Tag: Diseases

Cancer Prevention: Understanding the Facts About Cancer

Cancer has a fearsome reputation. Not without reason either. It is a disease that has not yet fully yielded to the skills and intelligence of medical scientists and doctors.  And, as if the pain from the disease is not enough, the treatment for cancer, too, inflicts heavy suffering on the body.  Cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled and abnormal cell division. Cancer spreads in the body and destroys tissues when the cancer cells travel through the bloodstream or the lymphatic system.  The runaway growth of cells is caused by mutations to the DNA in the cells that makes the cells unable to control cell division.  This mutation can either be inherited or acquired. The mortality rate in cancer depends…

The Fear of Alzheimer’s: More Feared Than Most Diseases

Americans fear Alzheimer’s disease more than any illness other than cancer-and for older people, concerns about Alzheimer’s outrank even cancer.  More than a third of all Americans know a family member or friend who has Alzheimer’s, and nearly two-thirds of Americans believe they will have to provide care someday for someone with Alzheimer’s. These are just some of the results from a January 2006 MetLife Foundation/Harris Interactive poll of American adults.  The survey, found in “MetLife Foundation Alzheimer’s Survey: What America Thinks,” included questions about how people view Alzheimer’s disease, what they know about it and what they are doing to plan for a future that may include the deadly illness. A progressive brain disorder that science has yet to…