This is crazy making!

mspina

mspina

Cathlete
Most Americans Unaware of Fat-Cancer Connection

http://health.msn.com/centers/cancer/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100136151&GT1=8155


How can this be? Do you think we tip-toe around the overweight issue because we are so concerned about offending people? I think this is related to the size inflation that is discussed in another thread - to make people feel better, the world fools overweight folks into thinking they aren't as overweight as they really are. Look, it's not so bad, I'm a size 14, just like Marilyn Monroe - and she was HOT! Dr.'s don't press the importance of weight loss to their patients for fear of offending them. Etc.

Ignorance in the name of self-esteem / politeness is literally killing people. This is just nuts.

m.
 
>Ignorance in the name of self-esteem / politeness is literally >killing people. This is just nuts.


Agreed the issue needs to be properly addressed by healthcare professionals to their patients. However, there are polite ways to help over-weight people become aware of health issues related to their weight, eating and lifestyle.

Rudeness, thoughtless tactics, and attacking a human's self-esteem is not the way to do it
 
Having been through what I've been through (and crikey it seems to hang around all my thoughts these days), I really cannot stand any kind of "blame the victim" for getting cancer.

Yeah, I'm overweight. But when I was diagnosed, my resting heart rate was in the low 60s. I exercised 4-6x week, rode my horse 5-6x week, and I ate a very good diet. I didn't eat fast food, fried food, over-processed food, etc.

I have sat in the chemo infusion room with ALL KINDS OF WOMEN, most of them NOT FAT/overweight.

I don't buy it. I've been up the mountain and I've looked around. We're ALL at risk.

Don't get too secure in thinking because you have a healthy lifestyle that somehow you've avoided the arrow.

Sorry. End of lecture.

:)
 
>Having been through what I've been through (and crikey it
>seems to hang around all my thoughts these days), I really
>cannot stand any kind of "blame the victim" for getting
>cancer.
>
>Yeah, I'm overweight. But when I was diagnosed, my resting
>heart rate was in the low 60s. I exercised 4-6x week, rode my
>horse 5-6x week, and I ate a very good diet. I didn't eat
>fast food, fried food, over-processed food, etc.
>
>I have sat in the chemo infusion room with ALL KINDS OF WOMEN,
>most of them NOT FAT/overweight.
>
>I don't buy it. I've been up the mountain and I've looked
>around. We're ALL at risk.
>
>Don't get too secure in thinking because you have a healthy
>lifestyle that somehow you've avoided the arrow.
>
>Sorry. End of lecture.
>
>:)

No need to apologize - I certainly didn't mean to imply that folks who adopt a more healthy lifestyle *completely* erase their risk. Certainly genetic factors play a large role here.

Yes, everyone is at risk. But the level of that risk is CERTAINLY related to lifestyle choices - there simply can't be any controversy about that. I also didn't mean to imply that we need to suddenly start bashing overweight people over the head, humiliating them in public. I just was wondering out loud if medical professionals were downplaying how they interact with their patients because they don't want to make them "feel bad."

Perhaps I'm totally off base here, and this article is as well. Maybe the vast majority of overweight people know full well all of the medical issues they are putting themselves at risk for, have done the personal risk analysis, made their choice, and are perfectly happy with it.

Sorry if this offended - not my intention.
 
No no no!

I certainly wasn't offended!

But other than smoking, I don't believe lifestyle choices affect susceptibility to cancer. I used to think so, but now I think it's crap. I am no poster child for perfect eating, but I'm no garbage dump either. I have no access to the info in my gene pool either, so how one thing affects the other is not something I can ever know.

Cancer is a crap shoot. People with the healthiest lifestyles can get cancer and people who treat their bodies like trash cans can be perfectly fine. You can have the gene for a particular cancer and never get it, but get a different type of cancer. And it goes the other way, too.

There are also people who are trying to be thin. But what about diabetic people (whose health is already compromised) who are struggling to lose weight, or even Prader-Willi syndrome people who are driven to eat all the time?

I know most people probably don't choose to be fat. It's such a complicated thing, isn't it? Food is soooooo tied into emotions (even though it shouldn't be). To say our bodies are just a result of mere food choices doesn't seem to address the complicated issue of why we make those choices.
 
I would have to agree with the cancer being a crap shoot. My father, who was very healthy his whole life, and NEVER smoked died of lung cancer last year. We had NO family history of any type of cancer on his side of the family. My sister (who is a doctor) said my dad had a better chance of winning the lottery than getting the cancer he did. Obviously, I wish he won the lottery.

There is a wonderful fitness instructor at the gym I go to that recently was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is only 36 and believe me, she was fit (and again, no family history). A wonderful man at my husband's work died a few weeks ago of colon cancer at 39. Once again, a very fit guy with no family history. Another dear friend is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed at 30 with no family history. Another very healthy and not overweight person.

I can go on here, but my point is, cancer is a very touchy subject with me and I don't like it when people generalize why certain people get it or not. I completely agree with trying your best to take care of yourself, but don't think just because you do and you have no family history of cancer you won't get it.

Of course I had to deal watching how people treated my father after finding out he had lung cancer. Talk about people being judgemental! ALL cancer patients should be treated with dignity and respect and not blamed for their condition! After all, who has been perfect in this life?

OK...off my soap box!
 
Dr.'s don't press the
>importance of weight loss to their patients for fear of
>offending them. Etc.

i remember last year i think it was, that a woman sued her doctor b/c he kept telling her to loose weight or she would die, finally one visit he bascially told her she was to fat and was going to die b/c of her being fat. she said she was so offended b/c he finally decided not to mince words. i think most drs. are scared to say anything b/c of lawsuits like these.


kassia

http://www.picturetrail.com/ldy_solana

"And do what thee wilt as long as ye harm none"
 
"I don't like it when people generalize why certain people get it or not. I completely agree with trying your best to take care of yourself, but don't think just because you do and you have no family history of cancer you won't get it.

Of course I had to deal watching how people treated my father after finding out he had lung cancer. Talk about people being judgemental! ALL cancer patients should be treated with dignity and respect and not blamed for their condition! After all, who has been perfect in this life?"

Great post Marsha!

I just have to say that I too HATE it when people automatically assume a lung cancer patient smoked! Not every lung cancer vicitim is or was a smoker and NO ONE deserves to get sick w/cancer, smoker or not! Sometimes I feel as if people think smokers DESERVE it and just makes me sick.

Cancer is a horrible disease that can strike anyone at any age, in any shape, etc. Noone deserves it no matter what your lifestyle may be like in terms of health/fitness.

Jumping to conclusions and treating someone differently is just wrong. My grandmother was a smoker and she had cancer. She died at 66 years old. She was originally diagnosed with colon cancer and when she died she was riddled with it BUT it was NOT in her LUNGS.
 
My MIL died 19 years ago at an early age with lung cancer, 50 or 51. It was a horrid death. She had no cancer history in her family. The only possible link to smoking was that she lived with smoking parents until adulthood, then went into the working world and ALWAYS worked in offices where change smokers puffed all day long. I recently read information that said that new research shows the cigarette smoke to be the culprit in cigarette-related lung cancer, not simply what is inhaled by the smoker.

Yes, people assume people with lung cancer are the smokers. It simply isn't always the case.
 
NPR did piece yesterday on Morning Edition about pollution around some of Southern California's ports, L.A. and Long Beach. Studies have shown that there is a higher than normal incidence rate of lung cancer (as well as other conditions) of people living in those areas. It was an interesting story. Here's the link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5438620

It definitely supports the fact that smoking isn't the only cause of lung cancer.
 
Marsha thanks for the great post.

I had a BF/Best friend who died of basetoungue (oral) cancer at 42. Everyone assumed he smoked or chewed tobacco and he didn't. I hate the judgemental thing. I think people do it to say "it can never happen to me" or "there must be some thing the did to bring it on" but yes its a crap shoot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top