Probably the most feared word of 21st century, cancer. No one wants to hear it. Its like a death sentence. So what is cancer. It is an uncontrolled proliferation of our own body cells. The word uncontrolled is more important as cells continue to divide and later die in our body. That is how we grow, But here they don't die , they just keep multiplying and spreading like crab, hence called cancer. And then suffocate our body.
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And why is it that we are still lagging behind this deadly monster and have not been able to tame it with modern medicine. Why don't we kill it like we kill infections, the bacterias in our body with a deadly cocktail of antibiotics, because they are own cells. What kills those cancer cells will kill our normal cells and that is the whole struggle when it comes to cancer drugs, to kill more of cancer cells and less of our own cells. With advent of molecular medicine, the day is not far when we will be able to specifically target cancer cells detecting them by their specific molecular targets and treat it like an infection. Even now we have made a lot of progress and an early detection virtually means long life.
And that is what this and a series of articles are about. The subtle signs when you should think it may be cancer.In this article we will discuss general danger signs about cancer and in following articles various tests available for different cancers to clear your doubts.
1.A painless growth or swelling. cancers are generally painless. If its painful and is accompanied by fever, its probably infection
2.You are losing weight or you don't feel hungry. losing weight doesn't include dieting or losing 2 kg. It has to be significant. So What is significant weight loss, 5 percent of your initial body weight in 1 month or 10 percent in 6 months.
3.Blood in cough,vomiting,stool(latrine),nose,urine or an untimely bleeding through female reproductive tract. If you have blood through any orifice, consult a doctor. It may probably be nothing . But its better to be sorry than late.
4.Fever is generally a sign of an infection and less likely to be due to cancer, but a fever lasting for more than 7 days should be investigated.
5.Difficulty or pain while passing food through the food pipe may suggest a food pipe or wind pipe cancer, or it may just be nothing. but an endoscopy should be done.
6.Change in your bowel(latrine) habits.Initially you used to go two times to the loo because you eat a lot but now you go four times, not good, or now you go once in two days, not a good sign. take isabgol before sleeping, have good healthy diet( There will be an article on healthy diet later), wait for a week and if it still persists , consult a doctor. He may initially do simple stool and blood tests but if in doubt, he may like to go for colonoscopy. Don't worry, its nothing to be ashamed of.
7.If a swelling or any of the symptom has persisted for more than 6 months, its probably not cancer. cancer doesn't give much time.
8. Headache which has started recently and if none in your family has migraine. And if the headache is associated with difficulty seeing but your eye doctor says you don't need glasses, its better to get an MRI done after consulting a doctor.
These are some of the red flags, don't sit idle. If you have any of these. I know you all are workaholics and have work commitments, but remember jaan hai to jahaan hai.
In subsequent articles, we will tell you about various habits you can avoid to avoid cancer. Off course you thought of smoking but that is just one of them.And a few tests you can do yourself as surveillance for cancer.
In case you have any doubts about your disease or blood report or want to know about some topics, post a query in our comment section and we will respond to you in 24 hours.
And why is it that we are still lagging behind this deadly monster and have not been able to tame it with modern medicine. Why don't we kill it like we kill infections, the bacterias in our body with a deadly cocktail of antibiotics, because they are own cells. What kills those cancer cells will kill our normal cells and that is the whole struggle when it comes to cancer drugs, to kill more of cancer cells and less of our own cells. With advent of molecular medicine, the day is not far when we will be able to specifically target cancer cells detecting them by their specific molecular targets and treat it like an infection. Even now we have made a lot of progress and an early detection virtually means long life.
And that is what this and a series of articles are about. The subtle signs when you should think it may be cancer.In this article we will discuss general danger signs about cancer and in following articles various tests available for different cancers to clear your doubts.
1.A painless growth or swelling. cancers are generally painless. If its painful and is accompanied by fever, its probably infection
2.You are losing weight or you don't feel hungry. losing weight doesn't include dieting or losing 2 kg. It has to be significant. So What is significant weight loss, 5 percent of your initial body weight in 1 month or 10 percent in 6 months.
3.Blood in cough,vomiting,stool(latrine),nose,urine or an untimely bleeding through female reproductive tract. If you have blood through any orifice, consult a doctor. It may probably be nothing . But its better to be sorry than late.
4.Fever is generally a sign of an infection and less likely to be due to cancer, but a fever lasting for more than 7 days should be investigated.
5.Difficulty or pain while passing food through the food pipe may suggest a food pipe or wind pipe cancer, or it may just be nothing. but an endoscopy should be done.
6.Change in your bowel(latrine) habits.Initially you used to go two times to the loo because you eat a lot but now you go four times, not good, or now you go once in two days, not a good sign. take isabgol before sleeping, have good healthy diet( There will be an article on healthy diet later), wait for a week and if it still persists , consult a doctor. He may initially do simple stool and blood tests but if in doubt, he may like to go for colonoscopy. Don't worry, its nothing to be ashamed of.
7.If a swelling or any of the symptom has persisted for more than 6 months, its probably not cancer. cancer doesn't give much time.
8. Headache which has started recently and if none in your family has migraine. And if the headache is associated with difficulty seeing but your eye doctor says you don't need glasses, its better to get an MRI done after consulting a doctor.
These are some of the red flags, don't sit idle. If you have any of these. I know you all are workaholics and have work commitments, but remember jaan hai to jahaan hai.
In subsequent articles, we will tell you about various habits you can avoid to avoid cancer. Off course you thought of smoking but that is just one of them.And a few tests you can do yourself as surveillance for cancer.
In case you have any doubts about your disease or blood report or want to know about some topics, post a query in our comment section and we will respond to you in 24 hours.
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