Learning and Sharing

Health

Health matters.  With it, we have time and the opportunity to do what we will with our lives and loved ones.  Without it, we simply don’t have that chance.       

Those of us who consider ourselves optimists always believe the bad stuff won’t happen to us.  We’ve read about or known people that it did happen to, but we insulate ourselves by believing they must have done (or not done) something that sets them apart.  We tell ourselves that someone in their household smoked, or that they used too many pesticides or toxic cleaners, that the person who became ill didn’t eat enough vegetables or get enough rest.  We think they were sad or stressed or underweight or overweight, that they must have enjoyed too many hot dogs or kept the alarm clock too close to their bed.  We convince ourselves that there has to be some reason why they were predisposed---far more than us or ours---to get sick.  We confess that we sometimes allowed ourselves these kinds of thoughts too.  But seeing it now from the other side, knowing how things were and not being able to make any of the commonly accepted connections, makes us think---far more than we’d like---that sometimes things are more random.

This doesn’t have to be true.     

Some things we can’t do much about, like the negative effects of air and soil pollution.  But other things we can change, like eating better, getting enough exercise and rest, and trying hard to lessen stress.  By doing so, we can work at making and keeping ourselves stronger---which might matter most when we don’t even know it. 

Science has learned enough about cancer to understand that ALL of us, in the perfectly normal genetic material of every cell, carry something called proto-oncogenes (“onco” being the Greek root for what now means cancer).  The difference between those of us who stay healthy and those of us who get sick is that something turns these genes on.  Heredity is thought to play a part, but many environmental factors also take known roles. These include occupational hazards (things like asbestos and benzene), exposure to radiation (even medical x-rays), too much time in the sun, viruses, tobacco smoke, alcohol, food additives and cooking methods, and other chemical substances that pollute our air, drinking water and food chain.   

All day every day, our body cells are called upon to duplicate at a blinding pace, a process that becomes perilous if something goes wrong.  For whatever reason, when a single cell isn’t copied exactly as it should be, an emergency call goes out to the immune system. Quite a few scientists believe that cancer cells form in all of us from time to time, and some researchers believe we actually “get cancer” several times in a normal lifespan, even though we never know it.  What goes right for most of us most of the time is that our immune systems function as they were meant to, searching out and attacking these first abnormal cells with successive lines of defense until they’re destroyed.  Keeping a strong immune system, then, doesn’t just mean protection against colds and the flu.  It means safeguarding against cell mutations that, left unchecked, will lead to malignant tumors.

Until science develops a method to turn such rogue cells off---something that still seems far away despite 30 years and $30 billion spent in the war on cancer---the smart things to do are two:

1)  avoid substances known to cause cancer, and

2) take pro-active steps to prevent it.  A bonus for both is that doing these same things has strong beneficial effects against most of the major illnesses of our time, from heart disease to diabetes and autoimmune disorders. 

Hands on, then, what does this mean, in terms of what we should and shouldn’t do?   We would never pretend to be experts*, but from the experts we’ve read, the consistent advice seems to be:

HEALTH’S TOP TEN:

DECIDE to do SOMETHING.

POP a PILL.

EAT the RAINBOW. 

STAY NATURAL; KEEP FRESH.

FOCUS on FATS.

GO FISH (GET FLAX!).

FIBER UP.

DRINK to YOUR HEALTH.

GET GOING.

CHECK it OUT.

...AND TEN TO RECONSIDER:

TOBACCO in all its FORMS

EXCESS WEIGHT

BAD FATS

PROCESSED FOODS      

COOKING and STORAGE METHODS

SWEETENERS and PRESERVATIVES

WORRISOME WAVES

STRESS

SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE                           

...and other “RISKY BUSINESS”

*Disclaimer:  Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and must not be used to substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or dietitian.  Information and statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.  Information presented here represents only our personal opinions, and others may have vastly different opinions.  You are responsible for your own health, and should carefully evaluate any information  -- including the information here -- with your healthcare professionals before you make any changes regarding your health or the health of others.  But you knew that.