“About half of all men and one-third of all women in the US will develop cancer during their lifetimes. Today, millions of people are living with cancer or have had cancer.

The risk of developing many types of cancer can be reduced by changes in a person’s lifestyle, for example, by staying away from tobacco, limiting time in the sun, being physically active, and eating healthy.”

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY

Cancer can be a simple disease or a monster to the body and let us first start reviewing the basics of cancer to understand this sentence. 

The body is made up of trillions of living cells.  Normal body cells grow, divide to make new cells, and die in an orderly fashion.  During the early years of a person’s life, normal cells divide faster to allow the person to grow. 

After the person becomes an adult, most cells divide only to replace worn-out or dying cells or to repair injuries. 

The pathophysiological responses of a patient with cancer are frequently determined by the size and extent of the tumor and by the presence or absence of metastases.

Cancer starts when cells in a part of the body start to grow out of control. Cancer cell growth is different from normal cell growth. Instead of dying, cancer cells continue to grow and form new, abnormal cells. Cancer cells can also invade (grow into) other tissues, something that normal cells cannot do. Growing out of control and invading other tissues are what makes a cell a cancer cell. Cells become cancer cells because of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) damage.

DNA is in every cell and it directs all its actions. In a normal cell, when DNA is damaged the cell either repairs the damage or the cell dies. In cancer cells, the damaged DNA is not repaired, but the cell doesn’t die like it should. Instead, the cell goes on making new cells that the body doesn’t need. These new cells all have the same damaged DNA as the first abnormal cell does=cancer cells.

The normal cells of a human body=Our red blood cells (our iron and cells that provide nutrition to our tissues by feeding oxygen to all our tissues), our white blood cells (fight infection off our body-part of immunity system), and our platelets (controls our clotting of the blood) all are taken over by the cancer cells especially if the cancer is primarily in the bone or metastasized to the bone since this organ in the human body produces all our blood cells in the bone marrow and the cancer in that causes the bone marrow to make cancer cells which is hard to cure especially if your cancer in the bone is at grade 3 or 4.   If a patient’s cancer is grade 1 or 2 its much easier to treat to possible completely cure. 

Again cancer can be a simple disease or a monster.

People can inherit abnormal DNA (it’s passed on from their parents), but most often the DNA damage is caused by mistakes that happen while the normal cell is reproducing or by something in the environment. Sometimes the cause of the DNA damage may be something obvious like cigarette smoking or sun exposure. But it’s rare to know exactly what caused any one person’s cancer. In most cases, the cancer cells form a tumor.

Some cancers, like leukemia, rarely form tumors. Instead, these cancer cells involve the blood and blood-forming organs and circulate through other tissues where they grow. Neoplasms or “new growths” are relatively autonomous (independent).  This means that the growth and its behavior are more or less independent of the host (the normal body functions).

 Neoplasms have been defined as benign or malignant; cancer is a common synonym used to refer to a malignant neoplasm.  The difference between a benign and malignant neoplasm depends on its behavior in the host.  Now if the neoplasm stays localized, enlarges slowly, is homogeneous in appearance, and can be resected or removed, then it is benign. 

On the other hand, if the neoplasm spreads or metastasizes to other areas of the body, infiltrates and causes the destruction of normal tissue, left untreated, will kill the host, then the neoplasm is considered malignant (it takes over in the body).

If a large tumor is occupying the oral cavity, then the patients will have problems with ingestion that might lead to an altered immune-responsiveness. 

If the tumor is in the large colon, then obstruction of the lumen, changes in bowel habits, and GI bleeding can occur. 

In addition, if tumors are large they often outgrow the blood supply, which leads to necrosis and bleeding. 

However, all the above changes are relatively late signs; the tumor would be quite large for a patient to exhibit these effects.  Most small tumors are painless and symptomless. 

In one sense this is unfortunate.  If small tumors were painful, perhaps more patients would seek earlier treatment and tumors could be treated more successful being diagnosed before they are large.

Part 2 tomorrow

We must pay greater attention to keeping our bodies and minds healthy and  able to heal. Yet we are making it difficult for our defences to work. We allow  things to be sold that should not be called food. Many have no nutritive value  and lead to obesity, salt imbalance, and allergies.

David Suzuki   (an environmental activist and host of the television show The Nature of Things. He has also worked as a geneticist, nature writer, and university professor.) the founder and CEO of Dylan’s Candy Bar

In our body we have cholesterol which is a type of fat. In certain foods is cholesterol depending on the food you buy. Your total cholesterol includes LDL (low-density lipoprotein) and HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol. Let’s differentiate the two, LDL is bad cholesterol because it can build up in the arterial walls and form plaque in time. That build up in the arteries will reduce blood flow and increase your risk to heart disease, especially eating frequently the wrong foods with high and bad cholesterol over years (Example. coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and eating like this for years can lead to a heart attack or from s/s arising scarring the person to go to the doctor and find out they have blockages & need surgery. The sign and symptoms arising scarring the person can range from chest pain, and can be radiating down the arms, sweating profusely, weakness/fatigue increases in your life, dizziness, you feel like you’re going to fall or actually due to the fatigue/weakness=low blood pressure due to the blockage or the heart just working too hard in doing its function since the cardiac output is decreased from the blockage) Take one of my dear friends who I have known almost 35 years who was a workaholic 10to14hr/7 days a week for at least 25 years and this week he had to undergo surgery for a coronary artery blockage bypass for 5 vessels blocked 80% to 100%. He had a successful bypass done but now has a long rehab haul to get better due to high cholesterol eating, smoking (that both play an impact in plaque & tar build up in the vessels) but he also was obese by about 50lbs. This could have been prevented if he changed his diet, watched his weight, and quit smoking years ago but that takes discipline, making sacrifices=all within your hands to allow for healthy habits now (prevention) or later when problems occur (treatment), if caught in time. There is a way out of this happening to you.

HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol is also known as good cholesterol because it is thought to help remove bad cholesterol from the body; if you decide the right foods in the right portions that will have more HDL than LDL in them. Differentiating the 2, now another component to keep in mind is risk factors that can put you at risk for heart disease and your doctor will determine what additional risk factors you have putting you at risk for heart disease. These risk factors can be modifiable (controllable by individuals) or non-modifiable (non-controllable by individuals).

Modifiable Risk Factors=High B/P, Diabetes, Low HDL=good cholesterol, High LDL=bad cholesterol, smoking, eating foods high in SATURATED FAT & CHOLESTEROL, lack of any activity in your life (your regular routine doesn’t count), & harmful use of alcohol.

Non-modifiable Risk Factors=4 types only which are: 1-Heredity (The higher the risk is when the heredity is closer to you in your family tree=Nuclear family–mom, dad, and siblings). 2-Age (Men aged 45y/o or older & Women aged 55 y/o or older) 3-Gender (It may affect your risk, for years heart disease was considered a man’s disease but we now know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women as well as men. Although men tend to develop coronary artery disease earlier in life, after age 65 the risk of heart disease for both genders is equal.) 4-Race (Heart disease is higher among African Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, native Hawaiians, and some Asian Americans compared to Caucasians).

The answer to prevention or treatment of cardiac disease is changing or modifying your diet, if it’s unhealthy 100% or just partially. The answer includes exercise (from just walking or if you like working out, even better) and if needed medication but your doctor will decide. All these changes can modify your blood lipid profile=cholesterol control, which helps increasing your heart to a better tolerance with activity, stress and simply functioning. Recommended is going to a cardiologist for people diagnosed with heart conditions or your general practitioner with any illness/disease before making changes to help guide you towards the right choices. Your doctor can help you in determining which prevention or treatment plan is best for you.

Foods high in cholesterol=Fast foods, whole fat dairy products-milk/cheese/butter/mayonnaise/ bacon/processed deli meats/salad dressings and shortenings.

The key is to be living a healthy life. This consists of diet, exercise or activity and healthy habits learned and practiced routinely in your life that will help prevent or assist in treating cardiac disease. The better we treat ourselves regarding health the higher the odds we will live a longer   life. There is not just one food to eat or one type of exercise to do or one healthy habit to keep you healthy, there are choices. Come onto my website which is no fee, no charge, no hacking, just letting you check us out to look further in understanding how to take a shape for your life with Dr. Anderson and even myself as your health coach in helping you learn what healthier habits or changes you want for a healthier way of living. It allows you to make all the decisions in what you want to do regarding what to eat (diet), exercise/activity, and what healthy habits you want to add in your life. We just provide the information and healthy foods in your diet, if you decide you want it. You make all the choices. Wouldn’t you want less disease/illness for yourself and for others throughout the nation including the future generations? Thank you for taking the time to read my introduction to how we can help you get healthier and make a healthier USA. Click onto heathyusa.tsfl.com and I hope to hear from you soon.

Angina is a medical term simply meaning lack of oxygen to the heart.  Lack of oxygen to any area of the body will cause pain in time since oxygen is the nutrients to our tissues in the human body.  Since the heart is in our upper chest angina will cause pressure or pain in the chest area and could radiate down the left arm.  Angina is reversible, no damage has occurred to the heart, but don’t get it treated and a heart attack will soon occur.

A Myocardial Infarction (MI) is just another name for a heart attack.  The coronary arteries supply the heart muscle which is called the myocardium in medical terms.  When one of these arteries are blocked and the blood supply is cut off partially to completely an MI can definitely occur.  The problem here is actual damage and scarring occurs at the area of where the MI took place in the heart.  Cell death does not occur immediately once the artery is blocked.  It takes several minutes to start the injury process and this continues for several hours unless the artery is opened up and blood flow is restored.

Cause:

The reason for the blockage is usually a buildup of plaque (deposits of fat-like substances) in the walls of the coronary arteries.

The plaque buildup narrows the walls of the artery and can cause blood clots to occur.  Plaque buildup is caused by a disease known as artherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).  An artherosclerotic plaque is a made up of cells, cholesterol, and other fatty substances.  The plaque develops in the wall of the coronary artery and over time becomes large enough to start narrowing the channel through which the blood travels.

The pool of lipid (the fat) within the plaque is covered by a thin fibrous cap.  This cap may split or fracture, exposing the blood to elements within the plaque that cause blood clot formation.

This clotting process may be controlled by the body, which contains substances to dissolve clots, or may lead to complete blockage of the artery.  When the artery is  blocked acutely for more than a few minutes, cell death start to occur.

Coronary heart disease is a very common disease and is the leading cause of death in the United States.  More than 500,000 men and women suffer a heart attack each year.

Are all heart attacks the same?   NO, A small heart attack means only a small amount of the heart muscle tissue has died.  Recovery in such cases is typically fast, and complications are to a minimum.

Large heart attacks that involve a large portion of heart tissue can cause problems like:  low blood pressure, shock, or heart failure because the heart’s ability to pump blood is reduced.  Recovery is typically longer in such cases and complications are at a higher potential of happening or death can occur.

Until the are of damage heals, the dead heart muscle is soft/weak and rupture of the heart wall can occur.  This usually results in death.  The normal rhythm of your heartbeat can change during a heart attack.  These rhythm abnormalities can be very serious and cause death if not treated promptly.

With prompt and effective treatment of a myocardial infarction, most potential complications can be avoided, and the mortality rate can be reduced dramatically.

Recovery for a heart attack:

In years past, hospitalization was often prolonged, lasting 3 to 4 weeks.  Today, hospitalization following a heart attack is usually brief in the absence of complications.  Often patients are home within 4 to 5 days or sooner.  Activities will be restricted for a few weeks to allow the healing process to occur.  The damage to the heart tissue will usually heal in 4 to 8 weeks.  The heart forms a scar tissue that is permanent; just like what would happen if any other tissue of the body suffered damage. (ex. You cut yourself with a knife damaging your skin (which is tissue and a organ of the body, than get stitches by the doctor which heal on their own in time  and  a scar in that area remains for life).  The same thing occurs to the heart in a MI.

Many patients will participate in a formal cardiac rehabilitation program.  These pro- grams typically focus on exercise and other lifestyle changes in order to speed recovery, and to fight the coronary artery disease that originally caused the heart attack.  Cardiac rehabilitation is so vital, it helps people to resume normal activity to their optimal level as quickly as possible with whatever adjustments they needed to make in their life to prevent this from happening again whether it be diet, exercise balanced with rest, and medications to take (new or adjustments in doses) or all 3.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

Lao Tzu

The heart is like the engine to a car but for us it’s the “pump” for the human body; without the engine the car won’t run and without the pump we won’t live. The normal size of the heart is about the size of your fist, maybe a little bigger. It pumps blood continuously through your entire circulatory system. The heart consists of four chambers, 2 on the right and 2 on the left. The right side only pumps high carbon dioxide levels of blood, after all the oxygen was used by the tissues and returns to the heart in the right upper chamber and leaves to the lung from the right lower chamber. From the lungs it than goes to the left side of the heart now, which is a very short distance as opposed to where the left side pumps the blood. The L side of the heart pumps blood to the feet, brain and all tissues in between with high oxygen levels of blood.   This is why the L side of the heart does more work than the R side since the blood leaving the L side has a longer distance in distributing oxygen. The heart pumps the blood with high oxygen blood levels to reach all your tissues and cells, going to the feet, brain, and to all other tissues in between returning home again to the right side of the heart (upper chamber) to get sent to the lungs again for more oxygen. This is why the muscle on the L side of the heart is larger than the right, it works harder. Every time your heart beats (the sound we call lub dub) the organ is sending out a cardiac output of blood either to the lungs for more oxygen or to the body tissues through the aorta to give oxygenated blood to your tissues and cells. This is the mechanics of how the heart works in our body.                                                                                                                          Let’s see what can occur if the heart doesn’t function properly. If your heart is not pumping out a sufficient amount in your cardiac output to either the lungs (from rt. Side) or to the tissues (from the lt. side) than it tries to work harder where it does ok at first but over time weakens. As this weak heart struggles to pump blood the muscle fibers of the heart stretch. Over time, this stretching leaves the heart with larger, weaker chambers. The heart enlarges (cardiomegaly).   If this continues to go on this could go into R or L sided heart failure. When this happens, blood that should be pumped out of the heart backs up in the lungs (L sided failure) or in the tissues (R sided failure). The side the failure is on doesn’t allow proper filling of the chambers on that side and back up happens; so if on the L the fluids back up in the lungs or the R the fluids first back up in the veins which can expand to hold extra blood but at some point dump the extra fluids in your tissues (This is edema in feet first due to gravity).   This is all due to overloading of the blood not filling up in the chambers of the heart to make a good cardiac output of blood and in time the fluid backs up (bad pumping=backup of blood=fluid overload in the lungs (pulmonary congestion) to fluid staying in the skin (first the lower extremities due to gravity=feet which we call edema working its way up the legs.). This condition in time with no treatment will go into congestive heart failure (CHF) to the other side of the heart if not controlled. CHF can range from mild to severe. There is 670,000 cases are diagnosed with this every year and is the leading cause of hospitalization in people over 65 y/o. Causes of CHF are: heart attack, CAD (coronary artery disease), cardiomyopathy, conditions that overwork the heart like high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity (These diseases can be completely preventable or at least well controlled).                                                                                                                                 There is many of us in this world with knowing how our activity/exercise, eating, and habits could be better for health but do little action if any on our own to change it, which is a large part for certain diseases being so high in America (diabetes, stroke, cardiac diseases=high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis to CHF and more). If people were more healthier and more active regarding these diseases alone it would decrease in population creating a positive impact on how our health system with insurance presently (a disaster) with our economy for many could get better. A healthy heart can pump to all parts of the body in a few seconds which is good cardiac output from the organ but when it gets hard for the heart to keep up with its regular routine it first compensates to eventually it decompensates causing ischemia (lack of oxygen to the heart tissue). It’s like any tissue in the body, lack of oxygen=lack of nutrients to the body tissue=STARVATION and with lack of oxygen will come PAIN eventually to death if not treated. Take the heart, if it isn’t getting enough oxygen it can go into angina. That is reversible since it is heart pain due to not enough oxygen to the heart tissue=no damage but if left untreated what will occur is a heart attack=myocardial infarction (MI) and is permanent damage because scarring to the heart tissue takes place.                                                                           Let’s understand what the heart can develop over time with an unhealthy heart due to bad health habits. If you are eating too much for too long foods high in sodium your vessels will narrow in size. By allowing this you increase the pressure in the vessels that increases your blood pressure called hypertension. If you are also inactive you are at risk of obesity which puts stress on the heart and in time causing high B/P. Constantly be in a high B/P and this could cause the vessel to rupture (at the heart=possible heart attack, at the brain=possible stroke, also called CVA with both on high occurrences in our population of the US.).   With bad habits (especially poor diet, inactive, and smoking) you can cause over time atherosclerosis=a blockage in the artery with the resolution surgery (from a cardiac catheterization up your groin or having difficulty in the arm to the heart where an angiogram to an angioplasty with possibly a stent is performed or if the blockage to blockages is so bad a CABG=coronary artery bypass=a 6hr plus operation where diversion of a vein from your leg (donor graft site) around the blockage is done. Smoking can lead to this but it also can cause your vessels to become brittle=arteriosclerosis. Healthy Habits would impact a positive result for all people who have had this diagnosis before but most important be a great PREVENTATIVE measure for people not diagnosed with cardiac disease.  There are 4 things you have no control over heredity, age, sex, and race but healthy habits are sure to benefit you by keeping the odds down of you inheriting, help your age factor, and race a lot can be associated with eating cultural habits.                                                                                                                                                         If you make the decision to live a life that’s healthy for your heart through proper eating, doing healthy habits and doing some exercise or activity with balancing rest in your busy schedule and would like direction or want to expand your diet/exercise/healthy habits then you came to the right blog. Go to my website for no fee, no charge, no hacking, just letting you check us out to look further in understanding how to take a healthier shape for your life with Dr. Anderson and even myself as your health coach in helping you learn what healthier habits or changes you feel you need and want for a healthier way of living. It allows you to make all the decisions in what you want to do regarding your health. Includes what to eat (diet), what exercise/activity, and what healthy habits you want to add in your life. We just provide the information and healthy foods in your diet through information to broaden your knowledge even a catalog on diet foods, if you so choose to do so. You make all the choices. Wouldn’t you want less heart disease or obesity or diabetes for yourself and for others throughout the nation including the future generations? Than join me and others. Thank you for taking the time to read my article in how we can help you with others gets healthier you including a healthier USA. Click onto heathyusa.tsfl.com and I hope to hear from you soon. If you like what you see spread the good cheer.   Let’s build a stronger foundation regarding HEALTH in America.

“Memphis police say as many as 125 teenagers were involved in last Saturday’s melee — that left two other people injured. Authorities believe the young thugs were playing a game called “point them out, knock them out.”

As a parent, you serve many roles. You are the caregiver and the nurturer, and you want to be the friend. From time to time, however, you also have to be the disciplinarian, teaching your children right from wrong and helping guide them toward appropriate behaviors and smart decisions. Understanding why discipline is important for your children will help you implement effective disciplinary techniques that make for happy and well-behaved children turning them out to high probability of an effective grown up in the adult world.  Your childhood builds the FOUNDATION of how you will turn out as an adult.  Be with no limitations, living 100% politically correct, no rules or regulations, teaching your child everyone wins and no one ever loses expect a lot of disarray for that youth when the reach adulthood.  For example be a parent who doesn’t  discipline, does everything politically correct raising the child which in this case compared to an adult the child has not earned the years of experience to even think like an adult yet.  At the same time the child has not produced anything in having the capability to act like an adult yet  that’s why they are called children with the parents their for mentorship or guidance.

Look at what this type of thinking in not disciplining your child either verbally or physically with a single spanking has done to our society (not beating the crap out of the child, for any individual being dramatic thinking I may mean that and I don’t).  Our own kind are children and young adults you hurt each other both mentally and physically.

There are many reasons why a parent may not want to discipline a child. Some parents may be reluctant to discipline children because they want to avoid having conflict or because they don’t want to have their child be angry at them. Others may be unable or unwilling to devote time and energy to the task of disciplining children. And still others may have unpleasant memories of being disciplined when they were children, and may want to make things easier on their own kids by relaxing rules and giving them more free rein.

But the fact is, discipline is not about creating conflict with your child or lashing out in anger. Child discipline, when done correctly, is not about trying to control your child but about showing her how to control her own behavior. It is not about punishing a child for doing something wrong but about setting clear parameters and consequences for breaking rules so that she learns how to discipline herself.

A child who has been taught right from wrong and has a solid sense of what is negative and positive behavior will know when she has done something wrong. She will want to behave correctly out of a desire to be a good citizen and a member of her family and society — not because she fears punishment.

 What disciplining your children is and can do:

I come from a species called humans and through evolution (if you believe in that) we supposedly descended from ape like creatures.  It is embarrassing for me to say I come from the same species as those individuals you on TV in Missouri that last Saturday beat up on each other.  Memphis police say as many as 125 teenagers were involved in last Saturday’s melee — that left two other people injured. Authorities believe the young thugs were playing a game called “point them out, knock them out.”  This knock out game has happened throughout America which started earlier this year.  One reason for our young ones acting this way is because of no discipline in being brought up.  You need rules, regulations outlined by your parents for structure and organization for the child to know how to behave appropriately to other individuals and know what is right and wrong.  Otherwise you have chaos like this and so many other examples.  Examples like people walking over each other in Walmart Xmas time, , beating up on complete strangers for fun (at least baboons due it to protect their own species).  We on the other hand beat up on each other for fun, or have a fight with our wife than drag her out of an elevator, too many young men robbing old ladies for their money or jewelry after knocking them over with their walker.  Than we have the bullying in schools that continues on in college causing very young adults to resort to suicide from bullying still going on in college.  Pretty low life if you ask me.  I could go on with examples but more important lets look at what discipline actually does for the child in childhood and later as an adult.  Ending line with disciplining your children the higher the odds the child will deal with life more effective.