Cancer Treatment and Body Systems
Do you know Cancer can strike
body systems inside you?Every organ in you is susceptible to Cancer,
so a BASIC Knowledge of your body systems is vital.
In your Biology lessons, you learnt about many of these systems of your Body. For the sake of medical research and study, researchers have broken down your body into many systems. But actually, all the different parts of your body are integrated and work together as a whole, for the reason that your body is One Single Organism. They do NOT work apart from each other. When your stomach is upset, you may end up with a throbbing headache in the head. When you have a migraine, you may have cold-sweat. Every part is somehow linked to each other. But for the sake of understanding our body, and how it is related to Cancer Treatment, I have isolated each body system here. So that a Basic Knowledge of your body systems can be understood. Click here for quick access to any of these body systems: Your immune system is one of those important body systems. It is made up of special cells in your tissues and organs. It defends your body against germs, bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms.
The immune system keeps you healthy and stops infections. When your immune system is down, you will get sick and infected. The cells in your immune system are the white blood cells, or leukocytes. White blood cells are produced and stored in your bone marrow (thick spongy jelly inside your bones), thymus and spleen (an organ in your belly that filters blood and helps fight infections). These are called lymphoid tissues. They are also stored in lymph nodes all over the body. The lymph nodes act like filters to remove harmful germs. The white blood cells travel all over the body through the lymphatic vessels and blood vessels, seeking to destroy germs and other substances harmful to the body. There are two main types of white blood cells (leukocytes). -
lymphocytes, cells that identify the harmful micro-organisms, and help your body to destroy them. -
phagocytes, cells that chew up the harmful micro-organisms and fights bacteria Cancer of the immune system can happen when the cells grow out of control. Lymphoma is a Cancer of the lymphoid tissues and leukemia is an abnormal growth of leukocytes. To have a strong immune system, you need to be healthy by keeping yourself clean from toxins, eating nutritious foods and getting plenty of exercises. The blood circulatory system is one of those important body systems. The average person has about 1 to 1½ gallons (4-6 liters) of blood. Your blood consists of: -
red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body -
white blood cells, which fight infections -
platelets, which are cells that help you stop bleeding if you get a cut -
plasma, a yellowish liquid that carries nutrients, hormones, and proteins throughout the body Your bone marrow is responsible for making the red blood cells, white blood cells and the platelets.
The plasma comes from your intestines, and is absorbed into the blood stream, from the food and drinks that you take. These four parts of the blood makes up your blood circulatory system. Your heart then pumps the blood through the blood vessels to every organ and tissue in your body. Most of the cells in your blood are red blood cells. They carry the hemoglobin containing oxygen, to every cell in your body. The oxygen, of course, comes from the air that you breathe. Do you know that Cancer cells cannot live in an oxygen-rich environment? Cancer cells are anaerobic. That means they thrive in an environment of absence of oxygen. When Cancer cells receive oxygen, they die! White blood cells are bigger than red blood cells and they are only produced in huge quantity whenever there is a need to protect your body. This is explained under the Immune System. Platelets are tiny cells that stop you from excessive bleeding. When you get a cut or a broken blood vessel, the platelet cells will stick together with other platelet cells to form a clot. They will continue to bond together until a web of tiny protein threads is formed. This web or clot will prevent the blood inside your body from leaking out continuously. Plasma is mostly water but it carries important nutrients, hormones and enzymes throughout all the body systems. These nutrients and enzymes comes from the food that you eat and they give your body energy and replace weak cells with healthy cells. The hormones are produced by your own body to enable natural, balanced and progressive growth in cells, organs, tissues, bones and all the body systems. Your plasma also removes dead cells, waste by-products, and substances that are rejected by your body to be discharged at other organs such as liver, kidneys, lymph etc. Everybody have one of these eight different blood group types: -
A negative -
A positive -
B negative -
B positive -
O negative -
O positive -
AB negative -
AB positive Blood group types are important if ever you need a blood transfusion while undergoing Cancer treatment. If you get the wrong type, your body may reject the alien blood. In Cancer treatment, a healthy blood supply is very important. When your blood is healthy, you will have enough oxygen and energy to kill the Cancer cells. Healthy blood also prevents you from future Cancer recurrence. Your skeletal system supports physically many of the other body systems. Everybody has a skeleton made up of bones. The bones give your body shape, and allow you to move about while protecting your internal soft organs and tissues. An adult has 206 bones.
Your bones have cells and they are growing, multiplying and renewing all the time like other parts of your body systems. Your bones are made up of the outer hard layer and this layer protects the bone marrow, which forms the innermost part of the bone. The bone marrow is responsible for making blood cells. When you were born, you had tiny bones. In fact, you had 300 bones at birth. Some of them fuse and grow together to form part of the 206 bones of an adult. A baby's bones are made up of soft material called cartilage. As a baby grows, these cartilages are replaced by hard bones as a result of the calcium that comes from your food or milk. Note: In taking calcium supplements for your bones, it is important to know whether it is organic or inorganic calcium and how easily the calcium can be absorbed by the body. Only take organic calcium that is easily absorbed. Your spine is the part of your bone structure that holds your body upright and allows you to move about. The spine protects the spinal cord, which consists of nerves connecting and sending information from the brain to the rest of the body. Your spine has 26 bones called vertebrae and they are connected together so that they can support your head, ribs, and your back. The vertebrae are separated by cartilage disks which prevent them from rubbing against each other excessively. These disks also act like shock absorbers for your spine to give you cushioning in your movements. Your ribs are like a cage of bones around your chest to protect your heart, lungs and liver. Your skull bone is the most important bone because it protects your brain besides giving your face a shape. Babies are born with soft bones with spaces in their skulls to allow them to move and overlap so that they can pass through the birth canal. As they grow, these bones fuse together and the spaces close up together. The bones of your fingers, hand, wrist and arms are attached to the shoulder blade bone, which is the large triangle bone at the upper back corner of the rib cage. Each of these bones is wider at the ends and thinner in the middle so that it can be stronger when it is jointed to another bone. Your leg bones are large strong bones for supporting the body weight. They are attached to the pelvis, which is a bowl shaped bone that supports the spine. The pelvis bone protects the digestive system, urinary system and the reproduction system. The place where two bones connect is called a joint. Some joints are fixed while others are movable. Movable joints such as the hinge joints and ball-and-socket joints allow you to twist, bend and move about. Bones are held together at the joints by ligaments which are very strong connecting bands. Keep your bones healthy by strengthening them with calcium-rich foods such as yogurt. Exercise your bones and ligaments by regularly exercising your body. Protect your bones when engaged in vigorous sports. When your bones are healthy, your bone marrow is healthy and Cancer cells cannot survive. Your muscles are the engine parts of the body systems. There are more than 600 muscles in your body. They are made up of elastic fibrous tissues that assist you to have strength in your movements. Your body has three different types of muscles: smooth muscle, cardiac muscle and skeletal muscle. Smooth muscles are involuntary muscles. You cannot control them. Only your brain and body tells these muscles what to do even without you thinking about them.
Examples of smooth muscles are those in your stomach, digestive system, bladder, eyes and uterus. Cardiac muscles are your heart muscles that contract and expand to pump blood through the arteries and veins. These are also involuntary muscles. Skeletal muscles are voluntary muscles that you can control what they should do. These muscles together with the skeleton make up the musculoskeletal system. The skeletal muscles give your body power and strength to lift and push things. The skeletal muscles are attached to the bones by tendons. Strong and healthy muscles are important for those who are undergoing Cancer treatment. The muscles supporting your organs such as lungs, heart and intestinal system are important because they help in fast removal of harmful Cancer cells. Though a Cancer patient may need lots of rest, however, when the body begins to show signs of recovery, it is important for the patient to move those muscles for general well-being. Your brain and nervous system is the command center of your body systems. It controls everything you do even when you are asleep! Your brain has five parts: -
cerebrum -
cerebellum -
brain stem -
pituitary gland -
hypothalamus The cerebrum makes up 85% and is the biggest part of the brain.
It controls the voluntary muscles and is the thinking part of the brain. Your cerebrum helps you to remember things by keeping memory. It also helps you to reason logically. Your cerebrum has two halves, the left and the right side. The right half helps you to think about abstract things like art, music, colors and shapes. The left half helps you to analyze logic and speech. Scientists have found that the right half controls the left side of your body and the left half controls the right side. The cerebellum is located at the back of the brain below the cerebrum. It is smaller in size and controls your balance, movement and muscle coordination. The brain stem is directly below the cerebrum. It connects the brain to the spinal cord which goes down your neck and spine. The brain stem is the channel of communication and sends messages between the brain and every function in your body systems. The pituitary gland is a very small organ the size of a small pea located at the top of the brain stem. This gland releases hormones into your body that control your growth, balance your sugar levels, and manages your breathing, digestion, blood circulation and almost every organ in your body. When Cancer cells multiply, a healthy pituitary gland will release hormones to limit their growth. The hypothalamus is a small tissue at the top of the brain stem that controls the body temperature. A normal body temperature should be about 98.6° Fahrenheit or 37° Celsius. If your body is too hot, the hypothalamus tells it to sweat and if you are too cold, it tells your body to shiver. Both the sweating and shivering is your body involuntary action to bring back your body's temperature to where it should be. Your nervous system comprises of your spinal cord and your nerves. Your spinal cord is a long bunch of nerves inside your spinal column and is protected by your vertebrae. This nervous system allows messages to go back and forth between the brain and your body through connectors called neurons. Inside your brain is a group of cells called the amygdala. This area controls your emotions, and determines whether you feel happy, or sad, or scared, or angry. In Cancer treatment, the brain is an important factor for healing. Your mindset, emotions, thoughts and determination are important factors to overcome Cancer. Treat your brains and nervous system well by eating healthy foods that contain potassium and calcium, two minerals that are important for your nervous system. Do not abuse yourself with alcohol, drugs or tobacco which may damage your brains. Exercise your brains with mental activities like jigsaw puzzles, Sudoku, music, art or reading. Your digestive system is in place to feed all your body systems the nutrients and energy from the food that you eat. The first part of the digestive system is the mouth section.
When you start eating, your mouth secretes saliva to help breakdown the chemicals in the food. Saliva also makes the food mushy and easy to swallow. As you chew the food, the tongue will push the food around, mixing the food with the saliva, before swallowing the mushed-up food. The food is pushed to the back of the throat and into the opening of the gullet also called the esophagus, which is the second part of the digestive system. The esophagus is a flexible pipe about 10 inches or 25 centimeters long. It moves the food from the back of your throat to the stomach. The muscles in the walls of the esophagus move the food by a series of wavy contraction, slowly squeezing the food down to the stomach. Your stomach is shaped like a sack and does three things: -
It stores the food for a while -
It breaks down the food into a greater liquid form -
It empties its contents into the small intestines bit by bit The stomach muscles act like a cake mixer, mixing and churning the ingredients around until they become smaller and smaller pieces. It also secretes acidic gastric juices from the stomach walls to break down the food and kill any harmful bacteria that may have came down with the food. The stomach connects with the small intestine which is a tube of about 22 feet or 6.7 meters long! The small intestine continues to break down the food particles even more, so that the body can absorb all the nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Three organs, the liver, pancreas and gallbladder, are connected to the small intestine to help in the absorption of these nutrients. These organs secrete enzyme juices to help to digest the food and allow the small intestine walls to absorb the nutrients. The pancreas secretes enzymes that help in digesting fats and proteins. The liver secretes bile that helps to break down and absorb fats into the bloodstream. The gallbladder stores the bile and releases it according to the need. Your food should remain in the small intestine until it becomes a watery mixture, so that the nutrients can pass from the intestine into the blood behind the intestinal walls. Once the nutrients are in the blood, they are carried to the liver for processing. The liver will remove any harmful substances or wastes, from the blood and releases the nutrients to the rest of the body. (For many Cancer patients, the liver is normally damaged and cannot remove the toxins fast enough. These toxins then spread to other parts of the body, and causes cell mutation and degeneration). After the nutrients had been absorbed, what remains in the small intestine is the leftover waste product that cannot be used. These go into the large intestine which is about 5 feet or 1.5 meters long. It is fatter than the small intestine. The large intestine begins with a small protruding organ called the appendix. Lately, researchers have found that the appendix secretes germicidal juices into the large intestine when the waste matter coming from the small intestine becomes potentially harmful to the body. The function is similar to that of the tonsils. The appendix samples the kind of germs or harmful substances that may have passed through and stimulates the body's protective mechanism. The large intestine carries the waste through the colon, which is the last part of the large intestine. The colon will absorb some of the water out of the waste product, before it goes out of the body. The waste product becomes less diluted, turns more solid, and will be flushed out of the anus as stools. In Cancer treatment of patients, it is important that the digestive system is working properly, especially the liver and kidneys. To do that, you should drink adequate amount of water, and eat foods that are full of nutrients such as fruits and vegetables. Cancer patients need to rejuvenate with huge amounts of vegetable and fruit juices which are easily digestible and absorbed into the body through the digestive system. The roughage from the vegetables and grains acts like a broom to push out the waste products easily from the digestive tract. The endocrine system regulates the smooth flow of other body systems. Your endocrine glands releases hormones to tell your body cells in every organ and tissue what to do, when to do and how to do. The endocrine system regulates your mood, growth and development, tissue function, and metabolism, as well as sexual function and reproductive processes.
You have many endocrine glands in your body such as: hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, parathyroids, adrenals, pineal body, reproductive glands which include the ovaries and testes, pancreas that secrete hormones, which is also part of the digestive system because it secretes digestive enzymes. Your pituitary gland, which is about the size of a pea, secretes many hormones that control growth. Your thyroid gland in your neck makes hormones for growth, mental alertness and energy management. Your adrenal glands makes adrenaline hormone to boost your body with strength and energy momentarily. Your pancreas makes several hormones including insulin that helps glucose sugar in your blood to be absorbed into the cells. Your cells need glucose for fuel like your car needs petrol. Your endocrine system works as a whole to regulate just the right amount of hormones to be released. Chemotherapy or drugs for Cancer patients will destroy the balance and regulation of hormone production in the body. All living things reproduce, and they all have their own body systems to reproduce. In the human being, the male sex cell (sperm) meets with the female sex cell (ovum) to create a new individual. In reproduction, specific human traits, called genes, are passed along from parents to the child making the new individual similar to the parents in some ways. The female reproductive system is located entirely in the pelvis while the male system is not. The external parts of the female reproductive system are the vulva, mons pubis, labia, clitoris and pubic hair. The internal parts of the female system are the vagina, fallopian tubes and ovaries.
The female reproductive system makes possible a woman to produce eggs, have sexual intercourse, protects and nourishes the fertilized egg, and gives birth. Some of the problems caused by toxemia of body and affecting the female reproduction system are Candida of the vagina, urinary tract infection, ovarian tumors, polyps or cysts, Cancer etc. For the male reproductive system, the organs or genitals are located both inside and outside the pelvis. The organs include the testicles, duct system, seminal vesicles, prostate gland, and penis. The male reproductive system produces semen for the female during sexual intercourse. It also produces sex hormones to help a teenager develop into a mature man during puberty. A common form of Cancer among males below 40 is testicular Cancer. This happens when the cells in the testicles multiply abnormally and form a tumor. The Cancer cells can spread (metastasize) to other body parts if left unchecked. Continue on Page 2...
Further Readings:Learn all about your body with BBC Science - Nature's guide. Body - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Human Body-Systems Get information, facts, photos, news, videos, and more about the human body from National Geographic
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