Clean on the Inside Out

Being clean inside and out takes on a more literal stance now as people are moving more towards awareness on being and staying healthy. Health advocates are going into information overdrive on the latest updates on pressing health conditions and more and more people are heeding to their advances. One of the urgent concerns is on cancer awareness, specifically on the top causes of cancer-related deaths in the country.

One of this is colon cancer. Colon or colorectal cancer is one of the more insidious types of cancer. Since the colon can normally accommodate a relatively large volume of feces, cancerous overgrowths often go undetected until they are large enough to cause an obstruction and by that time, the cancer may have already progressed or spread to nearby tissues, making treatment more difficult or futile, even. The other associated signs and symptoms are rather vague or are indicative of other bowel-related conditions as well, leaving the only definitive diagnosis to be made invasively though endoscopy.

As with any other cancer, the exact cause is not known but the contributing factors, and common for almost all the types, would be genetics, of course, age, smoking, and alcohol intake. A risk factor specific to colon cancer, however, would be diet. A diet high in red or processed meat and low in fruits, vegetables, poultry, and fish has been implicated to the development of such. Since this is something that we still have control over, then it is best if we do something about it now, not later, not in a few weeks, but now.

Since the dietary culprit has been identified then the easiest way around it is to have the exact opposite, right? If a diet high in red meat and processed foods is bad then go for the all natural fruits and vegetables and have fish and poultry instead of pork, beef or lamb. Add a few extra glasses of water – one can never go wrong with water. Run a few miles a day on that treadmill. And you are as good as gold! Or are you?

Right off the bat, it would seem pretty easy to do all these stuff. You have been given the facts already, and you know that your lifestyle is unhealthy. You know that you might end up having cancer. You understand all of this. But will you be able to make that change? Putting out the cigarette that you just lighted, prying your hands away from that bottle, or even stopping yourself from shoving that hotdog that you have been dying to eat in your mouth – now that is the hard part. You have to understand that as early as now, the road back to health is going to be difficult. There will be a lot of temptations along the way but if you hold fast and stick to the plan then all will be worth it in the end. That much can be promised. After all, it is your life that is at stake here; is it not worth the sacrifice?

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