Health | American Oral Cancer Foundation

Health Education In Preventing Oral Cancer

Oral cancer is commonly seen in people who are having certain high risk behavior. These high risk behaviors include the use of various substances like tobacco, smoking and alcohol. When a person is an alcoholic or a smoker, the risk of being affected by oral cancer will increase.

Oral hygiene is important and the lack of this will also cause the person to suffer from the disease. All these make a person to understand the need for oral care and other aspects of care of the self. Many people who do not take proper care of their body are the ones who are at a very high risk. The best method that can be used to prevent the disease is the health education and health awareness.

Campaigns by the government are a very important step that will help in the prevention of oral cancer. The use of literature that is given out to groups of people will help the people with risk behavior to try and change their ways. Education of children in their school is an important medium of transmitting the information to the people. As the child learns in school, the parents will get to know of the information if it is passed on to them. This way, the whole community learns of the methods of preventing oral cancer as the information spreads from one person to another informally.

Health education and awareness by various other methods like mass media, television are some of the other methods of spreading the message. The message should include information about the cause of oral cancer, the signs and symptoms and it should also include the methods that the person can use to get the disease to be treated and cured. This kind of detailed information will help the person to be able to prevent the occurrence of the disease.

Tips to Avoid Oral Cancer

There’s nothing more unsettling than sitting in the doctor’s office and hearing the words, you’ve got cancer.Suddenly, a multitude of thoughts go through your mind. You worry about your future, your family, your ability to work, and your chances for survival. Nobody wants to be in that situation. While there’s no absolute guarantee that you won’t get cancer, there are some things you can do to help prevent cancer. Here are some tips to try to avoid getting oral cancer.

1. Don’t smoke. Smoking is one of the most dangerous and self-destructive habits you can participate in. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, but it can also contribute to oral cancer.

2. Avoid chewing tobacco. Right up there with smoking, chewing tobacco can increase your chances for cancer. The nicotine in tobacco destroys the inside of your mouth and leaves you susceptible to cancer.

3. Watch your medications. While most medications are necessary and helpful, you can be cautious about medications you choose to take. For example, certain medications like birth control can cause different symptoms and side effects. If you are experiencing problems with our health, be sure to look into the side effects of birth control.

4. Get plenty of exercise. We increase our body’s ability to fight disease when we are healthy and strong. Getting plenty of exercise will help you to stay healthy. If you were to get an awful cancer diagnosis, you’ll be better able to fight the disease if your body is strong.

5. Eat healthy. Take in leafy greens, fruits, and water. Watch your red meat intake and avoid fatty foods. Eating healthy will keep your bodies functioning the way they are supposed to.

6. Brush up your knowledge about the side affects of birth control, as wrong birth control methods can have cancerous side effects too.

Filed Under: General, Health Tips Tagged With: Cancer, Chewing tobacco, Effects, Health, Smoking, Specific Substances, Tobacco, United States

Most Cancers are Treatable

For people who receive a cancer diagnosis, it can feel like the weight of the world has been placed on their shoulders. The good news, though, is that more cancers are becoming more treatable than they were in the past. While it’s true that there’s still no cure for cancer, it’s also true that doctors can do more with treatment than they could do before. That mean that people who get a cancer diagnosis have a higher chance of living longer. That’s something to hold onto very tightly of you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer.

Of course, what kind of cancer you have is also important to the quality of treatment. Some cancers are more easily treated than others. Some are also slower-growing, and some are more likely to come back. Don’t assume that you can’t be treated, even if you have a fast-growing and/or aggressive form of cancer. There is always something that can be done. Be aware that you might need to consider alternative treatments as well as standard ones to get the most benefit from your cancer treatments. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, as long as your doctor knows about it. That way, you won’t have to worry about one treatment contradicting or conflicting with another one.

Talk openly and honestly with your doctor about your options. They may seem limited, but that’s when alternative choices should also be explored. That will greatly expand the choices that you have and allow you to try much more when it comes to treating your cancer. Don’t give up, because there’s no reason not to keep fighting. If you don’t have family members or close friends to support you, consider joining a support group for people with cancer, so you have others to share your experiences with, as well.

Filed Under: Health Tips, Oral Cancer, Rehab Tagged With: Cancer, Health, Support group

Staying Healthy and Preventing Cancer

You want to stay healthy, just like everyone else, but can you prevent cancer? It’s a good question, and there are varying answers. Some people think that you can prevent most cancers with a specific type of diet, or by eating a certain kind of food. Others believe that there’s no rhyme or reason with cancer, and there’s no way you can do anything about whether you’ll get it or not. Both opinions seem to be both right and wrong, depending on the type of cancer that you’re talking about.

If you’re talking about things like lung cancer, there are studies that prove things like smoking contributes to it. For other types of cancers, though, it’s much harder to find a link. Some of it may be genetic, but it’s not always possible to find genetic markers for all cancers – and they don’t guarantee that everyone with that genetic deviation will get cancer, they only show which person might be more likely to get it. If you’re genetically predisposed to get a certain type of cancer, that’s something you’d probably want to know about. Of course, not everyone wants that information. Some are afraid to find out, and would rather not know their risk level.

No matter whether you have risk factors for cancer, and no matter whether you choose to find out that information, there are still things you can do to help prevent it and other serious, chronic diseases. If you eat right and stay at a healthy weight, you’re much more likely to be healthier overall. Also, exercise is important. It may not seem like a fun thing to do, but it can help you look and feel better, and can also help you ward off some diseases. Starting an exercise program is a great way to help prevent cancer and other sicknesses.

Filed Under: Health Tips, Oral Cancer, Oral Health Care Tagged With: Cancer, Chronic (medicine), Health

Walk To Raise Awareness of Oral Cancer

: Image via Wikipedia

A group of a thousand people whose lives have been touched by oral cancer will gather in London’s Kensington Park this month in an effort to raise awareness of the disease.
On September 18 the 1,000-strong group will be taking part in the Mouth Cancer Foundation’s annual 10k Mouth Cancer Awareness walk in order to raise the profile of this disease.
The walk, which is billed as “Fifteen Million Steps to Combat Mouth Cancer” (on the assumption that the 10 kilometer walk takes each participant 15,000 steps to complete) is aimed at raising both the profile of the illness and funds to continue work of the foundation.
The walk, a free event open to anyone who wishes to raise awareness of the illness, celebrate their own survival or remember loved ones lost to mouth cancer conditions, is the fifth of its kind. The 10k Mouth Cancer awareness walk also helps to raise much needed money for the organization with participants raising sponsorships from family and friends and last year the event brought in more than Â£60,000 for the cause.
Mouth cancer accounts for around 8,000 of the cancer diagnoses made each year in the UK and one person in the country dies every five hours as a result of the illness.
The disease, which can present as cancer of the gums, cancer of the tongue, cancer of the mouth or cancer of the throat, has higher mortality rates than other more widely publicized conditions and people who smoke or drink are at greater risk of developing the illness.
If caught early the disease is treatable, but sadly many cases are not uncovered until they reach the later stages or until the cancer has spread to other areas.
Because of this participants and spectators at the event will also be offered the opportunity to take part in free mouth cancer screening to check for signs and symptoms including swelling and tissue irritation.

Filed Under: Health Tips, Oral Cancer Tagged With: Cancer, Health, Oral Cancer

Oral Sex Blamed For Increase in Oral Cancer

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Scientists have raised concerns over the role of oral sex in the increase in throat cancers in the US.
Traditionally people have considered practices such as drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco products to be the key risk factors in the development of the disease, but now experts are saying that the Human Papilloma Virus (or HPV) is placing an increasing role in increased diagnoses.
HPV, which is a common virus with a number of strains that can cause conditions such as warts, genital warts and verrucas, has already been linked with the development of cervical cancer and can be passed from person to person during sexual contact.
And now doctors are concerned that changes in sexual behavior over the last two decades have led to an increased incidence of HPV related oral cancer such as moth cancer and throat cancer.
Last year the American Association for Cancer Research held a conference to discuss the link between the two conditions and doctors were told that in the 1980s, only 20 percent of patients with oral cancer were found to also be infected with the Human Papilloma Virus, while 60 percent of oral cancer diagnoses today are in HPV positive patients.
Health campaigners are now pushing for education on the issues of oral sex, saying young people need to understand that oral sex is not safe sex – a myth that circulated widely during the early years of the AIDS crisis and one that is still commonly believed by many teenagers.
They believe it is only through education that the numbers of patients who do not drink or smoke being diagnosed with oral cancer of some type can be reduced.
Couples wishing to take part in oral sex are advised to use a barrier method such as a condom or dental dam in order to reduce the risk of infection with HPV and other infections.

Filed Under: Health Tips, Oral Cancer Tagged With: Cancer, Health, Oral sex

Lasers Used to Detect Oral Cancer

Scientists in California have tested a laser device as a potential new weapon in the armory against oral cancer, such as mouth cancer and throat cancer.
Researchers from the University of California, Davis joined forces with doctors at the university’s Cancer Centre to test a probe that is hoped will help to speed up oral cancer diagnosis.
The device, which uses fiber optic technology to agitate cells in suspicious areas before detecting the way in which the cells responds and analyzing their behavior for signs of possible cancerous changes, has been compared against traditional methods of diagnosis.
Currently patients suspected of suffering from oral cancer have to undergo more invasive procedures, where a sample of suspect tissue is removed under local anesthetic and sent to the lab for analysis, with results taking days to arrive.
However, if proven effective, the new probe could be a great tool in the early detection of the disease, which currently sees as many as 43,000 new diagnoses in the US every year.
With oral cancers on the rise, a trend that has been blamed on a number of factors from increased alcohol consumption to smoking and even oral sex (as a result of Human Papilloma Virus infection) oncologists are welcoming any advances that may lead to simpler screening for cancerous changes, as well as pushing for greater awareness of the condition its symptoms and causes.
Professor Laura Marcu who worked on the development of the new laser commented that patients were much more aware of other cancers for which screening programs and practices are commonplace.
The results of the study were recently published in a medical journal and have been welcomed by health campaigners pushing for further research into this fast growing medical problem.
The laser technology may also be used in future to help cancer surgeons detect the edges of existing tumors during removal.

Filed Under: Health Tips, Oral Cancer Tagged With: Cancer, Health, Oral Cancer, University of California

Indian Doctors Using Smart Phones to Screen for Oral Cancer

Doctors in India are turning to technology to help them in the fight against oral cancer, it has been revealed. Medics in the Asian country have joined forces with a US-based research group SANA to try and diagnose mouth cancer and other oral cancer conditions in Indian patients using mobile phone technology.
Under the cutting edge scheme healthcare professionals at selected locations will be supplied with Smart Phones that have been loaded with special software to guide them through the diagnostic process.
Patients will be taken through medical questionnaires to assess their risk factors and any suspicious looking tissue in the mouth can be documented using the phone’s camera application.
The phones will also be able to store and send data from other routine tests such as ECGs, x-rays, ultrasounds and scans.
The ingenious smart phone program will allow doctors on site at hospital and clinics across the country to make their own diagnoses using the available programs or, if in doubt, they can opt to use the technology to upload data to specialists at the base in Narayana for advice or second opinions.
Doctors can then use the phones to conduct audio or video consultations with their patients with expert consultants virtually present.
It is hoped that the scheme will help in the fight to arrest the rise of oral cancers the most common cancers among the country’s population, a trend that has been blamed on a range of factors from poor oral hygiene to tobacco consumption.
The medical director in charge of the hospital where the scheme is based, Dr Paul Salins said the scheme had already managed to screen around 400 patients and that the smart phone diagnosis technique had already picked up on a number of abnormalities.
Doctors involved in the scheme have praised the way in which it gives patients access to expert opinions with no need to travel.

Filed Under: Health Tips, Oral Cancer Tagged With: Cancer, Health, India, Oral Cancer

Smokeless Tobacco Users Urged to Quit to Avoid Oral Cancer

Tobacco chewers are being encouraged to quit with the help of a new website.
Recently launched site mylastdip.com is aimed at habitual users of smokeless tobacco – one indicated cause of oral cancer conditions such as mouth cancer and throat cancer.
Funded by the National Cancer Institute the website offers an exciting approach to quitting smokeless tobacco use in the hopes of helping to reduce the incidence of oral cancers.
Aimed at the 12 million or so smokeless tobacco users in the US, mylastdip.com is unique in its approach to the problem of this kind of tobacco use, and is one of the few resources out there that speciafically targets young users – with many existing programs catering only to the needs of the older and entrenched smokeless tobacco user.
It is hoped that by targeting use in the younger generation, the scheme will be able to make a positive dent in the future figures for use of chewing tobacco.
The site has two specially tailored progams – one that is aimed at the younger users of chewing tobacco (those aged between 14 and 25) and a second program that is created for the more mature user aged 26 and over.
With free access to the programs, which offer help and support to those who have made the decision to quit smokeless tobacco use, the site hopes to be a tool in the weaponry against the rapidly increasing rate of oral cancer diagnosis in the US.
With mouth and throat cancer detections standing at around 40,000 each year across the country, health campaigners have welcomed this additional ammunition to help arrest the rising oral cancer figures.
Users of the site will be offered online help and advice to assist them in stopping the use of this oral cancer causing substance and will also be able to access internet forums where they can share journey to being free of smokeless tobacco with other site-users.

Filed Under: Health Tips, Oral Cancer Tagged With: Chewing tobacco, Health, National Cancer Institute, Tobacco, United States

Oral Cancer Patient Gets Payout After Symptoms Dismissed

A UK Throat Cancer sufferer received a Â£300,000 ($460,000) settlement after he claimed doctors failed to diagnose oral cancer in time to save his speech.
Stephen Quinn was awarded the amount in an out of court without prejudice agreement after he claimed that his doctor had not taken action soon enough when he went to him complaining of a swollen lump in his neck and querying whether it could be cancer.
The former paper-mill worker, who attended his local clinic for checkups on a regular basis because he was concerned that exposure to dust and chemical throughout his career could have had a negative impact on his health, first raised concerns over is symptoms in May of 2003.
However it took until the following year for the now 56-year-old to receive a diagnosis of throat cancer.
The patient was then told that he would need surgery to treat the throat cancer, which sadly resulted in his loss of speech.
Mr Quinn spoke of his anger at the delay, which he believed has resulted in the lasting damage and said that a specialist had told that his condition might have been treated with non-invasive chemotherapy techniques, thus preserving his voice, had it been caught sooner.
Now working as watch seller in a market, the oral cancer survivor said that the money could not bring his voice back and spoke at his sadness of not being able to give a father of the bride speech at his daughter’s recent wedding.
However Mr Quinn is now turning his hand to helping support research to help future cancer patients and is working with charity cancer research UK to help promote one of their fundraising initiatives in Wales.
He added that his life would be very different and more normal if his doctors had reacted more speedily to his concerns in the first place.

Filed Under: Oral Cancer, Oral Health Care Tagged With: Cancer, Chemotherapy, Health