THE FIGHT AGAINST CANCER – WHAT FIGHT?
April 27, 2009 - By Al Gallo
After reading and hearing about the ‘fight against cancer’ hundreds of times, you may wonder what exactly is that ‘fight’ , whether it really exists or is it part of a meaningless sentence?
It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for any one to find a
person who’s fighting against cancer. We can certainly find individuals
who are suffering from cancer, or at least believe they are suffering
from that terrible disease. Those individuals are not fighting
anything; they are passively going along with the suggestions of those
who are supposed to know better about it. That is not a fight. It’s
generally more like an acceptance of defeat.
The whole cancer saga may start, for example, with a feeling that
something inside your body becomes uncomfortable. You go to see a
general practitioner who wants to have X-rays done, to look at a
certain inner area. The result shows that there is a spot that seems to
be a tumour, and a CAT scan is carried out to add more clarity. The
case is referred to a specialist who appears to be very upset at the
doctor’s decision to submit you to a CAT scan, explaining that its
radiation amounts to 400 times more than that of the X-ray. He
estimates that something like an old tumour can be seen, but most
probably it’s no longer active.
At this point one of your relatives who personally knows a specialist,
strongly suggests to you to consult him to get a second opinion. You go
ahead and this specialist indicates that what you have looks like
cancer and you should have a biopsy. You follow his advice and after
going through a painful experience are told that the pathological test
shows that the tumour is suspicious, without a clear statement
declaring it to be a cancer.
You’re scared and not yet satisfied with the results achieved and
manage to have your biopsy tissues analysed by another pathologist who
finds you definitely have cancer. From now on you believe you’ve got
cancer, and also believe all the other suggestions propagated by the
medical professionals who look after you. You go through surgery and
then through chemotherapy, believing that the operative procedures and
the drugs used for chemo are so scientifically advanced that you’ll
pull through to enjoy a normal life again. You’re not alone. Most
people think of doctors as people who have a quasi-religious authority,
and have the necessary knowledge to cure. This is not a fictional
story; it’s just presented that way.
Once you are diagnosed with cancer things happen very rapidly around
you; there isn’t much time to think, for example, about what causes
cancer.
However, if you really want to know about what causes cancer and what
are the different kinds of treatment, you’ll ask many questions to
medical professionals and will also carry out your own research. You’ll
be flabbergasted to know that radiation, which is known to cause
cancer, is also used to treat it, and that chemotherapy brings the
immune system, which is the number one protection barrier against
cancer, down to its knees. Just imagine that your house is on fire and
you try to put it out using a hose that shoots the water out with such
a violence that it brings the walls and the roof down! This is the
reality you must face with chemotherapy. When you’re suffering the
effects of this treatment you’d better believe you had cancer in the
first place!
Common sense would indicate that the best way to deal with cancer, as
with any other kind of disease would be to stay away from what causes
it. Is it known what causes cancer? For the most part the answer is
yes, but apart from those people interested in health, not many are
really aware of it, and in reality those who provide the information
are not experts in health, but rather medical practitioners who
generally mention no more than half a dozen known causes, some widely
known such as smoking and a highly dubious one that is sunlight.
Our daily life is exposed to carcinogens, substances that cause cancer.
These substances are present in many of the products we use for our
comfort as well as some of the substances we ingest as food and drink,
and medical treatments. An Internet search using words such as
carcinogen or carcinogenic will provide a wealth of information about
what causes cancer. The real fight against cancer would take place when
the agents that produce it are eradicated from our lives, because some
of these have formed strong habits and addictions. This fight however
will be worthwhile, rather than the fight that is marked by surrender
right from the very beginning.
