CANCER OF THE OESOPHAGUS: SMOKING AND ALCOHOLISM AS RISK FACTORS

BY: ZAINAB SAMBO

I have observed over the years that many people want to live a long, quiet and successful live. But it is also ironical but true that many people especially youths are engaging in lifestyles that predispose them to several disease conditions that will reduce the quality of their lives. 

 

Oesophageal cancer can also be called food pipe cancer is a type of cancer that affects the food pipe. It is a devastating disease because it is the 6^th most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide.

 Lifestyle factors such as obesity, smoking and alcoholism cause 9 out of 10 cases of oesophageal cancer. The risks of oesophageal cancer are higher when a person is involved in both drinking and smoking because both act synergistically. Alcohol damages the cells around the food pipe and enables the carcinogens in tobacco to be able to penetrate the oesophageal epithelium more easily.

Smoking has become the order of the day especially among youths even though tobacco companies have warned that smokers are liable to die young. According to research conducted each cigarette that a person smokes takes 10 minutes out of a smoker’s life.  

Estimate in the past few years’ state that there are almost 7360 different compounds present in cigarette, and it is likely that this number could still increase. Of this number of compounds, 70 have confirmed carcinogenic activity in humans, and many more are suspected carcinogens.

Some organic compounds with more harmful effect in cigarette are: n-nitrosamines, benzene, aromatic amines, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, 1,3-Butadiene, Acrolein, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons which causes detrimental effects such as: high carcinogenic action, causes mutation in bone marrow, causes bladder cancer, causes irritation of the eyes, kin, throat, mucus membranes, and respiratory tract, suspected to be a human teratogen, heart disease and also lower IQ and childhood asthma respectively. These are just a few detrimental effects of smoking.

Abstaining from smoking and alcoholism can increase people’s quality of life, enable you to save more and give you time to plan. So why not avoid smoking in order to have a long, better and a more fulfilled life.

IMPORTANCE OF POSITIVE  GOALS TO YOUTHS 

By: Zainab Sambo

Goals are set in order to achieve an outcome. A goal can be a short term goal or a long term depending on when the outcome is required. Short term goals are not bad but it depends on whether it is a good one that is set or a bad one. A good short term can have a positive effect on a long term goal. Whereas, a bad short term goal can have a detrimental effect on the long term goal. A bad choice for a short term goal to be achieved is usually the cause of the bad effect. But when short term goals are made with the future in mind, a good short term goal is made which influences youths positively and also the society at large. 

The short term goals can be made whether intentionally or unintentionally especially among youths. Short term goals which are detrimental can be made with the full knowledge of its bad repercussion but it is made anyway so that a short term goal can be achieved. Also, some youths make the short term goals unintentionally by inculcating bad habits like laziness, lack of adequate time management, poor relationship with people and bad habits such as prostitution, smoking and drinking which have damaging effect on their health.

A girl with needs which cannot be satisfied by her parents could decide to go into prostitution, when her goal is achieved, her short term goal is met which can affect her in the long run with circumstances such as unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and even unwanted pregnancy in which the stigma and pain can affect her for the rest of her life and also in all ramification.

Also, drinking and smoking are very addictive because of some substances present in them such as nicotine in the case of cigarette which is one of the things youths are involved in. They do it for temporary pleasure, to become "sharper" and forget their troubles. Unfortunately, it is usually only for a short time because when the effect wears off, they get more devastated than ever before. Some are aware of this, while some are not aware of the negative effects they have on health because they destroy the liver and lungs respectively.

Laziness is also a "killer" for youths; it destroys one's future; because a lazy person hardly succeeds in live. There is an adage that says, "No food for a lazy man." When a person is lazy in school, it affects his/ her grades which becomes poor; even if not a student, being lazy affects a youth negatively, youth workers who are lazy suffer in their places of work by lack of promotion and also depression because of envy and hatred.

In conclusion, it does not matter whether it’s a short term goal, midterm goal or long term goal, what matters is whether the goal is positive or negative. Therefore, youths should always try and make good /positive goals in order not to fall victims of failure in life.

 

Upcoming event

Great news!!!...
 The Altruistic Youths are collaborating with Association of Muslim Health Science Students (AMHSS) and Christian Medical and Dental Association-Students, Zaria to host a health day aimed at helping Malaria sufferers in some villages of Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna state North West of Nigeria.

Many more life-improving events in our "up next" list. keep in touch with us right here, as we get close to you...

GREATEST DISCOVERY OF ALL TIME

T

 Raveling back into history; some centuries ago, describes a time when heroes existed, inventors invented and timeless scientists did some great life-improving discoveries. The discoveries and inventions include these few out of many; aircraft by the Wright brothers, copernican system by Nicholas Copernicus, evolution theory by Charles Darwin, electricity by Michael Faraday, the first functioning light bulb by Thomas Edison, gravity described by sir Isaac Newton, telephone by Alexander Fleming, the big bang theory by Georges Lemaitre, Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick, HIV/AIDs by Inc Montagnier etc. the list proved itself inexhaustible. At some points individuals and groups pause to attempt justifying one of these discoveries and inventions to be the greatest one among others. Philosophically, their attempts of assigning greatness to one discovery conform to one of the many rules of logic which reads as thus; one out of two or more items/ideas has to be the correct /best/greatest of all. Put it this way, that rule of logic suggests that no two things can assume the same position. One has to be correct, the others incorrect. It’s another way of saying, in life its either black or white, no shades of gray. If you are ask, which one of the discoveries would you assign greatness to? Interesting, writing this article, I’m not referring to the above scientific discoveries and innovations when I titled the article “greatest discovery of all time.” I aim at discussing an undiscovered gift, talent and blessing to humanity, which when and only if, discovered will be the undisputable greatest discovery, not just for now, but of all time. It’s what I call ‘self discovery.’

            What is self discovery? It is the act and process of personal-self searching and recognizing one’s already existing peculiar qualities, abilities and strengths which when committed to work, should be able to add value to humanity.  This is true with the above mentioned inventors and scientists; before they invented or discovered anything, they had discovered who they really are and have committed themselves to work. Now, your mind is beginning to agree with me that the greatest discovery isn’t the telephone or the large metal tube suspended in air, the aircraft, not the electricity, not even the amazing discovery of the DNA molecule. The greatest discovery is discovering who you are. Nothing can be done or achieved without the doer or achiever discovering him/her self.

  Just before you ask; is self discovery really important? Why shouldn’t I just graduate from college and be like other people out there, who work for money, earn the money, have a peaceful home then die? Most youths call that their dream. I wonder if that’s a dream anyway.  But that is a self limiting ‘dream’. Let’s share my thoughts on this crucial issue. A lot of discoveries are yet to be done on the DNA molecules. Ideas are yet to be given birth to. Even the human body itself has formed an extended field of scientific research where millions of people are working selflessly to make their little contributions to these fields. When it comes to self discovery it’s almost a one-man’s job. Even though you may have mentors and counselors, the major work of discovering your potentials rests on your shoulders. If you do it well, fine. If you don’t, it’s entirely nobody else’s problem. It’s all yours. Let me add here, and this is very important, ‘when you wake up some day and realize you aren’t successful in life, you have no right whatsoever to blame other people as being the reason or cause of being unsuccessful’. A lot of people live in regret and they put all blames on their parents or the society for that. When you get to discover yourself, that is the material you’re made of, nobody will come later in life to dispute this particular discovery of yourself. Many scientific discoveries have suffered severe rejection over time. Here’s the truth I’ve come to know,” you either discover who you are, which is good for you, or you copy what you never are.” And I hate it that the later is the commonest and the most reoccurring one. We’re never made the same, thus our gifts and talents are certainly different, all to make our world a balanced habitat; where one’s lacking is complimented by someone’s abilities. To discover yourself, you have to start it now! No age limitation. Ben Carson did his at a very a tender age. McDonald did his when he was above 50 years. The good news is that they will never die losers. Give your dreams wings to fly. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams!

To discover yourself, the first step I believe is to begin to take responsibilities; of yourself, of others and of situations. The contrary I’ve come to realize, it’s simple, people don’t take responsibility even of themselves because they fear commitment- they are lazy! Some fear criticism, they are the weak souls. Secondly, I believe we are to start committing our beautiful ideas to work. The right words of Albert Schweitzer, “the tragedy of life is not that we die, but what dies inside a man while he lives.” And Ralph Waldo Emerson confirmed it in his words, “neither you nor the world knows what you can do until you have tried.” Thirdly, you should pay keen attention to your inner voice and obey what it says without question. The truth is, you have to follow your heart, without leaving your brain behind, if you must have peace of mind.

 Think of it, America has the best economy in the world because there are a lot of successful multi-billion dollar businesses and organizations. Owners of those firms started with almost nothing at hand. They had ideas buried deep inside their brains and they gave themselves out to try something they weren’t sure of the result, they took risk and they risked the little they had. Today, these successful icons would have been in regrets if they had not freely sold themselves to their dreams. Has this occurred to you that most of the successful public images are citizens of America?  The government of the US never provided grants or financial aids to these icons, they did some self-searching, discovered what they are good at, and what they love doing, they finally committed themselves to it, whether or not there was security in it, they don’t care, all they wanted to be was to be successful and their minds were made up. No discouragements from friends, family and the decaying society could change their concrete-built decisions, neither recession nor the great depression of the 1930s was successful in making them quit. The outcome is that together they made America arguably the greatest nation in the world. Nigeria can only trace its path to greatness when you and I, the hope as we are, discover our real selves and ignore what or how the ignorant society describes or wants us to be. When we become successful in our finances and careers, we are making Nigeria successful in her economic status. The ‘Nigerian factor’ as many will call it will not stop those who are really out to make a difference. Ibukun Awosika, a successful Nigerian woman who made it to the top starting with almost nothing like other successful figures affirms that, “ I come from a place where there are opportunities staring you in the  eye, but its looking for the people who have the heart and courage to do it and do it right.”

Here’s my widow’s myth of advice; don’t wait on the right government to come and make Nigeria conducive for you to be successful, that government will never come. Work yourself to becoming independent. Start taking responsibilities of what should happen to and in your life. Do not be a product of life circumstances but the circumstances surrounding your life should be the product of your intentional decisions. Be in control, knowing God rules over all. Finally, the best advice for you is coming from a man who is one of his kind, the 45^th US President, Donald J. Trump. He said, “There’s nothing more criminal and self-destructive than having a great idea and then putting it off.” In two words, Socrates summarized this article when he said, “know thyself.” 

OUR DIFFERENCES UNITE OUR WORLD

    After a long argument, on whatsapp with a friend who study abroad, it dawned on me to write this piece. She believes there are more of young entrepreneurs, CEOs, researchers etc. in developed nations not because their countries are developed; providing ALL they need to achieve success at tender ages, but because they read more and act almost instantly, and she argues that we read less and don’t act! You may want to disagree with her. That’s fine, but prove her wrong by reading this article completely, and, of course, act instantly where you’re convinced truth is stated. Then you can make your comments and arguments.

Often times, people in large gatherings fragment themselves into small close-group of friends. Interestly, I found out that people do this fragmentation into smaller cliques unconsciously. Though I believe we should be intentional about who becomes a friend, I’ve found myself in group of friends, not knowing how exactly we became friends or even acquaintances. Some till this moment we can’t figure it out. It’s what we do instinctively. Obviously, people within our inner circles of influence are those we share some basic things in common. No matter how little those things we share are, they form the binding-covalent bonds amongst us. I remember a good friend telling me that, ‘you’re my friend today because of the genre of songs we love listening to.’ That would have been the least reason I could imagine.

If you’ve read the above paragraph properly and you lift your eyes to read the title of this article again, you’re likely going to say “this is a wrong title for the article.” Maybe because I’m now discussing similarities not differences. To have you not make that judgment lets consider other cases. In a market, two people leave their homes in the morning to join the crowded environment, both have something to offer, but the two people have different interests at heart. One is the seller; who prays to make good sales each day. The second party is the buyer; whose hope is to buy nothing but quality. The differences between the two fellows create a stable self-sustaining environment, the market. Imagine the two parties are either sellers or buyers. It doesn’t make any sense! Here’s the point if you’ve not puzzled it out; the seller owns the particular product needed by the buyer to satisfy his urgent/pleasurable needs. The buyer has in possession what the seller need to sustain and prosper his business, and of course meet his human needs, the buyer has money. In other words, they have the solution to each other’s problems. The difference in their needs create a platform of solution to their problems reciprocally. It’s no exception with the academic environment; where someone gets paid to generously give a fraction of what he/she has learnt, experienced or discovered. Another person (probably me) has to pay a meager sum of bucks to be imparted with some world-changing knowledge. These differences make up a school anywhere in the world. Beside, if I don’t perceive I have a need, which is different from that of the person imparting me with knowledge, I wouldn’t have used the opportunity cost of coming to school instead of doing something else – like doing business, which it too, will only prosper if I can figure out the needs of the society. Societal needs could be different from my personal needs, but my personal needs will be met after meeting someone’s different needs. This sounds like the principle of the golden rule.

Now, let’s have a gross mental picture of the world, where you see different people with different skin colors, ascents, beliefs, social norms and values, ethics, ethnicity, religion, political views, ambitions, principles, policies and philosophies. These differences are aimed at making the world a neutral, stable whole. An atom is believed to be neutral/stable because of the existence of this difference we’ve been talking about. The sum of the negative charges (electrons) equals the sum of the total opposite positive charges (protons). The two charges neutralize to create stability. How about the law of electrostatics in physics; unlike attract, like repel. Ultimately, we can’t live life without the existence of difference among us. If the forces of our human differences are not recognized and valued, we’re never going to make a world of stability and unity with peaceful atmosphere for the human family to breathe in and out love.

I believe God who created nature, and nature imposing these differences, did it for good; for the human creatures to see the importance of each other. If we all look alike facially, folks, it’s going to be a disaster; crimes will not be easily detected. Think of more disasters yourself. How about if we all have interest in the same things; career, wife/husband, lifestyle, inclinations etc.? Some people can’t travel except by air. I never blame them; they create job opportunities for pilots and aeronautic engineers. Others prefer to travel by road, thus, the road transport union form an employing body to millions of people out there. Our differences create great opportunities for us. That’s the uniting power of our differences, to glue the different human societies into a single whole, a single world. Our differences basically are stuffs that spice up life. It makes me want to dive deeper into life and explore more of the commonly neglected opportunities which only the understanding of human differences can offer. Let’s value the differences. 

If you can’t tolerate other people because of ethnic or religious differences (unfortunately even the educated fail in this aspect!), you’ve got some really big problems understanding why these differences must exist. You can’t change it. It’s a historic, life-long and forever-constant principle. No one man sat down under an apple tree to make this great discovery, like Isaac Newton did. It manifested itself naturally. It’s said that, ‘it’s a sign of maturity to accept and be at peace with things you can’t change.’ The existence of these differences in our world is what nobody, not even a sect or gang, can exterminate. Accept it, tolerate it and enjoy its existence. Respect all people, irrespective of their individual school of thought, religion and ethnicity. Love people, add value to humanity. The world is all we’ve got, and as the now late Michael Jackson sang it melodiously, ‘lets make it a better place for you and me.’

                                                                              WRITTEN BY: Adamu Musa Taimako