Your White Blood Cell Cancer

What's Your White Blood Cell Count?

When a person has cancer, their entire life changes quickly. There are many decisions to make including where to get a second opinion, how to make arrangements for care during treatment, if alternative blood cancer medical treatments should be attempted and when, and even decisions that occur during preparation of a will. Also, will you opt for no treatment, care in a hospice setting, chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery? What are the implications of each of these treatments or lack of treatments? For example, if irradiation of the prostate is accepted as treatment, will it ruin the sex drive and cause impotency later? How will my wife handle that type of side effect?

What about the Family?
There are questions to answer such as what should you tell your children? Are there certain children that should know and others that need to be guarded? If the prognosis is negative, should there be a family meeting about the situation? How can you run the meeting without crying? What will you tell your parents and grandparents? Will you tell your friends that are generally not that supportive the truth or leave them out of the loop? What about the neighbors? Who should know? If you tell some of the neighbors by blood cancer, is it possible that they will be able to help you while you're recovering?

How Will Your Nutritional Needs Be Met?
There are nutritional questions such as what will you eat when you have no appetite? Will you opt to continue to take your supplements? Will you take new supplements to address this new problem? Who can help you determine what your nutritional needs are? How much will it cost? Will you be able to cut the costs of the supplements? Why does it take so long to recover? What type of shortcuts can be made?

How Will You Address Spiritual Concerns?
There are spiritual issues to work out as well; ones such as are you ready to meet your Maker, did your life matter to others, and did you love enough people along the way. Is it possible that you can be 'granted' extra time? How can you get closer to your Maker now? Should you have certain people praying for you now? How effective are prayer rings and how does one get plugged into them? What about the healing effects of laughter?

How Does the Cancer Diagnosis Affect Your Job?
It's often difficult to continue many normal daily routines knowing that there is now a diagnosis of cancer. For example, will you continue working at your present job? Will you reduce your hours at the job or quit altogether? Does the diagnosis give you a good excuse to finally quit a job you never really cared for but needed to bring home a paycheck? Are there other more important things on your dream list that you want to accomplish? If so, when can you schedule them? Will it be risky to your health to do some of the things on your list? Can you contact the Make a Wish Foundation? Are there projects you still want to complete? What about the fact that many people with cancer have taken up a mission greater than themselves after receiving a diagnosis of cancer, and ended up living five or ten years beyond what was expected? Is it time to start that program where you send dolls to the children in Africa? While you address all these issues, your doctor is spending time looking at your blood. Your blood is made of white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, and plasma.

Blood Means Life
Every part of the blood gives you life. Your blood cells are related to your immunity. The white blood cells keep your immunity high so that you aren't susceptible to infections and kill cancer cells and tumors. Your red blood cells give you endurance and strength. Platelets form clots that prevent you from bleeding. The plasma is the liquid component of blood that allows the blood cells to travel through the arteries and veins. Without plasma, your blood cells can do nothing.

Blood Count Important to Cancer Patients
And to a cancer patient, it's the white blood cells that are the most important. When someone is originally diagnosed with cancer, their white blood cell count may be too low or too high, depending on the type of cancer. Normal levels are generally considered to be 4300 to 10,800 cells per cubic millimeter per liter. Low white blood cell count is less than 5000 cells per cubic millimeter per liter. High white blood cell count is 11,000 and above. What's your white blood cell count?

Chemotherapy Lowers White Blood Cell Count
It's a well known fact that chemotherapy results in a lowered white blood cell count. The chemotherapy kills stem cells in the bone marrow that produce white blood cells. The low levels of white blood cells start showing up a few days after the chemotherapy is given. The levels of white blood cells continue their downward trend for the next three or more weeks. The disadvantage of this is that the low white blood cells predispose someone to infection. When the white blood cells are low, then any bacteria, virus, fungus or parasite that the person is exposed to can become life-threatening. An infection during this time could result in the administration of antibiotics and corticosteroids.

The Medical Solution to Increasing White Blood Cell Count after Chemotherapy
It's because of this relationship between chemotherapy and low white blood cell count that the doctor will check cell counts at regular intervals during chemotherapy. He's thinking, "What's this patient's white blood cell count?" If the white blood cell count is too low, there's a possibility that the next round of chemotherapy will be delayed. Another option is that additional drugs can be given that increase white blood cell counts. And the final option is to treat the patient with antibiotics, but only if there are signs of infection in the body. This tells you something important: increasing white blood cell count after chemotherapy is one of the most important things you can do.

Natural Options are Simple
If you want a natural option for doing this, there are solutions. One company has created a product called Leucozepin that is composed of 15 different types of Chinese herbs. Many of the herbs have been studied over the last 50 years and have been found to naturally increase white blood cell counts. There are no known side effects. The herbs are not addictive in any way.

When a natural product such as this one is used, it can often be used at the same time that chemo treatments are given. The result of this is that the usual low white blood cell counts are not seen, and the patient has enough energy, endurance and stamina to continue the treatments.

However, many times, the physician is not educated in herbs and cannot make an educated decision about them. His scope of practice does not include herbs or nutrition and legally, he cannot condone them. That doesn't mean you shouldn't consider them. Instead, you must do your homework and decide for yourself.

So when your doctor asks himself, "What is this patient's white blood cell count?” what will the answer be regarding you? You really do have a choice in the matter. Make an educated decision. Check out the options.

 Blood Sweet and Cancer:

Blood sugar has been linked to the cause of a variety of different cancers. High insulin levels promote and environment that makes it much easier for certain tumor to grow. Research and testing is still being done so it is very hard to make any kind of bold statements regarding blood sugar levels and cancer. However, there is cause for great concern with certain cancers. These are the cancers we are going to be talking about.

Colon and Rectal Cancer

In a Harvard University study that involved more than 50,000 middle aged men, those whose diets were most likely to raise blood cancers sugar fast and high were 32 percent more likely to develop colon and rectal cancer over 20 years. The effect is much stronger for heavier men.

Breast Cancer
In the Women's Health Study, women who followed a blood sugar-boosting diet were 135 percent more likely to develop breast cancer in seven years than woman whose diets were more blood sugar friendly. Many different studies have shown a huge increase in breast cancer in women that do not follow a blood sugar friendly diet. It was linked to even be a higher percentage to woman who does not exercise frequently.

Endometrial Cancer
In the Iowa Women's Health Study, which involved more than 23,000 post-menopausal women, those who didn't have diabetes and followed blood sugar-spiking diets were 46 percent more likely to get this cancer over 15 years. An Italian study that compared women who developed endometrial cancer with a similar group of women who didn't found a 110 percent increase in risk linked to this type of diet.

Prostate Cancer
Here we go men, are you ready for this? An Italian study looked at men ages 46-74 who developed prostate cancer and compared their diets to a group of similar men who didn't get the cancer. Those whose diets were most likely to spike blood sugar were 57 percent more likely to have prostate cancer. A similar Canadian study found a 57 percent increase in risk.

Pancreatic Cancer
Even the organ that produces insulin may be more prone to cancer if it's constantly bathed in that hormone. A study using data from the Nurses' Health Study over 18 years found that women whose diets raised blood sugar the most were 53 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than women whose diets raised it the least. Women in the first group who were overweight and physically inactive were 157 percent more likely to get the cancer than similar women in the second.

If this information does not make you realize how important blood sugar can be in your life, then I truly hope you find the information that will help you realize it. Blood sugar can be very serious and it should be treated that way. It is very important for training reasons as I pointed out in previous articles, but it is more important for life and living reasons.

  Colon Cancer Symptoms:

Colon Cancer Symptoms

Colon cancer symptoms may not be present in many cases. However, if symptoms are seen they can include a variety of changes in the stool or bowel habits (i.e. diarrhea, constipation). Colon cancer also known as Colon rectal Cancer is a malignant (cancerous) tumor growth found in a portion of the large intestine, which is a common cancer site.

Colon Cancer Symptoms and Causes

In many blood cancer cases of colon cancer no symptoms will be apparent in the early stages of the disease. Later symptoms may develop such as:

• Bloody or black, tarry stools
• Abdominal pain or cramps
• Diarrhea or constipation or narrow stool
• Unexplained weight loss
• Anemia

Most cases begin as benign (non-cancerous) polyps, which slowly become cancerous. The cause of colon (or colon rectal) cancer is not well understood but risk factors include being over the age of 60, eating a diet low in fiber and high in fat and red meat, being of African American or eastern European descent, a prior diagnosis of cancer elsewhere in the body or colorectal polyps, the presence of an inflammatory bowel disease (i.e. Cohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis), a family history of colon cancer, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol.

Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the United States. However, a complete cure is often possible with an early diagnosis.

Colon Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Observation of the aforementioned symptoms may lead to a diagnosis but many times the condition is detected through a routine physical exam. Early detection kits may be available for those at high risk, which can detect blood in the stool (available at most pharmacies).

If symptoms have appeared, a physical examination, sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, or barium x-rays of the large intestine may be performed to make a definitive diagnosis. Blood tests may be taken to check for anemia and a fecal occult blood test (FOBT) may be ordered to detect small amounts of blood in the stool, which could indicate colon cancer.

Treatment will depend on how much the cancer has progressed and if it has spread to other areas of the body. Surgery to remove the cancer cells is often performed. Surgery may result in a need for a colostomy, which is a diversion of the bowel through an opening in the abdominal wall. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy may be prescribed as well to destroy cancerous tissues.