The four classes of diseases and their common factor.

Their twofold nature and resorts.

The cause of exogenous and endogenous diseases.

GOOD NEWS.

Friends on Tour

To handle lumbago - back pain, there are many suggestion, I would like to suggest some Ayurvedic views.

• avoid cold food, wind etc.
• avoid heavy exercise, bad postures too.
• Tablet R. Compound or Tablet Yograj Guggulu - 2 tablets twice a day.

- Please do local - gentle massage with luke warm olive oil or sesame oil on back region for about 10 - 15 minutes, at bed time. Which should be followed by hot water tub bath or hot water fomentation for about 10 minutes.

ARTICLE

CURABLE CANCER

At times human, animal and plants cells start dividing repeatedly instead of growth and differentiation that follows cell divisions in normal tissues. This unrestrained growth of cells is known as cancer. The ancient Greeks had recognized the crab like movement of the disease in the body and named it cancer. The disease is wide spread in humans and animals. The question what makes a normal cell cancerous has not been answered as yet in spite of intensive research in the molecular biology of cancerous cells. It is largely believed that cancer is not a single disease and different mechanisms are involved in the transformation of a normal to a cancerous cell.

The underlying mechanism is the alteration in the genetic material DNA. Thus , cancer is also regarded as a malady of genes. This can be brought about by mutations which may arise due to errors is DNA replication, exposure to radiations and carcinogenic chemicals or tabacco smoke. Though a good mechanism to repair the genetic damage is present in the living system, at times the damage is not rectified. A single altered cell in which the regulatory mechanisms are impaired leading to uncontrolled divisions could be the origin of cancer. A number of early response genes are turned on which produce oncoproteins. Some of the oncoproteins are known to act as transcription factors and influence transcription of many other genes. Aberrant expression of nuclear oncoproteins leads to cancerous growth.

Almost undetected, cancer spreads from its site of origin to the neighbouring organs if left unchecked. Even today, cancer remains a formidable disease. However, with spectacular advances in diagnosis and treatment the survival rate of cancer patients has considerably improved. At the end of the 1930s, the five-year survival rate was one in four and in the mid-fifties to one in three. The improvement in survival rate is due to better awareness of the disease, early diagnosis and more effective treatment.

Cancer is curable, but prevention is better than cure and certainly many cancers are preventable. Lifestyle choices influence the incidence of cancer. India has the worlds highest rate of oral cancer which is linked to the widespread habit of chewing tobacco. Links between smoking and lung cancer have been well established. In mice, through selective breeding, strains have been development which consistently showed high incidence of certain types of cancers. The role of heredity in several human cancers was also suspected for a long time. Now the specific genes for the cancers of the rectum and for breast cancer have been identified. Occupational and environmental exposure to carcinogenic chemicals should also be minimized to bring down the incidence in spite of the genetic potential.

The word cancer still instills great fear in the minds of people at large and in the minds of cancer patients and their relatives in particular. There is probably no other disease more misunderstood and sinned against than cancer. The misconceptions about cancer encompass a very large canvass covering its durability at one end and its etiology at the other. The question always asked is when will a magic cure be found for cancer? In this book, I have tried to address these issues in the light of present day advances of our understanding of the cellular and molecular biology of cancer and their possible impacts in preventing as well as treating cancer in future. I have attempted to make some of the scientific concepts simple without going into minute details. I hope that it will remove misconceptions and help change our attitude towards this dreaded disease.

By: Surendra K. Shah