Causes and prevention

What are the causes that lead to the development of a brain tumor, and can you do anything preventatively? Can a healthy lifestyle, a healthy diet, and nutritional supplements help?

Development of brain tumors

  Not much is known about the development of brain tumors. Comparative studies of lifestyle, diet, and the environment have not yielded significant differences worldwide. Stress, alcohol, or tobacco use are triggers for other forms of cancer, but appear to produce little difference in the occurrence of brain tumors. Only in Africa are fewer brain tumors diagnosed, but this is likely due to a lack of diagnostic equipment. Ionizing radiation can influence the development of brain tumors, as well as other cancers. These usually develop only after 15 to 20 years.

Some brain tumors occur more frequently in certain hereditary diseases such as neurofibromatosis type 1.

Secondary brain tumors develop in the same way as the cancers from which they arise. For example, smoking influences the development of lung cancer. This lung cancer can spread to the brain.