The risk that a 50-year-old white woman will develop Breast Cancer has soared to 12 percent today from one percent in 1975.
Likewise, asthma rates have tripled over the last 25 years
Childhood leukemia is increasing by one percent per year.
Such statistics show the alarming rise in incidences of chronic diseases.
Heart disease is increasing from air pollution and trans fats.
Lung cancers in non smokers, and not even exposed to 2nd hand smoke, from chemicals and smog.
… and so on.
This tragic epidemic of deadly and chronic disease comes after 50 years of so called "medical Science research". They didn’t do much good for all the money that was spent – things got WORSE.
We are not better off that we were 50 years ago, so that pretty well indicates that we are on the wrong path. Serious and crucial changes need to be made. Would it not be better to change the emphasis from research into managing illness after the fact to preventing it in the first place?
Perhaps these folks had the right ideas:
"Unless the doctor of today becomes the dietitian of tomorrow, the dietitian of today will become the doctor of tomorrow." – Dr. Alexis Carrol (Famous Biological Scientist and head of the Rockefeller Institute.)
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease." – Thomas Edison
What a predictable firestorm of resentful insults, smokescreens & bias. "My ilk"? "Stop Lying"?
Fact: studies have indeed linked air pollution to causing twice as many heart disease deaths as it does lung cancer.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/16/health/main588941.shtml
Fact: Breast cancer rates have increased for black women and stayed constant for hispanic women. When you couple earlier detection (thus more 5 year survivors who usually still go on to die from cancer or their treatments) and the inclusion of essentially pre-cancerous virtually 100% survivable conditions previously not counted as cancer, the improvement is marginal.
Fact: despite all the figure juggling, more people get and die from cancer every year.
Fact: more heart disease and diabetes each year and it cannot be attributed merely to age.
So who’s lying?
Dave, only a 1% annual increase in ALL childhood deaths would wipe out the human race in less than 100 years. Remedial math?
lo-mcg, congratulations on your success thus far and I pray you will continue to enjoy a cancer free and healthy life. Dietary changes MIGHT have helped you both prevent and cure your cancer but, while I think proper diet is essential, I would never rely on diet alone. I’ll send you some info on what I consider critical and hope you find it helpful.
Now, according to:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=575
the incidence of breast cancer increased by 80% from 1975 to 2000, though it has remained fairly steady in recent years.
About 20 percent of breast cancers diagnosed are DCIS. This is a non-invasive condition where the cancer cells are all within the ducts in the breast and which is 98-99% curable. In 1975, when DCIS was not included in cancer statistic but was considered a pre-cancerous condition, 10 year survival rates in the UK were 41%. That increased to 72-73% by 2000-2003, but when you take out DCIS you see the actual increase of only 11-12%.
Even when using the 1% plus decreases of recent years, a virtual elimination of breast cancer would still be a lifetime away. I note that survival rates after 10 years are still declining, and the incidence and deaths from many other forms of cancer continue to increase.
According to the latest estimates, cancer deaths are expected to increase by 50% globally by 2020 and double by 2030.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2003/pr27/en/
http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20081209/global-cancer-deaths-double-2030
Men saw slightly larger declines in cancer death rates (1.5% per year during 1993-2001 and 2.0% per year during 2001-2006) compared to women (0.8% per year during 1994-2002 and 1.5% per year during 2002-2006).
Estimates of continued declines in cancers make assumptions that may be somewhat rosy – for example, continued improvements in screening (though cancer detections rates are now declining), continued reduction in tobacco use (which may not happen to the extent predicted) and the rate of obesity holding steady (though it has steadily increased for decades). The estimates also fail to take into account the increased toxic burden industrialized societies are placing upon their peoples.
I agree that increased longevity leads to increases in chronic illnesses including cancer. However, such increases do not account for anywhere near the total increases – chronic illness is increasing in all age groups.
The problem I was trying to address was the lack of emphasis on preventing chronic illness in the first place and actually curing when prevention fails instead of managing symptoms. Not as good of a profit model (and that surely gets in the way) but a much better health model.
Fitzbap, we are not a society of fatties because of our doctors – we are a society of fatties because of the crap that passes for food and we have been lulled into a sedentary lifestyle by the boob tube and our own laziness AND because of the lack of emphasis by medical science and medical educations on educating and encouraging us and our doctors about the role of proper diet and lifestyle.
Though some may deny it, our doctors generally have received a very deficient education in the roles of diet and nutrition. I know too many doctors who have told me how lacking their eductions were in those areas (one said he had but a single lecture, others only a couple and some none at all).
Obesity rates track very closely with the advent of fast and junk foods and with the low-fat, no fat, transfat foods that we have been sold on. Check out this graphic:
http://www.weight.com/obesity_2001.gif
Each person that becomes a doctor in today’s world has to take an oath called the Hippocratic Oath. Some have said that the, "first, do no harm" is part of that oath, but in fact it isn’t. What is in that oath that most doctors, especially the ones here seem to forget they pledged is, "I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure."
In regard to a doctor living up to that oath in today’s world, I do not see that happening. I see constant critical remarks levied at any practitioner that is dedicated to prevention of disease and great support of "cures" being supported by the use of drugs and surgery. In 1905, the CDC ( a generally respected organization of the medical industry I’m assuming ) reported that less than 5% of ALL Americans were chronically ill. Today, the same CDC reported in 2005, that more than 53% of ALL Americans were chronically ill. Do we blame the medical industry for all this? I cannot say the medical industry caused all this mess and looking at the statistics it appears that sense the medical industry has taken on the elite position of our great healers, they have failed us somehow. Whether it is warning us of the cause or not addressing the correct way to change the problem is up for debate.
It is clear to me that modern medicine is responsible for many of the diseases and illnesses we are now facing, along with the food and agricultural industries in this country. I know the medical people know of drugs that have caused huge problems for people because I have several medical doctor friends that I regularly discuss these issues with. Doctors are victims of indoctrination and I know practitioners in the natural health field that are not doing good jobs as a result of a different type of indoctrination.
I’ve seen some very good things come from modern medicine, but to defend it like it was not causing huge numbers of people to suffer and even die is to be naive.
I do not see where doctors of today are following their oath they gave to become a doctor of the prevention of disease whenever they can, and I do not believe they meant it when they gave the oath that said "for prevention is preferable to cure."
All I hear from the medical community is to "eat a balanced diet and follow a good lifestyle." I’ve yet to hear anyone of them here tell us what a balanced diet is or what is a good lifestyle.
You can argue statistics, but any of those who have any education here knows, that statistics can be manipulated most anyway you want them to be. The breast cancer statistic is based on a 5 year survival rate, yet I know personally several women who died a few months after 5 years that were supposedly cured, and then died of cancer. Statistically, they were cured, but got the booby prize. No pun intended. 1 in 7 women are getting breast cancer. Focusing on the cure instead of the prevention is contrary to the oath guys.
I know from people I see each day that the medical community is failing lots of people, drug companies are getting very powerful, and the chronically ill are increasing at an alarming rate, while medical people are desperately trying to hold on to the pseudo science that is being promoted by the drug companies to promote bigger profits, while ignoring the real problems.
Many times I see people that doctors have told them to go home and pack their bags they have a few months to live, medical science has done all they can. Drug companies know there is no money in prevention. Doctors are not focused on prevention or finding root causes of diseases. It is all they can do to see the ever increasing numbers of people that are already sick. When they do see people that are just complaining about something that the doctor cannot diagnose, they send them home and become annoyed that someone would want help in that situation.
For any medical doctor to tell me that techniques used by many nutritional therapists do not effectuate better health and longer life as not effective, I can only say they need to free themselves from the lies they believe. To say that medical science has come a long way and is having a great impact on making people live longer, is to ignore the fact that the quality of life has greatly diminished and that 72 years old for men and 78 for women is not longer life than primitive people that had no drugs or modern medicine. Simple sanitary practices have had more to do with people living into their seventies than medicine.
As the baby boomers die off, the population will recede and then look at the statistics for longevity.
When anyone talks about a culture living longer, the first thing that is talked about is their diet and lifestyle, not what drugs have they been taking. So please, don’t tell us that medicine has increased our life expectancy. That is statistical mumbo jumbo. Factor in how sanitation has greatly reduced the death rate and the large influx of babies from baby boomers and then we can look more carefully at the real numbers.
good luck to you
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