Most cancers, in general, are caused by the body’s repeated exposure to harmful chemicals in our environment. These include tobacco, alcohol, and all dangerous ingredients in common household cleansing agents, like laundry, kitchen, walls, windows, floor, and toilet detergents. Added to these are the variety of chemicals, solutions, or sprays we have in the garage, for cleaning cars and the floor underneath them. Our home is a major source of exposure to these toxic agents. And the pollution of our rivers and lakes and oceans from industrial toxic wastes, and air pollution from these same companies and from our car exhaust system, destroy the protective ozone layer above us and are major sources of carcinogens (cancer-causing agents).  To boot, many of us regularly ingest with gusto two major cancer-producing substances: tobacco and alcohol, two culprit agents that account for most of the diseases, disabilities, and deaths in the world today. The diseases include cancer, lung illnesses, diabetes, hypertension, heart attack, and stroke. Many forms of cancer are literally “self-inflicted” and preventable.

Damage to our DNA

              Whether we realize it or not, our bad habits and our closets and shelves at home are two of the most substantial sources of cancer-causing chemicals that we come in contact with or inhale the fumes of daily, which adversely impact our body, health, and longevity. The other carcinogens are from the environmental poisons forced upon us by irresponsible industrial corporations and pollutant-emitting vehicles. All these toxic agents damage our DNA, which leads to many forms of illnesses of various severity.

Major culprits

Statistics show that most of the illnesses that affect, maim, and kill human beings today are brought on by any/or a combination of these two substances: alcohol and tobacco (including secondhand smoke). These diseases include lung ailments (bronchitis, emphysema, lung cancer), cardiovascular diseases (high blood pressure, heart attack, cardiomyopathy, rhythm problems, and sudden death), metabolic diseases, like diabetes mellitus, and many forms of cancer. The other factors are likewise due to similar bad choices on our part: eating processed foods, or a high-cholesterol, high-fat, high-carbohydrate, high-salt, low-fiber diet; and, dangerously, living a sedentary life (as a couch potato, doing only finger exercises with the TV remote, and munching on all the junk foods around), simply getting fat. This scenario reminds us of the strategy to get the most weight on cattle and hogs, before an early slaughter: keeping them in a tight “cage” where they practically cannot move, and feeding them frequently to maximize their weight and fat. And it works. Much like our couches at home.

The Philippines “is a country of diabetics,” a lecturer once said, accounting for diabesity (diabetes-obesity) to our staple food, rice. If we stayed away from rice, bread, and minimized our desserts, there would be fewer diabetics amongst us, he continued. While it is hard to imagine how an Asian, especially a Filipino, could stay away from rice, it is surprising to find out that many Filipinos, including the more health-conscious younger ones, have been able to abstain from eating rice. They opt for protein and vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Not eating rice at all also helps in weight and waistline control.

One toxic agent frequently found in our homes is soft drinks. All kinds of pop beverages are unhealthy, increasing the risk for the development of metabolic syndrome, both in adults and in children.

Guide our children

The best is to start among preschool children, and guide them about a healthy lifestyle an early on. This is to protect the integrity of their DNA, and should start as early as possible. Once damaged, the DNA is scarred and pathology ensues, showing up as diseases as they grow older. When I suggested in my book, Let’s Stop “Killing” Our Children, that a healthy lifestyle should start in the womb and dieting must begin in the crib to be proactive and preemptive in disease prevention at the cellular level, the goal is to protect their DNA. This is the way to maximize good health and longevity and prevent them from having the so-called “natural and expected diseases of old age” like arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid problems, heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and even cancer. These major ailments are not natural and expected. They are largely preventable. We, humans, were not born doomed to have those illnesses. The majority of our diseases are self-induced, self-inflicted. Teaching and guiding our children from age one is vital to their future.

Home-made cleansers

In view of the toxic nature of all cleaning chemicals today, it is safer to use we the old-fashioned scrubbing and cleaning methods used by our great grandparents and theirs for centuries.

DIY cleaning liquid: ½ cup white vinegar, 2 table spoonful of baking soda, 10 drops of essential oil (lavender, lemon, tea trees) in a 12 oz spray bottle, or 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup water, a teaspoon of dish washing soap, for general surface cleaning. For cleaning glass: ½ cup of white vinegar, ½ cup rubbing alcohol, and 14 cup water, mixed in a spray bottle.

Healthy Lifestyle

Living a healthy lifestyle will prevent or eliminate most of these diseases and provide us a healthier, happier, and more productive life. And this singular wonderful benefit in itself is worth all the sacrifices and hard work one needs to invest to achieve it. Components of lifestyle are our philosophy, attitude, behavior, habits, diet, exercise, and psychological and mental state. The so-called elusive Fountain of Youth Spanish Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon was searching for navigating the world is actually here: It is called Healthy Lifestyle.

(Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, Health Advocate, medical missionary, newspaper columnist, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He is a decorated recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 1995, presented by then Indiana Governor, US senator, and later a presidential candidate, Evan Bayh.  Other Sagamore past awardees include President Harry S. Truman, President George HW Bush, pugilist Muhammad Ali, David Letterman, Astronaut Gus Grissom, distinguished educators, scientists, etc. (Wikipedia). Websites: FUN8888.com, Today.SPSAtoday.com, and philipSchua.com   Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com)