Causes of lung cancer
Lung cancer is one of the most terrible diseases known to man. It has a very low rate of survival and the treatments for it are often as painful as the disease. However, if you are diagnosed with lung cancer, or if a loved one is diagnosed with lung cancer, you should realize that there are options. Modern techniques have allowed many people either to prolong their lives or to live indefinitely after being diagnosed with the disease. One of the most important things for any person diagnosed with the disease to do is to become aware about the disease.
Doctors will try to help you in any way that they can but they don't know everything about you. You will be the one who knows the most about your case and you will be your own advocate. Perhaps the most important thing for all of us to learn, however, is what the causes of lung cancer are. The disease is deadly and its affects terrible, so the best strategy is to avoid it all together through prevention. It is true that most medical problems we face today are preventable and could be avoided with just a little bit more effort on our parts. There are various causes of lung cancer, but listed bellow are a few of the major ones:
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- The major cause of lung cancer is, as you probably guessed, smoking in its various forms. Researchers have conclusively found since the nineteen fifties that there are serious problems with smoking. Tobacco companies have spent billions of dollars trying to make smoking appear cool or acceptable, but the fact of the mater is that smoking kills, and one of the methods by which it kills is lung cancer. There are over four hundred dangerous chemicals found in tobacco smoke that are know to lead to cancer. The statistics for smoking are extremely alarming when it comes to lung cancer. If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day you are twenty to twenty five times more likely to develop lung cancer. Ninety percent of lung cancers are due to some sort of smoking.
- Second hand smoke is another serious problem and cause of lung cancer. There are actually several thousand people a year who die from second hand smoke lung cancer.
- Air pollution and particulate matter in the air is another cause of lung cancer, although it is usually only increases the risk of the disease rather than being linked directly as a cause.
- Asbestos and radon exposure also greatly increase the chances of contracting lung cancer. If you are aware that these materials might be in your home or work environment you should have them removed immediately by a professional.
- Tuberculosis and other lung diseases have also been shown to cause cancers through tissue damage.
- There are other possible causes of lung cancer but these are the major ones. Just looking over the causes helps to show that you can prevent lung cancer most of the time by avoiding certain behaviors and environments. There are cases where it is not clear why lung cancer has occurred, but these are few and far between. In most cases we can see the exact cause and know that it could have been prevented, either through better education or better habits. Become educated about lung cancer and help to ensure that you and your family will be safe. With just a little bit of information you can make a serious difference in your life or the life of another person.
