You woke up in the middle of the night to grab a glass of water. You decided to check your temperature again to see if your fever has went down yet, only to see that it has gotten higher. You could feel the sweat beads trickle down your face as you thought about the abnormal things that happened this week. It first started with the unusual weight loss even though you were eating perfectly healthy and maintaining a good diet. Then came the unusual pain that you began to experience as the week went on. However, you don’t think much of it. Perhaps it’s just that you’re too tired from work which explains why you’re feeling more energy drained, or maybe the problem is more serious than you think. The reason I say this is because these symptoms are the symptoms of cancer. Though it may not certainly mean that you have cancer, it may be a good idea to check with a healthcare provider to prevent any further problems.
What is Cancer?
Cancer is a common disease in which abnormal cells divide uncontrollably within our body and destroy our body tissues. Cancer is most commonly found in your lungs, breasts, bronchus, and trachea. If detected early, cancer usually doesn’t cause life threatening complications. However, if gone without treatment cancer can lead to death. In order to detect cancer you need to know the causes, symptoms, and precautions you’ll need to take in order to prevent it.
Causes of Cancer
Cancer isn’t caused by a single factor. In fact, cancer can be caused by multiple factors. People who smoke tobacco, consume alcohol, are physically inactive, or live in areas of high pollution are at a higher risk of getting cancer. As stated by the World Health Organization, ” Tobacco use, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and air pollution are risk factors for cancer and other noncommunicable diseases.” Cancer itself isn’t something that can be passed down from parent to children. However, genetic changes that increase the risk of getting cancer can be inherited if it is present in the parent’s egg or sperm cells. The good news is that inheriting a cancer related gene doesn’t necessarily mean that you will most certainly get cancer, but it does mean that your chance of getting cancer is higher than those who don’t have a cancer related gene.
Cancer Symptoms
Spotting cancer in its early stages can save your life! Around the world about ten million people die from cancer every year. This makes spotting cancer in its early stages a big difference. General symptoms of cancer include strange weight loss, tiredness, unexplained pain, loss of appetite, fever, or night sweats. Cancer symptoms may vary from person to person and some people may show no symptoms at all. This makes detecting cancer very difficult. Cancers such as lung cancer show no symptoms at all until the cancer is in its advanced stage. Other symptoms of cancer may include coughing up blood or strange lumps that are forming on your body. Cancer can develop at any stage of our life; however, it is more common as we age. As stated by Cancer Research UK, ” Anyone can develop cancer at any age. But cancer is more common as we get older, and most cases are in people ages 50 or over.” It is important to notify a healthcare provider immediately if any of these symptoms began show.
Ways to Prevent Cancer
Even though there isn’t a way to 100% prevent you from getting cancer, there are ways that can help lower your risk of getting cancer.
- Stop smoking: smoking has proved to cause 30% of all cancers and 90% of lung cancers. Smokers are not only at the risk of getting cancer, but also at a higher risk for heart disease. As stated by National Library of Medicine, ” Globally, tobacco is estimated to cause just under five million deaths a year — a number that will likely rise dramatically over the next two generations.”
- Moderate alcohol consumption: drinking even a small amount of alcohol has the power to raise the risk of multiple cancers. The two most common types of cancer caused by alcohol is breast cancer and colon cancer. However, moderate alcohol consumption can lower the risk cardiovascular disease. People of high alcohol consumption reduce their drinking to a moderate level.
- Sun protection: radiation from the sun can cause severe sunburns which increases your risk of getting melanoma. Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that can occur anywhere on the body. It is important to make sure that you apply on sunscreen and do anything that’s necessary to protect you from the sun before you expose yourself to the sun. Avoid the sun as much as possible from 10am-4pm as those are the peak burning hours.
- Maintain a healthy weight and stay physically active: maintaining a healthy weight can lower your risk of getting lung cancer, kidney cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer. Physical activity can help control weight and lower the risks of breast cancer and colon cancer. As stated in “Breast Cancer Risk Factors: Exercise(Physical Activity)”, “Overall, women who get regular exercise have a 10%-20% lower risk of breast cancer than women who aren’t active.”
Summary
All in all, cancer is a disease that can happen to anyone. Cancer is the cause of millions of deaths every year. Those who smoke should quit immediately as it is one of the main causes for cancer. It is important to make sure that you protect yourself from the sun and consume alcohol on a moderate level. Though there is no way to 100% prevent you from getting cancer, there are steps that you can take to lower your risk. By reading this blog hopefully you have gained some knowledge about the symptoms of cancer and steps you can take to protect yourself.
Cited Sources
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-symptoms#accordion_mouth0
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3685578/
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