Live data from Hacker News

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

seema.page

361–370 of 523 posts

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

#361

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…

We do know absolutely that some environmental pollutants cause cancer(s) and other health related.

Outside of the known pollutants I am curious to know how much of the world population living in normal polluted areas vs living in highly polluted areas have more cancers?

Also it would be interesting to get data on the tribes living in say the Amazon. If their incidence of cancers is above or below average the rest of the human population

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

#363
post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What do you think it is about Belgium (a small country but by no means homogenous) that makes it more carcinogous than Italy? In the 40 years that I've lived here I've only know one or two cases of young people getting cancer. Some stats do seem to confirm your anecdote: Belgium gets 345.8 cases / 100K (6th highest in the world) and Italy 290.6 / 100K (24th highest).

Maybe it's the zone? I'm in WV and it feels extremely bad here. One note: my experience is in Umbria, I know that there are some other parts in Italy which are pretty polluted.

By the way I've been wondering the same thing for years now. I don't know why. My hypothesis is pollution since the biggest difference between the 2 zones is the levels of industrialization.

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

#364

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?

Can't judge, I've spent a lot of time shitposting on Reddit myself, I just got tired of what I was doing and what it was causing on me about last week, let's see what I do now.

But I don't want to warp my perspective on life so that "finding my lost pet", "finding love (and love again)", "first day of a new life in a different country", "that mushroom trip that was actually useful", etc. to weigh not too much more on the scale of things than "slacking off in Hacker News", all so I can be more comfortable with mortality. There's more ways to be comfortable with mortality anyway, heck, forgetting about it until death is imminent is probably better, works for a lot of people for sure.

But it may just be a matter of delivery, you relax the wording a bit, and try to live every week as if it were the last one, or every month, it lets you cherish things that are more meaningful or actually enjoyable.

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

#365
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This all seems like bad advice stemming from some naturalistic fallacy. >a pragmatic daily fitness (for example commuting with a bike) instead of a more 'artificial' fitness For example this just seems random. Driving a bike is not even more natural (were there bikes in the EEA) and if anything will just expose you to more polluted air, and increase your risk of dying by a car crash compared to gym alternatives. This…

"expose you to more polluted air" It's actually quite wrong, compared to cars for example https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/13/cyclists...

You were comparing to working out indoors not working out in a car initially.

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

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's indeed the number 1 suspect! All that reused oil everyone is ingurgitating at least once a week XD

Do you know what kinds of oil are commonly used for the frying?

Not really. It used to be a mix of seed oils and animal fat. But I don't think that many fries places do still use the animal fat part for "health reasons".

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

#367
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…

If I knew this was my last day alive, I wouldn't be here sitting at work. Living every minute as if it was your last is actually pretty difficult to do. Or perhaps it means coming up with the understanding that it's not worth your time to stress about work. Just do the work and focus on what makes you happy. Maybe even quit and live a simpler life with less income? But you usually have houses to pay, kids to raise... it can become a prison of its own kind. There's always some magical reward waiting just around the corner, be it retirement, kids moving out, when you can finally focus on yourself again. How does one truly live every moment like it was their last?

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

#368
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…

"eventually will wipe any individual out." Sure, eventually. It's one thing if people are getting cancer or having heart attacks later in life. It's a little concerning when a fairly large number of younger people are afflicted. The rate of cancer has risen about 30% for young people since the seventies. So it seems that there's something wrong in our environment or lifestyles that could be increasing risk. That's ve…

A lot of health-related things took a turn for the worse in the 70s

Obesity was 13% in 1970. Now it’s 42%.

Obesity can increase cancer risk by 50% https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/ho...

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

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

invest in plants.

You would need to fill at least a third of the room with plants

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

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vitamin D deficiency is probably playing a not insignificant part in what you're seeing.

I still think it's pollution. There are many other countries with low levels of D which are ranking much better than Belgium https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/global-cancer-data-by-cou...

The first country on that list is Australia.

Does anyone here think Australia is more polluted than say India?

And also all the top countries in that list are all part of the more developed world, where pollution levels in general are much less than say other parts of the world.

While pollution might still be an issue it could also be that people living in developed countries have more access to healthcare and so their detection rates are higher.

Post reply on HN