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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

#211

Post by saurik »

actually_a_dog wrote: post #100
heleninboodler wrote: post #57

Earlier 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…

It would be one thing if you were to have done that math to show "the risk of colon cancer is so high that this decision is worth it"--and to be clear: maybe it is!--but the idea that you simply don't find a 1% chance of a complication to be a big deal as the absolute number looks small to you (as opposed to making some relative comparison to the rate of preventable cancer) horrifies me... and, for your sake, I hope you aren't that careless continually with all of the other decisions you make in your life (any number of which might also have a 1% chance of going badly for you). 1 in 500 is absolutely a very very large number.

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

#212

Post by Namari »

xbar wrote: post #39
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…

My sincere admiration for the author's strength in the face of this terrible hardship. A person can also avoid cancer by choosing a career that is not cancer-inducing. Given the author's cabin crew history: 3.4% of female flight attendants reported having had breast cancer compared with 2.3% of women in the general population group 2.2% of female flight attendants reported having had melanoma skin cancer compared wit…

Hmm could this also be because they have to get through the x-ray scanners more often than regular travellers?

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

#213

Post by hardlianotion »

speedgoose wrote: post #85
ajuc wrote: post #48

Earlier 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…

I think it depends. It doesn't hurt for you but it does for me. I had to take some pain killers during mine. The doctor told me that having a bigger belly would help, though I should not become fat for the next time.

Yes - mine was no-fuss, but my sister had major reflux-like complaints and great discomfort after hers.

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

#214

Post by catchclose8919 »

pas wrote: post #210
catchclose8919 wrote: post #204

This is one of the things where it matters more how healthy/unpolluted your environment is . I'd dare to say that a not-so-phisically-active moderate-smoker living in a less polluted environment has way lower cancer risk than a bio-vegan athlete buddhist monk living in a polluted industrial hellhole. I'd wish we lived in a world where we could actually address chemical, air-particulate +/- microplastics pollution ser…

Legally mandating remote work and adding public transit options and raising the cost of daily useless commute would go a veeeeeery long way. Because the petrol not burned by driving can be used to replace the coal plants.

> Legally mandating remote work

That's... extremely totalitarian :) ...but legally forcing employers to allow remote work X days a week for jobs where it makes sense + solid investment in public transit would make wonders.

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

#215

Post by elric »

JMS2021 wrote: post #136
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…

UK here for context. We only have to fast for 12-24 hours prior to the colonoscopy. You can drink water or plain tea (no sugar, cream or milk). They offer "gas and air" mainly. You don't even have to have that. You are fully awake during the procedure, laughing at the live HD video feed from inside you on the big screen. You can be fully anaesthetised but that's very rare here in the UK. After the appointment, it's a…

> UK here for context. We only have to fast for 12-24 hours prior to the colonoscopy. You can drink water or plain tea (no sugar, cream or milk).

Are you saying you only have to fast, without laxatives/prep? How does that work? I find it hard to imagine that anyone's colon is clean enough to get a good view after only fasting for a day?

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

#216

Post by sokoloff »

danuker wrote: post #87
Darmody wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wish the government published statistics on healthy-years-of-life-lost-per-year-covered for each private insurance agency.

Wouldn’t that data necessarily lag by so many decades as to be useless?

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

#218

Post by firstplacelast »

catchclose8919 wrote: post #204

This is one of the things where it matters more how healthy/unpolluted your environment is . I'd dare to say that a not-so-phisically-active moderate-smoker living in a less polluted environment has way lower cancer risk than a bio-vegan athlete buddhist monk living in a polluted industrial hellhole. I'd wish we lived in a world where we could actually address chemical, air-particulate +/- microplastics pollution ser…

On a population wide evaluation, you are correct. However, some people are just more susceptible. It's complex, but if you just take a simplistic view of a single gene becoming cancerous, some people are only 1 mutation away and others are hundreds.

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

#219

Post by fransje26 »

cracrecry wrote: post #166

In our modern societies there are lots of cancer risk involved that (most) people can not see. For example using a microwave with microscopic cracks in the glass and staying nearby. All the diesel particles and exhaust car fumes and tire dust in the cities. The terrible air quality near maritime ports because of the bad quality ships do with ultra cheap fuels. The extermination of gut microbiota with the use of pesti…

We can added cosmetics/deodorants/etc and cleaning products to the list, fire retardants, micro plastics, radio waves (perhaps?), and the list goes on. Every one of them is a potential hazard.

Where it gets even worse is that these potentially carcinogenic toxics are hardly tested individually for their long-term effects, let alone in combinations. And unfortunately, the few biotoxicology studies that have been done show that mixes are dangerous at concentrations 1 to 2 orders of magnitudes lower than the different items taken individually..

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

#220

Post by fransje26 »

eutectic wrote: post #182
cracrecry wrote: post #166

In our modern societies there are lots of cancer risk involved that (most) people can not see. For example using a microwave with microscopic cracks in the glass and staying nearby. All the diesel particles and exhaust car fumes and tire dust in the cities. The terrible air quality near maritime ports because of the bad quality ships do with ultra cheap fuels. The extermination of gut microbiota with the use of pesti…

Most of these examples are fear-mongering without evidence.

We've heard that one before. Leaded petrol, tobacco, global warming..
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