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I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer

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Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer

#21

Post by pharmakom »

WA wrote: post #16
epistasis wrote: post #8

Individually, a person can reduce their cancer risk with a few things like not smoking, and avoiding sunburns, etc. but that does not eliminate the risk of cancer. It's not a disease that primarily comes from unhealthy living. That said, there is a toooon of cancer that we can prevent as a society though better public health messaging and better environmental laws, such as creating housing and cities that ban cars, s…

Ban burning wood in cities, they are even bigger sources of pm2.5

Cars have other issues such as noise pollution and road danger.

Ban / substantially reduce both, please.

Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer

#22

Post by andi999 »

epistasis wrote: post #8

Individually, a person can reduce their cancer risk with a few things like not smoking, and avoiding sunburns, etc. but that does not eliminate the risk of cancer. It's not a disease that primarily comes from unhealthy living. That said, there is a toooon of cancer that we can prevent as a society though better public health messaging and better environmental laws, such as creating housing and cities that ban cars, s…

Dont forget radon, depending on your location: https://www.env.go.jp/en/chemi/rhm/basic-info/1st/02-05-07.h...

Edit: of course country averages are mildly pointless, since it can strongly vary between different places in that country, so it might be worth to check on the city level

Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer

#23

Post by 8ytecoder »

nomilk wrote: post #10
epistasis wrote: post #8

Individually, a person can reduce their cancer risk with a few things like not smoking, and avoiding sunburns, etc. but that does not eliminate the risk of cancer. It's not a disease that primarily comes from unhealthy living. That said, there is a toooon of cancer that we can prevent as a society though better public health messaging and better environmental laws, such as creating housing and cities that ban cars, s…

Second to not smoking is getting checked at the first sign of anything suspicious. A lot (tens of percents) of people wait months or years.

My brother had mild breathing issues and back pain for a really long time. He resisted getting tested until the day his pain got severe enough to call for an ambulance. It turned out to be a giant tumor - large enough to press against nerves and cause back pain. He’s the fittest person I know and we all thought he overdid himself at the gym causing a back issue.

It’s just that everything can be cancer and nothing. Some cancers have obvious symptoms others not so much. Any unexplained and rapid weight loss seems to be the most obvious. I don’t want to look up all the symptoms. Everything from gastric issues, back pains to moles and warts can be due to cancer.

Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer

#24

Post by rococode »

whatshisface wrote: post #15
nomilk wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second to not smoking is getting checked at the first sign of anything suspicious. A lot (tens of percents) of people wait months or years.

What's suspicious?

From what I can tell as a non-medical professional, some of the most concerning warning signs are:

- Sudden weight loss (>10-15 pounds without a change in exercise or diet)

- Any kind of recurring pain, especially headaches

- Your poop is messed up

- Blood anywhere - coughing up blood, nosebleeds when you don't usually have them, blood in your poop or urine

- Mood or behavior changes (helpful if you have someone close to you who may notice this)

- Feeling fatigued even when well-rested

- Swelling or lumps anywhere

- Trouble sleeping

Which is a lot of stuff, but fortunately can be summed up as "If you feel consistently worse than you usually do, go see a doctor".

The key is to make your judgement of "I am indeed feeling consistently worse" within a couple of weeks, not a few months or even years while hoping it'll get better on its own. It's harder than it sounds - life is always busy and it's easy to tell yourself that your discomfort is mild and you can hold out a little longer. I waited too long to act on some bad heartburn and my few months of delay were rewarded with permanent damage to my lower esophagus...

Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer

#25

Post by vasco »

Findecanor wrote: post #13
refurb wrote: post #3

I recall a study that estimated ~2/3rds of all cancers are due to uncontrollable factors outside of lifestyle choices - genetics, random mutations, etc.

Apparently she worked for years as cabin crew. Cabin crew do get subjected to more mutating cosmic radiation than other people. Some routes are worse than others of course: the worst are the ones over the North Pole (Europe-Alaska or Europe-Japan/Korea/Beijing) where the Earth's protecting magnetic field is weaker. I've been told that one such flight provides a dosage about equivalent to that of a CT-scan. Imagine do…

Or it was random.

Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer

#28

Post by Darmody »

epistasis wrote: post #8

Individually, a person can reduce their cancer risk with a few things like not smoking, and avoiding sunburns, etc. but that does not eliminate the risk of cancer. It's not a disease that primarily comes from unhealthy living. That said, there is a toooon of cancer that we can prevent as a society though better public health messaging and better environmental laws, such as creating housing and cities that ban cars, s…

Preventive healthcare.

It's way cheaper than treatments and medicines once you're sick and the best part, you don't get sick that much.

And that's something private healthcare can't provide, or at least not as effectively as the public healthcare.

Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer

#30

Post by Hnrobert42 »

codetiger wrote: post #2

Found this link on LinkedIn and felt like sharing to more readers. One of the best Cancer stories I read recently. Very informative!

This was very useful. Thank you.

I know someone going through cancer treatment right now. They got some bad news a few weeks ago. Now they are taking two weeks off. They are very private about their issues, so I wasn’t sure what was happening. This article made me realize they are going through chemo and what that means. I hope it helps me be more accommodating.

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