I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer • Hacker News Board

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

#111

Post by makach » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:04 AM UTC

Findecanor wrote: post #42

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…

The most common cancer: colon cancer, would be 95% preventable if only people got over silly notions about their butts and got a colonoscopy when they have reached age 45-50. Colon cancer takes a decade to develop from polyp to tumour. The main purpose of a colonoscopy is to find and snip any polyps there could be in the colon. Then you'd be safe from colon cancer for a decade or more. You would normally not feel muc…

See- I didn't know this. I'm in that age group. When I get my yearly checkup I will ask doctor to add it to the list of checks.

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

#112

Post by rndgermandude » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:05 AM UTC

bjoli wrote: post #68

boomlinde wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're also exposed to more ionizing radiation the higher up you are.

But they are not really exposed to the elements while up there. How much aluminium and airplane interior does it take to replace 10.000m of atmosphere?

According to the CDC, a west-east coast flight is about 0.035 mSv per passenger.

The average annual exposure per person in the US would be about 3.3 mSv (without medical radiation from xrays and such)[0], mostly from natural background radiation. There are high regional differences[1], could be as low as 1 mSv or as high as 20 mSv. Human made factors play a role as well, e.g. coal burning (e.g. in power plants) will dose people living close by with radioactive elements in coal ash.

Anyway, a busy crew member can do maybe the equivalent of 100 such flights a year, which would be roughly an additional dose of 3.5 mSv per year.

Their total annual exposure would then come out as double the average (US).

For comparison, an xray can be as low as 0.1 mSv for a chest one, but a whole body PET scan comes in at about 23 mSv.

So I'd conclude that being a flight crew member would of course somewhat increase your radiation-induced health risks, but maybe not as bad as people might think.

Looking at other health factors for crew members, like in-flight air quality, increased exposure to fuel (kerosene) fumes and burn products working in airports and planes, or work/sleep schedules might offer additional/better explanations for the increase in cancer in this group compared to the average population.

[0] the world average is about 2.4 mSv, Germany comes in at 2.2 mSv, Japan 1.5 mSv. Didn't find a good number for India, where the article author lives.

[1] E.g. here is a map of Germany for radon concentrations in living spaces https://www.bfs.de/SharedDocs/Bilder/BfS/EN/ion/environment/...

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

#113

Post by Aulig » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:07 AM UTC

codetiger wrote: post #101

shmde wrote: post #49

Seema is the wife of the founder of one of the biggest online stock brokerage firm called Zerodha.

How does it change anything in the article?

It doesn't, but I found it interesting to know.

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

#114

Post by james_impliu » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:07 AM UTC

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?

For anyone reading with children... My daughter has cancer in her eyes. The only symptom was a barely noticeable squint despite it being very late stage (and then suddenly, dilated pupil and a color change in her pupil). In theory, the other symptom would have been a white reflection in her pupil had we ever taken a flash photo.

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

#115

Post by chaostheory » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:09 AM UTC

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…

I’m surprised no one mentioned excess calories (typically from carbs) as a risk.

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

#116

Post by vidarh » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:10 AM UTC

Gareth321 wrote: post #55

gambiting wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an interesting difference between the way countries approach this btw. In US, sedation is standard and used in 90%+ of colonoscopies. In UK sedation is rarely used unless specifically requested by the patient, you usually get some gas and air instead. It's not even due to cost, it's just that sedation for colonoscopy is generally unnecessary, it's an uncomfortable but not particularily painful procedure.

It's unnecessary but a lot of pain medication is "unnecessary." We use it to reduce pain because we don't like to feel pain. This seems self evidently common sense to me. In New Zealand my colonoscopies were carried out with ketamine, which is incredibly safe under medical supervision. Unless there are contraindicated medical conditions, I see no reason not to use something like ketamine or a light dose of oxygenated…

Pain relief and sedation are two separate things.

Nitrous oxide is a fairly strong anagelsic (pain medication) but a very weak sedative. That's exactly why it's often used for minor routine procedures where keeping the patient awake and reasonably alert is more valuable than keeping the patient fully sedated.

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

#117

Post by copperx » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:10 AM UTC

ajuc wrote: post #48

Findecanor wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most common cancer: colon cancer, would be 95% preventable if only people got over silly notions about their butts and got a colonoscopy when they have reached age 45-50. Colon cancer takes a decade to develop from polyp to tumour. The main purpose of a colonoscopy is to find and snip any polyps there could be in the colon. Then you'd be safe from colon cancer for a decade or more. You would normally not feel muc…

I have to have colonoscopy every year since I was 18 because of risk factors. I agree it's much less awful than people think (and I especially agree that laxatives and liquid diet prior to it suck much more than the procedure itself). I never take sedation cause it doesn't really hurt and doctors say it's better to have feedback from the patient. I also have to do MRI every year and it's much more frustrating for me…

What is the purpose of the yearly MRI, if I may ask?

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

#118

Post by Tenoke » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:10 AM UTC

hef19898 wrote: post #86

Findecanor wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most common cancer: colon cancer, would be 95% preventable if only people got over silly notions about their butts and got a colonoscopy when they have reached age 45-50. Colon cancer takes a decade to develop from polyp to tumour. The main purpose of a colonoscopy is to find and snip any polyps there could be in the colon. Then you'd be safe from colon cancer for a decade or more. You would normally not feel muc…

After being diagnosed with colon cancer when I was 26, I'd say start even earlier. Don't settle for "it's probably just hemorrhoid's". That's the reason my kids will start when they are 16. Does anyone know why I got cancer? No. Does it really matter? Honestly, no. Just to re-iterate the point: Go through all the screening you can, cancer (of any form) is easer treated when caught early. Or even prevented.

>Go through all the screening you can, cancer (of any form) is easer treated when caught early. Or even prevented.

There's reasons why we don't screen for all cancers all the time - one being that when you are young and healthy the false negative rate and risk of complications of the test are often higher than the chance the test catches something.

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

#119

Post by sitharus » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:11 AM UTC

Findecanor wrote: post #42

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…

The most common cancer: colon cancer, would be 95% preventable if only people got over silly notions about their butts and got a colonoscopy when they have reached age 45-50. Colon cancer takes a decade to develop from polyp to tumour. The main purpose of a colonoscopy is to find and snip any polyps there could be in the colon. Then you'd be safe from colon cancer for a decade or more. You would normally not feel muc…

In my country we have a national program that screens via a stool sample, no need for colonoscopies unless the test comes back positive. It’s for 60-74 year old who aren’t at high risk of bowl cancer, those with family history still get colonoscopies.

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

#120

Post by mdtrooper » Tue, Mar 08, 2022, 9:12 AM UTC

But there are a lot reasons (it is bad news but it is the science):

- you are living in a country (or place in your country) with enviroment that it increases the % cancer. I don't talk about the human or no-natural things, I am talking about the natural things such as radon gas from granite...

- some cancers are from a tiny bug in the code our DNA (sometimes the code bug is from a infection of virus)

And at the moment you can check all the things (the science are working to find or clear more of them...but it is the far future or near) that they begins a cancer.