Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

seema.page

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 523 posts

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

#281

Post by cjrp »

vidarh wrote: post #116
Gareth321 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Used a lot during birth here in the UK too

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

#282

Post by samatman »

jorvi wrote: post #163
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.

The US loves to sedate. You guys get absolutely blasted when you have your wisdom teeth removed. In most of Europe you get strong pill painkillers for the first few days and then it’s paracetamol.

I don't know if you're expressing a common misconception here, but a lot of Americans also think general anaesthetic is widely used for wisdom teeth removal, and it isn't. What is widely used is deep sedation, a combination of ketamine and benzos which keeps the patient calm and, the nice part, prevents any memories of the event from forming. It's maybe an extra hour of recovery, same-day procedure in either case.

Post-care is a few day's worth of entry-level painkillers unless the patient gets a dry socket. We use acetaminophen for post-treatment rather than paracetamol, since it's better (never understood the British obsession with that stuff, it's nasty business).

Anywhere else I would walk away from a terrible joke like that, but this is HN. I'm joking.

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

#283

Post by yon1237 »

So many interesting comments around defining a healthy lifestyle. We often look at health in general terms - i.e. how things work on average. This works really well to find generic risk factors, like smoking, excessive drinking, pollution, etc. These things are bad for everyone.

Our bodies are super complex and there is huge variability between individuals. We label certain foods with specific as good and bad, but we know that there is large individual variability in the glycemic response to the same foods. So how can we know if we are eating healthy? I think future of health will need to be more individualized - I need to figure out what is healthy for me, and it's likely to be different for you.

I know there are a wide range of products that try to help with this from DNA testing to glucose monitoring. A lot isn't really viable for the masses due to various factors like price, more research needed, etc. But it makes sense to me that if we better understand our individual bodies and take action that we can reduce (but probably not eliminate) certain risks - like cancer, dementia, etc.

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

#284

Post by hef19898 »

Findecanor wrote: post #168
hef19898 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you got it at 26, I'd recommend a gene test to see if there is a hereditary factor, and for your kids too. That is what I have. "Luckily", out of four siblings, I'm the only one that tested positive and therefore the only one in my family that gets checked every year.

That was the first they did, now that's almost 14 years ago. Luckily it's not hereditary, would have sucked with a 3 year old back the day.

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

#285

Post by rigelbm »

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…

To whomever might be curious, the author probably is talking about MUTYH-Associated Polyposis. If you have 2 of the wrong genes, you are very likely to develop colorectal cancer at some point in your life. That's why it's indicated that you test every year.

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

#286

Post by Turfie »

m12k wrote: post #142
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 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 tha…

It's never random. All is just a process of causes and conditions, albeit a very complex one. We just can't track all the variables.

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

#287

Post by hef19898 »

riotney wrote: post #238
hef19898 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sorry to hear that. What were your symptoms if you don't mind sharing.

Hemorrhoids, initially. Being rather, young with damn office job, that's the initial diagnosis. Lucky for me, I had a good doctor that started to feel uneasy and insisted on a colonoscopy. All things considered, I think I was lucky!

So were no serious symptoms so, cancer is a sneaky bastard.

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

#288

Post by catchclose8919 »

refurb wrote: post #243
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…

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 t…

> even in the absence of external factors, you may get cancer

That's like saying "even in the absence of lead poisoning, your child could still be retarded".

> You could live in a bubble

...they point is we do live in "a bubble", it's called Earth, and we can work to make this a cleaner and less toxic bubble.

I know perfectly well that cancer is a natural component of aging. And I also know that advances in anti-aging and regenerative medicine will make it possible to live longer and for this very reason cancer will be MORE of problem in the future and for future generations. Heck if modern medicine could enable my children to reach a theoretical max age of 250 years, I don't want them to only achieve let's say 50% of that achievable lifespan-increase because we've left them a "poisoned bubble" to live in.

It's amazing how little people want to pay attention to the environment and justify this by arguments of "but wrong thing X could still happen in regardless of environment" (ignoring that its probability would be 20% lower in a different environment). And when we do, we focus on fuzzy global properties of the environment that are hard to predict and have uncertain effects (eg. "global average temperature") instead of all the toxic stuff that can be easily traced and measured and where reduction would have impacts (measurable if people would be able to spend the money and relax some "ethical" rules to properly measure them...).

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

#289

Post by hef19898 »

refurb wrote: post #248
hef19898 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I did mention the available screening, didn't I? High risk is much earlier, for sure, and much more frequent. I'm down to one every 5 years now, plus some routine checks every two.

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

#290

Post by 5e92cb50239222b »

faeyanpiraat wrote: post #239
holoduke wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expected after COVID there would be much more focus on air control/monitoring. How nice would it be to have constant air measurements in neighbourhoods and inside houses. And not only CO particles, but a wide variety. Unfortunately I see hardly any focus on it anymore.

I bought a CO2 sensor, and found that the CO2 levels rise to unhealthy levels in like half an hour in my room without opening my window. Since then I only sleep with a window slightly open, and open it periodically during the day. I also run an air purifier all the time, but I cannot yet measure it's efficacy, because a particle counter is like 2-3× more expensive than a CO2 sensor, so I haven't invested in it yet.

A PM sensor is 2-3 times cheaper than a decent CO₂ sensor if you're willing to get your hands dirty. Look for PMS5003 (or PMS7003 which is pretty much the same beast in a different package), and any ESP32 dev board (they're dirt cheap) + ESPHome as firmware.
Post reply on HN