Angry Rant -- WebMD Says It's our Fault! "Research" shows!!

http://www.healthnews.com/nutrition-diet/clean-living-could-reduce-your-cancer-risk-2706.html

Every time one of these dang studies come out or I read that a Healthy lifestyle will help prevent cancer I turn away. I know too many that did all this and got cancer.

I am/was the healthiest of 4 siblings. Exercised, Kept my weight down, didn't drink or do drugs...who got cancer at age 39? me.

So I say F-ck all of the studies. We need to focus on a cure not on f-ing studies. They have been going on for  years. We need to know why cells go bad and how to stop it.

Janis

who did everything right too (exercise,weight,diet), was at a higher risk(family history, babies after 30), did mammos and SBE and still got cancer.

I agree.  In the most recent study conducted in England, they don't mention what the people ate all that time -- people in England eat a lot of meat and cream, cheese, etc.  They are also don't get a great amount of sunshine.  We don't know what chemicals they were exposed to during the study period or if they lived in the city or countryside.  How much did they really drink?  They may say a couple of drinks but they could be drinking much more.  Did they smoke, eat processed or smoked meats?  Who knows!!!

And, why the increase now - are women drinking more now and at earlier ages -- what about young women with BC?  What about our tooth paste, cosmetics and chemicals used in dental procedures - could they be contributing to our oral and throat cancers?  What about our polluted water and air? 

I have several friends in their late 50's who have no children, are overweight, drink a good bit, don't eat right, don't worry about chemicals in their food and environment and none of them have developed cancers of any kind.  One friend has a mother and aunt who had BC.  Another friend has practically killed herself drinking, she even has breast implants and she hasn't developed cancer.  I know that's not a scientific study and they may eventually develop BC but it just makes me wonder.  There has to be more too it than blaming it on alcohol. 

Why the hell don't they do a study on testicular cancer and alcohol. And can you imagine a guy having a nuttogram like we have mammogram!  Those studies just label good honest women. My mother is coming for a visit today and I know she's going to say something about that study as she hates alcohol and my dad and I used to enjoy a few brandies together and she hated it. So today should be very interesting, I pray I don't blow at her. 

I saw a cartoon with a man's genitals crushed like our breasts are with a mammogram -- it was called a " Man o gram " !!!!    

Snowy, when someone tells me some off the wall thing caused MY cancer, I tell them my doctor disagrees and he/she is the expert I trust.   That usually shuts them up.   OR, If you agree with them, they have nothing else to argue about...   You can grit your teeth and say " I agree " -- casually change the subject or get up and "go potty"  and hopefully avoid an argument.   

janey, I hear ya but you cannot continue to dwell on what's past and done if you want to really enjoy your future.  Thankfully, DDT is banned now and I imagine all the hoarded DDT has been used up ages ago. 

I say, test your own garen soil for what's in it NOW to help ease your mind and do something positive about your and your family's future.

Thank you, HKitty!  I am 52 years old and tall and slender and always ate in a healthful manner -  and then BC strikes!!!!!!! It has NOTHING to do with the crap that this stupid stupid STUPID report has to say . . . . BC does not discriminate. It is in your system for whatever reason - hormones, DNA, whatever.  Look at all of the women on this website who conducted their lives in a healthful manner . . .  there are things out there that are beyond our control - toxins, pollution, additives in food that we are led to believe are healthy food, etc. etc. etc.

I can go on and on . . . to me, it is typical propagranda  . . . . focusing on women!!!!!

 Xena!

Hello, I am new here but no stranger to breast cancer. When these studies are conducted they are only as good as the person or people conducting them. Just because a study makes claims doesn't make the information true. Snake oil sales people roam the Internet preying on the emotions of breast cancer survivors as they try to peddle their products People in general that are clueless about what we have gone through like to play the blame game because they don't know what else to say. People tend to say the stupidest things and then try to play God by making their assessment as to why I might have gotten breast cancer. It's time to get the stupid stick and whack them over the head. To date medical science still doesn't know what causes breast cancer yet, clueless people try to pass their ignorant opinions off as fact. I have done so many breast cancer walks only to discover that a lot of the money collected that is supposed to go towards research lines the pockets of politicians and sponsors of these events. Nice huh. Well ladies, the next time someone tries to blame your life style on this horrible disease feel free to use my stupid stick. It's a virtual  whack on the head of course but it tends to make us cancer survivors feel better

Blondee that is so true so many times the donations we make do not actually go to the people they were proclaimed to be helping.

If Fat Beer Drinking Men got BC do you think that we would be a lot closer to knowing what causes it and probably closer to an actual cure or vaccine for some types?

When I started my radiation treatment, my radiation oncologist very kindly said to me "there is nothing that you did that caused this to happen to you."  Those kind words caused me to cry for the first time since I had been diagnosed.  I needed to hear that so bad.  You always wonder... what could I have done differently to prevent this from happening.  When a study like this comes out blaming the victim.... it causes so much pain and hurt to all of us who are already suffering enough.  I will never forget that Dr. who was so kind to me.

Thanks to those of you who just bumped up this thread.  Just last night I was having a discussion about this at a family bbq, about the fact that some people have a predisposition to get some kind of cancer, and then environment can help to activate that predisposition. I didn't have many of the so-called risk factors (average weight, occasional drinker,non-smoker etc.) and I got bc at 41.

I think the key is what someone said early in this thread -- "correlation is not the same as causation." Just because a study says that there is a small correlation between X and getting cancer doesn't mean that every single person who does X is going to get it.  And this "blaming the victim" stuff has got to go. When I told my mother about my dx the first thing she said was, "it was those damn birth control pills!"  Thanks a lot, mom.   And last year when I told someone I knew through work about my bc, she told me that her sister had bc, then had a recurrence and died. "It was because of all the stress, you know, she was a single mom."  Yikes, I'm a single mom too!  I told her (very politely and diplomatically) that she really shouldn't blame her sister for getting sick.  I guess all we can do is let people know what they are doing/saying and go on from there.

Badboob - that thing about grandparents does seem to hold some bearing with type 2 diabetes.... I think the only thing I can put on my grandmother (my father's mother - I look more like him) is saggy boobs. When I was giving talks on menopause I would say, "I'm afraid I'm going to look like my grandmother. These [I'd point to the bags under my eyes that I got from her...] are going to end out here [I'd point to my boobs - back when I had two] and these [said boobs] are going to end out here [pointing to my lower belly]." Thanks, Grandma!

Nelia - I do get to blame my mother for BC. (I blame her for everything, actually.) She had it first - twice, then my sister, then me. (And all the genetic testing was negative on my mother!)

When I was dx, I began a litany of self-recrimination to my onc:

:"Is it because I smoked?

Is it because I used HRT?

Is it because I grilled hamburgers (and left them rare inside?)

Is it because I don't eat enough broccoli?

etc etc"

My onc held up his hand in  a STOP position, and said 

"You got cancer because you're a HUMAN BEING"

(And now we will get rid of it.")

<NOT that humans are the only animals who get cancer, as I , who lost my darling Labby to it  can attest>

Thank you, Beth, for your great rant, and the opportunity to join in!

joan