I just... don't know anymore

[smeddley]

Everyone is a conspiracy theorist, apparently. My latest brush comes with the unfortunate topic of cancer.

Yes, I had a very brief, very emotional (on her part) discussion on why I don't believe there's actually a "cure for cancer" that the government has managed to squash.

I understand (now) it's personal for her, that someone she loves has cancer, but still...

She claims the treatment center in Mexico he was going to was defunded by the US after demonstrating a 100% cure rate.

Two problems with that...

1. Unless they can only provide the service for free, why would they need US funding to provide care? Goodness knows they'd have people flocking from everywhere to pay for a cure!

2. Mexico has... a long and sordid affair with "statistics". See: their murder rates. My guess is, if they were defunded by a US group it had a lot more to do with the misuse of funds/corruption/unsafe medical practices/etc.

Think about it. Allllll those countries out there. Alllllll those doctors who know about the "cure". The freedom of information in the world (see: Wikileaks). You think some country out there isn't going to say "screw corporate America and their health industry, we're going to cure our purple since we have a national health system and it would save us billions!". Is our government REALLY that powerful? Really? When we can't even stop shit like the stuff published on Wikileaks?

She claims there are countries in Africa that have cured cancer completely. Then again, the average life expectancy in some parts of Africa is 35, so one wouldn't expect high cancer mortality. And, again, reporting is probably spotty at best - who cares what Great-Aunt died of, there's civil unrest and more important things to worry about.

Is there money in treating cancer? Sure. Is there money in curing cancer? Yes! Probably more, in the long run. Especially for non-private health care, which is every country other than the US.

I just don't see the logic in this argument, I don't. And I think a lot of people who make it don't truly understand what cancer is, how much different types of cancer vary, and how hard it is to treat - unlike most other conditions, it's not a foreign body invading, it is your body. Your cells. Your DNA.

We can't even cure a cold (which there would be a ton of money in, just like antibiotics). Why are people so sure we can cure cancer?

Comments

[foxfirefey]

I feel like the book The Emperor of Maladies is a very thorough and accessible book on cancer. I've learned a bunch of it so far (haven't finished it yet--have it on audiobook and that's a lot of hours of reading) but one kind of horrifying thing I've learned from it is that cancer can evolve--that is, cancer treatments are tricky business and you need to hit cancer with more than one at once and rotate strategies because you are killing off any cells susceptible to the treatment, and any cells immune to that treatment then start to take over and...It's a lot like antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Speaking of which, maybe people should be more concerned about the goddamn careless AND WELL DOCUMENTED AND ACTUALLY EXISTS "conspiracy" (not really, just the effects of lobbying and people not having the cojones to make an unpopular change) about agriculture's abuse of antibiotics helping to speed us to a post-antibiotic era oh my god I GET SO SCARED SOMETIMES.

[smeddley]

Oh heck yeah it can! It's trying to survive! Which, interestingly, is something it's very good at and they think studying the... telemers? bits of the cell that tell it to die which are switched off in cancer, if I recall correctly, will help them prolong human life. But it's a risky trade off, because without bits dying off, you get out-of-control growth. But if they could solve THAT problem, we'd be golden. (oldies) (sorry, couldn't resist)

Oh. My. God. People are so dumb about antibiotics. I sneeze or cough and they all say "go to the doctor and get antibiotics!" and I say "it's a cold..." and they look at me like I have lobsters growing out of my ears. "As in, a virus?" Still nothing. Argh! We are sanitizing and prophylacticly antibioticing ourselves to death.

Oooh, that's the bug in the story I read in the news today about the super antibiotic resistant bacteria that has a 50% mortality rate! That article is a lot more specific, though, and a lot more terrifying. I... think I"ll stop reading it now. O.o

My husband is a biologist, I get all sorts of horrifying facts. O.o

[dancingleaf]

As I age - and watch other people age - I ask myself - who wants to live forever - really?

Terrible thing to say out loud. Terrible thing to even believe but - I remember lying in my bed waiting for test results to come back and thinking ... I'm okay with this, I might even refuse treatment.

I don't believe there is some hidden cure out there. And I sure as heck wouldn't want it.

[smeddley]

Living forever, if you really think about it, is a terrifying and depressing thought. Which I don't really, but it's true. I don't want to outlive everyone I know and love, and then meet new people and watch them die, and so on and so on. I don't particularly want to die, either, but it really is an either or.

I don't think there is either, but it scares me the number of people who do - because what else do they believe?