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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

#321

Post by paulcole »

forgetfulness wrote: post #298
jll29 wrote: post #279

First of all, I'm sorry to learn the author got cancer; I wish her all the best and continued strength. Many contributors have already made good suggestions how to reduce the risk of getting cancer, or how to deal with it; but I found most posts quite _technical_. Speaking in general terms, cancer is not a disease like a common cold. The human body sooner or later is bound to decay, which pretty much starts once one…

> Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last It'd be a rather drab outlook to life if browsing Hacker News were indeed something I'd be contented with being my end.

I don’t think it’s a drab outlook.

I spend my days shitposting here and on Reddit. This is what my world is, not traveling or doing something “wonderful” and “meaningful.” If I keel over right now, would I be discontented or upset about how things ended? Not at all.

This is my life. Why would I be surprised that it ended how I lived it?

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

#322

Post by paulcole »

codeflow2202 wrote: post #312
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…

This. I live in Belgium coming from Italy and it's scary how many people I know gets cancer here. Like someone i know every few months gets it (and I'm not talking about just old people. A couple guys i know got it in their 20s). And it's all people relatively healthy. Compare that to Italy where nobody I know does any effort to be healthy, eats lots of red meat (we do like our pork meat but it's all local stuff), sm…

> This made me realize that the best thing you can do for your health is just picking the right place to live.

Imagine you’re completely wrong about this — because it’s a very dangerous assumption to be completely confident in. What’s another answer for why Belgians seem to get cancer more often than Italians?

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

#323

Post by giantg2 »

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…

"Then add on top all the genetic errors you inherited from your parents."

Some of those errors could be epigenetic from your parent's exposure.

Sure, there's stuff outside of our control. But with young adult cancer rates increasing 30% since the 70s, it seems there's an environmental or mass lifestyle factor involved that we should be looking to correct or mitigate.

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

#324

Post by deergomoo »

I was diagnosed with lymphoma at 24. While chemo isn’t fun (and if I ever have another lumbar puncture in my life it’ll be too soon), the mental side was much harder than the physical for me.

I needed inpatient treatment, so from probably August until just before Christmas I was mostly in hospital, with the occasional week or two break. By the end I was having people bring me McDonald’s most days, because the idea of another bland hospital meal was incredibly depressing—which sounds silly writing it out, but it really started getting to me.

Interrupted sleep and reduced privacy on the ward starts to wear you down too—the times where my immune system was as its lowest and I was moved to private side rooms were actually a big improvement for me, it got lonely but being able to put some music on and having my own bathroom helped a lot.

Not sure what my point was with this but 0/10 would not recommend.

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

#325

Post by paulcole »

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?

I don’t see many articles about a homeless guy with cancer making the front page of HN. You’re right it doesn’t change the article, but knowing the context helps us understand how we ended up reading it. And then helps us question the truth of the article.

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

#326

Post by jstummbillig »

paulcole wrote: post #321
forgetfulness wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last It'd be a rather drab outlook to life if browsing Hacker News were indeed something I'd be contented with being my end.

I don’t think it’s a drab outlook. I spend my days shitposting here and on Reddit. This is what my world is, not traveling or doing something “wonderful” and “meaningful.” If I keel over right now, would I be discontented or upset about how things ended? Not at all. This is my life. Why would I be surprised that it ended how I lived it?

> This is my life. Why would I be surprised that it ended how I lived it?

Wonderful

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

#327

Post by paulcole »

rishikeshs wrote: post #241

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?

If you think it’ll be fun feeling hungry then go nuts. It’s your life. Personally, I’ll be full.

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

#328

Post by xtracto »

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…

I've suffered from IBS all my life. At this point I've had several colonoscopies done in different countries.

The one in the UK was done without sedation and was a terrible experience. Apparently having an overly sensitive colon makes it pretty unbearable.

But yeah, the stigma around a doctor introducing a tube/camera up your ass is just that. You dont lose anything and you dont become any more/less anything. The prep is a bit rough but nothing unbearable as well.

I am 40 now, but will deffo get to it yearly once I'm 45.

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

#329

Post by kiba »

jll29 wrote: post #279

First of all, I'm sorry to learn the author got cancer; I wish her all the best and continued strength. Many contributors have already made good suggestions how to reduce the risk of getting cancer, or how to deal with it; but I found most posts quite _technical_. Speaking in general terms, cancer is not a disease like a common cold. The human body sooner or later is bound to decay, which pretty much starts once one…

for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life.

No. Living longer means we have to live with our decisions. People who live short lives don't have to live with decisions that fucked the later generation years after they're long dead. The population limit on this planet isn't natural resources, but pollution, followed by heat dissipation because humans are all 100 watts space heaters.

Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last.

How about we just live our life as best as we can? Trust me, it's miserable living without hope or wallowing in self pity.

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

#330

Post by batch12 »

gameswithgo wrote: post #301
jll29 wrote: post #279

First of all, I'm sorry to learn the author got cancer; I wish her all the best and continued strength. Many contributors have already made good suggestions how to reduce the risk of getting cancer, or how to deal with it; but I found most posts quite _technical_. Speaking in general terms, cancer is not a disease like a common cold. The human body sooner or later is bound to decay, which pretty much starts once one…

Life is like poker, not chess. You can make the best choices and often you will still lose.

*always you will still lose. We will all die.
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