I'm really confused and want to know the truth..
I've read many articles about cancer and it's cure, the NHS, drug companies and various organisations state that at the moment there is no cure but then I read other articles that mention cancer is curable and preventable by using various vitamins etc and by eating a correct diet. They also mention that the big drug companies are holding back the truth for the sake of making money on the drugs!
What is the truth, does anybody know??
Some cancers are easier to treat than others, and some grow so slowly that some people never know they have them in their entire lifetime. Other cancers grow aggressively and cause death no matter what treatment the patient has. The media never makes this clear, after all, they seek sensationalist stories which will sell lots of newspapers The more scare stories they create, the more people buy it.
Scaremongering about cancer, providing half-truths and propaganda instead of balanced information about symptoms and prevalence, is a massive profitable business making many people rich.
Finally a very appreciated response.
You sound as though you are a medical professional. Thank you for this posting.
Sandra
No, I'm not a medical person at all, but last year I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and have subsequently spent a lot of time researching and reading about cancer. The tabloid stories do much to upset, scold and blame those who end up with a cancer diagnosis. I detest the sexualising and hysteria about this disease, which they promote to make money.
Like many people I'd assumed it was a death sentence, when I was first told. The medical professionals have so little time to explain very much at all, you are rushed through a target driven process, which has no regard for how your own feelings, and this takes all control away from you and makes you even more afraid. There is a time and a place, when you are ready to face the news that you have cancer, and it may not be in the 2 week referral time. You walk around like a zombie, but gradually, reading about it in balanced, informative articles helps get the disease into persepctive.
I was greatly reassured to learn that there are many different types of cancer, many different stages and grades, and, of course, your own genetic make-up will affect how the cancer grows. I was also relieved to learn that I didn't need radiotherapy or chemo, when I'd assumed everybody had to have it.
I was intrigued to learn that in postmortems around 7% of people will have been found to have had a chance finding of a cancer they never even knew about in their body, which never did anything to bother them, when they were alive.
There is a 10% chance my cancer will come back, but for those of us over 50, there is a 10% chance a lot of us will get some serious disease over the next decade. I feel happier being "informed" and in the same pond as everyone else again.
I just wish everyone could be comforted by the balanced information I have managed to find out, and not be freaked out by sensationalist stories.
Thanks for that, again much appreciated.
Sandra
Many a company has made money on the word Cancer. Cancer is not curable, but it can be avoided. Think of liver cancers, many people drink too much alcohol. Lung cancer, smoking. etc.... Some cancers however are genetic, due to a faulty DNA. No matter what you do you will get it. Often unbeknownst to the poor person. Sometimes the body just does what it does and cancer occurs.
Many a cancer patient who has taken this or that, been told to give up meat, sugar, wearing red underpants (joke there) have been 'cured' They are not cured. Cancer loves iron and needs sugars to grow, you remove them and the cancer can shrink, always there but not forgotten by itself, only by the host.
Pharmaceutical companies spend millions a year on new drugs to actually help cancer patients both during and after their treatments. Vitamin companies prey on the emotional factor and will push their vials at the patient claiming everything under the sun. Who wouldn't want to try to live!
If Big Pharma (as the Americans refer to the companies who make medications) were trying to stop you from being cured, then surely then they would try to put the vitamin companies out of business?
Let me put it another way, I see a dermatologist once a year since I was 17 (now 51) last year I was diagnosed with a Malignant Melanoma. Now, if Big Pharma truly had it in for cancer patients to keep taking their money, would not my doctor have left it there to develop into something to be treated by drugs rather than surgery to remove it (which it was) and halt it in its tracks? Level 1, is curable (to a degree) whereas Level 3 needs chemo etc. I don't believe my dermatologist is in the business to take a kick back from any company.
I have had numerous cancers which were non curable, but treatable by surgery (hooray!)
The truth is; there will always be people who will try to make you believe what they want to believe. Yes, a good diet will always be a great idea, think of obesity and its long term damaging issues. Better to try to avoid cancer but total cure is not happening for most cancers for a long long time, simply due to the human being being such a complex animal. Big Pharma can never change that.
I was a vegetarian, didn't drink alcohol, did the hippy greeny kind of lifestyle and I still got cancers. I learned along time ago that what we wish to be and how reality is are two different things. My body still has other health issues and whilst I take the recommended vitamins to allow me to manage them, I am not stupid enough to never believe I might not ever get another cancer. If and when it ever happens I know that Big Pharma are there for me to use what I need to treat it. They don't own a Crystal Ball to tell me if I will get another cancer when I am in my 80's. DNA tests might help but our bodies just 'glitch' sometimes and that is the biggest truth of it.
Hey Blu, cool nickname 
I took advanced placement bio, then BIO in college as I thought about being a doctor. I ended up with an English degree, but not without several BIO classes on my resume, so although I am not an expert, I can tell you a few things that ARE the TRUTH about how the body works and how cancers form:
So, think of your cells being tiny, perfect machines, each doing their part to make a bigger machine work, like spokes in a wheel or wheels on a long, long train.
Now, think of that cell replicating for YEARS, never failing to make a perfect example of itself EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Without fail. (Cells last about 30 to 200 days, depending on the type of cell it is....so over a lifetime, that a LOT of replications....).
Now, say that single cell messes up its replicating code ONCE. And -- to make this even more juicy -- cells have MILLIONS of codes to decipher just to replicate once! No kidding.
So, now the cell has messed up. Now, all cells following will mess up. Without fail. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Why? Because that is what the previous cell did, and all cells follow the codes of all previous cells!
Maybe these cells are weak because the codes are wrong, and they soon die off. Other, healthier cells take their place This happens. It's happening to you RIGHT NOW. That is the normal progression of things, the "failsafe" so to speak, of our bodies.
But, sometimes -- very rarely -- for only about 2% of the entire population on the planet has cancer at any given time -- those mis-coded cells do not die off. They are stronger. They grow faster. They invade other cells around them, instead of the other way around. They are ravenous. They replicate faster, and they need more resources to work faster. They never stop.
.....Welcome To Cancer.....
Now, do you really think that any human being on this planet knows how to stop EVERY CELL from replicating badly??? And, do you think that they would keep that secret if they had it, for IF they had it, then they also have the cure for EVERYTHING, because that means they can stop every bad cell from messing up the body.
That is too good to be true. You cure every cancer, you cure everything. Now, that is not to say that some cancers are aviodable most of the time: you don't smoke, you -- 99.9 percent of the time -- won't get lung cancer. If you eat right, your liver is healthier, etc. etc. That is true. After all, your cells are eating what you are putting into your body.
And, it also may be true that some people get "preferrable treatment" while others suffer...making it look as if someone knows the answer to something. But, most of the time, it's just politics working their way around the health system. Sure, there's some activity that's on the edge, you'd have a hard time proving otherwise, but CURING cancer? Nope.
Not unless you know how to make a perfect human specimen that can replicate every cell every time correctly without fail.
And -- believe me -- if someone had the answer to something that big they would cash in, because they would be infinitly the riches person in the world
p.s. I have cancer. It bothers me to think there are those out there that believe someone is holding out on me. Call me biased. I'd rather be called realistic. **WINK**
It depends on the cancer type. But in the last year there has been a real breakthrough in the search for cancer cure. I hope soon it will not be the scariest word anymore.