Could it be?

[lilyjohn]

I have been thinking a lot lately about not just lung cancer but all cancers. It seems that everyone I meet lately has someone close to them who has cancer or has had a cancer scare. A few years ago the only one I knew who had cancer had been my mom.

There is so much debate about what causes cancer especially lung cancer but still no one knows for sure. I have a theory that seems to make sense and I was wondering if anyone else thought of this.

We live in a society that is always in a hurry. We don't have time to be sick. If we get a headache we want a quick fix. If we are offered something that will prevent an illness we jump at it. That just may be part of the problem.

Everyone knows that if you injure your leg or your arm and don't exercise it you will get to the point where you can't use it. What about our immune systems?

If one of us or a child gets a fever the first thing we want to do is get rid of it. Yet a fever is not an illness. A fever is our body fighting an illness of some kind, usually an infection. If we don't allow our body to use it's own defences how long will it keep working. Wouldn't it follow the same use it or lose it reasoning?

This last two generations have been about a quick fix or preventing illness even simple illnesses. We all know about what has happened to antibiotics because of over use. They become useless and not in just the ones who have used them. It is a culmative thing. Well maybe our imunes systems have been so underused that they are forgetting how to fight disease.

We go on and on doing the everyday things and not wanting to take time for even a simple illness. Then when a major illness comes along we have no choice but to fight it. I just wonder if maybe in our zest to feel well all of the time if we are not setting ourselves up for major illnesses that our bodies no longer know how to fight without artificial means.

Does any of this make sense to anyone? I would like your opinions. I also wonder if this could be an isue what we could do about it. Any ideas?

[Snowflake]

Lily,

Cancer is not a "new" disease. I believe another name for it during the frontier days of our young country was "consumption". People worked harder and died younger then, but there were still those that died of cancer.

If a person isn't hit by a beer truck, they will eventually die of something. The body is not made to last forever, and bodies are not the same. Only 40% of people have "textbook" gall bladders, for example. I've heard of a child who almost died of a ruptured appendix because it was on the wrong side of his body and the doctor didn't know what was wrong with him.

It's an interesting idea, that maybe it's a weakened immune system - BUT, vaccinations contain parts of whatever they are made to fight. White blood cells "learn" to seek out and kill the bad guys that invade the body.

Natural things can cause cancer, as well. It's not just pollution and pesticides and additives and asbestos, radon is a naturally occuring substance.

My thought would be that there is a higher concentration of people on the earth than in previous generations. Too much of any species living together brings out some of the nasties that are species-specific.

Where I live, the deer herd has been stricken by bovine tuberculosis and baiting is suspect as a possible cause...the herd no longer has natural enemies, just man during the winter months.

Plagues are nothing new in history, the influenza epidemic in the early 20th century killed millions of people, the Black Plague killed off a ridiculous portion of the population - also tied to heavy population and filth (fleas on rats).

Used to be not many people lived long enough to develop cancer - heck, fifteen may have been middle-aged! I guess it all comes down to genes - and luck!

[Addie]

Becky makes a lot of sense, I think.

Now ponder this one....I have three auto-immune illnesses. Had all three BEFORE my cancer dx. One might think I hadn't much to fight with...but I've actually done very well over the 17-18 months since my original dx.

I have thyroiditis...and take a med for it. I have polymyalgia rheumatica and take prednisone for that. The only thing I cannot treat is the chronic Epstein Barr/chronic fatigue syndrome.

Yet most people tell me that if it weren't for my bald head and the fact that they KNOW I have cancer...they'd never think so by how I look and act.

So....it shoots a bit of a hole, I think, in the theory that we're left more open to cancer because we don't "test" our immune systems. Mine has been tested....trust me!

And actually, I had Graves Disease 32 years ago so there is yet a 4th autoimmune illness!