A few months ago, I got news from Australia that a friend of mine from the past was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. The sister (I was very close with the family) has kept me in the loop from time to time on how things are going. After a lot of chemo, my friend recently had a double mastectomy, and will hopefully be going home this weekend, but she is going to have a very long road ahead of her still.
My own mother died from breast cancer back in 2004, six months after I came to live in Finland. She got her diagnosis back in 1995 and was given a couple years to live, even with treatment. As a result, she ended up not having any conventional medical intervention, and instead found her own ways to deal with it. At one point, the cancer was undetectable, but once it came back, it came back hard.
Looking at the statistics from the US,
In 2021, cancer accounted for almost 18 percent of all deaths in the U.S. while heart disease, the number one killer in the United States, was responsible for 20 percent of deaths.
Now, my mother and my friend as far as I have known her, were pretty healthy most of their lives, eating pretty well, exercising sometimes, not overweight, non-smokers, irregular drinkers. Yet, this doesn't protect someone from illness, it just lowers the chances.
Like most things, there is no certainty of outcome, just probability outcome. Yet, we often seem to live in a culture where people believe that they will beat the odds. At the end of the day though, most do not, which means that if behavior increases the chances of a particular outcome, it is likely the outcome will come to pass, or some close version of it. If someone eats too much and exercises too little, they will put on unhealthy weight. If someone smokes, they will get related illnesses. If someone drinks too much, they will get related illnesses.
And of course, while we have predispositions for particular outcomes, we aren't only affected by our genetics. Our lifestyle and environment matter too. If we don't look after ourselves, we will degrade quickly. If we live in a place where there is high pollution, we will be affected.
And I think that one of the problems we face today is that there are just so many things that we might do that could affect us negatively, that we don't have much chance of firstly avoiding them, and secondly being able to attribute what the actual cause of an ailment is.
For instance, I have talked a lot about depression over the years and its increasing instances and I think that a lot of it is cultural, and environmental. When I was trying to find ways to treat my own stomach issues, I read a lot about the gut biome and how the stomach acts as a second brain, sending signals to the first brain. The bacteria in our stomachs affects not only our body, but also our thoughts and our feelings. If it is out of balance, we are going to have more than just a bad stomach, our entire experience can be disrupted.
While I speak about this often with people, no one really takes notice of how impactful this might be, or how it might be affected in the first place. Today, I came across a crappy article about a doctor talking about just this though, where he was saying that if you have depression, you should stop eating processed foods, because it disrupts the gut biome.
Crappy article or not, I suspect it is one of the leading causes of depression, because not only does the actual food disrupt the mental and emotional state, the affects of the food on other aspects of life like energy levels, fitness and weight get affected. Then there is the secondary affects like poor self-esteem from not feeling good about oneself, or the feelings of headaches from sugar or sweetener withdrawals to contend with. And these secondary mental and emotional states are further amplified by a primary state that is primed to encourage more self-loathing.
People seem to see a lot of health issues as people being a victim of the condition, but I wonder how many conditions are self-inflicted through behaviors that are known to cause problems. For instance, I know a lot of people who are overweight, but are they victims of their circumstances, or creators of it? Same with cancer sufferers, or those with depression. It is impossible perhaps to know definitively, but if we consider that we are products of our environment, and we set up our environments in ways that encourage ill health, perhaps we aren't as innocent as we might believe ourselves to be.
If a pack a day smoker got lung cancer, would you be surprised?
I am not saying that they deserve getting cancer, and there might be many reasons for them to have started smoking in the first place, but it is would hardly be surprising, would it? If someone ate a lot of junk food, what do you predict their condition to be, and how would you visualize them? Most likely, you would visualize their physical presence, but what about their mental and emotional states?
If we were to consider how someone came to have cancer, we might predict an unhealthy lifestyle, but we also know there are lots of instances where there is no clear attributing cause. And, because of this ambiguity as to why and how, we tend to take the approach that it is just part of life that a lot of people will get cancer. However, when it comes to ourselves, most of us who live a pretty healthy life seem to think that we aren't included in those statistics. It is a contradictory understanding.
With so much complication and complexity, it seems that the odds of a healthy, quality life are lengthening - the opposite direction from where we should want them to go. What we should be working toward is shortening the odds for wellbeing, so that we are more likely to have what we would consider a quality life. Unfortunately though, that is not the way our economy is set up, because wellbeing doesn't support the cheapest way supply goods and services, nor the types of goods and services.
While everyone is so keen on the benefits of generative AI, I wonder if they would be keen to prompt the AI to tell them how to live their life, what to eat, what to do, what to avoid and then, actually do it. I suspect that most people wouldn't be able to follow even the basic, commonsense advice. Even if it would lead them to a better quality of life.
I might ask one of the AIs.
What I do think though is that we have created a pretty sick world, where so much of what we do isn't in our best interest as individuals, or as a society as a whole. It is no wonder that "lifestyle disorders" are on the increase, because we live such dysfunctional lifestyles across pretty much every aspect of our lives that matter. Instead of changing though, we just keep doubling down, because it is more convenient.
The odds are inconvenient.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I've heard a lot of concerns that monocrop agriculture with pesticide and herbicides especially in American farming practice along with the waves of preservatives and other chemicals added to our food supply for the past few generations may have had an adverse effect on our intestinal microbiomes, contributing to the growth in allergies and chronic illnesses. I don't know how true it is, but despite some of the quacks I see spouting these theories, I consider it plausible for now.
It's a no brainer. Kill soil biome and you kill gut biome.
I think it is plausible at the very least. Factor in the effects of pollution, the millions of chemicals that we haven't had in our systems before and a host of other factors, it is no wonder we are getting sicker. We haven't evolved fast enough to absorb the shit we have introduced.
Agreed...monocropping is a very poor tradeoff indeed. The practice strips out every bit of natural nutrients from the soil and is then incapable of protecting itself in any way. Then farmers have to add in chemical fertilizers and chemical pest and disease controls. These things create frankenfoods that lack taste and nutrition while introducing the gut killing chemicals that we slurp up like hogs at the trough. It is sickening, literally. Consider me a quack lol, but I believe it.
Cancer just sucks in general. It seems to be so indiscriminate at times although we know there are environmental and genetic factors. It still just seems like a crap shoot at times. I live near a chemical plant, so I figured I would get something at some point. I just assumed I had more time. Thankfully, mine was pretty easily handled.
Do you think that the proximity to the plant affected you?
In this case probably not, but it is hard to say. There have been countless lawsuits in regards to the dioxins that have been introduced to the local environment due to dow chemical and dow corning.
All the processed food, the stressful lifestyle, the rushing all the time, the sedentary life, the continuous noise, traffic...
When in Portugal, although we have our property in a rural low-density area, we see older people healthier. I like the slow life rhythm you can feel while there and for sure, local fresh food is way healthier than processed food, and there are no gyms to exercise, people just walk outdoors way more regularly than we do in cities.
As you say, that may not prevent you from cancer or any other critical illness, but it surely helps you live way better.
Sometimes we need to get out of our "regular" life for quite a while to realize the poor daily quality we have in many senses.
Exactly! Fit people can die of a heart attack young also. But I assume they felt better up until that point. Are we living to survive life, or live life?
It’s really sad when these things happen, I'm sorry to hear of her issues hopefully your friend is able to get back to as close to normal as she can!
It is incredibly challenging living in the world today in terms of trying to optimize what we can and also live a life. We have to have a balance and it’s give and take some. There are some easy ones to give though such as working to remove toxic chemicals like non-stick pans from our households.
I do want to say, this goes for ANY woman in your life; wife, friend, in law. The two biggest and most common risk factors for breast cancer (besides some of the “traditional” assumptions of risk factors) are heavy metal deodorants - ones that contain aluminum and root canals.
All these women need to stop using aluminum deodorants IMMEDIATELY. They absorb into the skin and clog the fuck out of the lymphatic system in the areas and are toxic to the body. It’s also a significant risk factor for things like lymphoma for similar reasons. It fucks with the drainage of garbage and the arm pit is a big spot for it.
Root canals - heart attacks and breast cancer are insanely common in women who have root canals on that same side.
I cannot recommend this 70 minute documentary enough about how toxic root canals are!! https://rumble.com/v4rihlz-root-cause.html
The root canal challenge is harder to solve but there are LOTS of options that are aluminum free in terms of deodorant out there today. We have it in our house and I’m using it as well, it smells great and it’s got none of the toxic stew chemicals in them. Baby powder is another big culprit but that’s not as common with the people today as it was 50-60 years ago.
The first I know of (I actually haven't used aluminium deodorants for years myself, but my wife won't make the change. Root canals? (I will have to watch the video).
It's impossible to say with cancer. My Dad was stupid healthy. Vegetarian since 1974, always ate good food, exercised religiously, I mean, he was a poster child for 'unlikely to die of cancer'. But. 5 months in Vietnam in 1969 and drinking the potable water which the soldiers drank on the boats home? Yeah that'll do it. And to survive that and then die of pleural mesothelioma because of the c$#nts at Hardy Plank who KNEW it killed people.
Then you get the truck drivers on a pack a day and eating shit food and they live to 90.
Gut biome is fascinating - lots of good research there. And there's some incredible research coming out on how important nasal breathing is and how longevity is linked to lung capacity. Huge. Check out James Nestor.
Definitely don't know, as there are extremes at both ends, but the average is what is important to consider for most things. On average, if we live an unhealthy life, even without getting cancer, we probably feel pretty shitty.
So many instances of similar, aren't there?
I know men and women who in their youth abused vices such as alcohol and tobacco, and overindulged in salty foods, not to mention sweets. Today they suffer from many diseases such as hypertension, glaucoma, renal deficiency... Several of them have died of cancer such as pancreatic, breast and prostate cancer... They simply did not think about the future and have been the product of these excesses and abuses, even if they complain, the damage has been done.
For my part, I have kept an obsessive control of sugar and salt levels, for example, since I was very young. I don't eat fried foods, so I have always kept oil out of my kitchen. No tobacco and much less liquor. My blood pressure levels are normal and so is my blood chemistry. This is how Matthew, my son, has been brought up, and his major health problem has nothing to do with his parents' food intake.
Agricultural production in Canada, from what I have seen and felt, is healthy and yet organic produce is sold alongside extensive produce. It is up to each individual to consume what he or she thinks is best, whether or not he or she measures the consequences, it is up to each individual. As the years go by, they will see the effects and will be customers of the pharmaceutical industry until they expire, he, he, he, he.
Humans don't really consider what the future is going to feel like, so don't allow for it. Perhaps this is an area where AR could come into play, allowing people to experience what it is like to be chronically ill, before they get there.
Yeah, it is unlikely. However, I do think that some of the diagnoses out there aren't connecting the dots on lifestyle choices.
Pharmaceutical companies are like casinos. They always win.
We only ever really hear about people beating the odds so just like it's apparently perfectly normal to be completely unable to step outside of your house without getting violently attacked, it's perfectly normal to be the one that beats the odds.
Sucks about your friend :< hope it's just better from here.
This is why I don't leave the house....
There is definitely an availability bias. It is like all the people who were successful because they dreamed big enough, but it doesn't account for all the people who had the same dreams.
Smart XD Good thing we have online shopping and contactless delivery meaning we never have to see another person ever again and risk any form of harm from a conflicting ideal onwards.
Yeh no one is interested in all the people who put in the same or perhaps even more blood, sweat, tears annd sacrifices but for whatever reason failed anyway.
Cancer is scary, a lot of it seems to be due to the genes we are dealt and the rest is probably environmental/lifestyle factors and an element of chance.
I do try to eat healthy and exercise, but it is pretty hard to do in US, like you said the modern society is not designed to be encouraging for healthy choices.
Genes play a big part in priming us, but then how we live our life is likely what causes triggers to fire in many instances. Not all of course, but many.
Don't you kind of find this perverse? With all we know, we don't design an environment for healthy living...
I lost a friend of mine last year due to cancer. He was a thin and fit, non smoker, social drinker and stressless person. I still can't believe when I remember him.
Anyone can get it, but some are more or less likely. Sorry about your friend :(
Life is short.
Oh wow I am so sorry to hear about your friend's circumstances! What a blow to body and psyche. It is sometimes so unfair, and without a lifestyle that leads to such diagnoses, we wonder how and why some are afflicted and some are not. Hopefully her family and friends can hold her up and carry her through the tough times to come.
I hope so too. At least, her family is full of decent people that will be there for her.
My mother and my aunt both died of ovarian cancer, although they had their ovaries removed. She already had it very advanced and died after a year, that's why she tried to take care of me, I don't know if it's genetic or due to nutrition. The truth is that cancer cases are increasing every day, but for the health system cancer does not seem to be a priority.
It seems almost like a type of population control. Encourage people to do a lot of shit that isn't good for them, then let them die. It isn't just nutrition - there is a host of other factors with most of them tied to consumption and the profits made from the supply.
Even without all of the fatal consequences of our own actions, the universe is constantly trying to kill us, and it always does. I find I can have depressing thoughts and bad consequences that can come of that, when I dwell upon problems too large for me to solve, the state of the world for example.
The universe will have its way and most of us will speed it along with our actions. Definitely including me as visiting 6 breweries in a single day, while not a habit, I surely traded a couple day at the end of my life for a few too many pints and fun.
I am filled with depressing thoughts, though at the same time, my thoughts tend to be a reflection of my observations. Am I observing incorrectly? I could focus on the sliver of good I see, but what does that change?
Probably a good trade :)
I read an article this week talking about how our feelings can influence our immunity. Part of me has thought for a long time that cancer might have to do with how much we keep things inside. I've seen many cases of very healthy people having this disease, and people who have spent their entire lives having bad habits, but who are ok. It is inevitable for me not to think that in some way, not only food and the environment influence, but also our thoughts and emotions. I hope your friend recovers well.
Then, shouldn't we also be looking at what influences our feelings?
I would say that this attitude is fundamental to having a healthier life in all aspects. (:
Yes you are saying right. Our life style and environment matters alot. We should live a healthy life by eating balanced diet and drinking healthy fresh juices.
Today we are involved in such diseases in which mostly reveals at last stages.
Walk, exercise can reduce the risk of that diseases.
Walking isn't enough. There needs to be some kind of holistic approach to it, as there are just so many issues across every sector.
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STOPMy computer is acting strange. Each day the first time I turn it on it loads good but loading ends up with empty desktop. After that I go the sleep mode. I return from a sleep mode and after that it works well. Do you know why this happens?
No idea. I just "fixed" my personal PC last night after three months... I am not great at it :)
Sometimes its not really about the food we eat though or the things we that caused this cancer, 90% of them is caused by genetics and hereditary, if we dig deep most of the sickness is basically bloodline
Not quite true. People can be predisposed, but the environment plays a massive role.
Hmmmm but I've seen a mother died or cancer and a daughter too. Am sure something must be in it other than the environment