Why so many cancer victims?

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2007
Why so many cancer victims?
55
Tue, 07-07-2009 - 1:20pm

I'm sure there are those of you who read several weeks ago about the pro golfer, Phil Mickelson, and the sad fact that his beloved wife Amy had breast cancer. She recently had a very promising surgery procedure that hopefully will be a success, and she can live a long, healthy life.


It was just announced yesterday that Phil's mom has also been diagnosed with breast cancer, and is in the same hospital that Amy was in during her ordeal.


Why are there so many cases of breast cancer in women? Is this something that has been going on for decades but wasn't publicized as it is now, or due to more recent causes?


I will pray for the Mickelson family, and hope his mother has a speedy recovery. I know so many women, both young and old, who have had to undergo surgery and treatments for this most dreaded disease.


mwm

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 07-07-2009 - 4:35pm

I've had a couple of scares, followed by biopsies,

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2009
Tue, 07-07-2009 - 8:08pm
My grandmother died of breast cancer in 1956. I think that there are a number of reasons why it looks like there is more breast cancer. Women are living longer and getting diseases that tend to arise in older age (like cancer and heart disease). I also think that our environment is polluted/contaminated as is our food supply. We're being exposed to a barrage of chemicals/pollutants every day. Our old bodies just don't have the immune response necessary to prevent cancer.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Tue, 07-07-2009 - 11:37pm

There are lots of different theories about why cancer seems to be more prevalent than it was, say a century ago.

Some say environmental contamination is to blame. Some say because we're living longer and not dying of diseases like diphtheria, consumption (tuberculosis), catarrh, whooping cough, etc.; that cell aging and degradation is leading to cancerous growths.

I have another less benign idea. We're finding cancer because we're LOOKING for it. Moreover, the medical community is getting big bucks from surgical, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. IMHO, someday the idea of poisoning, burning, and cutting at cancers is going to seem as barbaric, as the notion of "bleeding" patients to cure them of various ills is now seen.

Think about it. There are scans and tests to "discover" cancer in its early days. IF you survive the "therapies" which are state of the art, then hey-presto, the medical establishment "cured" you. If you die of them, sooner or later, then it was because the cancer wasn't caught early enough. Win-win for the med profession, lose-lose for the patients.

Yes, I sound (and am) bitter. My mother died at age 50 of a duct cell carcinoma which metastasized after radical mastectomy surgery (surprise, surprise, surprise) and a grueling regimen of burn and poison. And my family practice doctor wonders why I choose to NOT have mammograms or put my faith in the limited and horrendous practices of conventional medicine. Duh.

Jabberwocka

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2007
Wed, 07-08-2009 - 9:05am

Thank you for the input all of you made. I, too, believe that pollution, global warming, stress, probably several things have contributed to the vast increase in breast cancer for women.....even the fact that more ladies work now then say 50 years ago may have even contributed to it. Who knows for certain? All I know is nearly every female friend I know has went through it......I'm serious about that. I also have a beautiful early 30's neice who has went through cancer treatments and so far has beat it, thank god. So age really isn't much of a factor these days IMO.


As for your bitterness jabberwocka, it is well deserved. I'm very sorry for what pain and suffering your mother must have went through, to say nothing about yourself, and her other friends and family who took the doctor's advice as gospel and then watched in horror as things must have regressed. My dad went through a similar thing, only cancer wasn't involved.


Your description of how we're now LOOKING for it makes perfect sense. And yes, it is a win-win situation for the medical profession. How very sad, but true.


Wish you would reconsider not having an annual check up though. Just my $.02 worth, for whatever the hell that means. Good health to you always friend.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Wed, 07-08-2009 - 8:20pm

Thanks for the concern. I do have an annual physical mostly because I can't get a prescription for Flonase (steroid nasal spray for seasonal allergies) otherwise. But a mammogram has been no part of that exam and it ain't gonna be in future either!

The doctor I see has usually been resigned about my attitude toward mammograms, but she got even the last time. Jabbed me with a tetanus booster, did a pap smear which she previously said wasn't necessary in couples who are lifetime monogamous, and ordered me to have a cholesterol test. The pap test came back negative (knew it would), I swung my arm a lot to avoid the stiffness and soreness of the vaccination, and figured that my cholesterol level was my damn business and if it's high, drugs which have no proven role in preventing heart attacks or stroke were not going to be part of my daily routine.

Quite possibly, I will look around to find another physician who accepts that I am not going to take another human's pronouncements as edicts from on high. Medical staff are my hired consultants and I make the final decision. Period.

Jabberwocka

Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 8:10am

Well, I just had a Dexi scan (bone density) and a mammogram. I got a phone call, and a statement in the mail about cming back for another recheck, probably a sonogram this time of my right breast, they found changes from the last one, so I'm really rattled about this! I mean

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 9:04am

Bad as mammograms might be (never had one so don't know), can you imagine the pain and discomfort an older man might experience in an exam for prostate cancer? As I understand it, the prostate gland in aging men almost inevitably shows some degree of what we call "cancer".

There are two reasons for my anger at the medical profession. First, they so often act as though patients are problems to be solved by ordering tests; or prescribing drugs, surgeries, or changes of habit. We're humans with emotions and lives, nothing at all like automobiles or appliances in need of repair. Secondly, too often by far, their therapies from the first three categories (tests, drugs, surgery) cause even more problems. Sorta like the old lady who swallowed the fly. And we pay them huge sums of money for both. Makes NO sense.

After a number of battles with arrogant medical practitioners, I have decided that the best thing to do is avoid them when possible. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" is my credo. This probing for cancer, cholesterol, whatever......I just don't buy the "early detection" line. Am thinking that there's a very real chance that problems are created out of thin air where none previously existed.

In time we all die. And I can live with that, knowing that quality of life matters more to me than quantity.

Jabberwocka

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2007
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 9:40am

The more I read your reasons for not trusting the medical profession, the more I want to cancel my upcoming doctor's appointment......:))


I gotta go damn it......I canceled my last appointment with him. You do make some very good points. If it ain't broke, why fix it......I tend to agree with you on that. BUT, I have been saved by a very good surgeon years ago, and I have the utmost respect for most medical personnel. I look at it in terms that they spent many years learning to do their job, and far be it for me to question their integrity or skill.


You're set in your ways by now, and no amount of nudging from me are you about to suddenly change your opinion of doctors. There's good ones and not so good ones I guess. As long as you feel healthy, that's what matters in the end anyway. I appreciate your viewpoint on this subject matter. If nothing else, you've given me something to think about. That's what is neat about boards like this don't you think? Different people with entirely unique views on things.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 12:03pm

Have no problems with going to conventional medical practitioners when it's manifestly clear that there is a problem which cannot be solved by my efforts. But I still expect to be an active part of the decision making process in all but emergency procedures.

IMHO, there has been far too much faith placed in both the knowledge which doctors have acquired and their methods of implementing that knowledge. Guess those are my two points. The knowledge they have is FAR from omniscience. Their implementation is not necessarily based on MY needs, rather it's their too-often hurried perception of my needs.

Am loathe to shake the faith of others when it's what makes certain decisions easier (big stress there on "ease") but am terribly concerned about putting great trust in those who differ from us NOT AT ALL in terms of human frailty and fallibility.

Soooo, I do question the integrity and skills of "professionals" and do NOT expect to be bullied or patronized. As a mature, reasonably intelligent woman, I deed my body, and decisions about its disposition, over to no-one.

Good luck at the doc's and yes, exposure to the thoughts and POV's of others is indeed one of the blessings of boards!

Jabberwocka

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2007
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 1:09pm

As a mature, reasonably intelligent woman, I deed my body, and decisions about its disposition, over to no-one


Well, that sentence was typed by someone

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