Cancer
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Kaya Life
Medical Marijuana Specialists located in Pensacola, Marianna, Miramar Beach, Panama City, FL & Gulfport, MS
Cancer is one of the most frightening diagnoses you can receive, and fighting it takes a comprehensive support system. While treatment for cancer has improved dramatically in recent decades, the side effects of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and other common cancer treatments are often extremely unpleasant or even debilitating. If you’re fighting cancer, call Kaya Life, in Miramar Beach, Marianna, Panama City, and Pensacola, Florida, and Gulfport, MS, today or make an appointment online to find out how medical marijuana could help you.
Cancer Q & A
What is cancer?
Cancer is a group of diseases that all involve the uncontrolled growth of cells in the body. These cells may form tumors and can spread throughout your body and attack other organs through a process called metastasis. Cancers can affect a vast array of tissues and organs, and it can vary widely in severity and symptoms. While many forms of cancer can be very dangerous, many other forms are very treatable. Your treatment will depend on where your cancer started and how aggressively it has spread already, but treatment usually includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery or some combination of the three.
What are the most common types of cancer?
There are over 100 types of cancer, ranging from very common to exceedingly rare. The main types of cancer include:
Carcinoma
The most common type of cancer, carcinomas are cancers that occur in the skin, breasts, lungs, pancreas, or other glands.
Lymphoma
This type of cancer originates in lymphocytes, white blood cells that grow and live in the lymph nodes and then travel in the bloodstream throughout the body.
Sarcoma
Sarcomas are cancers that arise in your bones, muscle, fat, blood vessels, cartilage, or other soft tissue throughout your body.
Melanoma
This type of cancer occurs in the pigment of the skin and is frequently caused by sun exposure.
Leukemia
This type of cancer affects the blood and therefore doesn’t form tumors. Leukemia attacks white blood cells, the foundation of your immune system.
While cancer has been a leading cause of death for much of human history, doctors are only now beginning to understand how to treat the disease. This means that treatment for many types of cancer is still in its infancy, while considerable progress has been made on many other fronts.
What is the traditional treatment for cancer?
Cancer treatment is incredibly subjective, depending on the location and severity of the cancer and on the goals and overall health of the patient. It most often includes chemotherapy, a treatment that uses a battery of medicines to kill cancer cells, and radiation therapy, which bombards cancers with concentrated radioactive waves to reduce their size.
While both of these can be very effective in fighting cancer, they can also have extremely unpleasant and constant side effects that will last as long as you’re in treatment. These include nausea, vomiting, difficulty sleeping, diarrhea, and chronic muscle soreness. Surgery is also commonly used to remove tumors, and other cancerous tissue, whenever possible.
How can medical marijuana help cancer patients?
Cannabis can help relieve symptoms of certain types of cancer, but it is most often used by cancer patients to counteract the side effects of their treatment. Cannabis has shown an ability to relieve the nausea and gastrointestinal distress that make chemotherapy and radiation therapy so difficult and can offer relief from a number of other symptoms and side effects. Research into the effectiveness of cannabis to inhibit the growth of cancer is also ongoing and showing promising early results.
If you’re interested in how medical marijuana could help you in your fight against cancer, call Kaya Life today, or make an appointment online.
