Risk Factors/Symptoms
How many of us have heard our mothers or grandmothers
warn us about washing our hands? Come on we’ve all heard it said a thousand
times, “Go wash your hands before you eat.” Well they were right, you risked
eating bacteria from the microorganisms you collected while “playing house and
picking your nose” outside in the dirt. (AYE don't deny it, you know ya did!)
The point is that you might have gotten a bug from not washing your hands.
Therefore not washing your hands could be concidered a risk factor for getting
sick. But unfortunately, you can't avoid getting brain tumors or brain cancer
by simply washing your hands. Besides keeping a healthy lifestyle, there
are surprisingly few proven risk factors for brain tumors or brain
cancers.
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Brain
Tumor/Brain Cancer |
Radiation - Radiation is energy waves that is
emitted by radio active substances such as some metals. These energy
waves go through the cells of your body and kill them or slow their growth.
Radiation, ironically, is used to treat other cancers but it can also increase
the chances of getting a brain tumor. However, doctors advise radiation
treatments for other cancers because it may be the only course of action that
will get rid of these other cancers. The risk of getting a brain tumor
becomes a secondary thought.
You are also exposed to much smaller amounts of radiation in the form of
x-rays. All x-ray machines use radiation to take pictures of your
bones. This includes x-rays you get at the dentist office when they take
pictures of your teeth. However, you can't use this as an excuse not to
go get your teeth checked as x-rays let off such small amounts of radiation
that they are concidered reletively harmless. But radiologist or people
who take the x-ray pictures day in and day out help protect themselves by
standing behind a protective wall; so as to limit their exposure over the
course of their careers. You can also do something to limit your exposure
to radiation, whenever you get an x-ray ask for lead aprons to cover your neck
area to protect your thyroid gland, and ladies to protect your ovaries (eggs)
ask for an apron to cover your stomache area.
Chemical Exposure - Chemicals are good, the
human body is nothing but a giant chemistry factory. All your body
processes, food digestion, muscle building, and even breathing occur through
chemical reactions in your body. However, some chemicals when mixed together
are bad for the body and if you breathe them, eat them, drink them, absorb them
through your skin, or smoke them, they could cause bad chemical reactions in
your body. It has been proven that some chemicals are carcinogenics or
cancer causing substances. Certain pesticides, such as those used by
farmers to prevent bugs from eating their crops, have been shown to cause brain
tumors/cancer. And on that note it is always better to wash your fruits
and vegetables before cooking and eating them as they are covered in waxes and
pesticides but these waxes and pesticides are also there so that you don't
chomp down on a worm in your apple. Aye!
Damaged Immune
Systems - Your immune system helps fight off disease and if it is damaged,
diseases of all kinds can take over your body more easily, including tumors and
cancer. Your immune system may be damaged at birth or it can be damaged
from other diseases such as cancer and AIDS. Some treatments for cancer
and also organ transplants can also cause your immune system to not work
properly.
Genetic Risk - Studies are still being done but
there is enough evidence to say that some brain tumors run in families or are
genetic.
While these are risks that have been
proven to cause brain tumors/cancer, more often than not the people who have
gotten a brain tumor or brain cancer have had no exposure to any of these risk
factors. The most common cause of getting brain cancer is from another
cancer such as from lung cancer or breast cancer that has metastasized or
spread to the brain. When this occurs the cancer usuallys settles in many
different parts of the brain as opposed to being focused in one area.
Symptoms
It's the last days of the summer
before another year of school starts again. The sun is torturous and you
and your friends decide to cruise to the nearest swim spot for a cool
dip. Your crusin along, jammin out to Marley (of course, what else?) and
as you drive you feel the now familiar beginnings of a blinding headache.
You lean over and open your glove box and pull out some x-tra strength headache
medicine your doctor prescribed to you. Headaches, the doctor discovered
that were from a benign tumor in your brain. The tumor, the doctor said,
was taking up room in your skull and putting pressure on your brain causing
severe headaches. Your next appointment is in a week where the doctor,
you and your grandma will decide what course to take. Thinking about it
is too surreal to you so you try not to but your headaches become a constant
reminder. So you quickly pop your pills in your mouth and reach for your
Dr. Pepper and swallow them down, hoping that will do the trick before you go
swimming.
Have you ever walked into the kitchen after someone in
your family has just come back from grocery shopping? You may pick
through the bags, boxes and piles of food looking for something really good and
notice that they picked up lettice, tomatoes, hamburger meat, and a block of
good ol' commodity cheese. Seeing all those items you think to yourself,
"Yes, Indian tacos tonight!!!" Then you run out of the house before
anyone can see that you stole the whole box of cherries. Later you get
home and after denying any knowledge of the missing cherries, you sit down to
the table anticipating a mountainous taco when you are instead served a
dinky hamburger. Feeling as though you've been robbed you say out loud in
an upset voice, "Hey, where's the tacos?" The point is, is that
all the igredients that you saw on the table could be conbined to make
different things. It could have been salad and hamburgers or Indian
tacos. This is pretty much what happens at the doctor's office. You
go in with a mixture of symptoms and the doctor comes up with a variety of
possibilities of what could be wrong, the doctor then has to narrow down the
possibilities by conducting various tests.
With brain tumors and or brain cancer there can be a
wide variety of symptoms. These symptoms may show up slowly and increase
their intesity or they can show up fast and sudden like a stroke.
However, more often symptoms usually occur gradually and become worse over
time. Please remember that by themselves these symptoms can mean anything
or nothing at all, but it is a combination of these symptoms and their qualites
that may point to a possible brain tumor.
Symptoms
spinal cord (brain cord) tumors often cause numbness
and or weakness in the legs
headaches, nausea, or blurred vision may be caused by
increased pressur on the brain
headache is a common complaint and is a symptom about
50% of the time
the type of headache is important; where, pain level
etc.
headaches that tend to be worse in the morning and
ease during the day
seizures-convulsions
nausea, vomiting
weakness/loss of feeling in the arms or legs
stumbling or lack of coordination in walking
abnormal eye movements or change in vision
drowsiness
changes in personality or memory
changes in speech
infertility or amenorrhea
(ladies-when your period stops occuring)
After swimming with your buddies you are wiped
out, more so than you usually would be but at least your headache eased
up and with that you and your buddies pile into your grandmas car and jam out
to Marley on the way home. When you get home your grandma has cooked up a
mountain of fry bread for you and your friends and you all sit in front of the
T.V. watching scary movies and devouring the best indian tacos. You
briefly think of your next doctor's appointment but loose your train of thought
when a woman's scream from the T.V. diverts your attention back to the movie
and you settle down for one of the last nights before school begins with your
friends.
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