CARCINOGENS: Never ignore these stuffs

Hi viewers, hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Well, my weekend was loaded with fun, parties, junk food and lots more. Its fun to break our regular diet and munch on the eye catchy, tempting junk food. But after having a lazy, fat and unhealthy weekend, I realized the amount of calories I have accumulated and ways to burn them all. Oh wait, not just the calories I have in taken but lots of baleful capsules as well. Now its time to make a resolution, say yes to low fat nutritious food and exercises. Parties, junk food, canned food, sugary drinks are all so moreish, think for a while and calculate the percentage of noxious substances we are ingesting and what impact it can lead to in our body? So, today I have come up with a beneficial article which gives you an idea about what toxic chemicals especially carcinogens.

Carcinogens are the substances which are involved in causing caner in our body. This 6 letter word 'CANCER' is one of the deadliest disease ever. In India alone there are around 2.5 million people who are diagnosed with cancer and approximately 5 lakhs death every year. Cancer can strike any one in this earth, no matter how good their life style is.

The word 'cancer' is derived from a Latin term 'cankrem' which means a crab or creeping ulcer. The word cancer itself us depicting the characteristics of cancer that they show abnormal, uncontrolled cell growth in our body. The cells keep dividing continuously, loses its cell characters and forms a lump/tumor. These tumors may spread all through the body and invade healthy tissues. Cancers can be broadly divided into two types, they are benign (confined to a particular region) and malignant (spreads from one organ to other). This capacity of tumors spreading from one region to other and forming new tumors is called 'metastasis'. Since cancer can attack any part of our body it is difficult to classify each one of them; there are more than 200 cancers based on the organs or tissues it occurs on. Lung cancer, breast cancer, uterine cancer, prostrate cancer, skin cancer, lymphoma, leukemia are some of the prominent types of cancers.

There are various reasons involved in cancer incidences, for instance, alcoholism, smoking, drugs, exposure to harmful radiations and so on. Despite from these there are factors such as genetic factors, occupational hazards, lifestyle and mutations. Mutation refers to a sudden change in our DNA sequences. There are many harmful chemicals or factors which induce mutations in our cells and leads to cancer.  These factors which are involved in causing cancer are termed as 'carcinogens'. So, let me give you some examples of carcinogens we use in our daily life which we assume to be safe. 

1. Food colours:
   
   Imagine candies, gems, marbles without colours! How a plate of kesari bath/sooji ka halwa (Indian cuisine: a sweet made with semolina, sugar and clarified butter) can be tempting without saffron colour? Who likes a bland, pale and unappetizing manchurians? Well, CSPI reports most of the food colours are carcinogenic. So avoid food with artificial colours and stick on to natural food colours like turmeric, beet, saffron strands etc.
2.  Groundnuts/ peanuts:
   
   You may be thinking how come my favorite, proteinaceous, crunchy groundnuts are CA- CA- CAR- CARCINOGENIC??? Unlikely, Yes; they are carcinogenic. According to recent studies, peanuts/groundnuts, corns, tree nuts, if contaminated by fungi named Aspergillus which releases aflatoxins are causes cancer. Aflatoxins are potent liver carcinogen. So here after, avoid buying cheap quality nuts, chikkies, peanut butter consumption and relative products. When you encounter bad/bitter tasted groundnuts then it is a fully loaded aflatoxin capsule. Perhaps, I would better avoid having them. 
3.  Hair dyes:
   
    It is so cool to colour your hairs, isn't it? Unfortunately, it is not so cool to your body. According to Natural Cancer Institute, hair dye products contains 5000 different chemicals of which some are carcinogenic. So, why to take risk? be on the safer side saying no to hair colouring, shine up with your good old natural hair colour. Or dye your hairs in such a way that it does not touch your scalp/ anywhere on your skin.
4.  Artificial estrogen:
   
   Estrogen is a female sex hormone, which has its own importance in our body (both male and female). Despite of this, estrogens promotes cancer developments; especially uterine cancers. There are some contradictions about the presence of artificial estrogen in tetra packs, shampoos and cosmetics yet complete evidence is lacking. Artificial estrogen can also be a reason for early puberty in females. So keep this in mind next time when you go for shopping, buy mild, natural shampoos and cosmetics.
5. Smoking &alcohol:
   
   It is well known to all of us that smoking and alcohols cause cancer. Smoking specifically is a major cause for lung cancers. Tobacco present in cigarettes contains a chemical named nicotine. When they are ignited, new other chemicals are formed which are carcinogenic. Alcohol or ethanol when reacted with enzymes produced by liver gets converted into an acetaldehyde which is carcinogenic. 

So, these are some of the carcinogens which we find around in our daily life, yet there are many ways in which cancer can be caused and it will be discussed with you all in future articles. So beware of carcinogens, reduce high fat content food, give regular exercises to your body and me now planning for a healthy weekdays saying good bye to unhealthy weekend.