This is a huge rant of mine. There is a lot of propaganda from the anti-smoking lobby. Whilst smoking is a FACTOR in many diseases, like heart disease and cancer, it is not the ONLY factor. And passive smoking has such small effects as to be considered negligible.
If you don't smoke, but drink lots of alcohol, eat fatty foods, and don't exercise, you will still be prone to heart disease and cancer.
Many of the diseases blamed on smoking are complex, multi-faceted diseases which require holistic (as in whole body) approaches to treatment.
As to the cancer thing, I have a massive rant about this which basically goes like this - if you have a genetic pre-disposition to cancer (cancer is a genetic disease, one of my final year specialities was cancer and oncogenes at the Beatson Institute in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow) then there is literally nothing you can do which will prevent you getting cancer. Nothing. That's the ugly truth no-one wants the public to face. The health campaigns, the anti-smoking, anti-drinking campaigns, are a panaceae to placate the masses, to obscure the real issue - that unless we spend a lot more money on cancer research, these things are like using a tyre repair kit on the Titanic - far too little, and far too late.
Yep, your age and the type of cancer you developed are a huge indicator of one of the first genetic markers for cancer to be discovered (BRC1 or 2). In the UK, if you have a history of certain types of cancer in your family, you are given genetic screening, and are offered preventative treatment.
The only 'cure' for cancer is a 'cure' for genetic disease as a whole. Everything else is a treatment.
This is a huge rant of mine. There is a lot of propaganda from the anti-smoking lobby. Whilst smoking is a FACTOR in many diseases, like heart disease and cancer, it is not the ONLY factor. And passive smoking has such small effects as to be considered negligible.
If you don't smoke, but drink lots of alcohol, eat fatty foods, and don't exercise, you will still be prone to heart disease and cancer.
Many of the diseases blamed on smoking are complex, multi-faceted diseases which require holistic (as in whole body) approaches to treatment.
As to the cancer thing, I have a massive rant about this which basically goes like this - if you have a genetic pre-disposition to cancer (cancer is a genetic disease, one of my final year specialities was cancer and oncogenes at the Beatson Institute in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow) then there is literally nothing you can do which will prevent you getting cancer. Nothing. That's the ugly truth no-one wants the public to face. The health campaigns, the anti-smoking, anti-drinking campaigns, are a panaceae to placate the masses, to obscure the real issue - that unless we spend a lot more money on cancer research, these things are like using a tyre repair kit on the Titanic - far too little, and far too late.
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The only 'cure' for cancer is a 'cure' for genetic disease as a whole. Everything else is a treatment.
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