritation, burns, difficulty swallowing, bowel irritation, lung inflammation, or long term scarring of normal tissues.

Some side effects improve after treatment ends, while others may persist for months or years.

Certain chemotherapy drugs can affect the heart, kidneys, liver, nerves and hearing.

Radiation may increase the risk of tissue damage in the treated area and, in rare cases, contribute to the development of a second cancer many years later.

Oncologists weigh the expected benefits against the potential harms but this side effects will still come.

Cancers become life-threatening when they spread (metastasize) and interfere with the normal function of vital organs.

As cancer grows and spreads, it competes with healthy tissues for nutrients and energy. Cancer cells divide rapidly and have a very high demand for glucose and oxygen.

Over time, this can contribute to cancer cachexia; a condition where the body loses muscle and fat despite eating enough. The person becomes weak, loses weight, and eventually lacks the strength to carry out even basic body functions.

When cancer spreads to organs such as the lungs, liver, brain, or bone marrow, it prevents those organs from doing their normal jobs.

Cancer in the lungs can reduce oxygen exchange.

Cancer in the liver can impair detoxification and the production of essential proteins.

Cancer in the bone marrow can reduce the production of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, leading to anemia, a weakened ability to fight infections, and an increased risk of bleeding.

Advanced cancer can also weaken the immune system. Some cancers directly affect immune cells, while others impair bone marrow function or require treatments that temporarily reduce immunity. As a result, infections that a healthy person might overcome can become life threatening.

Cancer also stimulates the formation of new blood vessels to feed itself, a process called angiogenesis. While this helps the tumor grow, the blood vessels are often abnormal and inefficient.

At the same time, the expanding tumor can compress nearby blood vessels, nerves, and organs, reducing blood flow to healthy tissues and causing pain or loss of function.

Once you understand these, you will choose to prevent over waiting to treat.

It is an expensive affair.

Can Oxygen therapy treat Cancer?

You have definitely heard the claim that “cancer cannot live in oxygen.”

This phrase is just popular online, it is an oversimplification.

Cancer cells need oxygen just like normal cells. In fact, as tumors grow, they stimulate the formation of new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis to increase their oxygen and nutrient supply.

Many cancers continue to grow even in oxygen rich environments.

That said, oxygen still plays an important role in cancer treatment. Some tumors develop areas with low oxygen (hypoxia) because they outgrow their blood supply. These low Oxygen regions can make cancer cells more resistant to radiation therapy and certain chemotherapy drugs.

One treatment that has been studied is hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). During HBOT, patients breathe nearly 100% oxygen inside a pressurized chamber.

The goal is to increase the amount of oxygen dissolved in the blood and delivered to tissues. HBOT is not a cure for cancer, but it has proven benefits in treating some complications of radiation therapy, such as;

• Delayed wound healing,

+Radiation injury to soft tissues, and

• Damage to the jawbone after head and neck radiation.

Increasing oxygen supply to the tissues also helps in responsiveness to chemotherapy.

In short, Oxygen therapy is indicated while on chemo or after radiation therapy.

Ignore the myth that cancer needs low oxygen to survive.

Can an Alkaline diet destroy Cancer?

You have also hear the claims is that “cancer lives in an acidic body” and that making the body alkaline can cure or prevent cancer.

This idea sounds appealing but there is no evidence. That is why you will see/hear a disclaimer; “They don’t want you to know this”.

Your body works very hard to keep the pH of your blood within a very narrow range (about 7.35–7.45). If your blood became significantly more acidic or more alkaline, you would become critically ill, regardless of whether you had cancer.

Your lungs and kidneys constantly regulate your body’s pH, and the foods you eat cannot meaningfully change your blood pH. Alkaline foods will turn neutral immediately they encounter the acidic pH of the stomach. So where does alkalinity come from?

The point is, many tumors create an acidic environment around themselves. Cancer cells often consume glucose rapidly and produce large amounts of lactic acid, especially when oxygen is limited.

This acidic tumor microenvironment can help cancer cells invade nearby tissues, avoid parts of the immune system, and become more resistant to some treatments. In other words, the cancer creates an acidic environment, it is not simply growing because the entire body is acidic.
UNLEARN!

The Silent fuel behind Cancer spread.

Inflammation is a normal part of the body’s healing process, but when it becomes chronic, it can create an environment that helps cancer develop and spread.

Persistent inflammation releases chemicals that can damage DNA, stimulate abnormal cell growth, promote the formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis), and weaken the immune system’s ability to recognize and destroy cancer cells. It can also help cancer cells invade nearby tissues and spread to distant organs through the bloodstream or lymphatic system (metastasis).

The good news is that chronic inflammation is often influenced by lifestyle which you have control over.

• Smoking,
• Obesity,
• Inflammatory foods, seed oils, wheat, sugar and ultra-processed foods,
• Physical inactivity,
• Alcohol consumption,
• Chronic infections,
• Poor sleep, and
• Unmanaged stress.

Change the above and you will protect your body.

Now, you can keep using the things I warn you about and defend them with all you have, but this post will make sense someday.

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that protects cells from damage caused by free radicals. It also supports collagen formation, wound healing, and immune function.

In laboratory studies, very high concentrations of vitamin C given intravenously (IV) have been shown to generate hydrogen peroxide around some cancer cells, which may damage or kill those cells while largely sparing normal cells. This effect cannot be achieved by taking vitamin C tablets or eating diets rich in vitamin C. This can work before the diagnosis.

Remember the body tightly controls blood vitamin C levels after oral intake.