Cancer and Colombia

[Gringos]

Gentlemen -

Over the years more info has surfaced about cancer in Colombia, high rates of cancer; stomach, lungs, etc. Colombian Doctors blame it on contamination in food, water and animals. Stomach cancer seems high in all Latin America. Any solutions avoiding cancer beside eating right, exercise, don't smoke, don't drink and live a healthy active lifestyle? And that is no guarantee.

I recently heard about a 45 year old expat man died of stomach cancer in Salvador, Bahia.

Comments?

[PaulyWog]

Well, I'm 37, have never been to Colombia, and have had two cancer diagnoses. The first they found was a rather rare one in my hand of all places, and high-grade. It is so rare they don't know what causes it at all. As a matter of fact, one thing I learned from my time talking to the various specialists, etc., is how little they actually know about cancer. And one of my doctors was of the world-renown variety when it comes to that kind of cancer. The second was a minor thing just under my skin, a smallish lump that they removed but don't expect it would have ever done much.

They have little causal knowledge of cancer and how it develops, this goes for all cancers. Most of their knowledge is statistical in nature, for those cancers for which lots of studies have been done, like lung or breast cancer. A rare cancer like mine and you get 'well, there's nothing that proves it, but we think chemotherapy might help, besides you're young and you can take it'. So they can say for common cancers something like if you are of a certain age, weight, and smoke so many packs a day your chances of getting lung cancer are x. Or they can say that if you've got breast cancer, this treatment helps y% of patients. They can't say if you do this you'll get it or avoid it, or if you undergo that treatment you'll be cured. It can make no sense at all, heavy smokers that don't develop lung cancer vs. non-smokers that do. One doctor even mentioned that it's just possible your body was pre-programmed to develop a certain cancer at a certain time, and that's all there is to it. There are also certain cancers that seem to affect certain races disproportionately, there's one that hits black men harder than others, for instance, but I can't remember off the top of my head which one it was.

The best you can do is brush up on what the most pervasive cancers are for your age and sex, and see if any are behaviour-related and take appropriate steps. The eating right, exercise, etc., is good advice for cancer just like everything else. It is also important because if you do develop cancer and it can be treated, it helps you to survive the treatment.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are not the easiest forms of treatment. I had my chemo in-hospital because I had to be on an IV for 24 hours a day. Almost everyone else in the cancer ward was there because they were terminal (I had one roomie die the day after I left), or because of the after-affects of chemo. They tended to be older, and not in great shape. The danger is that when your immune system drops down to nothing after chemo you can get quite sick, which is a) bad in and of itself and b) worse because if you don't recover on time for your next round of treatments it can screw up you cancer treatment schedule.

So I guess my advice would be to be careful of known environmental hazards, smoking, mercury in fish, etc., get all the preventative stuff done (i.e. early breast exams, prostate checked, that stuff), but otherwise don't dwell on it too much because there's just no guarantees either way. You could be like me and go into the doctor at 35 and say my hand hurts, and then a year later have them find a tumor, or you could be like my ex-wife's grandfather and live out the later year of your life as a Buddhist ascetic only to get run over by a bus at 70 in Rangoon.

[Sailover]

My royal cousin, Sir Osis says that if you drink enough, cancer can't survive in your body. He also says that people worry too much about everything which is very stressful. You can live in the pure air of the mountains, eat nothing but natural food, meditate all day and night and then get run over by a yak. Just live it up in whatever way you want. Jim Fixx choked on a Grape Nut.

[John Wayne]

Originally Posted by Sailover

My royal cousin, Sir Osis says that if you drink enough, cancer can't survive in your body. He also says that people worry too much about everything which is very stressful. You can live in the pure air of the mountains, eat nothing but natural food, meditate all day and night and then get run over by a yak. Just live it up in whatever way you want. Jim Fixx choked on a Grape Nut.

I agree SO... throw caution to the wind, and live your life no matter how short or long, live it, and take the end like a man or a woman......

We have no control over our bodies except to perhaps commit suicide...

Just think about it, most of the medical profession is PRACTICING ......

I had a friend die of lung cancer that never smoked at all.....

Don't worry about it, stressed out minds affect your health.....

[Ricardo]

There was an MSNBC article today on avoiding common cancer causing agents:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34509515/ns/health-cancer

[TheWix]

Worrying is useless.

Prevention is the key. After being told I would be on the operating table for 24 hours it scared the **** of out me. I worked with chemicals and as the article that Ricardo posted stated we have only tested a very small faction of them. I wore the white sue with air being pumped in and all of that. But we are told that we are safe, I say bull**** on that one. I would say the people and workers in Colombia are in dangers manly because these corporations don’t want the information to get out. The easy way to keep the information from getting out is not to test!!!!!! No I don't trust My follow man very much at all !!!