Stages

Some simple ways to reduce stress…

Too much of stress can damage your health. Stress can be both mentally and emotionally challenging. Following a resilient approach to all the life’s problems and setbacks can make coping easier.

What is resilient approach?
Resilience involves the ability to face change and misfortune with realistic optimism, self confidence, and determination as you make an effort to adjust to and recover from challenges. Resilience helps people to maintain a good mood and protects them against negative thoughts.
Tips for increasing resilience in the face of challenges are:
- Credit should be given to self for the successes.
- Go easy on yourself if you make a mistake. Distract yourself in some other pleasurable activity.
- Try to view a mistake or setback as a learning opportunity.
- Find positive ways of looking to some situation and give away the negative thoughts.
- Be in touch with more positive people.
- Approach stressful situations with more flexibility and creativity.
- Learn the art of compromise in dealing with others.
- Face challenges.
- Embrace change.
- Use a step by step approach to problems.

One way to dissipate stress is by using your body, through the process of relaxing your muscles. When your muscles are tight or tense, the stress level of your body remains high. Shavaasana, also known as muscle relaxation, helps to reduce your stress levels. The way this works is, you focus on the major muscle groups one by one. What you need to do is, for each muscle group, tighten the muscle, keep tight for 20 seconds and slowly relax it. As you slowly relax your muscles, focus on the sensation of relaxation and feel your tension slowly getting released.

Is it possible to reduce problems like anxiety and depression through exercise?
Well yes, and there are some scientific reasons for the same. When stress levels are high, the body releases hormone such as adrenaline and cortisol. During exercise, the level of these hormones is reduced and exercise also leads to production of a chemical called endorphins. These are released by the brain and cause mood elevation and act as painkillers. When you exercise hard there can be a runner’s high, this is caused by endorphins.
The type of exercise is not that important as long as it leads to a workout for example: one of the easiest ways to do this is walking and jogging. This is another reason why elliptical trainers are getting more popular, because the vigorous workout not only help make you more fit but also reduce stress at the same time.

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What is the reaction of alcohol with colorectal cancer?

Colon and rectum are two of the main organs which make up the digestive system, mainly the large intestine. Any problems persisting in any of these organs may result in the malfunctioning of the digestive system.

Colorectal cancer is one such disease which highly affects the rectum and the colon. When the cells in the inner lining of the rectum and the colon start multiplying even when there is no need for multiplication, it gives rise to colorectal cancer.

This is caused mainly due to the abnormal growth of the cells in the rectum and the colon. Colorectal cancer can be very dangerous if not treated at the correct time and in the correct manner. It is the third most common death causing cancer in the world.

There are various risk factors which may lead to colorectal cancer in a person. These risk factors include family history of colorectal cancer i.e. hereditary problem, age factor, smoking and many more. Another very common risk factor of the colorectal cancer is the intake of alcohol. You must be wondering how alcohol can affect the rectum and the colon. This article will tell you the reason why alcohol can prove to be dangerous to you colon and the rectum.

Alcohol has both positive as well as negative effect on the cells of the rectum and colon. As a positive effect, alcohol can lead to the death of the cancerous cells which are growing inside the organs but as a negative effect it may stimulate the proliferation of the cancerous cells. Studies have clearly shown that the risk of colorectal cancer in a person increases with the increase in his alcohol drinking habit. More the intake of alcohol more will be the person at the risk of colorectal cancer.

Studies have been made regularly regarding this aspect and they have shown that the people consuming around or more than 30 grams of alcohol per day are at an increased risk of colorectal cancer than those who do not drink at all.

The people who have an intake of more than 45 grams of alcohol per day are at the maximum risk of colorectal cancer. Also it has been proved that about 3.6 % of colorectal cancer cases are due to alcohol intake and the 3.5 % of the deaths due to colorectal cancer have drinkers involved.

In a research done for about 14 years and 7 months it was shown that out of 400 cases of colorectal cancer about half of the people were at the regular intake of alcohol.People who had 41 drinks per week had 95 % chances of suffering from colorectal cancer.

Alcohol is considered to be dangerous because it stimulates the growth of adenoma and as a result promotes colorectal carcinogenesis. It has been shown by various studies and researches that out of all the drinks containing alcohol, beer is the drink which is closely associated with the risk of colorectal cancer whereas wine has the weakest association.

Alcohol tends to alter the metabolism process of the liver compounds like the genotoxic compounds (eg: nitrosamines). This is because the microsomal monooxygenase i.e. the metabolism system of the liver is suppressed by the intake of alcohol and this as a result leads to the growth of colorectal cancer.

The risk of colorectal cancer due to alcohol intake depends on various factors like the amount of alcohol intake per day, the type of alcohol intake etc. On one hand when studies show that beer can increase the risk of colorectal cancer in a person it has also been proved on the other hand that the moderate intake of wine can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.

In conclusion, it can be said that alcohol is moderately related with the risk of colorectal cancer.

What is the worldwide distribution of colorectal cancer?

Colorectal cancer is the cancer of the colon and the rectum i.e. the large intestine. It is also referred to as the colorectal blight or the bowel cancer. Studies have shown that it is the third most popular and death causing cancers in women and the fourth most common and death causing cancer in men. Colorectal cancer is mainly caused due to the abnormal growth of the cells in the inner lining of the colon or the rectum.

There are various risk factors related to the colorectal cancer. These mainly include the age factor, smoking and drinking habits, family history of colorectal cancer, race and gender, obesity and many more.

We know that colorectal cancer is spread worldwide and is very common in almost every country. This article deals with the worldwide distribution of the colorectal cancer. Since the year 1975, the rate of deaths due to colorectal cancer has increased tremendously. From an annual report made for the colorectal cancer it has been seen that the number of men and women suffering from colorectal cancer are almost same with the count of men being approximately 401000 and that of women being 381000. But as seen by the figures the risk of colorectal cancer is more prominent in men than in women.

The threat of colorectal cancer is more in the westernized countries like North America, Australia and New Zealand. The percentage of incident cancer in these countries when combined was found to be 12.6 % in men and 14.1 % in women. In countries like Japan and Miyagi the risk rates of colorectal cancer have grown up to 47 % in women and 92 % in men. Whereas in United State the incidence rate of colorectal have been found to be declining instead of increasing.

An annual study has shown that there have been almost 394000 deaths due to colorectal cancer hence making it the second most common death causing cancers in European countries. But one should remember that this rate is based on the severity of the cancer and progress of the treatment being taken by the colorectal cancer patient. Race also plays a very important role in the growth of colorectal cancer. Studies have shown that Israel people who are born in countries like Europe or United States are at a higher risk of suffering from colorectal cancer. Also African Americans are more prone to colorectal cancer with a percentage of 53 % as compared to other white Americans.

Environment being a major risk factor of colorectal cancer, colorectal cancer is many times referred to as an environmental disease. The environment factor includes components such as social lifestyle, cultural and lifestyle practices. It has been found that approximately 70 % to 80 % of colorectal cancer cases in many countries are due to the environmental factors mentioned above.

The incidence rates per 100000 of colorectal cancer in various countries are as follows:
France- 53.8
Italy- 49.9
United States- 53.48
Czech Republic- 48.23
Canada (Yukon)-48.98
Canada (Nova Scotia)- 47.84
Israel- 46.79
Australia (New South Wales)- 46.92

These statistics have been provided by the International Agency of Research on Cancer (IARC). There are many other countries like Croatia, China, Russia, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Slovakia, Switzerland, Singapore, Denmark etc which are also prone to colorectal cancer and where the incidence rates have been tremendously increasing every year.

Other less colorectal cancer prone countries include India, Colombia, Turkey, Chile, Kuwait, Costa Rice, Malaysia, Peru, Egypt, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Thailand, Oman, Algeria, Bahrain, Ecuador, Peru and Tunisia.

Although colorectal cancer is spread worldwide but it is less common than other cancers like breast cancer.