The truth of the matter is, your cells carry instructions on how to become a cancer cell within them. What protects you from cancer is a complex series of fail-safes and controls that has to malfunction repeatedly for cancer to form.
Genes control the growth, replication, and death of all of your body's cells. There are two types of these genes that play a crucial role in oncogenesis – proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressors. While the former act like growth accelerators telling your cells to reproduce, the latter act as brakes, telling them when to pause, repair or commit suicide if there is some damage to the cellular structure.
There are quite a few ways these genes may be mutated in a manner that causes cancer. Genotoxic carcinogens found in tobacco smoke cause damage to lung cell DNA. The UV light found in sunlight creates DNA damage through breaking certain chemical bonds. Some viruses, such as HPV, and even hepatitis B virus, infect human cells, inserting copies of their genomes and interfering with normal cellular operations. Inflammation caused by chronic infections, obesity or autoimmune disease creates a condition in the body wherein DNA damage occurs faster than it can be repaired.
There is one thing that has been sitting there all through this answer, something that I actually contemplated whether or not to tell you. Not because it doesn’t deserve a mention, but because once you know about it, you would never understand how you coped with things before then.
And that realization is as liberating as it is infuriating.
This is not a book; this is not a guide. Words fail to capture the essence of this discovery.
What I’m saying is that
it exists,
it’s proven, and
those who have discovered it walk through life’s most difficult times with an unshakeable calmness that those around them notice but cannot explain.