There are various opinions about cancer. Generally speaking, there are fewer right opinions and more wrong opinions, especially those widely circulated opinions, which are basically wrong. I really don’t know what the voluntary cancer educators who talk about their teeth are thinking in their hearts. Let the wrong idea spread as widely as possible, so that everyone else will get cancer and he will laugh to the end? Or have you received the task of controlling the population from the relevant departments?
To look at cancer, one must first have a correct concept of how one should live.
Last year, I had a physical examination. After the examination, I talked to the doctor: Dr. X, how do you think of my health? Very good. You see, the top five causes of death for men coronary heart disease, cancer especially lung cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, stroke and diabetes are either not related to you, or you have already taken preventive measures and there is nothing to worry about. Surprise! One word tells the true meaning of how to live. For thousands of years, People have always sought immortality, Now no one eats the elixir of immortality, People will powder all kinds of health-care food and health-care methods, It is said that someone ate this food and lived to be over 100 years old after doing so. Everyone will study and study. As a result, painting a tiger is not an anti-dog, The number one problem with this idea, which has so far been regarded by the Chinese as the path to health, is that individual cases cannot represent the universal truth. A person’s long life may be due to his healthy living habits, his parents’ special genes, or his luck is really different. The father of one of my classmates was a 55-year-old Chinese. For decades after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, he drank a large cup of honey water every morning. When he lived to be 100 years old, he was very proud of his longevity. When he met a 105-year-old at a party, he felt that this brother must have followed some healthy habits or diet for decades. He asked, “Do you eat what every day?” I love chocolate, Eat every day, Eat hard. Scientists have long seen this problem, You can’t use an example as evidence, To go to the place where the longevity stars are concentrated, Summarize how centenarians live. The longevity villages in the remote mountains and forests began to be crowded. The way to live a long life has also been summed up. Eat less, do more activities and so on. In fact, it is only one sentence: Incarnated into the hinterland, From walking to working to death. Not to mention whether such a life is worth living to be 100 years old, In places where there is a shortage of doctors and medicines and accidents occur frequently, Whether you can live to be an adult is doubtful. The hype of the longevity hometown survey ended without a hitch. Scientists have finally realized what is wrong. Maybe people in the future can live to be 200 or 300 years old. However, the oldest living person has not lived beyond 120 years old. 120 to 150 years old is the ideal life span for such animals as human beings. However, the average life expectancy in advanced countries is only 80 years. That is to say, there is still room for 20 to 40 years of improvement in life expectancy. The reason for not reaching the ideal life expectancy is not because people do not insist on eating or doing things that can live a long life. It is because people die prematurely. So, the way to live a long life is not to study how people live, but to study how people die. The purpose of the study is to prevent people from dying early. There is no need to pursue a long life, we should have lived that long.
So how do people die?
Accidents don’t count, let’s see the doctor and die.
Heart disease and cancer have been the two leading causes of death in the United States, According to 2010 figures, Every year, more than 590,000 people in the United States die of heart disease, more than 570,000 die of cancer, Together, they account for more than half of the deaths, In other words, for every two people killed in the United States, One of them died of heart disease or cancer, And since 1980, The death toll from heart disease is on the decline, The death toll from cancer is on the rise, According to current trends, Cancer will soon overtake heart disease, It has become the first cause of death for Americans. It is now the first cause of death for people aged 45 to 64. China is one step ahead. Cancer became the leading cause of death for urban and rural residents in 2006. About 2.5 million people die of cancer every year and it is the leading cause of death for people under 65 years old. In the impression of most people, Cancer is a modern disease, According to the interpretation of many experts, Because people now live long, Before, there were not so many cancers because they died before they lived to the age of cancer. This statement is only a small part of the truth. For some cancers, For example, the average age of onset 68 years old and the average age of death 80 years old prostate cancer, this explanation said in the past. But for most cancers, this explanation cannot be said in the past. Cancer cases have always existed, just because the causes of death in the top several places before are all kinds of infectious diseases, which cannot be guaranteed to fall down on the street one day. Who cares about multiple bags on the body? In response to the rapid rise in cancer cases in recent decades, Look at the above example of the trend towards younger cancer. It is even more impossible to explain it by living long, that is, cancer is a senile disease. The reason for this phenomenon is due to the improvement of cancer diagnosis technology. To make a metaphor, Once upon a time, people diagnosed tumors as if they were looking through a telescope. Later, it was changed to the naked eye. Now look at it with a microscope, The more you look at it, the more you look at it, Many, many cancers have been seen. A typical example is because FDA approved the prostate cancer special antigen blood test (PSA). As a result, between 1986 and 2005, PSA added more than 1.3 million prostate cancer patients in the United States, of whom more than 1 million received treatment. Other cancers have increased in incidence due to improved diagnostic methods to varying degrees, and scientists continue to study more accurate cancer diagnostic methods, so the number of cancer patients will increase.
Is it correct to say that everyone has cancer cells?
Exactly. An autopsy of 525 men who died in car accidents in the United States found that One third of the prostate gland aged 30 to 39 has canceration, The number of people aged 70 to 79 rose to 70%, Autopsies of the elderly who died in hospitals found thyroid canceration in one third, These are just two cancers, If you look at more, Some kind of cancer cell will be found in everyone. However, Cancer cells are not cancer, It is not equal to malignant tumor. There is a distance between cancer cells and cancer, and between malignant tumors. If we do not attach importance to cancer prevention, This distance will be shortened, So sooner or later, you will get cancer, you will get life-threatening malignant tumors, and you will die of cancer. If we attach importance to cancer prevention, This distance will be extended, Extend to life without cancer, Or cancer will not die of it. Everyone will die sooner or later, The aim of cancer prevention is not to die of cancer. The relationship between human beings and various chronic diseases including cancer is a competition. To die is a man’s victory, Death is the triumph of chronic disease, If you cannot die, you should postpone the time of death as much as possible. This is the right path to health. Many people treat cancer, It takes a passive wait, I hope cancer won’t find itself, Just wait until you become a cancer patient. Being a cancer patient is a very uncomfortable thing. Some cancers are highly malignant, However, some cancers are not highly malignant, For example, only one in six prostate cancer patients will die of prostate cancer. The proportion of thyroid cancer patients reached 20: 1. Most of the patients with these cancers will not die, However, no one dares not to treat cancer. Cancer is not only over-diagnosed, but also over-treated. In addition, there is psychological pressure and so on. The quality of life of cancer patients is far lower than that of normal people. Even if they become cancer patients a few years later, life will be much more interesting. Therefore, we should take the initiative to prevent cancer.
Do not do this to prevent cancer
Let’s say a few points first. 1. Don’t believe ancestral secret recipes and folk remedies, and don’t believe nonsense such as traditional Chinese medicine has a long history and can treat and prevent cancer. Most cancers are only common in modern times. How can they be prevented without seeing them? For example, there is an alien creature with five legs of different lengths. It suffers from rickets and cannot leave. Can our medicine treat it? I haven’t seen it. I haven’t even seen anything. I don’t know how to keep the balance of those legs. What a fart? 2. Don’t believe examples, rumors and stories. Don’t say the so-called stories made up by experts and rumors made by cheats to sell books and drugs. Even if the people around you do have miracles, The cancer is gone, He was sentenced to death by the doctor but still alive. What have you done to eat what for a lifetime without cancer and so on, Don’t follow suit either. Many of the sworn words are not true, The only thing that really doesn’t make any statistical sense, One of the main objectives of phase III clinical trials of drugs is to eliminate similar contingencies. 3. Don’t blindly trust experts. Don’t blindly trust people who write popular medical articles, Including me. No one’s saying it is 100% true, No one’s words are 100% false. Believe it or not depends on whether his words are from a scientific point of view. Is it based on credible data and evidence? Is it because experts are not looking at their titles, It depends on their level, To put it bluntly, The level of most Chinese medical experts is not as good as that of my amateur. 4. Don’t blindly follow the latest scientific research achievements. The latest anti-cancer achievements in the media are basically a flash in the pan. They are all for the sake of fame and cheating scientific research funds. When I was a postdoctoral student in Johns Hopkins, there was a sensational discovery in a laboratory of our school: Broccoli (cauliflower) anti-cancer! Some colleagues have been eating cauliflower ever since, It took six months to understand, To reach that experimental dose, You have to eat a car every day. Only a small part of the scientific research results obtained from laboratory and body experiments have been applied to human bodies. These anti-cancer tests do not consider safety at this stage. For example, the reduction of cancer found in mice is probably due to the fact that mice make drugs cachexia and will not live long. Of course, cancer will not last long. The rumor of starving cancer is the same. After the cancer patient dies, all the cancer on his body is dead. Who wants to treat it like this?
So how should cancer be prevented?
If you look at the statistics, it doesn’t matter how one person gets cancer or how one can’t get cancer, but it makes sense how ten thousand people get cancer or how one can’t get cancer. Statistics include epidemiological and clinical observation data, preferably data from randomized double-blind trials, which are very telling.
Randomized double-blind trials can eliminate accidental phenomena, Therefore, correct results are obtained. Some results are very unexpected. For example, MAYO Lung Project tracked 9,211 people between 1971 and 1996 to verify whether chest X-ray screening can reduce lung cancer mortality. The results show that the lung cancer mortality rate of the experimental group (4.4/1000) that underwent chest X-ray three times a year is higher than that of the control group (3.9/1000). Why did this result occur? Because once chest X-ray shows signs of lung cancer, surgery is required to remove it. The mortality rate of patients within 30 days after surgery is 5%, because most of the patients with lung cancer are smokers, and the lungs are already very rotten.
Speaking of which, it is the first way to prevent cancer: quit smoking.
Smog affects people’s understanding of the hazards of smoking, and feels that it is the same after smoking or not to go out for a circle. Some experts say smog will definitely increase lung cancer.
Smog can lead to an increase in lung cancer, However, it is debatable how large the increase is. Especially whether it will increase the death rate of lung cancer. A follow-up survey of 34,000 British doctors published in 1956 found that smoking is the main cause of lung cancer. Air quality factors such as London fog are secondary. Smoking or secondhand smoke is responsible for 80 to 90 percent of lung cancer patients, because tobacco contains at least 60 kinds of carcinogens, and smog is severe, but it contains much less carcinogens.
Many other people say that many lung cancer patients do not smoke. Yes, they may be victims of second-hand smoke. There are 300 million smokers in China, and the number of second-hand smoke victims has reached 700 million. How many people are there in China? Non-smokers in China are more likely to be victims of second-hand smoke? Or is there a high possibility of not being harmed by second-hand smoke?
In addition, there is another data that is more telling. The ratio of smokers to non-smokers who died of lung cancer is 17: 1!
Spinal cord CT scan technology has diagnosed some clinically undiagnosed lung cancers, most of which will not die. The ratio of smokers to non-smokers diagnosed by CT scan is 1.1 to 1. Comparing the data of lung cancer deaths, it can be found that many non-smokers have lung cancer due to over-diagnosis.
The incidence of lung cancer in China is rising rapidly, among which the incidence of lung cancer in children is rising rapidly. From smoking control to smoking ban is the most effective way to prevent lung cancer. Quitting smoking can not only prevent lung cancer, a highly malignant cancer, but also prevent lung cancer for your relatives, friends and family, including your children. Why not?
Besides lung cancer, smoking can also cause other cancers. A lung expert said well: You have to pay twice for cigarettes, once you buy cigarettes, and the other time cigarettes buy your life. Smoking is related to 22% of cancers, and staying away from cigarettes can reduce the possibility of cancer by at least 10% to 20%. Even if you smoke heavily, the possibility of lung cancer after quitting smoking can be reduced by at least 15%.
Colorectal cancer is another common type of cancer, Although there are not as many cases of lung cancer as there are, In the United States, its morbidity and mortality rate are second only to lung cancer. In China, the trend is rising rapidly. From 2000 to 2010, the incidence of lung cancer in Beijing increased by 55.57%, while the incidence of colorectal cancer increased by 97.15%. The over-diagnosis of colorectal cancer is relatively small, so the growth trend is terrible. The reasons for this trend include uncontrolled smoking and increased obesity. In China, where food safety is completely out of control, prevention of colorectal cancer is very important.
In addition to staying away from cigarettes, one of the ways to prevent colorectal cancer is also the second way to prevent cancer: weight control.
Obesity is not only a risk factor for colorectal cancer, It is also related to more than 20 other cancers. A 2008 British study showed that 20% of cancers are related to obesity or overweight. U.S. Data show that obesity causes 100,000 cancers every year. Fourteen percent of men and 20 percent of women’s cancer deaths are caused by obesity. A 10-year study in Sweden found that obese women are 42 percent less likely to die of cancer after undergoing weight loss surgery, proving that weight control is an effective way to prevent cancer and death from cancer.
Weight control depends on eating less and exercising more. One of the risk factors for colorectal cancer is less activity, thus speaking of the third rule to prevent cancer: exercise.
Exercise for 30 minutes three times a week can reduce the risk of colon cancer by half, lung cancer by 40% and breast cancer by one third. If you keep doing weight-bearing exercise, you can reduce the risk of dying from cancer by one third. Exercise can also reduce the recurrence rate of colon cancer by half.
Weight control and exercise are good living habits and anti-cancer methods that everyone should adhere to all his life. We should start today and cannot wait.
From colorectal cancer to the fourth rule of cancer prevention: take low-dose aspirin.
Low-dose aspirin is not used to prevent cancer, but to prevent heart disease. Aspirin is not currently recommended for cancer prevention. The main reason against taking aspirin is that a few people suffer from gastrointestinal bleeding.
I have a special post on my blog, All epidemiological and clinical trials so far have proved the benefits of long-term aspirin use. In preventing cancer, After taking it for five years, it can reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer by 37%, after 10 years, it can reduce the occurrence of intestinal polyps by 19% to 35% after taking it for three years. Aspirin can also reduce the mortality rate of colorectal cancer patients by one-third to half. The effect of aspirin is cumulative, and it is no harm to eat it most every day, not every day.
Apart from colorectal cancer, Aspirin also has preventive effects on other tumors. The results of a large study reported by the National Cancer Institute in 2007, Take anti-inflammatory drugs even once a year, It can also reduce the incidence of gastric cancer by one third, And the more you eat, the better. Aspirin is one of the anti-inflammatory drugs. A recent study in Italy found that aspirin can reduce the incidence of oral, laryngeal, esophageal, prostate and breast cancer. Gastric and breast cancer are big cancers in China. Taking aspirin can prevent several cancers at the same time.
Opponents of aspirin overlook one problem, Recommendations for aspirin use are based on preconditions, That is, 45 years old for men and 55 years old for women, Because this group has a high incidence of heart disease, and colorectal cancer is also related to age, even if it is over 50 years old, even if it is a high-risk group, if you are worried about bleeding, don’t eat on an empty stomach, drink a large glass of water when taking medicine, or eat enteric-coated tablets, if bleeding, stop taking medicine. Can’t because there are a few people bleeding, everyone don’t eat, this is typical because of choking waste food.
Long-term aspirin use in the United States accounts for nearly 20% of the total population. With such a large group of people who often eat, Only then can we understand its advantages and disadvantages, especially the side effects, which are reliable data obtained through many large clinical trials. The proportion of aspirin taken in China is very low. It is difficult to say whether the reported side effects are really caused by aspirin. It is unscientific to prove that aspirin is very harmful by clinical cases alone.
I have been taking it myself for many years because my father died of rectal cancer. Another risk factor for colorectal cancer is family history, so those with family history should take aspirin early.
From colorectal cancer to the fifth rule of cancer prevention: regular examination.
Some cancers are self-detectable, For example, if you find a mole suddenly becomes irregular, bigger and darker, you should see a dermatologist. They will do pathology after resection to see if it is skin cancer. If you have a lump on your body, especially on your breast, you should see a doctor to see if there is cancer. The annual physical examination is also very important.
The best way to detect colorectal cancer early is colonoscopy, More than 50 years old should do once every 10 years, I have a family history to do early, have done twice, everything is normal. Colonoscopy is not only an early diagnosis technology, but also an early prevention method, because polyps can be removed during examination, not all polyps can eventually become cancerous, but removal of polyps can prevent colorectal cancer.
Colonoscopy is one of the few cancer screening techniques without over-diagnosis. There is only an overdiagnosis in the polyp medical record diagnosis, But it does not affect the incidence of cancer, and once every 10 years. The application of colonoscopy has reduced the incidence of colorectal cancer, but since most people who should do colonoscopy do not do it, the technology has not exerted its real power. If all the people who meet the standards do colonoscopy, the death rate of colon cancer will drop by 90%.
At present, there is a debate about the X-ray photography technology of breast cancer. Because of over-diagnosis, the relevant departments in the United States have changed the recommendation for annual examination of women over 40 years old to annual examination of women over 50 years old. However, if possible, it is still required to do it once a year according to the original regulations.
Cervical smear examination and human papillomavirus examination are effective methods for early detection of cervical cancer. If possible, both should be done at the same time as part of the annual examination.
From cervical cancer to the sixth rule of cancer prevention: vaccination.
Scientists have always hoped to develop vaccines that can prevent cancer. These efforts will eventually focus on cancer caused by viruses and achieve the goal of preventing cancer from the perspective of preventing virus infection.
There are two successful vaccines, One is the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine against cervical cancer. This vaccine can prevent most cervical cancers. But they must be vaccinated before they have sex, This has aroused opposition from conservatives in the West. It is believed that vaccination with this vaccine may encourage teenagers to have sex prematurely. The second is hepatitis B (HBV) vaccine, Now it has entered into planned immunization, which has reduced the mortality rate of liver cancer in children by 75% in the past 20 years. China is a big country with hepatitis B. Insisting on HBV vaccination can reduce HBV infection and thus reduce the incidence of liver cancer. These two vaccines are great achievements in cancer prevention, and children should enjoy the fruits of this medicine.
When it comes to liver cancer, we should talk about the seventh rule to prevent cancer: moderate drinking.
From a health point of view, Alcohol is a double-edged sword, Moderate drinking can prevent cardiovascular diseases, Excessive drinking can lead to liver cancer and breast cancer, which is one to two cups a day for men and one cup for women. This cup is based on the alcohol content, such as about 200ml of wine. Chinese people drink too much, so they should limit drinking. If they do not drink originally, there is no need to intentionally drink in order to prevent cardiovascular diseases.
For liver cancer, there is another prevention method, which is the eighth one to prevent cancer: drink coffee.
Regarding the benefits of coffee, I also have a special article on it. An analysis of 10 studies in Europe in 2005 showed that Regular drinking of coffee can reduce the risk of liver cancer by 40%. Each cup of coffee per day can reduce the risk of liver cancer by 23%, Drinking more than three cups a day can reduce the risk of liver cancer by more than half. An epidemiological study in Japan found that drinking one cup of coffee a day can reduce the risk of oral cancer, esophageal cancer and laryngeal cancer by half. Another study in Japan found that drinking more than three cups of coffee a day can reduce the risk of colon cancer by half.
The effect of coffee has nothing to do with caffeine, so tea is ineffective. It is the effect of some or some antioxidants in coffee. If you are worried about problems caused by too much caffeine intake, you can drink decaffeinated coffee like me, but do not drink instant coffee.
When it comes to anti-cancer substances, we must say the ninth thing to prevent cancer: healthy diet.
Coffee can also be counted in this one.
There’s a lot of talk about an anti-cancer diet, There are also many claims that dietary supplements are anti-cancer, There is no evidence for these claims. The former is because we eat many kinds of food every day. It is difficult to determine the anti-cancer or carcinogenic effect of a certain food. In the latter, after many studies, it has been found that no dietary supplement has anti-cancer effect except vitamin D3, which has not yet been determined. Excessive amount will lead to cancer instead. From this perspective, if you can take it from food, don’t take any dietary supplement.
Because a single food cannot be verified, Studies have focused on broad categories. Based on the available information, High fat intake can lead to breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer. But it won’t cause liver cancer or cervical cancer. Less fat, In particular, eat less animal fat, Just don’t eat red meat, Eat low-fat chicken and drink non-fat milk. Pay attention to vegetable fats, too, because only monounsaturated fatty acids have nothing to do with cancer. Excessive intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids can also cause breast cancer and prostate cancer. Eat less fried foods, use less oil in cooking, and avoid excessive intake of fat from foods such as cakes.
Excessive intake of fat is a factor of colon cancer. Eating more fiber can reduce the harm of fat, which refers to the intake of fiber from food.
Besides fiber, eating more fruits and vegetables and using olive oil as cooking oil can reduce the possibility of digestive tract cancer.
Asian women have a lower incidence of breast cancer than Western women, At present, it is found that the reason is related to bean products, and it is also related to age. If you eat more bean products between the ages of 5 and 11, the possibility of breast cancer will be reduced by 58%. If you miss this period and eat more bean products, it will not have this effect. If you really love your daughter, let them eat more tofu and bean products when they are young.
Finally, the tenth rule to prevent cancer is to bask in the sun.
Excessive exposure to the sun can cause skin cancer, Therefore, sunscreen should be used. However, vitamin D cannot be produced by itself. Vitamin D3 deficiency is associated with some cancers, especially lung cancer. A 2005 Harvard University study found that, The survival rate of lung cancer patients undergoing surgery in summer is twice as high as that of lung cancer patients undergoing surgery in winter, suggesting that vitamin D3 supplementation, especially vitamin D3 synthesized by oneself under sunlight, is likely to have the effect of preventing lung cancer and other cancers.
This kind of sun exposure doesn’t take long, 30 minutes twice a week is enough. Stay in the sun for 15 minutes a day, not only supplement vitamin D, play a certain role in preventing cancer, but also can make our mood become happy.
This is the right way to prevent cancer. Please tell it to all the people you care about.