Cancer is one of the oldest diseases prevalent in mankind. In the olden days, many people used to die of cancer, even without a diagnosis. This is purely due to a lack of awareness and facilities. One of the reasons of an increasing number of cancer patients is pure, awareness and availability of facilities for diagnosis and treatment. If I think of other reasons Alcohol and Tobacco would contribute to the major list as their usage in our country has been list rising exponentially.
Consumption of alcohol and tobacco in school-goers has led to a reduction in age incidence of cancer as well as its number. Cancer is a lifestyle-based disease and we Indians are masters in Copy /paste culture. So are we adapting to western culture without its full knowledge, leading to increased cancer numbers. Irregular sleep patterns, compromised diet, increasing stress and work hours are important components giving rise to cancer numbers. Lack of physical activity, sun exposure nutrition balanced and to the same extent excessive, said Dr Amit Bhargava, Senior Consultant – Medical Oncology Fortis Escorts Hospital, Faridabad.
Dr. Bhargava said, As Oncologists, it’s a very difficult phase for us to manage cancer /covid and covid in cancer patients. The disease cancer is not aware of the pandemic and still surfaces during covid times, with similar or increased members. Moreover, with the fear of covid, people are scared to visit hospitals for evaluation and treatment, as a result, we are losing curative patients. Plenty of myths circulating around vaccination and cancer patients.
Moreover, our ongoing cancer patients have a poorer outcome if they contact covid, leading to reduced survival rates. Vaccination Precaution and regular checkup is the key to controlling both cancer and covid. Proper awareness and knowledge about cancer and covid can only save our country from both, he added.
The use of junk food has contributed to increasing numbers of cancer drastically. Our country has plenty of sun all year round, but more than 70% of our population is deficient in Vitamin D.
This also plays a major role in carcinogenesis.
