As we all know, there is no way for us to escape from the chemotherapy side effects but just can minimize it. There are many supplements that the patients can consume during the time undergoing chemotherapy. In part 1, I have introduced the benefits of consuming vitamins E, C and N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC) while undergoing the chemotherapy to minimize chemotherapy side effects. Today, we will go further to explore about the benefits of consuming the coenzyme Q10 and selenium in minimizing the chemotherapy side effects.

Against Cardiomyopathies and Liver Damage

Usually, the coenzyme Q10 is used together with vitamin E to protect patients from the cardiomyopathies which are induced by chemotherapy drug, Adriamycin. There are many studies proved that coenzyme Q10 is really work to prevent the Adriamycin-induced cardiomyopathies. As coenzyme Q10 is nontoxic, it can be used at high dosages. Cancer research showed that it can help in preventing liver damage from the chemotherapy drugs like Mitomycin C and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).

Unfortunately, there was a study indicated that coenzyme Q10 should not be consumed at the same time when the chemotherapy agent is used. It would be too sad as coenzyme Q10 is really effective in preventing Adriamycin-induced cardiomyopathy. For your information, Adriamycin is a type of chemotherapy drug sometimes used as part of a chemotherapy cocktail. Therefore, kindly seek for advice from doctor before you consume the coenzyme Q10 as supplement so that the undesirable case will not occur.

Minimize Toxicity of Chemotherapy Drugs

On the other hand, the combined used of selenium, vitamin A and vitamin E us effective in minimizing the toxicity of chemotherapay drugs, especially Adriamycin. The synergistic effect of vitamin E and selenium can work together to enhance the functionality and effectiveness of immune system. Without the combination used of these two supplements, we might not see the positive result of the functionality of immune system.

In conclusion, the coenzyme Q10 can only be used with caution as it might cause other side effects if taken at the same time with chemotherapy agents. Selenium is effective in enhancing the body immune system so that we can stay healthy with any infection of diseases. In the forthcoming post, I will write about the benefits of consuming whey protein to minimize the chemotherapy side effects. Stay tuned!

Minimize Chemotherapy Side Effects (Part 2) is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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As I have mentioned in Cancer Chemotherapy, there are lots of side effects of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to escape from the chemotherapy side effects. Yet, what we can do is just to minimize the consequences of cancer chemotherapy.

Minimize Chemotherapy Side Effects Series

Therefore, I decide to write a series of the way to minimize chemotherapy side effects in this blog so that people can really benefit from it. In this blog post, I will describe to you the benefits of consuming vitamins E, C and N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC) while undergoing the chemotherapy.

Against Heart Muscle Toxicity

Basically, the high doses of chemotherapy may cause the heart muscle toxicity of the patient. Cancer Research showed that vitamins E, C and NAC play the role to protect high doses chemotherapy patients against heart muscle toxicity. According to Life Extension Foundation Protocols, there was a controlled study to diagnose the effects of vitamins E, C and NAC on cardiac function on a group of chemotherapy and radiation patients. One group was supplemented with these nutrients while another group no. The results showed that the group without the supplements suffered 46% more left ventricle malfunction than the group with supplements. In addition, there was no significant fall in overall ejection fraction for the supplemented group, but 29% of the group without supplement showed reduced ejection fraction.

Improve Appetite

The vitamin C may help in reducing the chemotherapy side effects. It can be used to improve appetite of the patients. Furthermore, it can help to reduce the dose of pain killers used in chemotherapy.

Against Cardiomyopathy

On the other hand, the vitamin E can protect the patients against cardiomyopathies which caused by chemotherapy. It can be used in combination with vitamin A and coenzyme Q10 to lessen the side effects of Adriamycin, which is a drug used in chemotherapy. It can help to increase the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drugs too. The dry powder succinate form of vitamin E is the best for the chemotherapy patients.

In conclusion, consuming these nutrients may help in reducing the chemotherapy side effects. Yet, this is only a theoretical fact. It might not practical to every particular case of cancer. Thus, please seek the advice of doctor before consuming any supplement. This is only the part 1 of the series. Remember to subscribe to this blog to get the free update. You may subscribe via email or RSS feed. Thanks for reading!

Minimize Chemotherapy Side Effects (Part 1) is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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Tamoxifen plays an essential role as adjuvant drug in breast cancer treatment. Many people do not know about the mechanism how it functions to prevent the progression of breast cancer. I have found a lot of information about the Tamoxifen to share with all of you.
 

Tamoxifen is Effective to Treat Breast Cancer

As what we know, Tamoxifen works to occupy the estrogen receptor and blocks the estrogen. In fact, there is another mode of action to treat the breast cancer instead of just blocking the estrogen. It also works in estrogen-receptor negative breast cancer and progesterone-receptor positive breast cancer. Instead of just blocking the estrogen, it also blocks another type of signal known as Protein Kinase C (PKC). PKC is essential in regulation of activation of oncogenes. By blocking the PKC, the oncogenes will not be activated. Besides, PKC also regulates other signals that control the growth and transformation of cells.
 

Furthermore, Tamoxifen is able to interfere with the cell cycle too. This is another anti-cancer action of it. As we all know, cell cycle is a predetermined program that leading the cell goes through the division. Normally, the cell cycle will be stopped at the checkpoints to ensure everything is in normal condition. The checks will ensure that the abnormal cells do not replicate. However, the cancer cells have abnormal cell cycles where they lost those checkpoints. Therefore, the cancer cells can replicate without any barrier. Consequently, the traditional chemotherapy is to restore the checkpoint function in cancer cell to stop the cell cycle. Significantly, Tamoxifen is one of the good drugs to be used as chemotherapeutic agent as it can stop the cell cycle in cancer cells.
 
In the previous post about the hormonal therapy for breast cancer treatment, I have mentioned that Tamoxifen can only work at 2 years. After 2 years, the drug will start to enhance the developing of tamoxifen-dependent cancer. We called this problem as Tamoxifen Resistance. Many cancer researches show that Tamoxifen Resistance is because of the permanent damage caused by the drug. It might damage the tumour suppressor gene, p53. p53 is a main role to stop the cell cycle and prevent the cancer cells to replicate. According to cancer research, p53 regulates the cell cycle when there are abnormal cells and cause them to apoptosis. Tamoxifen may stop p53 from working.
 
In conclusion, Tamoxifen is an effective drug to regulate the development of breast cancer only with the appropriate used. We need to get the advices from the oncologist before consuming it.

Tamoxifen – Breast Cancer Treatment is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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Breast cancer is a troublesome disease. There are many reasons that causing breast cancer. It has been clear that the hormone is one of the key factors of the development of breast cancer. Therefore, hormonal therapy is an important therapeutic strategy to control this cancer.

Hormonal Therapy to Control Estrogen Level

There are many cancer research on the removed tumours showing that the breast cancer is estrogen-receptor positive. Theoretically, this type of cancer should show response to hormonal therapy on estrogen. To manipulate the estrogen level in the body, the Tamoxifen has been introduced to the world.

Hormonal Therapy Using Tamoxifen

Tamoxifen is an adjuvant drug or antagonist of estrogen receptor in breast cancer cell. It helps in hormonal therapy to treat the breast cancer. However, several studies show that Tamoxifen may cause an increase of estrogen in the blood after 2 years hormonal therapy. This is because the breast cancer cells may become resistant to Tamoxifen hormonal therapy. Besides, the estrogen-receptor positive cells may easily mutate into new cancer cell type that can proliferate without the presence of estrogen. Thus, Tamoxifen fails to control cell proliferation after 2 years of hormonal therapy.

Despite of this, the Tamoxifen hormonal therapy is suggested not to use beyond a two year period. Tamoxifen may cause serious side effects after 2 years. It can increase risk of abnormal blood clots too. The patients with Tamoxifen hormonal therapy must follow the Thrombosis Prevention protocol to minimize the risk of deep vein thrombosis.

While taking Tamoxifen, women are recommended to take 4000 to 6000 IU of vitamin D3 and 3 to 50 mg of melatonin nightly. There are many clinical trials show that melatonin and vitamin D3 significantly enhance the efficiency of Tamoxifen. However, another side effect of taking vitamin D3 needs to be paid attention. Breast cancer patients may experience a high risk for developing blood calcium disorders causing kidney toxicity and abnormal calcium metabolism if taking high doses of vitamin D3. For all these reason, breast cancer patients who use therapeutic doses of vitamin D3 should carry out a regular blood chemistry panel to monitor the kidney toxicity and calcium imbalances before the problems become worse.

In conclusion, hormonal therapy is a great way to control the progression of breast cancer though it brings many side effects. I will talk more about the Tamoxifen in my coming post especially the aspects we really need to know before using it.

Hormonal Therapy to Treat Breast Cancer is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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Breast cancer is the fear of any woman in the world. It is not difficult to know that either a friend or a relative who has or had breast cancer. It has been the leading cause of death for women between the ages of 35 and 54. However, did every woman know the things before treatment of breast cancer? Thus, today’s post is all about the things to know before breast cancer treatment to help women understand about these.
 

As we all know, all types of cancer cell can spread to the whole body from the origin. Most of the time, when the cancer has been detected the chance that the disease has spread is high. Once a lump has been detected on the breast, there may already be an average of 45 billion cancer cells present, and some of them have been metastasized to other parts of the body. Thus, the early detection of breast cancer is important to prevent the cancer cells from spreading. I have been covered the Early Detection of Breast Cancer in my previous post.
 
Conventional medicine divides the stages of the breast cancer based on certain factors like tumour size, lymph node involvement, or distal spread. According to the stage of the cancer, the oncologist may suggest many options or even combinations from simple lumpectomy (breast-conserving surgery) to complete mastectomy (removal of one or both breast), radiation, and chemotherapy.
 
Yet, not all the therapies are suitable for a particular patient. Usually, the oncologist will design the most suitable treatment to the patient. The use of radiation and chemotherapy will certainly weaken the immune system of the cancer patient. This leaves the cancer patient more vulnerable to the development of metastatic lesions in many of our body organs. Though, there are many successful cases that using the radiation and chemotherapy to improve the survival of breast cancer patients with appropriately dose.
 
The oncologist will only give the best recommendations to the breast cancer patient according to the stages of the disease. The patient needs to make informed decisions whether which therapies to utilize. Therefore, the final decision is on the patient’s hand.
 
In conclusion, we need to know a little bit about the breast cancer so that we will not panic when facing on this disease especially for the women. This is only an introduction of breast cancer treatment. I will cover the details in my future post in Cytogenetics and Cancer Research blog.

Things to Know Before Breast Cancer Treatment is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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Anti-angiogenic therapy is a kind of cancer treatment that using drugs to stop tumor angiogenesis. This is a high potential approach to treat cancer. Today, I will share some of the basic knowledge about this kind of cancer treatment.
 
What is angiogenesis? Angiogenesis is a multi steps process involving the growth of new blood vessels in our body. This process depends on the regulation of many distinct activities in many cell types. This process plays an essential role in many physiological and pathological conditions.
 

What is tumor angiogenesis? Tumor angiogenesis is the growth of new capillary blood vessels that penetrate into tumor and supply the nutrients and oxygen as well as removing waste products. The tumors need angiogenesis to grow and evade in our body. The tumor cells can get the necessary oxygen and nutrient supplies by passive diffusion when the tumor angiogenesis occur. Therefore, the anti-angiogenic therapy is a good approach to treat the tumor progression by stopping the tumor angiogenesis.
 

Anti-angiogenic Therapy is Effective to Treat Cancer

Anti-angiogenic therapy of cancer is a highly effective way for destroying the tumor cells. The tumors cannot grow and survive without angiogenesis. If the anti-angiogenic agents are applied before a tumor develops, it can be considered as a vaccine in preventing the tumor development. Yet, it is not a cure for cancer but just represents the treatment. If we really want to cure the cancer, we need to target the agents and pathways that cause cancer.
 

Advantages of Anti-angiogenic Therapy

i. Unlike the chemotherapy, anti-angiogenic therapy contains little or no toxic to our body. It is because it does not require the therapeutic drug enter any tumor cells. The therapeutic agent needs not to cross the blood brain barrier.
 
ii. This treatment regulate the tumor growth regardless the growth fraction, tumor cell heterogeneity and tumor cell type.
 
iii. This treatment does not induce acquired drug resistance.
 
iv. As the normal vasculature of an adult is dormant, the specificity of angiogenic inhibitors can be applied. This allows the long-term and nontoxic treatment of tumors to the patients. This is the greatest advantage if compare to the nonspecific modalities of chemotherapy and radiation therapy to treat cancer.
 
v. Anti-angiogenic agents aim not only DNA synthesis and cell division, but also the biologic feature of tumor cells.
 
In conclusion, anti-angiongenic therapy has a great potential on treating the cancer and control the progression of tumor cells. Yet, there are some difficulties related to the clinical evaluation of the efficiency of these anti-angiogenic drugs. Sometimes, the therapy might works on the animal model but not in human. The cancer research on this therapy will be carried on to bring its potency into play.

Anti-angiogenic Therapy to Treat Cancer is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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Cancer can cause terrible pain to the patient. It is overwhelming that if the cancer patient suffers the pain without relief. Many people are dying because of suffering the terrible cancer pain everyday in hospitals and clinics around the world. To solve such problem, there are many drugs and techniques can relieve the cancer pain. Today, I will introduce to you about 3 basic ways to relieve cancer pain.
 
 

3 Basic Ways to Relieve Cancer Pain

1. Dealing with the Origin of the Pain

Generally, people will choose to eliminate or modify the origin of the cancer pain. To do this, we can remove or shrink the cancer that caused the pain. Many cancer therapies are used to remove or shrink the cancer such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy.

Yet, there are many disadvantages by using this way to relieve the cancer pain. First, most of those cancer therapies possess some risk. The patients receive such therapies to relieve the cancer pain may take the risk to certain side effects. In addition, not all the cancer patients are suitable to use the surgery to relieve the cancer pain. For instance, if the cancer has spread or if a patient’s overall condition is weak, the surgery is not suitable for him. Furthermore, only some types of cancer respond well to radiation and chemotherapy. Most of these treatments can only reduce the pain slowly. Sometimes, the therapies may cause new pain as a side effect.
 

2. Altering the Pain Message with Painkillers

Another common way that we can use to relieve the cancer pain is to alter the perception of pain. When the message reaches the spinal cord and brain, we can use the painkillers or analgesics to change the message to relieve the pain. For example, Morphine is used to alter the perception of pain in a selective and reversible way to blunt the pain. This is an effective way as it will always function normally with proper use.
 

3. Interrupting the Pain Signals

The third way to relieve the cancer pain is to use a nerve block to interrupt the pain signal between the source of pain and the central nervous system. This is the least used way to relieve the cancer pain. In cancer research, these strategy have more risks and irreversible to blunt the pain. Therefore, it is only suitable to small amount of cancer patients.
 
In conclusion, we can prevent the cancer pain by just applying some simple basic ways. Yet, before any of these approaches are applied, we should consult the medical expert so that the most appropriate treatment plan is established for optimum effect.
 
(Reference: The Complete Guide to Relieving Cancer Pain and Suffering by Richard B. P. & Susan S. L.)

3 Basic Ways to Relieve Cancer Pain is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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Since 2009 is getting close to the end, I am going to join the Group Writing Project organized by DailyBloggingTips.com to write this article about the top 10 new discoveries of cancer treatment in 2009.
 
I have gathered the cancer research news from Google and NCI. Below are some of the new findings of cancer treatment which I found really benefits to the world.
 

1. Brachytherapy – New Cancer Treatment without Surgery

On the 27^th of January 2009, U.T.’s Health Science Centre unveiled a new promising cancer treatment that revolutionized the way to treat cancerous tumors in patients’ lungs. This new finding is called Brachytherapy, a new cancer treatment without surgery.

After mild sedation, a catheter is inserted into patient’s throat and the lung near to the tumor. Radiation is released from a small seed at the end of the catheter and killed the tumor cells without killing the normal lung tissue. Therefore, the patient can still live normally after treatment. It only takes 3 to 4 minutes to undergo the Brachytherapy and the patient can leave the hospital a short time later without feeling sick.
 

2. Linac – Machine Boots Cancer Treatment

On 12^th of June 2009, a new machine called Linac that can speed up cancer treatment for cancer patients has been unveiled at Velindre Cancer Centre. This machine enables an extra 200 radiotherapy cancer treatments to be carried out every week. Linac generate high intensity of radiation beams to kill cancer cells effectively.
 

3. CD8+ Memory Stem Cells to Destroy Large Tumors

On 14^th of June 2009, the researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that a subset of immune cells, T lymphocytes called CD8+ memory stem cells, were capable of mediating strong anti-tumor immune response. These stem-like characteristics of CD8+ memory stem cells enable tiny numbers of T cells to stimulate the destruction of large melanoma tumors. The CD8+ memory stem cells have the enhanced ability to renew themselves, to proliferate, to differentiate and to kill tumor cells effectively.
 

4. α-CbT – Compound Inhibited Nicotine Receptors for Cancer Treatment

On 15^th of June 2009, the compound α-CbT was found to inhibit the expression of nicotine receptors and increased apoptosis. As we all know, changes in genes encoding nicotine receptors can drive the urge to smoke and increase susceptibility to lung cancer as well. Exposure to nicotine will boost the expression of nicotine receptors which inhibits the apoptosis. Therefore, this new cancer treatment that targeted nicotine receptors by using α-CbT can prevent the developing of lung cancer. The α-CbT did not affect the noncancerous cells.
 

5. microRNA – Help Identify and Cancer Treatment for Lung Cancer

On 7^th of October 2009, the scientists at National Cancer Institute (NCI) revealed that a small RNA molecule, known as microRNA, can help to identify liver cancer and respond well to cancer treatment with a biological agent called interferon. The researchers showed that miR-26 (microRNA) status in tumors may be useful indicator both to determine prognosis for patients with hematocelular carcinoma (HCC) and to inform the selection of patients who might benefit from treatment with interferon to prevent disease relapse.
 

6. Suicide Gene – Induce Apoptosis on Tumor cells

On 9^th of October 2009, A group of researchers from National Cancer Institute (NCI) have used the suicide genes that cause a cell to kill itself through apoptosis to treat cancer. This new technique used the surviving gene promoter to induce the expression of suicide gene in cancer cells with a minimum effect on normal cells. When the survivin promoter-driven mutant bax was injected in to tumors of mice, the gene induced 60% of cancer cells in tumor tissue to undergo apoptosis. This slowed tumor growth significantly.
 

7. Reduce Radiation Damage by Blocking the Expression of CD47

On 21^st of October 2009, the researchers at National Cancer Institute (NCI) once again showed their contribution to the cancer research by developing a method that protects healthy tissues from damaging effects of radiation cancer treatment. Previous cancer research showed that mice lacking CD47 are resistant to radiation damage. Therefore, the researchers injected an agent that suppressed the CD47 expression during the radiation. They proved that this can protect the normal cells from damage by radiation.
 

8. Nicotine Patch and Nicotine Lozenge Works Best for Smoking Cessation

On 2^nd of November 2009, the researchers from National Cancer Institute (NCI) showed that the combination of nicotine patch and nicotine lozenge provided the great benefit for smokers to quit smoking effectively.
 

9. PDF – Mushroom Extract that Shrink Tumors Effectively

On 1^st of December 2009, Dr. Brandon Louie and colleagues from Department of Urology at New York Medical College showed that a combination of interferon alpha (immunotherapy for bladder cancer) and PDF (mushroom extract) can reduce bladder cancer cell growth. However, it is too soon to claim that the PDF are a cure for cancer as the study provides no evidence that the mushrooms extract have health benefits in humans. Anyway, I still feel that this study has the further research value for cancer treatment in future.
 

10. Lunasin – Fighting Leukemia and Blocking Inflammation

On 2^nd of December 2009, Elvira de Mejia, a professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition from University of Illinois claimed that lunasin, a soy peptide may have important benefits that fighting leukemia and blocking the inflammation that accompanies such chronic health conditions as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Lunasin is a soy peptide often discarded in the waste streams of soy-processing plants.
 
In conclusion, the cancer research on cancer treatment is still has a long way to go. The cancer research will continue to carry out to provide the greatest benefits to the world.
 

Do you know any new discovery of cancer treatment in 2009 that I do not mentioned above? Please leave your comment to provide us a great resource of information.

Top 10 Discoveries of Cancer Treatment in 2009 is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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Cytogenetics and cancer research blog is ready to help smoker to quit from smoking. Smoking cessation is a tough mission to be gone through. However, there are many benefits of stopping smoking for long term health benefits, including reduced cumulative risk for cancer, especially for lung cancer. So, we need the smoking cessation intervention to quit smoking effectively to reduce the risk of smoking-related disease.
 
Initially, we need to recognize the complexity of tobacco use which included the nicotine addiction with the interplay of social, psychological and biological factors. These factors should be paid attention during smoking cessation. Health care providers play the important role to assist the smokers to quit from smoking by providing both quitting aids and advices on health-related issues.

 
During the time I was finding the information about how to quit smoking effectively and doing the cancer research, I found Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence which was provided by the US Public Health Service to assist health care providers when delivering the cessation treatment. This should be a good guideline for the smokers to quit from smoking too. The guideline is produced based on a systematic research and analysis of scientific literature to assist health care providers in delivering smoking cessation treatment.
 

5 A’s for Smoking Cessation Intervention

1. Ask about tobacco use

For a health care provider, you may ask and record the tobacco use status for the patient at every visit.

For the smoker, you must record the frequency of tobacco use daily.
 

2. Advise to quit

For a health care provider, you may encourage the patient to quit in a clear, strong and determined manner.

For the smoker, you have to motivate yourself to quit from smoking strongly. What can you do? You may keep on reminding yourself about the disadvantages of smoking. And also, you may visit Cytogenetics and Cancer Research blog regularly to get some motivation here.:)
 

3. Assess readiness to quit

For a health care provider, you may find out whether the patient is ready in the next 30 days.

For the smoker, just prepare yourself to quit from smoking including the psychological and physical preparation.
 

4. Assist with quitting

For a health care provider, you may provide the counselling or pharmacotherapy to assist the patient quit smoking effectively.

For the smoker, try to ask for the health care provider’s help to enhance the effectiveness of smoking cessation. The support of family members is always the main inspiration and energy source for the smoker to successfully quitting smoking.
 

5. Arrange follow up

For a health care provider, you must make an appointment with the patient to follow up the smoking cessation status. Preferably, the health care provider may set up a schedule to follow up with the patient start from the first week of quitting.

For the smoker, you may jot down the date you start quitting. You may motivate yourself by counting the number of the day you live without the tobacco. You will start to feel impress with your determination to quit from smoking then. And this is the time I wish to say congratulation to you! You are awesome!
 
In conclusion, smoking cessation intervention has successfully helped many of smokers who wish to quit from smoking. By looking on the evidence of adverse impact of smoking which harms nearly every organ in our body, it is the time to encourage yourself and your beloved to stop smoking.
(Reference: David S. Albert, Lisa M. Hess. Fundamental of Cancer Prevention, Second edition)
 

Do you have any success story of smoking cessation? Come and share with us.

Smoking Cessation Intervention to Quit Smoking Effectively is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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Tobacco use is a public health issue. I am so surprise that the post of “Cigarette Smoking – Primary Risk Factor of Lung Cancer” being listed in the top 200 of controversial article in Reddit.com yesterday. Although this was not good news (I think), I decided to write more about the benefits of smoking cessation today to firmly increase people’s awareness about that.

Smoking cessation provides extensive health benefits for everyone including the smokers and non-smokers. According to the reports of the US Surgeon General on the health consequences of smoking, there are many significant health benefits of quitting smoking. Although some cases show that the increased of lung cancer risk at the beginning of smoking cessation, there are still a lot of successful cases show the good side of smoking cessation.
 
Below are the 15 benefits of quitting smoking which I arrange it according to the timeline of smoking cessation.

1. After quitting within 2 weeks to 3 months, the pulmonary function and circulation will be improved.
 
2. Within 1-9 months after quitting, the ciliary and lung epithelium function will be restored.
 
3. Although the former smoker might experience coughing frequently initially, this is good for our body as the lungs remove excess mucus and tobacco smoke particulates.
 
4. After several months, the lung function of the former smoker will improve significantly.
 
5. After a year quitting from smoking, the former smoker will experience decreased coughing.
 
6. At the same time, the former smoker will regain his fatigue and the shortness of breath will be improved.
 
7. Consequently, the excess risk for coronary heart disease will be reduced to half than the continuing smokers.
 
8. After 5 – 15 years later, the risk of getting stroke will be reduced to the rate similar to the non-smokers.
 
9. The risk of getting the lung cancer will be reduced to half of the continuing smokers.
 
10. The risk of getting mouth larynx, pharynx, esophagus, bladder, kidney or pancreas cancer will be reduced.
 
11. After 15 years of smoking cessation, the risk for coronary heart disease will be reduced to the same rate as the people who never smoked.
 
12. Smoking cessation can significantly reduce the cumulative risk of death from lung cancer regardless the gender.
 
13. The former smokers that successfully give up the tobacco use can be expected to live much longer. If you are 35 years old and you quit from smoking, you are expected to live an additional 6 – 9 years than the smokers.
 
14. Some of the elderly smokers keep claiming that it is too late to quit from smoking as the damage is done on their body for a long time ago. However, according to the cancer research, there is an individual who quit from smoking start from 65 can live much longer (4 – 5 years) compared to those continued to smoke. Therefore, please do not ignore the potential of smoking cessation even for the elderly smokers.
 
15. If you are under medical treatment, quitting from smoking is better for you. According to cancer research, smoking will reduces the overall effectiveness of treatment, while causing the side effect of treatment and consequently decrease the survival rate.
 
In conclusion, there are too many benefits of smoking cessation. It is never too late to quit or advice others to quit from smoking to incur health benefits. I will try to find out more information about how to quit smoking effectively and post in my blog next time. Stay tuned!

(Reference: David S. Albert, Lisa M. Hess. Fundamental of Cancer Prevention, Second edition)
 

Are you hesitating to quit from smoking? Just do it!

15 Benefits of Smoking Cessation is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

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