For people diagnosed with stage 1 cancer, knowing how to prevent cancer metastasis is important. But what exactly does metastasis mean, why is it a serious concern, and what can patients do in order to prevent it?
How to Prevent Cancer Metastasis
Before we talk about how to prevent cancer metastasis, we first need to define what it is exactly.
If a person has stage 1 cancer, what it means is that the cancer is localized or found in a specific area or organ inside the body. Since it’s still localized, steps can be taken to control and prevent it from spreading further.
Stage 2 and stage 3 cancer means that the tumors have grown bigger. It could also mean that the cancer has penetrated deeper into a person’s tissues. However, the cancer has not yet started to spread to other parts of the body. At this stage, treatment is still possible, but it would be more difficult to treat cancer.
Metastasis is when cancer starts to spread throughout the body. This means that the cancer is already at the 4th stage, and it would be very hard to treat it at this stage since it’s already affecting numerous organs.
For people diagnosed with stage 1 cancer, avoiding metastasis as well as treating the cancer are both important.
What can you do about cancer metastasis?
Of course, the best way of preventing metastasis would be to seek treatment the soonest possible time. The forms of treatment available can be chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, etc.
However, there are also certain things that patients can do in order to prevent cancer metastasis. Here are some of those things:
Drinking green tea
In 2010, researchers Naghma Khan & Hasan Mukhtar studied the effects of green tea on metastasis. According to their findings, drinking green tea might have a positive effect when it comes to metastasis.
In particular, they found that Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, which is a major component of green tea, has the ability to inhibit both the growth of tumors as well as metastasis. While drinking green tea is not recommended as a replacement for established forms of cancer treatment, there is no harm in drinking it to supplement other forms of treatment.
At the very least, green tea is safe for cancer patients to drink, and it also contains compounds that can improve a person’s health.
IMPORTANT: It would still be best to consult your doctor if you want to drink green tea to prevent cancer metastasis.
Eating the right foods
While having a healthy diet does not necessarily mean that you can outright prevent metastasis, it can help maintain your body’s strength, especially if you’re undergoing chemotherapy.
The foods to prioritize should be foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals, as well as high in fiber. This means that your meals should have a healthy serving of fresh fruits and vegetables.
It would also be best to lower your intake of red meat, fats, and processed foods as these can be bad for your health. Fats and sugars should also be avoided as much as possible, and eaten only in small amounts.
It’s also important to have the proper serving size for your foods. This can help keep your weight at a healthy range, which can help lower the risk of other health problems, especially since some forms of cancer treatment can cause significant weight gain.
Staying active
Aside from eating the right kinds of foods, it’s also important to stay active. This means that you need to get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day to help keep your body strong.
Engaging in daily exercise helps keep your body strong, and also strengthens your immune system. It also makes your body stronger, and is a good way of dealing with the potential side effects that cancer treatment might have.
Another benefit that exercise has is that it can improve a person’s mental health. For people diagnosed with cancer, this is very important because cancer patients can suffer from depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems.
It would be a good idea to talk to your doctor about what exercises you can do as well. As they would best be able to gauge your health, and help you know which exercises are helpful, and what things to avoid when it comes to working out.
Listen to your doctor
One of the most important things when it comes to how to prevent cancer metastasis is to listen to your doctor. They would best be able to provide you with the right information on what to do, and what steps to take in order to recover from your cancer.
It’s important to listen and follow their advice. After all, your doctor is the one looking after your health, and they are able to know whether or not a form of treatment is working, or if you need to do some things to improve your chances of recovering from cancer.
If you’re interested in other forms of alternative therapy, be sure to talk to your doctor about it. They would best be able to assist you while you are seeking treatment.
[embed-health-tool-bmi]
