Understanding Cancer

Can antioxidants prevent cancer?

The National Cancer Institute takes a look at this all-important question.

6 Factors raising your risk of breast cancer

Whilst diet is very important, there are a number of factors, apart from diet which affect your risk of cancer.

Heavily charred meat may be harming you

Do you love your BBQ sausages almost burnt? Research has shown that cooking certain meats at high temperatures creates chemicals that are not present in uncooked meats. A few of these chemicals may increase cancer risk.

The impact of dietary fat on cancer

The National Cancer Institute has long recommended that fat be limited to less than 30 percent of calories and that the fattiest meats be replaced by leaner meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables. These recommendations, however, are much too weak to prevent cancer or to increase survival for those who have already been diagnosed with the disease.

Importance of vegetables in fighting cancer

Not only are vegetables low in fat and high in fibre, they also contain many cancer-fighting substances. Carotenoids, the pigment that gives fruits and vegetables their dark colours, have been shown to help prevent cancer.

Pizza and cancer prevention

According to researchers from Milan, Italy published in the International Journal of Cancer ....Forget about that apple...it's a pizza a day that keeps cancer away.

Diet and prostate cancer

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine a low-fat, high-fibre diet can help eliminate the hormonal aberrations that are known to be linked with prostate cancer, and may help improve survival among those who have the disease.

Are you eating your way towards cancer?

Cross-cultural studies have revealed that the populations with the highest levels of fat consumption are also the ones with the highest death rates from breast and colon cancer.

Foods, hormones and breast cancer

Several of the most common forms of cancer are linked to sex hormones. This is true of cancers of the breast, uterus, ovary, prostate, and perhaps other sites. The amount of hormones in our bodies and their actions are determined, in large part, by the foods we eat.

Green tea takes toll on cancer

Tea drinking is an ancient tradition dating back 5,000 years in China and India. Long regarded in those cultures as an aid to good health, researchers now are studying tea for possible use in the prevention and treatment of a variety of cancers.

Expose the safe tanning myth

As the weather warms up and we emerge from winter hibernation, we dust off the sunscreen, dab it on and head outside -- feeling safe from the sun.

But we’re not. “There is no such thing as a healthy tan. UV rays can kill you,” notes dermatologist John Laskas, Jr., MD.

10 Symptoms not to ignore

With so much information in the media today, one could be forgiven for feeling a little confused about what is a risk to our health and should be followed up with a doctor's visit, and what could be treated at home.

Garlic helps prevent cancer

A host of studies provide compelling evidence that garlic and its organic allyl sulfur components are effective inhibitors of the cancer process.

Red wine and cancer prevention

The key may lie in recent research that suggests cancer-fighting properties are abundant in red wine. Even more research is required to identify a number of other health benefits to wine drinking.

Are high protein diets harmful?

Is there increased risk of cancer with increased protein? Now preliminary findings from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest that eating less protein may help protect against certain cancers that are not directly associated with obesity.