These drawings were made by Joseph early this year. I was looking at the old photographs and noticed these drawings he made on the ole’ whiteboard.
Can you guess what were the characters here?
What or who are these?
There are 3 drawings next to each other. Who are these?
Palmdoc in the Malaysian Medical Resources today wrote a review to highlight an article in CA, a journal of the American Cancer Society which I think is important for people to know. The article, Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention, is a good summary of what we know about risk factors and prevention strategies for cancers.
This article does a good job of making the point that cancer prevention is based on living a healthy lifestyle. The main focus is on achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. A healthy diet which contains the appropriate amount of calories for the physical activity level. The diet should be rich in fibres and sparing in meat. There is an emphasis on natural sources of fibres rather than supplements.
Regular exercise is recommended to help maintain a healthy weight. Breast cancer and bowel cancer risk is reduced by keeping a physically active lifestyle. Besides the effects on weight-care, physical activity may also be working on maintaining a healthy balance of hormones in the body and improving the immunity.
For those who smoke, the single most important thing to do is to stop smoking. The evidence that smoking causes cancer is the strongest yet. Sometimes friends ask me whether this pill or that food is good for them. If they’re smoking, I would say, “Forget it. Don’t ask me about these things unless you’ve stopped smoking.” First things first.
Kedah Darul Aman has always been known as the “rice bowl” of Malaysia. It’s the largest producer of rice in the country, making up about one third of the 2-million-ton-a-year rice production of Malaysia.
Most of the rice fields in Kedah are in the north, around Alor Setar. In Sungai Petani, in the central region of Kedah, rice is cultivated on the plains of the Muda River. Here, farmers grow three crops of paddy a year.
A couple of months ago, the burning of paddy husk following the harvest caused smoky hazy conditions in these areas. Even driving on the highway was hazardous when the smoke gets blown across the highway. Today, that has changed. Like a phoenix, new rice plants have grown out of the ashes. The paddy fields are uniformly green now and make a picturesque panorama of a classical paddy field scene.
Green, green paddy fields of home.
There’s Gunung Jerai in the background.
As I drove on the Western Bypass around Sungai Petani, rubber small-holdings and durian orchards add to the flavour of the day.
Rubber trees in a small-holder’s plot.
Grand durian trees towering above the other fruit trees in the orchard. This was where I had fresh-from-the-orchard fruits during the fruit season earlier this year.
The pathology report for the breast lump of the week has arrived. It is benign: giant fibroadenoma. A fibroadenoma is a mixed lump made up of cells from the milk glands (”-adenoma” means arising from glands) and surrounding supporting tissue (hence, “fibro-”). It is the most common breast lump to appear in women aged 15 to 25 years. They are completely benign. The problem in the management of fibroadenomata is differentiating it from cancer.
Microscopic view of a section of fibroadenoma. The purple-stained cells are gland cells and the pink wavy strands are fibrous tissue. Pretty?
One of the components of the assessment is clinical history and examination. The background history of the patient gives an idea of the degree of risk of breast cancer that she faces. Factors that indicate a higher risk of breast cancer are:
Age-specific breast cancer risk in Malaysia. This chart is from the THE SECOND REPORT OF THE NATIONAL CANCER REGISTRY - CANCER INCIDENCE IN MALAYSIA 2003
Many of these factors find a common pathway in the high levels of exposure to oestrogen. Oestrogen is a female hormone. Oestrogen promotes growth and replication of breast gland cells. Therefore, increased exposure to oestrogen increases the risk of breast cancer. Most of these factors cannot be controlled by the patient. However, some are.
Recently, a study from the Hutchinson Center showed an association between post-menopausal obesity, physical activity and oestrogen level. The researchers found that women with high body mass index (BMI) and low physical-activity had mean oestrogen concentrations that were 50 percent to 100 percent higher than that of women with low BMI and high physical-activity levels. The BMI is an indicator of obesity.
In short, keeping a healthy weight and high physical activity is possible method of reducing breast cancer risk that can the practiced. Keep fit.
