Wednesday, November 03, 2010

The Great Cancer Myth: Cancer 101

If you believe noted scientist and science-fiction writer Issac Asimov, our bodies contain an estimated 50 trillion cells – 50 thousand billion! They live, duplicate themselves, and die in a very balanced process, covering the time from our birth to death. Inside each cell is a strand of DNA, our unique three-quarter gigabyte instruction set for how we are put together. Cell replication, the ultimate, is the process that gets the instructions from the old cells to the new, again and again, as we age, everyday.

Replacing trillions of cells each month, over decades, where each cell contains 3 billion base pairs, is a daunting task carried out with amazing efficiency and accuracy. Even so, cell replication produces predictable errors that would doom us all, with certainty, if it were not for built-in safeguards. When we die of cancer, it is not because we got it – it was always there - rather our internal evolutionary safeguards have failed, too often (but not always) due to some form of neglect or abuse, conveniently obscured from our view.

So the issue with cancer is not about getting it, but about accepting that it is already there and that we should pursue keeping it under control everyday of our lives. Each cell is pre-programmed to copy itself a certain number of times and then die. When a cell errantly exceeds its copy limit the body deems it cancerous, and a healthy immune system steps in to manually tell the cell to die. But what happens when our immunity is compromised by some deficiency? Cell replication spins out of control and cancer gains the upper-hand. Chemotherapy and radiation, crude man-made mimics of what a healthy immune system does with pin point accuracy, await us ready to spring into swash-buckling action, for profit.

Keeping our evolved internal safeguards working in original condition is not profitable. Letting our bodies fall into disrepair, so that this or that product/procedure can snatch us from the jaws of death (maybe) - now that is a way to make a butt-load of money! So let cancer be the bogeyman in the closet that everyone is too frightened to open and too distracted to thoughtfully consider. Let’s promise people a cure to get their pledges, their donations, and investments. Let’s wrap our quests for branded, proprietary, profit-laminated Nobel-prize winning solutions in pink ribbons, sappy optimism, and compromised scientific mumbo-jumbo. And let's do this while people die needlessly, expensively, and profitably. Cancer industry, indeed.

James C. Collier

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

All true! The incidences of cancer are very high! I myself was shocked when I went in for my chemo treatments and saw the amount of people with cancer! My thoughts are that the chemicals, the processed foods that we are exposed to, are to blame for this failing of the immune system. I also believe that vaccines have a lot to do with it. Just my two cents!

Anonymous said...

Exactly what you are trying to say here I do not know.
Do people need to better care for their health? No doubt. But most don't. Most only care about immediate wants, not needs, and far too many even give a reasonable amount of care for their own children, yet they constantly have them when they should not.

You have no more hope of getting all people to take care of themselves (and their immune systems) than you do of getting all people to stop all other self destructive behavior,therefore cancer treatments, until people will care properly for themselves, which is never, are needed, and are yes, expensive.

But if you are suggesting the cancer treatment industry would rather people would not take better care of themselves so they can continue to make profits I do think you are radiating up the wrong paranoid tree.

Otherwise I understand the concern and hopefully your message will get through to someone but it is doubtful it will make serious inroads.

But then Micky D can no longer out toys in a happy meal in San Francisco so who knows.......
So what's next in SF? Jail the parents that take their kids to McDonalds? Good luck again on changing that behavior.....

BTW grilled salmon with sauteed squash and broccoli is mighty fine fare that I enjoy along with other more healthful choices but how will you get the major population to step away from their Big Macks, fries, soft drinks, etc. for that??? To them it just isn't worth their trouble.

I just saw a lady who is on an insulin pump walking down an aisle with her lunch of french fries and hamburger. If an insulin pump won't change her mind about her diet..........................

James C. Collier said...

Anon 10:19, Unfortunately, you left out the part where people and the government (through taxes) are ABLE to afford the expensive cancer treatments required, due to self-neglect. This does not include that these expensive treatments are not cures, but rather life-extenders, measured in months. Once BMI becomes the full-on dividing line for eligibility, the money well is going to dry up.

The cancer industry can passively claim they are simply responding to a demand, and that's fine. So, they should not complain when a bankrupt health care system disqualifies neglectful people. Since 70% of American are obese, the hand writing is on the wall - I'm just reading it.