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

511–520 of 523 posts

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

#511

Post by mjmj »

Khelavaster wrote: post #473
franciscop wrote: post #34

There is some research that links flight attendants to higher rates of cancer, especially breast cancer and skin cancer: https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/study-examines-cancer-rat... It seems that the title claims this person was healthy, but apparently also in a higher-risk occupation. Cannot say how much the occupation influence things, looking at the article probably very little, but I think it's relevant to men…

Recirculated airplane air isn't healthy. High-stress lifestyle, sleep deprivation, and androgen-boosting exercise while exhausted isn't healthy. (Did she take birth control?)

Radiation exposure due to less atmosphere during high altitude travel causes dna damage and can be a real cancer risk. ESP people that flight often, passengers, flight attendants, pilots, astronauts, etc.

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

#513

Post by catchclose8919 »

refurb wrote: post #497
catchclose8919 wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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-agin…

Not sure what your rant is getting at but my point stands - eliminate all pollution (even naturally occurring arsenic?) and you’d reduce cancer rates by maybe 30%. Worthwhile? Of course? Going to get rid of cancer? No.

My rant was that we're incredibly far form "doing the best we can" with out environment, 30% is an insanely high amount of things left undone that we could do. Even 10% of that, 3% is a criminal improvement not to aim for. We're unimaginably incredibly sloppy and ineffective at managing what matters most of our environment and paying insane prices for it and that's what angers me...

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

#514

Post by BizarroLand »

arvinsim wrote: post #507
BizarroLand wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New information is coming out that seems to imply that the content of the fats we eat have effects on the body. Unsaturated fats seem to be obesogenic and interfere with the body's satiation mechanism, increasing the amount of white fat and decreasing the amount of brown fat (which is more metabolically active and may be the kind of fat that is lost first when people start dieting, which would explain part of the yo-…

> Once the body hits a tipping point with excess white body fat, the fat becomes a sort of parasite which gets preferential treatment in consuming calories and nutritional resources out of the bloodstream, starving the organs while the body is bathing in an abundance of calories and nutrition. Also read that fat cells don't really get destroyed, just get deflated. It really does act like a parasite.

Simultaneously, full body liposuction doesn't seem to decrease the likelihood that formerly obese people will put the weight back on, either, but that may be due to not solving for the fundamental nutritional or dietary issue that caused the obesity in the first place.

I know some of that may be due to the idea that you 'beat' obesity and so you get lax with yourself. At the same time, something is blatantly, horribly wrong with the food that is available when it causes obese people have to satiate their fat before their own organs are allowed to eat.

Not only that but our diets can cause someone who has literally cut pounds of deflated body fat cells out of their bodies to grow it back in a matter of years. That's insane, that's the kind of stuff that makes me think of Famine in Good Omens. In the book, Famine ran a food company that fed millions of people but the food had no nutritional quality, indistinguishable from "real" food but surgically designed to be entirely made of empty calories and grease and salt so that his victims could eat until their stomachs burst, grow fat and miserable and hate their own bodies and ultimately starve to death if their hearts didn't give out first.

https://wiki.lspace.org/Famine_(Good_Omens)

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

#515

Post by Namari »

Hitton wrote: post #221
Namari wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm could this also be because they have to get through the x-ray scanners more often than regular travellers?

It's caused by frequent air travel. While flying, there is less atmospheric shielding against cosmic ray radiation compared to being on the ground. Even though you get less radiation from an average flight than from medical x-ray, it adds up.

Ah I see! What alloy do you think could block the cosmic ray radiation, I though lead was doing that, isn't there enough of it on the paint? Or maybe the windows are letting the radiation in?

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

#516

Post by Namari »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #47
xbar wrote: 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…

Looks like planes need more radiation protection. A thick heavy lead shield would be best.

Isn't the paint already made out of lead? Or couldn't it be the percentage to be too low? Windows letting radiation in too.

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

#517

Post by stef25 »

codeflow2202 wrote: post #363
stef25 wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

WV = West Vlaanderen? What feels bad?

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

#518

Post by libeclipse »

saurik wrote: post #194
libeclipse wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microwaves are non-ionising radiation

While I personally have doubts about this microwave "cracked glass" concept being implicated in cancer--if anything I'd be more concerned about the effects of eating stuff that came out of the microwave for various reasons--we know that "non-ionizing radiation" is not the same thing as "can't cause cancer": it only means it can't directly damage DNA, but has been shown to be able to re-fold DNA or indirectly lead to…

What? You think food retains harmful radiation after it comes out of the microwave?

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

#519

Post by thisismyswamp »

thombat wrote: post #305
Turfie wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

At the root of medicine is biochemistry, and at the root of chemistry is quantum physics: the formation and breaking of chemical bonds is at core random events shaped by probabilities. We can only say how likely events are, not which ones will happen when.

Or rather even if it is deterministic, it might as well be random to us.

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

#520

Post by kaunteya »

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?

Check out this video. Some what related to your question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=539UQ-6wC3g&t=14s. Do check out Dr Bergs other videos also
Post reply on HN