DEFINITIONS OF SOME EXPRESSIONS YOUR DOCTOR MAY USE – TACKLING THE CAUSE OF PAIN DIRECTLY (INTRODUCTION)

Let’s start at the beginning. Let’s say that the cause has been checked and your pain is due to your cancer. It may be possible to tackle this cause directly, but this would not necessarily be the best approach. You will have to weigh up the costs and benefits, just as for any other treatment.

In general, radiation is the form of anti-cancer treatment most likely to control cancer pain, especially that due to secondary cancer in the bones. This may entail only a few treatments and very little side effects. Pain due to cancer in other parts of the body, especially if the growth is large, generally requires longer treatment and higher doses and, even then, radiation is less likely to result ill good pain control. Ask your doctor just What your proposed treatment would involve and how likely it is to work.

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VITAMINS – VITAMIN A; D; K

An excess of Vitamin A is recognised to cause certain illnesses, and some explorers in the Arctic and Antarctic who have eaten the livers of seals and polar bears — which contain an enormous quantity of Vitamin A — have died from the effects of this.

Vitamin D is found in fish oils, dairy products, eggs. It is also produced in the body by the action of ultraviolet light on substances in the skin. And so in Australia a deficiency of this vitamin is rare.

Vitamin D is necessary for the calcium and phosphorous metabolism of the body and, so, the normal structure of bone. As with Vitamin A, an excess intake can cause serious symptoms.

Vitamin Ê also is a fat-soluble vitamin, and it is used in the liver in the manufacture of prothrombin, an essential factor in the clotting of blood.

Vitamin Ê occurs in green vegetables, and also some of the bacteria which normally live in the bowel manufacture this vitamin which we absorb and use.

An excess of Vitamin Ê has not been shown to cause any serious side-effects.

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