A) Live healthy: Always nurture your body, mind and spirit. The balance of physical, emotional and spiritual health is the foundation of cancer prevention and achieving optimal wellness and vitality. Maintain healthy working hours, sufficient time for recreational activities and indulging in spiritual practices like praying, meditating, volunteering, or connecting with nature for self-introspection.
B) The significance of food: To prevent a cancer recurrence it is important to focus on diet, dietary supplements, mind body connection, and physical activity. The kind of food eaten has nearly as big an impact on our health. Food has the power to heal as well as harm. It is a double edged sword.
Cancer prevention diet includes:
Consume More
· Colourful fruits and vegetables.
· Organic food(choose foods high in dietary fibre daily)
· Whole grains
· Nuts, seeds, oil rich in omega -3 and mono-saturated fats (fish oil, flax oils and olive oil)
· Purified drinking water
· Green tea.
Consume Less
· Added sugar.
· Preservatives, additives, artificial colours/flavours.
· Alcohol and soft drinks.
· Saturated/trans-fat (red meat/fried food).
· Refined carbs (processed sugars, white rice, breads and pastas made with processed flours).
· Smoked and processed meats.
C) Nutritional supplements: Nutritional supplements contain vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, glandular extracts and more. Dietary supplements are just that, supplements to diet. Supplements are an important part of an integrative cancer treatment program in order to help repair physiological processes that contribute to cancer development. They are also important in the active treatment of established cancer. Many supplements have powerful anti-cancer effects. The supplements you take should be chosen to meet individual needs. Dietary supplements can help to fill in the gaps based on the specific health goals.
D) Mind versus body: Esther Sternberg, MD, from American University explains disturbances of emotions can change your physical health and physical disease can change your emotional health. Science is confirming that we have much better chance of being healthy if we nurture positive thoughts and emotions and try to reduce stress and anxiety. Conversely, negative thought such as anger and depression can impair our health. However, this is not to suggest that any one individual should take on the entire responsibility for developing cancer. Cancer growth is influenced by a multitude of factors, many of which are not within our control. Instead of focussing on blame and guilt, it is far more healing to use cancer as an opportunity to learn self-forgiveness, gratitude and hope. One can begin to incorporate more health enhancing thoughts and emotions into one’s daily life. The most powerful emotion is love, receiving and participating in activities that one loves. “Spend more time with people whom you love, argue less and forgive more, trust and let go of fear anger and pain. Using this wisdom from people diagnosed with cancer, we can improve our state of wellness too. From that space, everything else including making healthy choices in regards to diet, supplements and exercise becomes so much easier.
E) Keep active: Physical activity has many health promoting benefits. Exercise can stimulate the immune system, reduce inflammation, improve self-esteem, enhance mood, increase oxygenation and help maintain a healthy weight. The most important aspect of exercise is to choose an activity that you will stick with and be consistent and the best way is to make exercise fun and enjoyable. If you find walking boring but enjoy reading, then listen to books on tape while you walk. If your routine becomes boring, change it from time to time. Physical activity like aerobic and anaerobic exercise, yoga meditation, tai- chi and dance are all considered movement therapies. Exercise is particularly important for people with cancer, in order to improve tolerance to treatment, reduce fatigue and maintain lean body mass. Movement enables cancer patients to accept and re-connect with their bodies, build new self- confidence, enhance self-expression, address feelings of isolation, depression, anger, fear and distrust and strengthen personal resources. It has also been used to improve range of arm motion and reduce arm circumference after mastectomy or lumpectomy.
F) Controlling a situation: As much as possible the cancer prevention principles should become a way of life. Each of us have cancer cells circulating in our body. If the body is healthy and functioning properly, its ability to detect, target, kill and eliminate these errant cells is strengthened. But if the body is unhealthy it is unable to perform this ongoing search and destroy mission. Hence have a healthy mind, spirit and body. Cancer is a complex disease and hence a multi-dimensional integrative approach is needed to defuse its energy. Diet and other aspects of lifestyle as well as an understanding of significant connection between mind and body can have a huge impact on whether or not a person develops cancer. Sometimes doing all the right things may not prevent cancer however, a prevention based lifestyle supports overall health.
G) Choosing safe skin care products and cosmetics: Skin is the largest organ of the human body. It provides an important protective barrier against hazardous materials and pathogens. Every day researchers are learning about the health risks of certain ingredients found in many skin care products and cosmetics. These are the culprits in health problems ranging from allergic reactions to birth defects to cancer. The chemical preservatives, fragrances, fragrance maskers, colouring agents and stabilisers in the body care products are introduced into the blood stream every time a cream or a lotion or a deodorant is applied on the skin. These toxic ingredients are stored and can accumulate in human fatty tissues affecting health and vitality. Take the extra moment to read labels carefully. Choose natural products wherever possible.
H) Melatonin and Cancer: Several studies suggest there may be a connection between hormone melatonin and cancer. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate sleep. Melatonin has been studied for cancer, it prevents cancer cell to grow. What you eat affects how you sleep. One of the keys to a restful sleep is to have a relaxed brain and some food contribute to restful sleep while others keep us awake. They are called sleepers and wakers. Sleepers are tryptophan containing food and tryptophan is the amino acid that the body uses to make serotonin, the neurotransmitter that slows down the nerve traffic in the brain. Wakers are foods that stimulate neuro-transmitters that perk up the brain. Tryptophan is a precursor of the sleep inducing substances serotonin and melatonin and is the raw material that the brain uses to build the relaxing neurotransmitters. The more tryptophan is available by eating substances, the more one will feel sleepy and the nutrient that make tryptophan less available disturbs sleep. Best foods to consume before sleep are beans, cherries, dairy –products: cottage cheese, cheese, milk; walnuts; peanuts; hazelnuts; hummus with whole wheat bread; lentils; pasta with parmesan cheese; poultry with veggies; rice; scrambled eggs and cheese, seafood, pasta, sesame seeds (rich in tryptophan) sprinkled on salads, sunflower seeds, soy products: soy milk, tofu, soybean nuts tofu stir fry; tuna salad sandwich; whole grains. Meals that are high in carbohydrates and low-to-medium in protein help to relax in the evening and set you up for a good night’s sleep.
Try the following tips for dinners for sleep.
1. Have a light meal. Heavy meal with fats and large servings prolong the work of the digestive system and there is lot of gas production with it. Sometimes highly seasoned foods with hot peppers and garlic interfere with sleep and cause heart burn.
2. Going to bed with full stomach does not promote a restful sleep. A big meal is likely to cause frequent waking and a poor quality of sleep. Have your evening meals earlier.
3. Do not take caffeine containing food especially at night. As a stimulant, caffeine speeds up the action of the nervous system and causes effects which are reverse of what are required to fall asleep.
I) Trace elements: The immune system is the natural mechanism which protects against cancer. Trace elements like zinc, selenium, molybdenum and manganese augment this mechanism. There is an intimate relationship between trace elements and cancer, some are carcinogens while others are cancer protective.
J) Carcinogens: There are many substances which are assumed to encourage cancer diseases. Cancer is caused by complex combination of many factors like culture lifestyle and environment. Not all substances are carcinogenic but some substances can be regarded as major suspects in the formation of cancer. They are food additives, colouring agents, preservatives, artificial seasoning, anti-bacterial and bleaching agents. Chemicals used in agriculture, pesticides, tranquilisers used to treat anxiety, antibiotics, antipyretics, analgesics, factory smoke, industrial wastes, vehicle emissions, asbestos dust, tobacco smoke, hair spray, detergents, shampoos, talcum powders, alcohol etc.
K) Avoid sex at an early age and with multiple sex partners (use barrier methods of contraception)
L) Don’t use birth control pills indiscriminately
M) Avoid unnecessary x-rays and exposure to too much of sunlight.
N) Have only 2 or 3 pregnancies after the age of 20 but do not wait until after the age of 30 to have your first.
0) Above all, don’t consume tobacco.
