You Say Tomato, I Say Sunscreen

Encouraging cancer prevention is OK, but I think we have to be careful not to take the next step and blame people who--perhaps after taking every precaution they can, still get a cancer diagnosis. Also, individual efforts aren't enough, there are plenty of environmental factors that are bigger than any individual's capacity to avoid or change.

Sent by JoAnn | 2:55 PM | 5-23-2007

I agree with Joann completely! I know several vegetarians, active, never overweight, with no cancer history or genetic risk factors and educated about health issues still get cancer! There is certainly a lot of environmental factors that are out of our control and it's time to look at those too.

Sent by RK | 3:29 PM | 5-23-2007

I don't think the caller's comment about the connection between cancer cells and the immune system was all that far off. Cells for one reason or another lose control of the cell cycle all the time, but are normally detected and forced into programmed cell death (apotosis) by immune cells before they have a chance to proliferate.

Sent by K Lewis | 3:37 PM | 5-23-2007

I used to work for Regence BlueCross BlueShield. They hired a woman to oversee their gym. She said for her thesis she went around interviewing cancer patients. I asked her what she found to be the common denominator among them. She said it wasn't what you would think: it wasn't smoking or drinking, etc. She said what most of the people had in common was burning the candle at both ends. Working themselves to exhaustion all the time. My local NPR station had a great radio program on how American's work more than any other first world country. http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/news/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1063951§ionID=184 Perhaps listening to this program, and trying to fight over work in America would help reduce cancer.

Sent by PF Moreno | 3:39 PM | 5-23-2007

I think people feel hopeless about preventing cancer because they are in denial of the harm they cause. Our culture (including our medical culture) is also in denial, and bucking its trends entails losing the healthy effects of social support. For example, I eat all organic food, boil most of my water, and try to avoid plastic containers. I don't wait for the government to tell us what pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and plastics cause health problems, because that happens after people have already been hurt. Environmental pollution in the air and water afflicts even healthy people. To prevent problems we must see dangers. People stay with the mainstream, even at risk to their health, so they don't have to suffer the stress of being regarded as crazy or paranoid. This is how such mental labels kill people. People are driven by their instinct to survive socially to align with people in power, including large food manufacturers, large groceries and drug companies.

Doctors are in so much denial of harm they cause that they don't learn about natural medicine, which can gradually heal people without the unhealthy effects of pharmaceuticals. Doctors who oppose people and their habits just stress them out, which is counter-productive. My doctor joyfully appreciates the way people are. If I do something unhealthy, she smiles and says appreciately, "You like doing that." In the warmth of her peace and joy, I feel safe enough to think, "Do I really like doing that?" Slowly, my gears turn and my habits improve. We hesitate to reverse these cultural problems because we don't want to admit we participate in things that hurt everyone. Once we face it, it feels bad at first, but we quickly move to make things better... and doing so, we feel better!

Sent by Irene C | 3:58 PM | 5-23-2007