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

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411–420 of 523 posts

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

#411
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are overestimating the amount of jobs that can be done remotely. Things that can never be done remotely: agriculture, construction, manufacture, hospitality, a big part of health/elder care, a big part of education, anything that requires expensive equipment (research, ...), artists/shows/events, the list goes on. A lot of these sectors were either closed or running slow during COVID, which was not sustai…

Not to go into each of your counter-examples, but while some of them can't be done remotely today, surely we can get there. Eg. how far away are we from having remote-controlled tractors and combine-harvesters? Sure, get them home into a garage when they need servicing. Hospitality? There are places which, especially in the first pandemic year, have gone all hands-off (eg. get a token to access a property on your che…

You understand that agriculture didn't shut down because farmers couldn't sit on their tractors and pull equipment, but because nobody was buying the product they were producing, right?

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

#412
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It was interesting that reading that abstract, that it didn't cite another possible reason - more regular medical examination. I wouldn't be surprised in such a job, flight attendants might be expected to do regular medicals or have other reasons like needing prescription drugs say for sleep tablets. Having more eyes looking may pop up more incidents.

i'm guilty of the kind of avoidance that negates this. For example, you can't be forced to quarantine if you never get tested for COVID. I wonder if there's an official term for this state of mind, it's a tough habit to break and your life could depend on getting passed it.

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

#413
post #229

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…

> a polluted industrial hellhole Doesn't have to be industrial. Just any city full of cars will do.

I've always wondered what the calculation looks like for doing something like riding a bike to work. Are the benefits from the exercise significantly greater than the possible accidents if you have to share a road with cars and exposure to pollution from riding in a sea of exhaust?

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

#414

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…

Just checked with my cancer textbook and it cites a 1990 study from the Netherlands that indicates that curing all cancer would increase life spans by a little less than 4 years.

Most people who get cancer are quite old. This doesn’t lessen the tragedy of young people dying from cancer but it is rare.

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

#415
post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But those mini factories have gotten much cleaner over the years, yet we still see a 30% increase in young adult cancers over 1970s levels. So while it's a potential contributor, it seems there could be more at play. Edit: why downvote?

How much cleaner have they gotten, and how much more miles do these factories get driven? Taking a look at https://www.bts.gov/content/us-vehicle-miles (the first useful result I could find), highway vehicle miles have almost tripled since the 1970s (1.1 trillion miles in 1970 vs 3.2 in 2019). Have cars gotten 70% cleaner in the same timespan?

Aside from CO2, yes, in the US. In Belgium, or India? The numbers must vary, IDK how much.

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

#416
I work in the healthcare sector and the good news is that the standard of care amongst cancer patients continues to go up. There is a lot of time, money, and brain power that goes into this every year. It's one of the few things that people around me agree is terrible no matter your background/political affiliation and I am excited to see its advancements in the years to come.

That said, some people do get unlucky and get it early, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of yourself. Living a healthier lifestyle reduces your risk not just of cancer, but other health concerns as well, and also improves your recovery times when you do get sick. But make no mistake, even if humans lived 1000 years and had no other illnesses, Cancer could still happen. Just the free radicals in the oxygen you breath is enough given enough time

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

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to go into each of your counter-examples, but while some of them can't be done remotely today, surely we can get there. Eg. how far away are we from having remote-controlled tractors and combine-harvesters? Sure, get them home into a garage when they need servicing. Hospitality? There are places which, especially in the first pandemic year, have gone all hands-off (eg. get a token to access a property on your che…

You understand that agriculture didn't shut down because farmers couldn't sit on their tractors and pull equipment, but because nobody was buying the product they were producing, right?

I am talking of a technical possibility of remote work for farmers.

I am not sure what you are talking about?

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

#418
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…

I think more people are alive now than have ever lived. I also think that means the next generation or two will have so many people on the planet that literally everyone who ever lived could still be alive and it would be the same. Scarcity is not the problem. Death is so far inevitable, but it is not necessary.

The dead outnumber the living at over 14:1

https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived...

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

#419
post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got me curious about cancer rates by country: https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/global-cancer-data-by-cou... They list 50 countries, and relevant to your post: - Belgium #4 with 329.9/100K - Italy #24 with 290.6/100K Not a huge difference tbh. Regarding the comments about vitamin D, Sweden is lower than Italy. So I think the correct conclusion is: These things are complicated.

i was looking for india and its not even on the list. cancer is quite low in india me thinks probably because of a predominantly vegetarian diet

It would be helpful to know where the lowest rates are, even though reporting accuracy is probably also lower. The bottom third of the list would still be informative, but the Institute does not seem to have that.

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

#420
post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Yes, and what is contributing to obesity? Are there environmental factors affecting androgenic functions? Is it all just people being sedentary over eaters? Or something else?

- micro plastic everywhere, water, food, ground. Majority of American women breastfeed their children with their own milk containing plastic - cancerous substances from cars exhaustion, cigarettes and such going inside people every day of their lives - toxic and cancerous chemicals used for processing foods and drinks

we are breathing, drinking, eating and staying in contact with cancerous substances 24/h day. I'm surprised the human body is so resilient and we don't have 80% of under 40s with cancer tbh

the fix is to: - stop burning fossil fuels - stop producing and releasing in the environment plastic and toxic waste - switch to a sustainable diet and ditch intensive farms using chemicals to boost production

the technology is here but it would require the innovation of many industries, and without governments pushing for it a profit driven industry obviously wouldn't never change

Then you have to add the mental and physical health that is going down the drain. Lonely and depressed people stuck in bad jobs that can't have a decent life. Suburban sprawl, car-centric urbanism, alienation and isolation of communities and such

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