Wellness Article 3: Your best defence against cancer

Your First Defence Against Cancer: Education

Prostate Cancer
"If Canadian men want to stop dying from prostate cancer, they have to start talking about their health and their prostates. It's as simple as that," says John Blanchard, Chair, Prostate Cancer Alliance of Canada. "Men have to get the facts about this disease, and reduce their risk through regular testing and adopting a prostate friendly diet."

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for Canadian men. Prostate cancer puts an end to birthday celebrations for 12 Canadian men a day.

"The best action for men to take to protect themselves from this disease is to find out all they can about early detection and prevention of prostate cancer," says Dr. Barb Whylie, Director, Cancer Control Policy, Canadian Cancer Society. "We urge men - especially men over 50 and men at high risk - to talk to their doctors about prostate cancer so they understand their risk, know the early warning signs and learn about the tests available to detect this disease. Early detection offers the best defense against this disease."

Adapted from the Canadian Cancer Society
http://www.ontario.cancer.ca/ccs/internet/standard/0,3182,3225_83256703__langId-en,00.html

Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among Canadian women. Despite slight declines in mortality rates over the past decade for women with breast cancer, one in nine Canadian women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime; one in 25 Canadian women will die from this disease.

Risk Factors:
Scientific researchers are not certain of the direct causes of breast cancer, but have identified some proven risk factors as well as others that are suspected or possible.

Known Risk Factors:
Gender: More than 99% of breast cancers occur in women
Age: risk increases as you get older
Early menstruation (before the age of 12)
Late menopause (after age 55)
Having a first baby after age 30 or never having a baby
Having a close relative with breast cancer
Being physically inactive
Being overweight
Taking hormone replacement therapy

Possible Risk Factors:
Eating too few fruits and vegetables
Drinking too much alcohol
Never breastfeeding
Smoking tobacco or being exposed to second-hand smoke
Using birth control pills

For more information on risk factors and how to minimize your risk, visit Health Canada at: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/iyh/diseases/breast_cancer.html

Wellness article 2: Smoking Facts

EACH YEAR, OVER 45,000 CANADIANS DIE FROM TOBACCO USE
In Canada, smoking is the most important cause of preventable illness, disability and premature death. In 1996, greater than 45,200 deaths (29,229 male and 15,986 female) were caused by smoking -- more than 20% of all deaths among Canadians.

In 1996, smoking prematurely killed three times more Canadians than car accidents, suicides, drug abuse, murder and AIDS combined.

Compare this to death by: Murder – 510; Alcohol – 1,900; Car accidents - 2,900; Suicides – 3,900; Tobacco – 45,000.

Accounting for over 45,200 deaths in 1996, smoking far exceeded the second most important preventable cause of death -- accidents (over 8,600 deaths).

Compared with non-smokers, the risk of premature death is more than double among Canadian men and almost double among Canadian women who begin smoking by age 15.

Children of smokers are twice as likely to pick up the habit.
From Health Canada at http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-
sesc/tobacco/legislation/warnings/e_i.html


Lung Cancer Remains the Leading Cause of Cancer Death
Excerpts from: Canadian Cancer Statistics 2001
By National Cancer Institute of Canada

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death for both genders. Almost one-third of the cancer deaths in men and almost one-quarter in women are due to lung cancer alone.
Cancer is the leading cause of premature death in Canada, being responsible for almost one-third of all potential years of life lost.
Because of its relative frequency among younger Canadians and poor survival rates, lung cancer is by far the leading cause of premature death due to cancer.
Smoking is responsible for about one-third of potential years of life lost (PYLL) due to cancer, about one-quarter of PYLL due to diseases of the heart and about one-half of PYLL due to respiratory disease.

So I made another blog, though I don't even keep up the last one that much really . . . Why?

Well, the other one seemed a bit disjointed, with journal-like entries tossed in there with random articles. So, the random articles will go here, for the few people who like to read them.

The articles will mostly be industrial safety and also health and wellness based, from my summer 2003 job at a mill. I was the general H&S assistant (propperly thought of as the doer of bitchwork for the whole department). Fortunately it was a small department, so I only had three bosses. One of them was alright, one of them was great, and one of them was barely there at all. I mean physically. The alright one was the one that wasn't really there mentally. Anyways, s/he was the most amusing.

After that, I will have some articles written from this summer (2005), as a mill tour guide.

I will probably find some stuff from school written in the last few years, and possibly even some really dumb stuff from high school. Seriously, I don't know how teenagers make it to their twenties even . . . if they aren't doing totally dangerous stupid stuff, they do other stuff that is so idiotic to look back on . . . it's a good thing teenagers are generally so caught up in everything at the time that they don't die of embarassment. I have this really great poem from grade 9 . . . yeah, that's going up on the personal page. Anyone who was going to take any of my articles seriously would totally forget that idea if they saw any of that shite.

Wellness Article 1: Cancer Prevention: Everyone’s Concern

Most people have been touched somehow by cancer, whether they have witnessed the illness of a friend or relative, or had to deal with biopsies and treatment themselves. In fact, 2 out of every 5 Canadian men (or 40% of the male population) and one third of Canadian women (36%) will develop cancer sometimes in their lives. One in 3.7 men (27%) and 1 in 4.5 women (22%) will die of cancer.

Cancer diagnosis and treatment has improved radically in the past few decades. But though preventive measures are also better understood, many people do not take the basic precautions. Why is that? Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Canada after cardiovascular disease, which claims the lives of 36% of men and 39% of women. Scarier yet, cancer is far and away the leading cause of potential years of life lost (PYLL), because though cancer is mainly a disease of the elderly, it is much more likely than cardiovascular disease to strike in middle age or sooner. Cancer accounts for 29% of the total PYLL from all causes of death. Many of the risk factors associated with cancer are also risk factors for other health problems, so adopting some good habits could add years or even decades to your lifespan.

Source: Canadian Cancer Statistics 2001: http://66.59.133.166/stats/index.html

Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Cancer Control
There are many different types of cancers. All of them are characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells in the body.

According to the Canadian Cancer Statistics 2002, an estimated 136,900 new cases of cancer and 66,200 deaths from cancer will occur in Canada in 2002. With the exception of non-melanoma skin cancer, the most frequently diagnosed cancer will continue to be breast cancer for women and prostate cancer for men. The leading cause of cancer death for both sexes continues to be lung cancer.

There are many known risk factors for cancer. Some risk factors are not modifiable (age, gender, genetic predisposition).

Modifiable risk factors include:

Smoking: Tobacco use is the cause of an estimated 30% of fatal cancers in Canada and the overwhelming cause of lung cancer;

Poor diet -- At least 20 per cent of cancer deaths are linked to a poor diet - including consumption of alcohol. Fruit and vegetable consumption is protective for a variety of cancers, whereas a diet high in red meat, processed meat, and saturated fat has been linked to an increased risk of several cancers;

Sunlight: Skin cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer. One of the main causes of skin cancer is exposure to the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays.

Additional risk factors for cancer include exposure to workplace or environmental carcinogens, certain infections, and reproductive patterns.