Does anyone have any insights on the importance of fasting or excessive calorie intake?
I think I read somewhere that we are not supposed to eat this much and should feel the hunger.
Can this be a reason?
I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
241–250 of 523 posts
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#242Earlier 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…
I actually enjoy my annual MRI scans. It's a meditative experience.
"Fortunately" they only have to scan my head, so no issues arise from (wrong) breathing.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#243This 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…
The point is - even in the absence of external factors, you may get cancer. A good part of the cause of cancer are natural processes - errors in DNA replication, oxidative stress due to infection or hell, just plain metabolism. Then add on top all the genetic errors you inherited from your parents.
You could live in a bubble of pure clean air and only eat pure, clean organic food and get cancer.
The answer is to do the best you can, then live your life.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#244In 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…
This list is a roller coaster.
- proven carcinogenics: car fumes, by far
- proven carcinogenics that causes VERY LOW risk for most people (pesticides, benzene, teflon)
- some good advice: eat healthy
- absurd wild claims e.g. "excess use of the fridge" "All of those risk can be extreme"
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
I’m not defending totalitarianism, but capitalist democracy really does a piss poor job at controlling negative externalities, to the point that I’m not really convinced it’s a good system of governance anymore.
Tax the externalities. Capitalism is fully compatible with using the price system to express preferences on externalities.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#246This 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…
> a polluted industrial hellhole Doesn't have to be industrial. Just any city full of cars will do.
Does bushfire count too? I guess so.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
I’m not defending totalitarianism, but capitalist democracy really does a piss poor job at controlling negative externalities, to the point that I’m not really convinced it’s a good system of governance anymore.
Who doesn't love a benevolent dictator?
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#248Earlier 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.
Nope. That's how medical costs get out of control. Routine colonoscopies for 20-somethings is just a waste of money.
High risk? Sure. But the general population, no.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#249That's an inspiring story!
I suspect that she'll do fine, but she's quite young, to have gotten it. When you are young, they tend to treat it quite aggressively.
I live on Long Island, NY (AKA "Cancer Central"). Before I moved up here, I had never known anyone that has had cancer.
The last 30 years (since moving up here), I have had at least one friend/acquaintance a year, that has dealt with some form of cancer. Most have survived; a few have not. I have one chap that just got done with the "Uncle Fester" routine. It looks like he'll be OK. I know of at least three other women that are dealing with breast cancer, right now.
Long Island is a big fat Superfund site. It became an industrial site during WWII, and pretty much had no environmental controls. I suspect that continued for a long time, afterwards.
The plus side, is that we have the best cancer treatment centers in the world, here.
Re: I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer
#250This 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…
> not with me or loved ones dying 20 years earlier of cancer
The problem with this stuff is that it's not a hard "20 years earlier", it's minor tweaks to the statistical odds, and without special training humans are just not very good at coping with lots of different low risk of death issues.
We've seen this highlighted with COVID, where people have taken the death odds to mean both extremes of "this is completely irrelevant to me so I'm not going to get vaccinated or wear a mask" and "I'm not leaving the house again".
Those then cross over with the moralising of risk. This article is "I did everything right, I'm a good person, so why did I get cancer?" to which I can only answer that sometimes bad things happen to good people, and that we're all mortal and vulnerable to horrible internal surprises. Plenty of the people in the "not leaving the house again" category know that, if they were to catch COVID, people would point to their pre-existing conditions as a reason why they deserve to die, and would be blamed for taking risks.
People absolutely love to moralise about weight, as well. There was a story going around twitter the other day of "my dad lost several stone unexpectedly, couldn't get his doctor to do anything other than congratulate him, then died of undiagnosed cancer". Medical professionals being unable to look past the weight to realize that rapid weight loss is a bad sign.