Pharmahealthblog. Health and medical information

It has been known for centuries that prolonged mechanical, physical and chemical irritation of the skin or mucous membranes can cause cancer. The edge of a broken tooth rubbing against the tongue, gall stones rubbing constantly against the gall-bladder, and smoking of short clay pipes used by labourers in Europe, have led to cancers of tongue, gallbladder and the lips respectively.

In the Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh, many men and women smoke locally rolled cigars (chutta) with the burning end inside the mouth. Some of these people are known to develop cancer of the mouth. Cancer below the umblicus, seen among Maharastrain men and women has been attributed to wearing of tight dhotis and sarees causing chronic irritation.

Excessive and continued drinking of very hot beverages may cause cancer of the throat and stomach. Prolonged irritation of the skin by chemicals or drugs may lead to skin cancer and continuous irritation of warts, pimples or slow healing sores may result in malignant tumours.

*15/355/5*

Cancer is a wild, unrestrained growth of cells. Some disturbance occurs which disrupts the balance of cells of different kinds in the body. The cells seem to return to their primitive state or to the infantile or fetal type. The body of a baby before birth grows much faster than does a cancer, but the growth of the cells in the developing child is controlled or regulated by an internal mechanism.

Many substances have the ability to stimulate the growth of cells. Pure chemicals, glandular substances, or physical forces like heat or pressure may stimulate cell growth. The changes that initiate the sudden, rapid growth of cancer cells and the traveling of these cells into other parts of the body involve many different factors related to the chemistry of the body, its nutrition, damage to tissues by inflammation and infection, and modifications of growth brought about by glandular action.

A variety of chemical products, particularly those related to tar, are known to be able to stimulate the growth of cancer. In tropical areas white people who do not protect themselves against the sun develop cancer in amounts out of all proportion to that which occurs among the native people with darker skins. To a large extent farmers also, as well as sailors, suffer from cancers of the skin.

Irritation is still a basic factor in the production of cancer. Continuous rubbing, irritation by irregular or jagged teeth, and heat from a pipe carried always in one corner of the mouth are known to be types of irritation that can excite the growth of cancer.

Under favourable circumstances of correct diet, our adrenal glands can create very small quantities 199 of cortisone every day. Without this minute supply, everyone would be an arthritic. We all must have this hormone, but victims of arthritis require a certain type of cortisone which has heavier consistency. Why?

Arthritics need a special “heavier” cortisone containing a “sticky quality.” (This kind of cortisone can be obtained only by adding vitamin D oil to our daily diet.) What does the “stickiness” accomplish for our joints? It holds the lubricating oils in place and prevents them from seeping away from the joints.

A similar action is believed to take place in our connective tissues which surround our joints, as well as in the joint linings that we have been discussing.

Connective tissues contain collagen, a glue-like substance. Cortisone may increase the consistency of collagen—add an even greater “sticky quality.” In other words, cortisone will help hold oils in their proper place throughout this whole general area. The very area where an arthritic needs oil most.

Many medical experts now agree on the use of cortisone. Dr. R. H. Freyberg, a specialist at New York Hospital in Manhattan, believes that cortisone may have a working relationship with those tissues of our body known as “connective tissues.”

The present popularity of cortisone to combat arthritis is due to Dr. Freyberg and other outstanding rheumatologists throughout the United States. They have been champions of this drug, and have conducted extensive research to prove its effectiveness. The widespread use of cortisone today is a tribute to their initiative, when we stop to think that it was introduced to the medical world only a very few years ago.

*51\146\2*