Getting diagnosed with cancer is a very scary thing. Even though treatment for the disease has come a long way in the last 50 years, it is still one of the deadliest diseases humans face. One of the first choices they have to make is how they want to treat it when patients are diagnosed of cancer. They work with their doctors to determine the best way to beat the disease. Here is a guide to cancer treatments such as breast, lung and prostate cancer treatment.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is one of the most important medical developments of the last century. It is one of the most popular lung, bone and prostate cancer treatments. During these treatments, patients are hooked up to an IV that delivers poisonous chemicals into their bloodstreams. This poison will hopefully cure the disease by killing the cancer cells with its toxicity. That same poison also kills healthy cells in patients. That is why patients receiving chemotherapy get so sick, lose their hair and feel pain while they are undergoing treatment.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy works on the same basic principle as chemotherapy. It uses a harmful thing, in this case radiation, in the hopes of killing the tumor without harming the patient too greatly. Doctors use radiation-emitting devices to target radiation directly at the spot where the tumor is. The radiation will kill the cancer cells, but it also will kill healthy cells. This leads to many of the same horrible side effects that chemotherapy patients suffer, including vomiting, lack of energy and weakness. Also, radiation can only be used if the disease is localized to one area of the body. Radiation therapy is ineffective to cure cancer if it has spread at all.
Surgery
This is another popular form of treatment. It is a good option when the patient has a tumor that has not spread beyond one area of the body. Doctors cut into the body to remove the tumor. This procedure carries the risks that all surgeries do, but it does not lead to the horrible side effects that chemotherapy and radiation therapy cause.
Treatment with Nutrition
Cancer can both be prevented and treated with a healthy diet. There are substances in many foods called antioxidants. These antioxidants are very effective at eliminating rogue cells in the body. Rogue cells are abnormal cells that do not belong in the body, which includes cancer cells. There are many foods that are very high in antioxidants.
These foods include blueberries, pomegranates, beans, cranberries, blackberries, apples, pecans, strawberries and prunes. Though they can't always cure cancer, they almost always help in the fight to beat the affliction. These antioxidant-laden foods should be consumed in large quantities by people who are healthy to help them avoid developing the disease.
Alternative Treatments
There are a number of alternative treatments for cancer that Western doctors do not use, but that may have merit in the fight against cancer. These include things like herbal treatments, Q10 treatments, Gerson Therapy, Gonzalez Therapy, Vitamin C in high doses, and treatment with cannabis.
Patients who are diagnosed with cancer owe it to themselves to explore every avenue at their disposal to fight their cancer. They should take a look at every alternative treatment to see if it can help defeat the cancer inside.
