Cancer Free: The Comprehensive Cancer Prevention Program - Softcover

Winawer, Sidney J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684815125 ISBN 13: 9780684815121

Verlag: Atria, 1996

Inhaltsangabe

If you think there's no way to prevent cancer, you're wrong. Let the experts at the world's most distinguished cancer research and treatment center help you to design a personal program to increase your odds of staying cancer free.
* Take stock of your personal risk. Use a family tree and other charts to assess your risk for the major cancers -- and keep a predisposition from turning into a disease.
* Redefine "The good life" to give yourself a long life. Enjoy the benefits of physical activity without becoming an exercise nut.
* Safeguard your work and home environments. Discover how to use common household products safely.
* Reduce the toll of stress. Learn the basics -- without the bunk -- about visualization, biofeedback, acupuncture, and hypnotherapy.
* Adopt sensible screening procedures. Learn which common tests you should have, when, and why.
Clear, concise, and comprehensive, Cancer Free explains exactly what you can do for your health, now and for the decades to come.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sidney J Winawer is the author of Librese Del Cyncer, a Simon & Schuster book.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1

Cancer Is Preventable

Cancer Facts

Primary and Secondary Prevention

The Importance of Early Detection

Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well.

Martial, first-century Roman epigrammatist

A recent Gallup poll found that 6 out of 10 Americans surveyed believed they would develop cancer in their lifetime, when in reality the actual odds are only about half that. Maybe you count yourself among that group. For so long, the origins and mechanisms of cancer were so enigmatic, and the treatments so harsh, that the disease assumed an aura of dread and terrible capriciousness. Only recently has the public become aware that cancer is gradually yielding up its secrets, including the secrets of prevention. But the barrage of information is so confusing and seemingly contradictory that it leaves people feeling uncertain what to do -- and doubtful that anything they can do will make a difference anyway.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It is estimated that most men and women can reduce their odds of getting cancer by half. This book will show you how.

To be sure, cancer is a devastating disease, one that currently claims over half a million American lives each year. Despite advances in research that have enabled us to chip away steadily at the mortality rate, the incidence continues to climb. It is projected that by the year 2000, cancer will surpass heart disease as America's number-one killer.

As longtime physicians at New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, we've seen firsthand the agony this disease inflicts on patients and loved ones. Even the many success stories contain their share of heartbreak, for cancer treatment can be a grueling ordeal that depletes finances and severely strains even the closest of families.

But the biggest tragedy by far is that most of the cancer cases we see daily could have been prevented. Only 10 percent to 15 percent of all cancers are of obscure or completely unknown origin, which includes factors of heredity, environmental radioactivity and other environmental hazards. As you can see from the above table, many cancers are caused by our own behavior, something we each have the power to control.

With this in mind, consider the following:

* Each year 165,000 Americans die from cancers brought on by tobacco use. The vast majority of those premature deaths could be avoided. The same is true of the 17,000 cancer deaths attributed to excessive alcohol use.

* Reducing fat consumption to 20 percent of total calories and increasing fiber intake to 25 to 30 grams a day, levels recommended by a number of authorities on cancer nutrition, could prevent more than 150,000 cancer fatalities per year.

* Safe sunning habits could slash the incidence of melanoma and other skin cancers by 90 percent, saving more than 8,000 lives annually.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Why, then, do people often feel helpless to avert cancer? One reason may be that information on prevention is extremely fragmented. Visit your local library or book store, and you'll likely find a few rifles on breast cancer prevention, others on preventing prostate cancer, and some on diet as it relates to cancer. But the vast majority of cancer books are intended specifically for cancer patients.

It was recognizing the need for a clear, concise, comprehensive book outlining preventive action against cancer that inspired us to write Cancer Free. In it we will explain step by step how to design your personal, practical and surprisingly simple cancer prevention program, using the guidelines developed by physicians at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. We'll also decipher for you the latest research on the relationship between cancer and nutrition, genetics, exercise -- minus the scientific jargon that tends to confuse rather than enlighten -- and explain what these studies mean to you.

Part One provides a basic understanding of cancer: what it is, how and why it occurs, and how it is detected and treated. Part Two, The Building Blocks of a Cancer Prevention Program, is devoted to what we call primary prevention: identifying, then modifying or eliminating those environmental and lifestyle risk factors that can cause cancer. In these chapters you'll learn:

* How to draw your family tree, a valuable tool in determining your inherited cancer risk and the steps you must take to reduce it.

* The dangers of tobacco and other substances, and proven methods for quitting smoking.

* How to follow a low-fat, high-fiber diet with relative ease, with a week's sample menus to get you started.

* Steps for protecting yourself and your family from carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) commonly found at home and on the job.

* How stress and emotions may influence cancer, and techniques for reducing stress.

* The benefits of physical activity, which may lower cancer risk.

Does practicing cancer prevention require revamping your entire way of life? Only if you're a beer-swilling, fat-consuming, chain-smoking couch potato who exercises nothing other than your TV-remote-control trigger finger and hasn't seen a doctor since the days of house calls. Chances are that you already practice some preventive measures, but you need to develop a comprehensive game plan. These lifestyle recommendations apply to everyone, regardless of individual risk of developing cancer. In addition, they offer protection against heart disease, diabetes, emphysema and other deadly disorders, and in general help to promote vital, active, healthy living.

We advocate a total approach to prevention. However, because readers may be more vulnerable to particular cancers, Part Three presents specific strategies to combat the major adult cancers:

* Prostate cancer

* Breast cancer

* Lung cancer

* Colorectal cancer (colon and rectum)

* Gynecologic cancers

* Stomach cancer

* Esophageal cancer (cancer of the esophagus)

* Skin cancers

These chapters on specific cancers incorporate the recommendations of a number of specialists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. (Other, less common or less fatal forms of cancer, while not covered in detail, are referred to throughout as they relate to nutrition, smoking and other factors that can fasten cancer.) Besides offering suggestions for primary prevention, Part Three will describe in detail the screening procedures used to discover a cancerous or precancerous growth before a person shows symptoms.

We can't emphasize enough the importance of these tests, which comprise secondary prevention. Early detection can spell the difference between life and death or spare a patient rigorous treatment, as Adele H., a mother and grandmother from Long Island, will vouch. In 1991, during her annual gynecologic exam at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Dr. William Hoskins, chief of the gynecology service, studied the 56-year-old woman's medical records and noted that she was due for a routine breast x-ray called a mammogram.

"He set up the appointment for that day," recalls Adele, "and the x-ray turned up something suspicious," even though Dr. Hoskins had been unable to feel anything when he'd examined her breasts. Subsequent laboratory analysis of a tissue sample taken from the area in question confirmed a tiny malignancy.

The cancer was caught so early that the breast surgeon was able to perform a lumpectomy, the least invasive surgical method for removing a breast tumor. Normally after a lumpectomy, patients are treated with radiation therapy or chemotherapy. "But the doctor told me that the cancer was so small," says Adele, "no further treatment was necessary."

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Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Atria
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1996
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0684815125
• ISBN 13: 9780684815121
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 416
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande