Articles Directory | Free Articles | New Articles Daily | How You Can Avoid Colon Cancer

Do you feel troubled about intestinal cancer? Late phase colon cancer is a particularly deadly disease that kills of over fifty thousand annually within the USA alone. What could be performed to protect yourself from this illness? Here we talk about the precautionary actions you can adopt to realize optimal colon health.

The colon is commonly known as large intestine that functions as temporary storage organ for body wastes, feces in particular. It empties by the last stage of the digestive process called defecation. As a person’s age reaches 50 years old and above, the colon becomes very susceptible for contracting malignancy. Colon cancer is a deadly condition and has tagged this age group as high risk individuals. However, precautionary measures can be taken to avoid the colon malignancy.

There are risk factors that make a person predisposed to colon cancer including age, lifestyle, diet, and presence of colon polyps. As mentioned earlier, people who are 50 years old and above are more likely to contract colon cancer base on the frequency of cases among the age groups. People who have increased cholesterol and decreased fiber dietary intake were also good candidates for the said disease. Smoking is even pointed out as a variable that contribute to the progress of colon cancer. Above all, existing polyps in the colon is vulnerable of becoming a cancerous mass. Despite the contribution of these factors to the development of malignancy in the colon, determining and recognizing them is also the key to prevent the aforementioned disease.

Knowing that people who are 50 years old and above are high risk for colon cancer, it is recommended by doctors that these age group undergoes early detection diagnostic exam like colonoscopy. This will aid in determining presence of polyps that is the major precursor of most colon cancer cases. Hence, once polyps are found present, an appropriate surgical intervention such as polyp removal can be immediately done to prevent further progress of the polyps into malignant tissues.

However, the diet issue on colon cancer must be addressed down to the level of the food content involved. Fiber is believed to prevent malignancy in the colon by promoting regular good bowel movement; thereby, wastes and toxins that might harm the colon cells are not held for too long in the gut. Moreover, high cholesterol level is considered a significant factor causing an increased amount of natural carcinogens produced by the body called free-radicals.

The normal metabolism of the body is responsible for the production of free-radicals. However, the destruction caused by free-radicals are controlled and even prevented by the natural antioxidants like glutathione. Therefore, other aspects that may cause imbalance between free-radicals and antioxidants’ level such as high blood cholesterol must be totally avoided. Cholesterol molecules are susceptible to be transformed into free-radicals because free- radicals may bind and steal ions from them. Hence, it is logical to say that high blood cholesterol level is directly proportional to the amount of free-radicals in the body. This means that an increase in cholesterol level increases the free radicals level as well and vice versa.

Furthermore, cigarette or tobacco is not new to the public that it contains carcinogenic substances. The introduction of these substances into the body adds insult to the cellular injury that the free-radicals bring. Thus, if one smokes, it would be best to give up the habit as early as possible and if one doesn’t smoke, keep that healthy practice.

In general, an in-depth knowledge on the causes and risk factors of colon cancer including those variables mentioned above plays an essential role in avoiding this malignant disease. If these risk factors are not completely eliminated, at least set limitations and control exposures on them.

The resources provided through this item isn't a substitute intended for expert care and should not be used for screening or treating a health problem or disease. You ought to talk to your health care provider if you have or suspect you could have a health problem.