RE: cancer rates (was: e: How do you calm down the hot-heads?)

From: matus (matus@matus1976.com)
Date: Fri Sep 12 2003 - 00:43:35 MDT

  • Next message: Chris Hibbert: "Re: cancer rates"

    -----Original Message-----
    >From: Robbie Lindauer
    >Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 12:36 PM

    >It MAY be that cancer is more likely to happen because we're getting
    >older, we KNOW that there are more polutants around. We KNOW that the
    >pollutants cause cancer. We don't KNOW that age does. Although it
    >seems tautological - if increased exposure to pollutants
    >causes cancer,
    >then the longer you are exposed to them, the more likely you
    >are to get
    >cancer, hence the older you are, the more likely you are, etc.

    Incorrect, merely existing longer makes you more likely to get cancer,
    regardless of pollutants or carcinogens or ionizing radiation. The
    cellular DNA copying systems are not perfect, and the more times they
    copy the more likely they are to make a mistake. Additionally, there is
    a limit to the number of times a cell can copy itself, this was likely
    evolved as a mechanism to delay the onset of cancer past reproductive
    ages.

    >
    >While the conjecture is an important one, it doesn't make it more than
    >a contributing factor - GIVEN that we KNOW that increased stress,
    >pollutants, alcohol, tobacco, smog, heavy-metals, food-poisons, etc.
    >are cancer-causing.
    >

    On the contrary, small amounts of stress and pollutants actually
    decrease the likelyhood of getting cancer, as it puts into action stress
    repair mechanisms that are inactive at lower levels. Refer to this
    months special issue of Scientific American, which has an article about
    the effect. Some CR practitioners accomplish CR by eating every other
    day, but eating normally on those days, as (they say) it enacts the
    stress mechanisms associated with slowing the rate of aging and delaying
    the onset of cancers. That scientific American article infacts suggests
    that the very stringent pollutants requirements in post industrialized
    nations actually cause more cancers then if they were slightly less
    stringent. Although there is a point where the cancer incidinces
    increase with stress levels / exposure rates.

    >Quick quiz:
    >Which is more likely to cause cancer:
    >_extended exposure to tar
    >_being over 95

    Being over 95

    >Which is more likely to cause cancer:
    >_ Being over 35
    >_ Being a long-term Smoker over 35

    Being a long term smoker over 35

    >Which is more likely to cause cancer:
    >_ Exposure to radioactive materials
    >_ genetic disposition to cancer

    Depends on the dose, but probably a genetic predisposition, as 50% of
    all people who have cancer have, for starters, a mutation in the p53
    gene.

    The general public's understanding of carcinogenic threats is pretty
    much opposite of the real threats. An average young adult who drinks
    and smokes socially will probably get cancer from his drinking, not his
    smoking. The vast majority of cancer causing agents are *natural* as
    plants prefer not to be eaten, and have evolved millions of natural
    pesticides, most of which have never seen the inside of an EPA lab. A
    single veggie may contain more natural and carcinogenic pesticides then
    you will consume as an average american of synthetic carcinogenic
    pesticides over your entire life, yet so far the EPA only tests
    synthetic ones. Refer to the HERP index sometime, a single glass of
    beer has 300 times the cancer causing agents that a typical
    industrialized agriculture apple does. Coffee is even worse. And
    people who are thin and health have far lower incidences of cancer, even
    though they are subjected to the same environmental barrage. Diet is
    the single most influential controllable factor, far more so than
    radiation or pollutants, by orders of magnitude.

    Michael Dickey



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