Maybe our ideas about what “health” is need some work.
Yeah. Surprisingly it turns out that people get sick even though they lift weights and eat organic.
Why is that surprising? I do not understand the assumption.
I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
141–150 of 523 posts
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#142Individually, 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 way I think about cancer: Each and every one of us is playing Russian roulette daily with a revolver with a giant drum with tens of thousands of empty slots and a single bullet. And some people load more bullets in the drum by smoking, drinking, getting sunburned, other risky behavior or just losing the genetic lottery.
At the end of the day, the outcome is still random. You'll still come across chain smokers that live to be 100 and people like Seema in the post, who get cancer despite doing everything "right". It doesn't seem fair - because it isn't, it's random. The best we can do is change the odds, not guarantee the outcome.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
I have colitis ulcerosa and liver problems associated with that - called PSC in English I believe? When I was younger I did MRI every 2 years but now they told me to do it every year.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that complicated. Some people are unlucky. There is nothing one can do to avoid disease eventually. Some people start getting sick in their 80s, some die healthy & peacefully in their sleep in their 90s and some get cancer being <10 years old.
> There is nothing one can do to avoid disease eventually. You can move where this cancer is rare. https://ourworldindata.org/cancer#the-prevalence-of-cancer-a... Or better yet, optimize for a total healthy lifespan, not just against cancer: https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease#the-global-dist...
These are really interesting maps, but I'm missing a few important data points.
For the cancer one, I feel like it's misleading. E.g. Russia and Central Africa might be low in cancer because of their low life expectancy, and Central Africa additionally because of its majority black population (which I assume to be less prone to skin cancer). As a white person, I believe it would be a mistake to move to Central Africa expecting to reduce one's skin cancer risk, as evidenced by the high skin cancer rates of white people in South Africa or Australia. So for that map it would be great to be able to filter it by age group and ethnicity.
The disability-adjusted life years (DALY) one seems much more useful. What stands out there is how much healthier people are on average in Western Europe compared to the U.S. Perhaps that is in part because of the more egalitarian societies and health care systems in European countries, which greatly improve the health of the less well-off. I wonder if that comes at the cost of the better-off, i.e. if say the top 10% in the U.S. are actually healthier in the U.S. than in Europe. It would be interesting to be able to filter by income level.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many have you had? My understanding is the risk of a perforated colon is actually quite high, like 1 in 500. Do you worry about that risk? I got referred to a gastroenterologist before I was 45 and he talked me out of it because he didn't think it was going to show anything (my symptoms that I was referred there for were gone by then) and the risk wasn't worth it. Obviously if you're going to get some life-saving…
You consider 1 in 500 high? That's only 0.2%. At that rate, assuming the probability of complication for each procedure is independent from all the others, you could undergo the procedure 20 times with only about a 4% chance of complication. Since the American Cancer Society only recommends colonoscopy every 10 years, starting at age 45, most people wouldn't even have 5 procedures done in a lifetime, which would give…
That is very high if you get one every year.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#146Earlier 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…
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.
> In UK sedation is rarely used unless specifically requested by the patient
It varies by hospital trust, there is no uniform guideline.
My local NHS hospital sedates for colonoscopy as a matter of course (using fentanyl). But as you say, some don’t, and others ask the patient.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#147Individually, 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…
Timely colonoscopies save lives.
However, I have a hunch that frequent colonoscopies are maybe not a good idea.
Doubts:
1. We know more but we don't know all things creating colon cancer. Knowing the existence of cancers caused by viruses, disinfection procedures applied on the device could matter a lot.
2. Even if we disinfect properly, we know of a notorious little fellow: H.pylori, which can go down to the intestines. "Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with colon adenomatous polyps detected by high-resolution colonoscopy." https://bmcgastroenterol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/...
3. H. pylori (which serves just as an example, there can be other bad guys) is really hard to get rid of with disinfectants. It builds up resistance over time so it's doubtful that our disinfectants currently in use will stay as effective as well.
4. Frequently putting a foreign object to different people's colons (yes, I know it's disinfected) would increase the probability of transmitting such unknown risks.
I didn't talk about perforation risk. Just the possibly transmissible cancer risk.
So I remain doubtful that it's completely harmless It's necessary but every year? Doubtful without more data.
Finally, thanks for the people who invented and use it to save lives. I wanted to share my doubts on frequent colonoscopies
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#148Individually, 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.
Yes it's most probably one of the main risk factors and it's being actively research at the moment. Please check my other comments for the recent video presentation that's based on the state-of-the-art research from a Stanford University Professor regarding the risk factors for cancer and CVDs.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#149She mentions a diet rich in Protein. Even Supplements like Whey Protein Shakes. I wonder how that extra growth fuel contributes to cancer cell growth.
At the very instance kf cell division, there is a small chance of the cell going 'rogue', becoming a cancer cell. In all of our bodies, all of the time. Thankfully the chance is pretty slim, but when I train a lot and eat a lot of protein, then I will have a much higher frequency of cell division.
It's what I always wonder when I drink my whey protein after workout, being almost 40. Can my body handle all the growth right?
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#150I had a mole removed yesterday. It was picked up in my yearly mole map.
It's cost me thousands over the years if you add it all up but it might have just saved my life.
If like me, you live near the ozone hole get a mole map. It could save your life.