Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of cells usually occurring when normal cells undergo genetic mutation in a sustained manner and for prolonged periods. There’s a failure on the part of the cells to stop dividing and developing and out of getting a programmed death. There are nearly 200 distinct kinds of known cancers.
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Cancer causes include heredity; tobacco smoke; radiation; ultraviolet radiation from sunlight; food radicals; and environmental compounds. Cancer results when these triggers bring about a rise in oncogenes and decrease in tumour suppressor genes, DNA repair genes, and self-destruction genes. Additionally it is performed as Stages 1 to 4, which indicate progressively increasing severity.
Staging brings about a worldwide uniformity about evaluation and treatment for cancer and comprehending its prognosis. Treatment of cancer incorporates different modalities like chemotherapy, surgery, radiation treatment, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, hyperthermia, stem cell transplant, photodynamic therapy and laser treatment.
Nowadays
Notwithstanding multiple available, advanced therapy options, cancer therapy still has many limitations, and recurrence is a significant issue. Surgery may not remove all of the cancer cells; chemotherapy only affects cancer cells that are actively dividing; radiation treatment too doesn’t succeed in destroying all cancer cell DNA; repeated mutations in cancer cells may make these resistant to highly potent multiple drug treatment.
After undergoing complete remission with cancer therapy, recurrence is most common within the first two decades; the odds of recurrence decrease significantly after five decades of remission. Recurrence is quite uncommon after ten years of remission; however – and that is a rather unsettling notion – there are still a few cancers which might recur even after ten years of remission.
Ayurveda
In this scenario, Ayurvedic treatment has a distinctive part to play in comprehensive cancer management. Currently, it would be safer and more ethical to use Ayurvedic therapy as a complementary (add-on) therapy instead of an alternative (standalone ) treatment. The recent lacunae in cancer therapy can be totally filled up with Ayurvedic medicines.
Ayurvedic treatment can significantly boost the immune system and assist the body in its fight against the cancer cells. Herbal medications and herbo-mineral combinations can decrease cancer cell mutations and destroy abnormal cells. Concurrently given Ayurvedic treatment can lower the known side effects of modern treatments, enhance treatment response, help prolong remission, and help prevent recurrence.
Ayurvedic medicines
These act on specific organs and body systems; hence Ayurvedic therapy can provide highly targeted cancer treatment in addition to protect organs from irreversible damage. This treatment may also be used to reverse the tide in cases of drug resistance or failure of contemporary therapy, or in which the side effects of modern medicines require withdrawal of those medications.
Ayurvedic treatment is also quite helpful in advanced cancer with multiple metastases, or individuals with end-stage cancer, to help control the disease, improve quality of life, and enhance survival. It’s important to remember that maximum advantage can be derived from Ayurvedic treatment if it’s started at the first, with the initial detection and diagnosis of cancer.
Final note
Most individuals tend to search for Ayurvedic treatment after exhausting all modern treatment options, once the patient is currently in the terminal phase, and there’s absolutely no time for Ayurvedic medicines to work. Additionally it is equally important to prevent self medicine or to fall prey to quacks. The identical medical regime won’t work for all kinds of cancer; different patients with the same type and similar seriousness of cancer may respond differently to the exact same medicine.
In actuality, an individual cancer patient on therapy can’t be given the exact medicines indefinitely; routine supervision and periodical evaluation is needed to modify the treatment based upon the development of the cancer, the response to therapy, and the existence or appearance of co-morbid variables and treatment adverse consequences. Treatment choices for cancer are obviously not straightforward.
Conclusion
Clinical experience since the past 3 decades has always proved that Ayurvedic therapy for cancer can be safely given simultaneously with contemporary treatment modalities, given both are performed by qualified practitioners from their various fields. Ayurvedic treatment can make a considerable difference in the final outcome when treating cancer. Ayurvedic treatment hence has a certain role to play in cancer management.