Be a survivor: if you were on a desert isle, what herb would you take along? (frontiers of science).(Brief Article)

When I called Dr. James Duke the other day to ask him a question about a journal article on garlic and cancer, he asked me to hold on, since he had a pot of garlic soup on the oven and didn't want it to burn!

"If I were stranded on a desert isle, I'd rather have garlic than almost any other herb," Duke said. "It'll boost your immune system and fight the nasties better than anything I can think of."

And there are plenty of bugs and diseases around, some of them deadly serious. In fact, since 1990, 15 `million new cases of cancer were diagnosed. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), by 1997 8.9 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive--some of the people still living were considered cured while others still had evidence of cancer and were undergoing treatment.

It's expected that, when the figures for 2001 are tabulated, approximately 1,268,000 new cancer cases will have been reported. The predicted figures are also supposed to tell us that about 553,400 Americans will have died of cancer in 2001. This dreaded disease robs 1,500 people a day of life; in fact, one out of four deaths is from cancer.

As daunting as cancer stats are, there really is some good news out there--lifestyle modifications (e.g., diet and exercise) can help prevent cancer.

--Smoking and drinking. The plain fact is, according to the American Cancer Society, all cancers caused by cigarette smoking and heavy use of alcohol could be completely prevented.

--Lifestyle. Nearly 33 percent of the 553,400 cancer deaths that were predicted for 2001 will have been linked to diet, physical activity and other lifestyle factors. And most of thc one million cases of skin cancer predicted for 2001 could have been prevented by avoiding excess sun exposure.