Stop Smoking and Be Healthy

It has been widely quoted that in the 1930’s lung cancer was so rare that it was a talking point for clinicians at meetings, but as the smoking craze hit the world, fired up by wars and heavy advertising about its attributes, it replaced the commonest forms of lung diseases, namely TB and various infections.

In my practice over the last 30 over years I have seen the serious infections in the lung disappear, due mainly to the good public health management of patients in the community by General Practitioners. The fact that patients can grow up without the major destructive childhood illness such as whooping cough, means that the overall health of the community is far better than in the 50’s and earlier. Along with these changes however has been the dramatic increase in smoking and environmental pollution.

In the earlier years as you well know, there was no known antibiotic for TB – a bacterial lung disease with major destructive possibilities. Many an opera Prima Donna has “died” of”consumption” and many stories have been written about how to improve health to avoid this scourge- all centering around nutrition. In fact, medical journal articles from the early 1900’s all emphasized good nutrition as a way to improve health. build immunity and conquer these infections.

TB Sanitoria worked on the principles of fresh air and good food to help people get over TB of the lung. (And Thoracic Surgery was borne out of the need to help patients with such lung infections – before antibiotics were available, and did it with remarkable success considering the limitations and problems)

Today then where are we, if this is all in the past. well, we now have overwhelming scientific evidence for nutritional influence on health and cancer prevention, which was known before but not proven.

Studies have shown that people who eat a diet high in fresh fruit and vegetables have the lowest cancer risks. The Australian Government’s Book, from the Dept of Health and Welfare, statement on dietary requirements of the Australian population, states:

“The recommended dietary intakes of various supplements have been increased to reflect the need to prevent chronic deficiency diseases ( ie cancer, heart disease diabetes) and not just deficiency states ( ie scurvey, rickets. )”

If we look at the groups of people who get lung cancer they fall definitely into 2 groups – those who smoke or have done in the past, and those who have never smoked. We know that 1 puff of a cigarette produces 8 hours of Free Radical damage to the body that has to be mopped up by the body defence mechanisms, and the oxidative stress in smokers coupled with the bonding of chemicals in the smoke onto the DNA of the lung cells, causes lung cancer.

But what about the non/never smokers? A study in Copenhagen non-smoking bus drivers showed an increase in natural antioxidants in those bus drivers in the inner city compared with those in the outskirts. . It is known that 40-60% of people are deficient in a gene encoding for protection of the cells of the body by Glutathione and if these people are exposed to environmental pollution be it cigarette smoke or diesel smoke and other pollutants, then they can get the cancer.

What I think is the best way to help yourself is the following”

1. Exercise – Do regular exercise and maintain weight at the average for your age height and sex. The BMI wt/height x height = 23.

2 Have a healthy diet – Low fat,
a. High Fibre,
b. High Fresh fruit and vegetables,
c. No red meat, but eat fish and chicken and turkey.
d. Probiotics or Live Yoghurt

3 Have a high grade nutritional supplement which guarantees its Potency and is made to high standards, containing all the antioxidants and minerals needed for health cells.

The principle here is that if we have healthy cells, we will have healthy organs, and if we have healthy organs we will have a healthy body.

It is without doubt one of the biggest problems with being sick, is that of eating well, absorbing what you eat, and maintaining wellness.