Cancer
I get so frustrated sometimes when I see people post 'We must find a cure!' and things like that on FB because I know that we HAVE cures (or at least, extremely effective treatments) for many types of cancer. My mom and older sister were both successfully treated for early stage cancer in the past two years. Both are effectively cured. My favorite person in the world died of cervical cancer, which is almost always curable IF a person gets pap tests and the standard treatment while it's in an early stage. People really don't want to spout quack medicine at me because they wouldn't like my response - y'all have been warned. For a lot of these cancers, a legitimate cure is there if you'll take it.
Then I am reminded of the cases that aren't cured. My company's big boss's executive assistant (it's a small enough company that big boss knows peon me) died this morning after a 15-year fight with breast cancer. Fifteen years is a good run for a lot of people after a diagnosis like that, but she was still far too young. I didn't know her very well, so it's not so much a personal loss, but Juanita worked for my company for almost 20 years, so this will hit our company hard. Treatment gave her 15 years, but these are the cures we still need to find.
I participated in the breast cancer walk in MN on Mother's Day this year - it's one of the biggest in the country - over 55k people. I didn't get around to asking for pledges because I hate talking about it - my mother, her sister-my aunt, my grandmother, her sister-my great aunt, and my great grandmother (all on mom's side) all have had breast cancer. My sister asked me if I wanted a 'Walking in honor of/memory of' sign to pin to my number, and I just couldn't do it because I didn't know if I could make them all fit and suspected that trying would make me cry. That's not counting my older sister and paternal grandmother, who both had (and were cured of) endometrial cancer, and the aunt who died of cervical cancer.
I've been reading recent research on the effect of diet on disease, and the work on carbohydrates and heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and CANCER is scary stuff. I think we don't have definitive data on the issue yet, but the preponderance of evidence I've seen so far suggests that sugars, not fats, are the real culprits. The misinformation that has been disseminated fills me with rage, and when I looked for a good rebuttal of the carb hypothesis (playing devil's advocate that the status quo is correct), I found drivel from one of the leaders in the field, who poo-poo'ed the author by misstating the contents of his book instead of presenting evidence that contradicted the actual contents of the book. This did nothing to reassure me that the people in charge of telling us how to stay healthy know what they're doing.
I've cut out all breads, rice, potatoes, and sugars (except for the natural cough drops my honey (no pun intended) accidentally bought for me yesterday). I feel much better - no hypoglycemia. We'll see what the bloodwork looks like this summer...
Then I am reminded of the cases that aren't cured. My company's big boss's executive assistant (it's a small enough company that big boss knows peon me) died this morning after a 15-year fight with breast cancer. Fifteen years is a good run for a lot of people after a diagnosis like that, but she was still far too young. I didn't know her very well, so it's not so much a personal loss, but Juanita worked for my company for almost 20 years, so this will hit our company hard. Treatment gave her 15 years, but these are the cures we still need to find.
I participated in the breast cancer walk in MN on Mother's Day this year - it's one of the biggest in the country - over 55k people. I didn't get around to asking for pledges because I hate talking about it - my mother, her sister-my aunt, my grandmother, her sister-my great aunt, and my great grandmother (all on mom's side) all have had breast cancer. My sister asked me if I wanted a 'Walking in honor of/memory of' sign to pin to my number, and I just couldn't do it because I didn't know if I could make them all fit and suspected that trying would make me cry. That's not counting my older sister and paternal grandmother, who both had (and were cured of) endometrial cancer, and the aunt who died of cervical cancer.
I've been reading recent research on the effect of diet on disease, and the work on carbohydrates and heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and CANCER is scary stuff. I think we don't have definitive data on the issue yet, but the preponderance of evidence I've seen so far suggests that sugars, not fats, are the real culprits. The misinformation that has been disseminated fills me with rage, and when I looked for a good rebuttal of the carb hypothesis (playing devil's advocate that the status quo is correct), I found drivel from one of the leaders in the field, who poo-poo'ed the author by misstating the contents of his book instead of presenting evidence that contradicted the actual contents of the book. This did nothing to reassure me that the people in charge of telling us how to stay healthy know what they're doing.
I've cut out all breads, rice, potatoes, and sugars (except for the natural cough drops my honey (no pun intended) accidentally bought for me yesterday). I feel much better - no hypoglycemia. We'll see what the bloodwork looks like this summer...