By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
There was this lady, a breast cancer survivor, who made it her advocacy to spread the word on how to avoid cancer. In one of the presscons she called pre-pandemic time, she focused on breast cancer, particularly in women and prostate cancer in men.
Since men belong to the weaker sex, let’s talk about their problem first, usually hitting them during their 40s and above. Listening to speakers on such subject matter is like reading about any other disease. You seem to be convinced you also might have it.
Right after the event I almost ran to a medical lab for a PSA count. If it is 4 and above, you might have the dreaded disease. Below that, you are OK.
Then I recalled. About two decades before that when magazines meant hard copies, I read an article in Newsweek Magazine about a scientific research on prostate cancer. Apparently, sex does not have much effect on it. And it usually progresses slowly so, chances are, you might die of other causes before it becomes dangerous. I chuckled about that.
Then the finding on lycopene. A nutrient that immediately became the magic word whenever prostrate cancer was being discussed.
The best source are tomatoes. Although it is found also in other plants like fruits. In a very short time I was seeing on the packaging of fruit juices on grocery stores the words “with lycopene.” These had solid bright red backgrounds and the letters are reverse or white. Even if the markings were small, you would not have missed these as they appeared to jump on your face.
Your systems have better access to the nutrient in tomatoes if these are cooked. It can withstand heat without disintegrating
Since we are at it, we might as well talk about another remedy to avoid prostate cancer which is my favorite subject– yoga exercises, commonly referred to as poses.
Among others, I regularly do two of these everyday as they are also tops when it comes to kidney and heart problems. As you might remember, I suffered failure of the kidneys and heart about one and a half years ago. From which am still recovering.
The two poses are the bridge pose and the bow pose. Like any other pose, they look simple but have far-reaching effects, especially on the glands. They massage the glands so they become better or more efficient in doing their jobs.
Likewise, they are very effective in improving blood circulation. In these poses, particularly in the pelvic, chest and abdominal areas. It is circulation that brings food or nutrients to parts of the body including oxygen. These are the life-giving substances that keep salesmen of funeral parlors away.
Other exercises also do that but yoga poses do it a lot better.
Without exercises, energy, oxygen and nutrients stagnate. The results? Diseases.
A very important word of caution though. When you have well-entrenched diseases, you need medical intervention. Yoga and other exercises for that matter are preventive measures.
So, if you are living a sedentary life, good luck. Be my guest.**
