Is it true that if you don't treat cancer, stay in a good mood, eat well and sleep well, you can live longer?

In early 2021, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released the latest global cancer disease burden data.

The latest data shows that in 2020, there were 19.29 million new cancer cases and 9.96 million deaths worldwide; in 2020, there were 4.57 million new cancer cases and 3 million deaths in my country. China has the highest number of new cancer cases in the world, accounting for 23.7%.

Corresponding to the data, there are more and more people suffering from cancer around us, and it is not uncommon for people to die from cancer. Some people actively treat cancer after they get it, but still die soon; some people disdain cancer after they get it, and live for a long time as if nothing happened.

There is some discussion on the Internet: Is it true that if you don't treat cancer, you can live longer by keeping a good mood, eating well and sleeping well? Is this statement credible? Let's discuss this issue together.

The causes of cancer are not fully understood at present. The causes of cancer are usually divided into two categories: endogenous factors and exogenous factors.

Exogenous factors:

1. Lifestyle habits are also called behavior-related factors. For example, smoking can cause lung cancer, heavy drinking can cause liver cancer, high-energy and high-fat diets can cause breast cancer, and lack of dietary fiber can cause colorectal cancer.

2. Environmental pollution and occupational factors The current high incidence of lung cancer is closely related to environmental pollution. Water and food pollution can cause many cancers. For example, food contaminated by aflatoxin can cause liver cancer, and asbestos in the occupational environment can cause lung cancer.

3. Biological factors such as hepatitis B virus can cause liver cancer, HPV virus can cause cervical cancer, Helicobacter pylori can cause gastric cancer, Epstein-Barr virus can cause nasopharyngeal cancer, etc.

Endogenous factors:

1. Genetic factors: There are very few cancers that are truly inherited, but genetic factors can increase susceptibility to other carcinogenic factors. For example, some people can live to 90 years old even if they smoke all their lives, and some people who do not smoke still suffer from lung cancer at a very young age.

2. Immune factors Immune factors play an important role in the occurrence and development of tumors. There are oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in human genes. When the immune function is intact, cancerous cells can be cleared in time. If the immune function is low and AIDS cells cannot be cleared in time, the body is prone to cancer. For example, after being infected with HIV, the immune system collapses and cancer is prone to occur.

3. Endocrine factors Abnormal hormone levels in the human body may also lead to certain cancers. For example, estrogen and prolactin are related to breast cancer, and growth hormone can stimulate the development of cancer.

Cancer treatment There are currently a variety of cancer treatments and there have been many research results, but the main treatment methods are still surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Theoretically, if the cancer cells have not metastasized, surgical resection can achieve complete cure, so for early or relatively early solid tumors, surgical treatment is still the preferred treatment method. If surgical treatment is combined with chemotherapy, some tumor cells can be suppressed.

When there is no indication for surgery or some tumors are not solid tumors, chemotherapy is used. Although chemotherapy can kill tumor cells, it also kills our normal cells, and it can suppress the bone marrow, causing the immune system to become weak. So this creates a contradiction. After a tumor occurs, we need a stronger immune system and more efficient work, but chemotherapy can suppress immune cells and is not conducive to immunity.

Radiotherapy uses physical radiation to kill tumor cells and shrink the tumor. Similarly, radiotherapy will also kill normal cells.

What should I do after I get cancer? Back to the original question: Is it true that if you don't treat cancer, you can live longer by keeping a good mood, eating well and sleeping well? This statement is not true. If you have cancer, it is true to keep a good mood, eat well and sleep well, but it is wrong not to treat it.

Any disease should be treated actively, and then maintaining a good mood, eating well and sleeping well is conducive to recovery. Admittedly, there may be very few people around us who have recovered from cancer by ignoring it, but this is only an individual case and cannot be generalized.

So I think that if you unfortunately get cancer, you must actively seek treatment, maintain a good attitude during the treatment, eat well and sleep well, which are conducive to recovery from the disease. Don't believe some online rumors and ignore cancer. In the end, you will be the one who gets hurt.

Prevention of Cancer Among the factors that induce cancer, exogenous factors can be prevented. For example, we can adjust our living habits, eat more vegetables and fruits, quit smoking and limit alcohol, exercise moderately, maintain a good mood, etc. Among the biological factors, we can actively prevent diseases and actively treat them after becoming ill.

In short, for any disease, prevention is more important than treatment. I hope everyone will actively prevent cancer.

I’m Dr. Bobo. If you have any health-related questions, you can follow me and send me private messages for consultation. Thank you.