How to minimize the risks for cancer? 3. Alcohol in moderation…

The uncontrolled growth of cells in any part of the body is cancer. It is a group of disease. Cancer kills millions of people every year in our world. Few can be curable if diagnosed in the early stages. We can do a lot to minimize the risk of cancer. The hereditary risk factor is only about 5% to 10%. The rest comes from our lifestyle, diet and environment. We see here the many ways to reduce the cancer risks.

Many people know that heavy alcohol consumption can cause health problems. Interestingly, many people do not know that alcohol can increase the cancer risk. Alcohol is definitely a risk factor for cancers. Research has clearly established the link between alcohol consumption and the risk for developing cancers. If more alcohol is drunk the risk is correspondingly high. The exact mechanism is not yet clear. It may be because alcohol can alter the hormone levels or make the liver not to metabolize certain cancer producing substances so that the healthy cells are vulnerable to cancer. We can compare this with the adverse effects of tobacco.

The risk may include the cancer of:

• Breast in women
• Colon
• Esophagus
• Larynx (voice box)
• Liver
• Mouth
• Throat
• Rectum

Alcohol and smoking or the use of tobacco products together increases this risk further. Few drinks a day may be already dangerous. As we all know in smokers, the more you drink the more you smoke and this increases the risk.

Alcohol can affect estrogen levels in a woman’s body and this may be the reason for the increased risk of breast cancer. Few drinks in a week can be sometimes too much. It is better not to drink alcohol or drink in very moderate amount to lower the risk of breast cancer.

For mouth and throat alcohol is an irritant and this damages the cells. The damaged cells try to repair themselves by changing their DNA and this may result the uncontrolled growth of the cells and thus the cancer.

Alcohol is converted into acetaldehyde in the colon by bacteria and this may be the reason for colon and rectum cancer.

Alcohol can damage the liver that results scarring and inflammation. This can be fatal.

Alcohol is not necessary for the metabolism and so without any problem one can avoid it. If you want to drink in social events drink less. A glass of beer or wine or champagne is allowed. But avoid all drinks that have high percent of alcohol.

There are many ways to enjoy life without alcohol…

I am a chain smoker. What is the connection between smoking and heart disease?

Smoking plays an important role in heart disease deaths. It is about 30% in USA and may be more in the poor and developing countries.

The adverse effects of nicotine include:

• Decreased oxygen in the blood, this less to the heart
• Too much of carbon monoxide
• High blood pressure
• Increased heart rate
• Blood clotting risk is increased
• Trigger of atherosclerosis, thus heart disease

Do not forget the cancer risk from tobacco. There are no healthy tobacco products.

Breast Cancer, Risk Factors and Symptoms

Risk Factors

Risk Factors are several conditions which makes it likely to get a particular disease. Always remember that having one or even more risk factors does not necessarily mean one will develop breast cancer. At the same time many women with breast cancer have no known risk factors. That means we do not know now many risk factors yet and we must look critically everything which may cause breast cancer.

The known Risk Factors include:

• Inherited genes which increase cancer risk – certain gene mutations, the most common genes are BRCA1 and BACR2.
• A personal history – if you have in one breast the chance of getting in the other breast is very high.
• A family history – if mother, sister or daughter has breast cancer the risk is more. But remember many of the diseased have no family history of breast cancer.
• Increasing age – risk of breast cancer increases with age.
• Late first pregnancy – if one gives birth her first baby after 35 years, the chances of developing breast cancer may increase.
• Overweight and Obesity – these increase the risk of breast cancer
• Early puberty and menstruation - getting first menstruation till 12 is considered a breast cancer risk.
• Late menopause – if the beginning of menopause is after 55 years, this increases the risk of developing breast cancer.
• Postmenopausal hormone therapy – women who take the combination therapy with estrogen and progesterone to treat the symptoms of menopause have an increased risk of breast cancer.
• Oral contraceptives – women with many known risk factors must avoid the anti baby pills with hormones.
• Radiation exposure – if you receive radiation therapy or taken X-rays at any time in your life, later it is a risk factor for breast cancer. Electricity power lines, all radiation sources including cell phones and above all the cell phone towers radiate much and women with risk factor must avoid this. In these cases a plausible scientific analysis is possible after many decades and therefore it is better to avoid.
• Food habit – it plays an important role. One must eat what her/his metabolism needs.
• Alcohol – avoid too much of alcohol
• Smoking
• Being a woman – it is the biggest risk factor. If you understand everything it is a manageable risk for many.


Symptoms of breast cancer

• A lump or thickening in the breast which feels different from the surrounding breast tissues
• Discharge from the nipple
• Inverted nipple
• Flaking or peeling of the nipple skin
• Change in the shape or size of the breast
• Changes in the breast skin
• The breast skin becomes red or orange

In many women the recent mammogram may be normal; even then, if you have the symptoms go to the doctor immediately.
If we diagnose earlier there are many good treatments to heal you.

Risk factors one can control

They include:

• Diet
• Weight
• Alcohol consumption
• Smoking
• Exposure to estrogens, the female hormones, without break as in hormone replacement therapy in post menopause for many years including xeno-estrogens
• Oral contraceptives – it is big business. There are many alternative methods
• Anxiety
• Stress
• Exercise

Learn to avoid these by changing one’s lifestyle. This is worth doing for your health.
Here I have written everything in a very simple way so that everybody could read and understand. I do counseling in this field also to give you tailor-made proposals for everything including metabolism based individual diet plan and environmental assessment. In the coming days there will be separate pages for the counseling information in my web site. Visit www.aaronverlag.com

Our motto is your good Health…