“
I’m cancer, Luce. And not the kind that you can kill off with radiation. The kind that kills you in the end.
”
”
Nicole Williams (Crash (Crash, #1))
“
With no magnetic field, Mars has no defense against harsh solar radiation. If I were exposed to it, I’d get so much cancer, the cancer would have cancer.
”
”
Andy Weir (The Martian)
“
The infernal day star is shining its radiation down upon us. I can feel it giving me cancer.
”
”
Hank Green
“
She wished she had cancer instead. She'd trade Alzheimer's for cancer in a heartbeat. She felt ashamed for wishing this, and it was certainly a pointless bargaining, but she permitted herself the fantasy anyway. With cancer, she'd have something to fight. There was surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. There was the chance that she could win. Her family and the community at Harvard would rally behind her battle and consider it noble. And even if it defeated her in the end, she'd be able to look them knowingly in the eye and say good-bye before she left.
”
”
Lisa Genova (Still Alice)
“
When my inner dialogue is telling me that I’m safe, unconditionally loved, and accepted, I then radiate this energy outward and change my external world accordingly.
”
”
Anita Moorjani (Dying To Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing)
“
The supermarket shelves have been rearranged. It happened one day without warning. There is agitation and panic in the aisles, dismay in the faces of older shoppers.[…]They scrutinize the small print on packages, wary of a second level of betrayal. The men scan for stamped dates, the women for ingredients. Many have trouble making out the words. Smeared print, ghost images. In the altered shelves, the ambient roar, in the plain and heartless fact of their decline, they try to work their way through confusion. But in the end it doesn’t matter what they see or think they see. The terminals are equipped with holographic scanners, which decode the binary secret of every item, infallibly. This is the language of waves and radiation, or how the dead speak to the living. And this is where we wait together, regardless of our age, our carts stocked with brightly colored goods. A slowly moving line, satisfying, giving us time to glance at the tabloids in the racks. Everything we need that is not food or love is here in the tabloid racks. The tales of the supernatural and the extraterrestrial. The miracle vitamins, the cures for cancer, the remedies for obesity. The cults of the famous and the dead.
”
”
Don DeLillo (White Noise)
“
When I went on my first antidepressant it had the side effect of making me fixated on suicide (which is sort of the opposite of what you want). It’s a rare side effect so I switched to something else that did work. Lots of concerned friends and family felt that the first medication’s failure was a clear sign that drugs were not the answer; if they were I would have been fixed. Clearly I wasn’t as sick as I said I was if the medication didn’t work for me. And that sort of makes sense, because when you have cancer the doctor gives you the best medicine and if it doesn’t shrink the tumor immediately then that’s a pretty clear sign you were just faking it for attention. I mean, cancer is a serious, often fatal disease we’ve spent billions of dollars studying and treating so obviously a patient would never have to try multiple drugs, surgeries, radiation, etc., to find what will work specifically for them. And once the cancer sufferer is in remission they’re set for life because once they’ve learned how to not have cancer they should be good. And if they let themselves get cancer again they can just do whatever they did last time. Once you find the right cancer medication you’re pretty much immune from that disease forever. And if you get it again it’s probably just a reaction to too much gluten or not praying correctly. Righ
”
”
Jenny Lawson
“
Be that as it may, I have been noticing a statistically significant correlation between excessive childhood exposure to radiation and cancers later in life.
”
”
Kim van Alkemade (Orphan Number Eight)
“
The landscape of carcinogens is not static either. We are chemical apes: having discovered the capacity to extract, purify, and react molecules to produce new and wondrous molecules, we have begun to spin a new chemical universe around ourselves. Our bodies, our cells, our genes are thus being immersed and reimmersed in a changing flux of molecules--pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs, plastics, cosmetics, estrogens, food products, hormones, even novel forms of physical impulses, such as radiation and magnetism. Some of these, inevitably, will be carcinogenic. We cannot wish this world away; our task, then, is to sift through it vigilantly to discriminate bona fide carcinogens from innocent and useful bystanders.
”
”
Siddhartha Mukherjee (The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer)
“
Surgery, clamps, sutures, bandages, antibiotics Mop Sucking chest wound Anesthesia, surgery Cork Cancer Chemotherapy, radiation, surgery Casket wreath* 13 Diabetes Insulin Leeches* 14 Hatchet embedded in skull Removal of hatchet, treatment of wound Larger hat Eyes gouged out in hospital by psychopath posing as nurse Prosthetic eyeballs, therapy Six-pack Source:
”
”
Dave Barry (Dave Barry's Money Secrets: Like: Why Is There a Giant Eyeball on the Dollar?)
“
One day in my pharmacology class, we were discussing the possibility of legalizing marijuana. The class was pretty evenly divided between those that advocated legalizing marijuana and those that did not. The professor said he wanted to hear from a few people on both sides of the argument. A couple students had the opportunity to stand in front of the class and present their arguments. One student got up and spoke about how any kind of marijuana use was morally wrong and how nobody in the class could give him any example of someone who needed marijuana.
A small girl in the back of the classroom raised her hand and said that she didn’t want to get up, but just wanted to comment that there are SOME situations in which people might need marijuana. The same boy from before spoke up and said that she needed to back up her statements and that he still stood by the fact that there wasn’t anyone who truly needed marijuana.
The same girl in the back of the classroom slowly stood up. As she raised her head to look at the boy, I could physically see her calling on every drop of confidence in her body. She told us that her husband had cancer. She started to tear up, as she related how he couldn’t take any of the painkillers to deal with the radiation and chemotherapy treatments. His body was allergic and would have violent reactions to them. She told us how he had finally given in and tried marijuana. Not only did it help him to feel better, but it allowed him to have enough of an appetite to get the nutrients he so desperately needed.
She started to sob as she told us that for the past month she had to meet with drug dealers to buy her husband the only medicine that would take the pain away. She struggled every day because according to society, she was a criminal, but she was willing to do anything she could to help her sick husband. Sobbing uncontrollably now, she ran out of the classroom. The whole classroom sat there in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, my professor asked, “Is there anyone that thinks this girl is doing something wrong?” Not one person raised their hand.
”
”
Daniel Willey
“
sutures, bandages, antibiotics Mop Sucking chest wound Anesthesia, surgery Cork Cancer Chemotherapy, radiation, surgery Casket wreath* 13 Diabetes Insulin Leeches* 14 Hatchet embedded in skull Removal of hatchet, treatment of wound Larger hat Eyes gouged out in hospital by psychopath posing as nurse Prosthetic eyeballs, therapy Six-pack Source:
”
”
Dave Barry (Dave Barry's Money Secrets: Like: Why Is There a Giant Eyeball on the Dollar?)
“
It was strange to think of being “exposed” to my mother, like she was radiation or strong sun on a hazy day—something that could give me cancer.
”
”
Matthew Quick (We Are the Light)
“
Sin is like a cancer; God’s presence is like radiation on that cancer.
”
”
Bob Sorge (Secrets of the Secret Place)
“
I finally understand. Cancer is not a gypsy curse. It's a huge smashing wave. It catches you and drags you out. And anybody can be spit back up, and anybody can drown. -The Lucky Place
”
”
Zu Vincent
“
THIS book is radioactive. And so are you. Unless you are dead, in which case we can tell how long ago you died by how much of your radioactivity is left. That’s what radiocarbon dating is—the measurement of the reduction of radioactivity of old bones to deduce the time of death. Alcohol is radioactive too—at least the kind we drink. Rubbing alcohol usually isn’t, unless it was made organically—that is, from wood. In fact, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tests wine, gin, whiskey, and vodka for radioactivity. A fifth of whiskey must emit at least 400 beta rays every minute or the drink is considered unfit for human consumption. Biofuels are radioactive. Fossil fuels are not. Of those killed by the Hiroshima atomic bomb, the best estimate is that fewer than 2% died of radiation-induced cancer. These statements are all true. They are not even disputed, at least by experts. Yet they surprise most people.
”
”
Richard A. Muller (Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines)
“
With the development of utility electricity for the masses in the 1900's, very few people realize that a new era of sickness and disease was unleashed that are collectively called radiation sickness.
”
”
Steven Magee
“
Here is the thing no one tells you about cancer: they ease you into it. After the initial shock, after the diagnosis and the terror, they put you on the slow conveyor belt. They start you off nice and easy. You want some lemon water with that chemo? You got it. Radiation? No problem, everyone does it, it’s practically weed. We’ll serve you those chemicals with a smile. You’ll love them, you’ll see.
”
”
Rebecca Serle (In Five Years)
“
Excessive ultraviolet A radiation causes sunburns, which are associated with cancer, so we decided with no evidence that we should remove all sources of ultraviolet radiation. But our bodies were not designed to be in an environment without any UV light.
”
”
Dave Asprey (Head Strong: The Bulletproof Plan to Activate Untapped Brain Energy to Work Smarter and Think Faster-in Just Two Weeks)
“
Many people also worry about microwave radiation from cell phones. Unlike X-rays, which are high-energy photons, microwaves are photons with extremely low energy. They deposit their energy in the form of heat; that’s what they do in microwave ovens. They do not break DNA molecules in the body (unless they actually burn and char the material), and therefore they pose no risk of causing cancer in the way that X-rays and other energetic radiation (even sunlight) can. The main danger is the heat. Much of the fear of microwaves undoubtedly comes from the fact that they share the name radiation with the other, far more dangerous forms, such as gamma radiation. The fear that some people have shown toward such cell phone radiation finds its origin not in physics, but in linguistics.
”
”
Richard A. Muller (Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines)
“
Your moral feelings are attached to frames, to descriptions of reality rather than to reality itself. The message about the nature of framing is stark: framing should not be viewed as an intervention that masks or distorts an underlying preference. At least in this instance—and also in the problems of the Asian disease and of surgery versus radiation for lung cancer—there is no underlying preference that is masked or distorted by the frame. Our preferences are about framed problems, and our moral intuitions are about descriptions, not about substance.
”
”
Daniel Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow)
“
He pointed to another number, changing as rapidly as the first, but on a lower trajectory; it rose to a high of 8.79 rem per hour. Several lifetimes of dentists’ X-rays, to be sure; but the radiation outside the storm shelter would have been a lethal dose, so they were getting off lightly. Still, the amount flying through the rest of the ship! Billions of particles were penetrating the ship and colliding with the atoms of water and metal they were huddled behind; hundreds of millions were flying between these atoms and then through the atoms of their bodies, touching nothing, as if they were no more than ghosts. Still, thousands were striking atoms of flesh and bone. Most of those collisions were harmless; but in all those thousands, there were in all probability one or two (or three?) in which a chromosome strand was taking a hit, and kinking in the wrong way: and there it was. Tumor initiation, begun with just that typo in the book of the self. And years later, unless the victim's DNA luckily repaired itself, the tumor promotion that was a more or less unavoidable part of living would have its effect, and there would appear a bloom of Something Else inside: cancer. Leukemia, most likely; and, most likely, death.
”
”
Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1))
“
she has talked to cancer patients whose taste receptors have been destroyed by radiation treatments. The situation is well beyond unpleasant. “Your body is saying, ‘It’s not food, it’s cardboard,’ and it won’t let you swallow. No matter how much you tell your brain that you need to eat to survive, you’ll gag.
”
”
Mary Roach (Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal)
“
she has talked to cancer patients whose taste receptors have been destroyed by radiation treatments. The situation is well beyond unpleasant. “Your body is saying, ‘It’s not food, it’s cardboard,’ and it won’t let you swallow. No matter how much you tell your brain that you need to eat to survive, you’ll gag. These people can actually die of starvation.
”
”
Mary Roach (Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal)
“
I’ll never forget the crippling headaches Grandpa suffered, the nausea from chemo and radiation. I watched Daddy wrestle with decision after decision, ultimately withholding IV antibiotics to treat the pneumonia that took Grandpa more quickly and far more gently. Barrons is voicing the legitimate question of anyone who’s ever agreed not to resuscitate, to cease life-sustaining measures for a loved one, to accept a Stage 4 cancer patient’s decision to refuse more chemo, or euthanize a beloved pet. Throughout the caretaker experience, your loved one’s presence is intense and exquisitely poignant and painful, then all the sudden they’re gone and you discover their absence is even more intense and exquisitely poignant and painful. You don’t know how to walk or breathe when they’re no longer there. And how could you? Your world revolved around them.
”
”
Karen Marie Moning (Burned (Fever #7))
“
Rawson has an idea of what it is like to eat without perceiving tastes, because she has talked to cancer patients whose taste receptors have been destroyed by radiation treatments. The situation is well beyond unpleasant. “Your body is saying, ‘It’s not food, it’s cardboard,’ and it won’t let you swallow. No matter how much you tell your brain that you need to eat to survive, you’ll gag. These people can actually die of starvation.
”
”
Mary Roach (Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal)
“
Bristol-Meyers Squibb has reported success with monatomic ruthenium to correct cancer cells. Same with platinum and iridium, according to Platinum Metals Review. These atoms actually make the DNA strand correct itself, rebuilding without drugs or radiation. Iridium has been shown to stimulate the pineal gland and appears to fire up ‘junk DNA,’ leading to the possibility of increased longevity and reopening aging pathways in the brain.
”
”
James Rollins (Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2))
“
Ionizing radiation takes three principal forms: alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. Alpha particles are relatively large, heavy, and slow moving and cannot penetrate the skin; even a sheet of paper could block their path. But if they do manage to find their way inside the body by other means—if swallowed or inhaled—alpha particles can cause massive chromosomal damage and death. Radon 222, which gathers as a gas in unventilated basements, releases alpha particles into the lungs, where it causes cancer. Polonium 210, a powerful alpha emitter, is one of the carcinogens in cigarette smoke. It was also the poison slipped into the cup of tea that killed former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. Beta particles are smaller and faster moving than alpha particles and can penetrate more deeply into living tissue, causing visible burns on the skin and lasting genetic damage. A piece of paper won’t provide protection from beta particles, but aluminum foil—or separation by sufficient distance—will. Beyond a range of ten feet, beta particles can cause little damage, but they prove dangerous if ingested in any way. Mistaken by the body for essential elements, beta-emitting radioisotopes can become fatally concentrated in specific organs: strontium 90, a member of the same chemical family as calcium, is retained in the bones; ruthenium is absorbed by the intestine; iodine 131 lodges particularly in the thyroid of children, where it can cause cancer. Gamma rays—high-frequency electromagnetic waves traveling at the speed of light—are the most energetic of all. They can traverse large distances, penetrate anything short of thick pieces of concrete or lead, and destroy electronics. Gamma rays pass straight through a human being without slowing down, smashing through cells like a fusillade of microscopic bullets. Severe exposure to all ionizing radiation results in acute radiation syndrome (ARS), in which the fabric of the human body is unpicked, rearranged, and destroyed at the most minute levels. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, hemorrhaging, and hair loss, followed by a collapse of the immune system, exhaustion of bone marrow, disintegration of internal organs, and, finally, death.
”
”
Adam Higginbotham (Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster)
“
Lots of concerned friends and family felt that the first medication’s failure was a clear sign that drugs were not the answer; if they were I would have been fixed. Clearly I wasn’t as sick as I said I was if the medication didn’t work for me. And that sort of makes sense, because when you have cancer the doctor gives you the best medicine and if it doesn’t shrink the tumor immediately then that’s a pretty clear sign you were just faking it for attention. I mean, cancer is a serious, often fatal disease we’ve spent billions of dollars studying and treating so obviously a patient would never have to try multiple drugs, surgeries, radiation, etc., to find what will work specifically for them. And once the cancer sufferer is in remission they’re set for life because once they’ve learned how to not have cancer they should be good. And if they let themselves get cancer again they can just do whatever they did last time. Once you find the right cancer medication you’re pretty much immune from that disease forever. And if you get it again it’s probably just a reaction to too much gluten or not praying correctly. Right?
”
”
Jenny Lawson (Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things)
“
It may be hard to convince ourselves that something we can't see, hear, touch, taste, or smell can still hurt us so dreadfully. Yet the fact must be faced, just as we've learned a healthy fear of nuclear radiation. Certain scientists, some perhaps acting in a program of deliberate disinformation, keep telling the public that we still don't know whether electropollution is a threat to human health. That's simply not true. Certainly we need to know more, but a multitude of risks have been well documented.
Three dangers overshadow all others. The first has been conclusively proven: ELF electromagnetic fields vibrating at about 30 to 100 hertz, even if they're weaker than the earth's field, interfere with the cues that keep our biological cycles properly timed; chronic stress and impaired disease resistance result. Second, the available evidence strongly suggests that regulation of cellular growth processes is impaired by electropollution, increasing cancer rates and producing serious reproductive problems. Electromagnetic weapons constitute a third class of hazards culminating in climatic manipulation from a sorcerer's-apprentice level of ignorance.
”
”
Robert O. Becker (The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life)
“
When Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935, old age was defined as sixty-five years, yet estimated life expectancy in the United States at the time was sixty-one years for males and sixty-four years for females.62 A senior citizen today, however, can expect to live eighteen to twenty years longer. The downside is that he or she also should expect to die more slowly. The two most common causes of death in 1935 America were respiratory diseases (pneumonia and influenza) and infectious diarrhea, both of which kill rapidly. In contrast, the two most common causes of death in 2007 America were heart disease and cancer (each accounted for about 25 percent of total deaths). Some heart attack victims die within minutes or hours, but most elderly people with heart disease survive for years while coping with complications such as high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, general weakness, and peripheral vascular disease. Many cancer patients also remain alive for several years following their diagnosis because of chemo-therapy, radiation, surgery, and other treatments. In addition, many of the other leading causes of death today are chronic illnesses such as asthma, Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease, and there has been an upsurge in the occurrence of nonfatal but chronic illnesses such as osteoarthritis, gout, dementia, and hearing loss.63 Altogether, the growing prevalence of chronic illness among middle-aged and elderly individuals is contributing to a health-care crisis because the children born during the post–World War II baby boom are now entering old age, and an unprecedented percentage of them are suffering from lingering, disabling, and costly diseases. The term epidemiologists coined for this phenomenon is the “extension of morbidity.
”
”
Daniel E. Lieberman (The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease)
“
How many of our loved ones are dead today due to these experiments? What is to become of all of those who were part of these experiments the innocent women, children, prisoners, and service members who became human guinea pigs for “A Nobler Purpose?” How many citizens of this country were exposed to radiation from fallout? Do we really need to ask why Cancer is so prevalent? How much were our oceans damaged due to sea dumping? These are tough questions, for which you have the answers. Let your voices be heard, lest your silence convey a more powerful message to those in power. Until we make the necessary changes to protect every citizen, history will continue to repeat itself.
”
”
Carol Rutz (A Nation Betrayed: Secret Cold War Experiments Performed on our Children and Other Innocent People[Annotated])
“
The clearest short-term yardstick may be the PSA nadir (discussed above). One study of 743 patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York confirmed that higher-intensity radiation does a better job of achieving a rock-bottom PSA level. Of the men who received higher doses—76 to 81 Gy—90 percent achieved a PSA nadir of 1.0 ng/ml or less; 76 percent of men who received 70 Gy and 56 percent of men who received 64.8 Gy achieved those low PSA levels. But there was a trade-off—the men who received higher doses of radiation also had a significantly higher rate of gastrointestinal side effects, urinary tract complications, and impotence. To overcome these side effects at high doses, intensity-modulated radiation therapy
”
”
Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
(IMRT) has an advantage. The newer, high-dose, conformally directed, external-beam techniques for radiation therapy such as IMRT have been in widespread use for less than ten years; IGRT has been around for an even shorter time. However, some reports of long-term success are now emerging. New studies suggest that at ten years, high radiation doses alone can produce PSA control or cure rates in 93 percent of men with low-risk prostate cancer. What about more aggressive prostate cancer? As we discussed in chapter 9, the best treatment regimen for men with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer is still a moving target, but it will likely turn out to be a combination of high-dose radiation and short- or long-term hormonal therapy.
”
”
Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
By 2011, enough data had been accumulated to show that some risk existed due to long-term, heavy use of mobile phones, compelling the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, to classify mobile cell phone radiation in the Group 2B category, indicating a possible carcinogen (a substance or source of exposure that can cause cancer).14 This is the same category as DDT, lead, engine exhaust, chloroform, and glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup®). Later, in 2016, a $25 million study conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), part of the National Institutes of Health, confirmed what many have believed for years—that exposure to EMF radiation emitted from cell phones can lead to serious health issues including brain and heart tumors.
”
”
Daniel T. DeBaun (Radiation Nation: Complete Guide to EMF Protection & Safety - The Proven Health Risks of EMF Radiation & What You Can Do to Protect Yourself & Family)
“
Well, women with breast cancer are warriors, also. I have been to war, and still am. So has every woman who had had one or both breasts amputated because of the cancer that is becoming the primary physical scourge of our time. For me, my scars are an honorable reminder that I may be a casualty in the cosmic war against radiation, animal fat, air pollution, McDonald’s hamburgers and Red Dye No. 2, but the fight is still going on, and I am still a part of it. I refuse to have my scars hidden or trivialized behind lambswool or silicone gel. I refuse to be reduced in my own eyes or in the eyes of others from warrior to mere victim, simply because it might render me a fraction more acceptable or less dangerous to the still complacent, those who believe if you cover up a problem it ceases to exist. I refuse to hide my body simply because it might make a woman-phobic world more comfortable.
”
”
Audre Lorde (The Cancer Journals)
“
Let’s say we had a bad one, and all the plants and animals died, and the earth was clicking hot for a hundred thousand years. Life would survive somewhere—under the soil, or perhaps frozen in Arctic ice. And after all those years, when the planet was no longer inhospitable, life would again spread over the planet. The evolutionary process would begin again. It might take a few billion years for life to regain its present variety. And of course it would be very different from what it is now. But the earth would survive our folly. Life would survive our folly. Only we,” Malcolm said, “think it wouldn’t.” Hammond said, “Well, if the ozone layer gets thinner—” “There will be more ultraviolet radiation reaching the surface. So what?” “Well. It’ll cause skin cancer.” Malcolm shook his head. “Ultraviolet radiation is good for life. It’s powerful energy. It promotes mutation, change. Many forms of life will thrive with more UV radiation.” “And many others will die out,” Hammond said. Malcolm sighed. “You think this is the first time such a thing has happened? Don’t you know about oxygen?” “I know it’s necessary for life.” “It is now,” Malcolm said. “But oxygen is actually a metabolic poison. It’s a corrosive gas, like fluorine, which is used to etch glass. And when oxygen was first produced as a waste product by certain plant cells—say, around three billion years ago—it created a crisis for all other life on our planet. Those plant cells were polluting the environment with a deadly poison. They were exhaling a lethal gas, and building up its concentration. A planet like Venus has less than one percent oxygen. On earth, the concentration of oxygen was going up rapidly—five, ten, eventually twenty-one percent! Earth had an atmosphere of pure poison! Incompatible with life!
”
”
Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1))
“
One's prescription can seem extensive--even overwhelming, depending on an individual's circumstance--and I can imagine the prospects exciting few people of any stripe. Lots of eaters are going to balk at abstaining, but to learn that recovery is going to require rigorous honesty, or more attention to spirit, could be far more off-putting.
Then again, who gets excited about any serious treatment prescription? Certainly not the cancer patient told she'll have to undergo radiation, or the back patient ordered to a month's uninterrupted bed rest, or the lung patient told he'll need a double transplant.
To some, the flaw of those comparisons will be their being equated with food addiction, and that is the rub, entirely. The medical profession and the public at large don't see that they are equivalent. The consequences of obesity (the chief consequence of food addiction) constitute the fastest-growing, and soon the gravest, threat to public health. Obesity is suicide on lay-away: It has plenty of time to degrade quality of life before finally ending life prematurely.
”
”
Michael Prager (Fat Boy Thin Man)
“
Before the late modern era, most religions and ideologies took it for granted that death was our inevitable fate. Moreover, most faiths turned death into the main source of meaning in life. These creeds taught people that they must come to terms with death and pin their hopes on the afterlife, rather than seek to overcome death and live for ever here on earth. The best minds were busy giving meaning to death, not trying to escape it. Disciples of progress do not share this defeatist attitude. For men of science, death is not an inevitable destiny, but merely a technical problem. People die not because the gods decreed it, but due to various technical failures – a heart attack, cancer, an infection. And every technical problem has a technical solution. If the heart flutters, it can be stimulated by a pacemaker or replaced by a new heart. If cancer rampages, it can be killed with drugs or radiation. If bacteria proliferate, they can be subdued with antibiotics. True, at present we cannot solve all technical problems. But we are working on them. Our best minds are not wasting their time trying to give meaning to death.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
“
It may be hard to convince ourselves that something we can't see, hear, touch, taste, or smell can still hurt us so dreadfully. Yet the fact must be faced, just as we've learned a healthy fear of nuclear radiation. Certain scientists, some perhaps acting in a program of deliberate disinformation, keep telling the public that we still don't know whether electropollution is a threat to human health. That's simply not true. Certainly we need to know more, but a multitude of risks have been well documented.
Three dangers overshadow all others. The first has been conclusively proven: ELF electromagnetic fields vibrating at about 30 to 100 hertz, even if they're weaker than the earth's field, interfere with the cues that keep our biological cycles properly timed; chronic stress and impaired disease resistance result. Second, the available evidence strongly suggests that regulation of cellular growth processes is impaired by electropollution, increasing cancer rates and producing serious reproductive problems. Electromagnetic weapons constitute a third class of hazards culminating in climatic manipulation from a sorcerer's-apprentice level of ignorance.
”
”
Robert O. Becker (The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life)
“
to an AirPort Express in his hospital room, announcing his surgery. He assured them that the type of pancreatic cancer he had “represents about 1% of the total cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed each year, and can be cured by surgical removal if diagnosed in time (mine was).” He said he would not require chemotherapy or radiation treatment, and he planned to return to work in September. “While I’m out, I’ve asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, so we shouldn’t miss a beat. I’m sure I’ll be calling some of you way too much in August, and I look forward to seeing you in September.” One side effect of the operation would become a problem for Jobs because of his obsessive diets and the weird routines of purging and fasting that he had practiced since he was a teenager. Because the pancreas provides the enzymes that allow the stomach to digest food and absorb nutrients, removing part of the organ makes it hard to get enough protein. Patients are advised to make sure that they eat frequent meals and maintain a nutritious diet, with a wide variety of meat and fish proteins as well as full-fat milk products. Jobs had never done this, and he never would.
”
”
Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs)
“
In 1937, Gunda Lawrence, a teacher and homemaker from South Dakota, lay close to death from abdominal cancer. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota had given her three months to live. Luckily, Mrs. Lawrence had two exceptional and devoted sons—John, a gifted physician, and Ernest, one of the most brilliant physicists of the twentieth century. Ernest was head of the new Radiation Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley and had just invented the cyclotron, a particle accelerator that generated massive amounts of radioactivity as a side effect of energizing protons. They had in effect the most powerful X-ray machine in the country at their disposal, capable of generating a million volts of energy. Without any certainty what the consequences would be—no one had ever tried anything remotely like this on humans before—the brothers aimed a deuteron beam directly into their mother’s belly. It was an agonizing experience, so painful and distressing to poor Mrs. Lawrence that she begged her sons to let her die. “At times I felt very cruel in not giving in,” John recorded later. Happily, after a few treatments, Mrs. Lawrence’s cancer went into remission and she lived another twenty-two years. More important, a new field of cancer treatment had been born.
”
”
Bill Bryson (The Body: A Guide for Occupants)
“
Chemotherapy, the third main prong in cancer treatment after surgery and radiation, came about by similarly unlikely means. Although chemical weapons had been outlawed by international treaty after World War I, several nations still produced them, if only as a precaution in the event that others did likewise. The United States was among the transgressors. For obvious reasons, this was kept secret, but in 1943 a U.S. Navy supply ship, the SS John Harvey, carrying mustard gas bombs as part of its cargo, was caught in a German bombing raid on the Italian port of Bari. The Harvey was blown up, releasing a cloud of mustard gas over a wide area, killing an unknown number of people. Realizing that this was an excellent, if accidental, test of the mustard gas’s efficacy as a killing agent, the navy dispatched a chemical expert, Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Francis Alexander, to study the effects of the mustard gas on the ship’s crew and others nearby. Luckily for posterity, Alexander was an astute and diligent investigator, for he noticed something that might have been overlooked: mustard gas dramatically slowed the creation of white blood cells in those exposed to it. From this, it was realized that some derivative of mustard gas might be useful in treating some cancers. Thus was born chemotherapy.
”
”
Bill Bryson (The Body: A Guide for Occupants)
“
HISTORICAL NOTE There are no nuclear power stations in Belarus. Of the functioning stations in the territory of the former USSR, the ones closest to Belarus are of the old Soviet-designed RBMK type. To the north, the Ignalinsk station, to the east, the Smolensk station, and to the south, Chernobyl. On April 26, 1986, at 1:23:58, a series of explosions destroyed the reactor in the building that housed Energy Block #4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. The catastrophe at Chernobyl became the largest technological disaster of the twentieth century. For tiny Belarus (population: 10 million), it was a national disaster. During the Second World War, the Nazis destroyed 619 Belarussian villages along with their inhabitants. As a result of Chernobyl, the country lost 485 villages and settlements. Of these, 70 have been forever buried underground. During the war, one out of every four Belarussians was killed; today, one out of every five Belarussians lives on contaminated land. This amounts to 2.1 million people, of whom 700,000 are children. Among the demographic factors responsible for the depopulation of Belarus, radiation is number one. In the Gomel and Mogilev regions, which suffered the most from Chernobyl, mortality rates exceed birth rates by 20%. As a result of the accident, 50 million Ci of radionuclides were released into the atmosphere. Seventy percent of these descended on Belarus; fully 23% of its territory is contaminated by cesium-137 radionuclides with a density of over 1 Ci/km2. Ukraine on the other hand has 4.8% of its territory contaminated, and Russia, 0.5%. The area of arable land with a density of more than 1 Ci/km2 is over 18 million hectares; 2.4 thousand hectares have been taken out of the agricultural economy. Belarus is a land of forests. But 26% of all forests and a large part of all marshes near the rivers Pripyat, Dniepr, and Sozh are considered part of the radioactive zone. As a result of the perpetual presence of small doses of radiation, the number of people with cancer, mental retardation, neurological disorders, and genetic mutations increases with each year. —“Chernobyl.” Belaruskaya entsiklopedia On April 29, 1986, instruments recorded high levels of radiation in Poland, Germany, Austria, and Romania. On April 30, in Switzerland and northern Italy. On May 1 and 2, in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and northern Greece. On May 3, in Israel, Kuwait, and Turkey. . . . Gaseous airborne particles traveled around the globe: on May 2 they were registered in Japan, on May 5 in India, on May 5 and 6 in the U.S. and Canada. It took less than a week for Chernobyl to become a problem for the entire world. —“The Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident in Belarus.” Minsk, Sakharov International College on Radioecology The fourth reactor, now known as the Cover, still holds about twenty tons of nuclear fuel in its lead-and-metal core. No one knows what is happening with it. The sarcophagus was well made, uniquely constructed, and the design engineers from St. Petersburg should probably be proud. But it was constructed in absentia, the plates were put together with the aid of robots and helicopters, and as a result there are fissures. According to some figures, there are now over 200 square meters of spaces and cracks, and radioactive particles continue to escape through them . . . Might the sarcophagus collapse? No one can answer that question, since it’s still impossible to reach many of the connections and constructions in order to see if they’re sturdy. But everyone knows that if the Cover were to collapse, the consequences would be even more dire than they were in 1986. —Ogonyok magazine, No. 17, April 1996
”
”
Svetlana Alexievich (Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster)
“
Neo-Darwinism and Mutations
In order to find a solution, Darwinists advanced the
"Modern Synthetic Theory," or as it is more commonly
known, Neo-Darwinism, at the end of the 1930s. Neo-
Darwinism added mutations, which are distortions formed
in the genes of living beings due to such external factors
as radiation or replication errors, as the "cause of favorable
variations" in addition to natural mutation.
Today, the model that stands for evolution in the world
is Neo-Darwinism. The theory maintains that millions of living
beings formed as a result of a process whereby numerous
complex organs of these organisms (e.g., ears, eyes,
lungs, and wings) underwent "mutations," that is, genetic
disorders. Yet, there is an outright scientific fact that totally
undermines this theory: Mutations do not cause living
beings to develop; on the contrary, they are always harmful.
The reason for this is very simple: DNA has a very complex
structure, and random effects can only harm it. The
American geneticist B. G. Ranganathan explains this as
follows:
First, genuine mutations are very rare in nature. Secondly,
most mutations are harmful since they are random, rather
than orderly changes in the structure of genes; any random
change in a highly ordered system will be for the
worse, not for the better. For example, if an earthquake
were to shake a highly ordered structure such as a building,
there would be a random change in the framework of
the building which, in all probability, would not be an
improvement.
Not surprisingly, no mutation example, which is useful,
that is, which is observed to develop the genetic code, has
been observed so far. All mutations have proved to be
harmful. It was understood that mutation, which is presented
as an "evolutionary mechanism," is actually a
genetic occurrence that harms living things, and leaves
them disabled. (The most common effect of mutation on
human beings is cancer.) Of course, a destructive mechanism
cannot be an "evolutionary mechanism." Natural
selection, on the other hand, "can do nothing by itself," as
Darwin also accepted. This fact shows us that there is no
"evolutionary mechanism" in nature. Since no evolutionary
mechanism exists, no such any imaginary process called
"evolution" could have taken place.
”
”
Harun Yahya (Those Who Exhaust All Their Pleasures In This Life)
“
To get the most out of this chapter, first find where you are on this map of the cancer journey: Critical stress points. When you have just been diagnosed with cancer or learned that your cancer has recurred or is not responding to treatment. Treatment preparation. When you are anticipating surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or molecular target therapies. Side effect management. When you are undergoing treatment and need ways (instead of or in addition to drugs) to manage its side effects. Post-treatment. When you are adjusting to the end of active treatment, usually after the final chemotherapy cycle. This situation can, perhaps surprisingly, prove quite stressful. Remission maintenance. Although definitely good news, remission introduces its own issues, most notably fear of recurrence. Remission is also when you will be most determined to take back your life from cancer.
”
”
Keith Block (Life Over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Treatment)
“
Big words like cancer and chemotherapy and radiation being tossed around like pinballs, big feelings creeping in and overtaking what was simply joy and peace only days ago. Yet You are here, Lord.
”
”
Guideposts (Daily Guideposts 2018: A Spirit-Lifting Devotional)
“
George could dig and pour the concrete basement for a house. He could saw the lumber and nail the frame. He could wire the rooms and fit the plumbing. He could hang the drywall. He could lay the floors and shingle the roof. He could build the brick steps. He could point the windows and paint the sashes. But he could not throw a ball or walk a mile; he hated exercise, and once he took early retirement at sixty he never had his heart rate up again if he could help it, and even then only if it were to whack through some heavy brush to get to a good trout pool. Lack of exercise might have been the reason that, when he had his first radiation treatment for the cancer in his groin, his legs swelled up like two dead seals on a beach and then turned as hard as lumber. Before he was bedridden, he walked as if he were an amputee from a war that predated modern prosthetics; he tottered as if two hardwood legs hinged with iron pins were buckled to his waist. When his wife touched his legs at night in bed, through his pajamas, she thought of oak or maple and had to make herself think of something else in order not to imagine going down to his workshop in the basement and getting sandpaper and stain and sanding his legs and staining them with a brush, as if they belonged to a piece of furniture. Once, she snorted out loud, trying to stifle a laugh, when she thought, My husband, the table. She felt so bad afterward that she wept.
”
”
Paul Harding (Tinkers)
“
That’s—” Sophie said. “That’s a skull.” “It’s my father,” Dracy said. “He had his teeth scripped to shine as the sun. The intention survived his death.” “Was it literally sunshine?” Sophie’s mind spun through implications. A constant flood of solar radiation in the mouth—hadn’t it burned? Could he give others sunburn, then? Did he die of cancer? Couldn’t they have just made a magic lantern? Had Dracy kept it for sentimental reasons? Dracy replied with a gesture that was less than a shrug, more than a twitch. Sophie was coming to realize it came standard issue among these people: It meant “Don’t know, don’t care.” She added magical solar radiation and Can a whole people be fundamentally incurious? to the continually growing list of things she had to find out,
”
”
A.M. Dellamonica (Child of a Hidden Sea (Hidden Sea Tales, #1))
“
there were also intellectual reasons to investigate and try to understand his cancer. Steve’s particular kind of tumor is a rare one. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), only about one thousand cases a year are discovered in the United States. As a result, research on pancreatic islet cell neuroendocrine carcinomas is not buttressed by the kind of massive database available to doctors studying breast or lung cancer, to cite two more common forms, or even other forms of cancer of the pancreas. (His own oncologist/surgeon admitted to me privately that not enough was known at that time to determine statistically what the best treatment should be—surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, something else, or a combination of treatments.) So Steve’s indecision about what to do was not completely off-base.
”
”
Brent Schlender (Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader)
“
Age itself is a risk for getting cancer. Our cells replicate constantly during our lives. The more times they replicate, the greater the chances that an aberration will occur. However, the body is remarkable at self-correcting and it takes many aberrations for cancer to grow. Diet, smoking, exercise, stress, obesity, asbestos, pollution, radiation, geography, immune system changes, alcohol, infection and chemicals – all of these are linked to cancer but no one knows for sure in what way. Nobody can tell you definitely how much exposure to any of these might cause you to develop cancer or whether you ever will. One of
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”
Ranjana Srivastava (So It's Cancer: Now What?)
“
She was undergoing daily radiation treatments, which were physically draining and made her forgetful. “In any version of picturing this moment—that fantasy of what you want to be—I would have been strong, smart, and inspiring confidence,” she told me. “I wanted to be a role model in that perfect ‘put together’ sense. Instead, I told them I had cancer and would need their support.” Their
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Sheryl Sandberg (Option B)
“
Now get ready for a paradox: the dose of radiation needed to cause cancer has been measured to be approximately 2500 rem. That’s enough to kill someone within hours of radiation poisoning. Given one cancer dose of radiation, a person won’t live long enough to get cancer.
”
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Richard A. Muller (Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines)
“
The cancer was pretty well-advanced, already storming her lymph nodes, and it resisted the radiation and the chemo like some kind of unstoppable beast in a low-grade horror film.
”
”
John Langan
“
Pay attention to what your coworkers have died from, as some of my coworkers have died from gastrointestinal disease.
”
”
Steven Magee (Magee’s Disease)
“
It was clear I had radiation sickness. But it was not acute radiation syndrome or chronic radiation syndrome. It was low level radiation sickness (LLRS). It was more like the sickness cancer patients that have radiation treatment get.
”
”
Steven Magee (Magee’s Disease)
“
With all of the X-Ray radiation the medical profession exposed me to when I was sick, I am either going to live to 100 through radiation induced life extension or drop dead soon from radiation induced cancer!
”
”
Steven Magee
“
Recently, scientists in the Netherlands unearthed an X-ray machine similar to those used in the early 1900s. They found that the amount of radiation emitted was 1,500 times greater than that to which patients are exposed today. Also, where exposure times in the early 1900s ranged from ten minutes to several hours, exposure times today are about twenty milliseconds (thousandths of a second). And, unlike the early days of X-ray technology, medical technicians now leave the room before turning on the machine. Between 1896 and 1930, tens of thousands of radiologists, technicians, and patients suffered burns, hair loss, and bone pain; thousands lost fingers, hands, and arms; and hundreds died from cancer.
”
”
Paul A. Offit (You Bet Your Life: From Blood Transfusions to Mass Vaccination, the Long and Risky History of Medical Innovation)
“
Poor diet combined with high altitude exposures may bring increased risks of illnesses and cancers.
”
”
Steven Magee
“
I sat on my patio watching the wispy clouds until the sky turned a soft shade of magenta and the sun dropped below the horizon. Over those hours, my mind let go of the day, which provided space for an unexpected message to be heard.
The message was:
Embrace the journey. Embrace all of it, even the good and bad. You may not have chosen this journey, but it is, and forever will be, yours.
I sat in silence a little longer, taking in the revelation.
It's true. I didn’t choose cancer; cancer chose me. As much as I was desperate to skip past the chemo, surgery, radiation, and everything else that comes with a diagnosis, I needed to experience the lessons that would unfold along the way. I had to embrace it all to become a better version of myself. It was time to “embrace the journey” instead of resisting it.
I didn’t know if I could, but I’d try.
”
”
Jennifer D. James (Feisty Righty: A Cancer Survivor's Journey)
“
Ketones help minimize free radical production in the body, while cancer cells thrive in the presence of reactive oxygen species. Ketones boost antioxidant production in healthy cells surrounding cancerous tumors—something scientists believe may help prevent cancer cells from growing and spreading. Ketones have also been found to help mitigate the effects of traditional radiation and chemotherapy cancer treatments.
”
”
Mark Sisson (The Keto Reset Diet: Reboot Your Metabolism in 21 Days and Burn Fat Forever)
“
study asked more than 400 doctors whether they would prefer radiation or surgery if they became cancer patients themselves. Among the physicians who were informed that 10 out of 100 patients would die from surgery, half said they would prefer to be treated with radiation. Among those who were told that 90 out of 100 patients would survive surgery, only 16% said they would choose radiation.
”
”
Jason Zweig (Your Money and Your Brain)
“
No, you don’t understand what I’m saying, Mrs. Lowe. Arthur was unable to get me or any woman pregnant. He contracted testicular cancer when he was in his early twenties. The radiation and chemotherapy stopped the cancer but led to infertility. He tested and tested and finally gave up. That’s when we decided to adopt. My husband couldn’t possibly be the father of your sister’s child.” She stood again.
”
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V.C. Andrews (Whitefern (Audrina #2))
“
The ULTIMATE Lifestyle The Ultimate Diet – Live organic produce and wild fish caught in uncontaminated waters. Many folks resist this because they feel it’s way too expensive. Granted, it’s a bit more. However, to create a genuinely healthy body, you must fill it with high-grade clean nutrition. It’s time to realize that affordability is a matter of priority rather than limited finance. As you look to create your nutritional palate of foods, think of it this way: If it’s from the earth and comes out of salt or fresh water to the table, it’s probably good for you. In addition, the only liquid for the Ultimate Diet is clean mountain water and sometimes distilled water. A minimum daily consumption amount to keep your body hydrated is half your body weight in ounces. Distilled water is considered ‘hungry water’ because of its ability to attract unwanted particles throughout the body and is ideal when it’s time for a detoxification cleansing.
”
”
Ron Baron (Confronting Radiation Fibrosis: A Cancer Survivor's Handbook (A Basic Understanding))
“
With all that is known in naturopathic medicine, you no longer need to take the common cold lying down. High doses of Vitamin C either intravenously or by mouth can be taken in large quantities throughout the day. If your GI tract can handle it, consider that 20k – 30k milligrams of Vitamin C will put an end to a cold within two to three days.
”
”
Ron Baron (Confronting Radiation Fibrosis: A Cancer Survivor's Handbook (A Basic Understanding))
“
Great Yoga Studio Flexibility, stamina, endurance, peace of mind, and more, can be found in yoga. There’s no substitute for yoga when it comes to combining the body’s flexibility and learning how to gain laser focus on your breath and being present. If you are adventurous, hot yoga is a real treat. Hot yoga helps make it easier and quicker for your body to become flexible. Once you become a yogi by committing to six months to a year of practice, it will surely become part of your new lifestyle.
”
”
Ron Baron (Confronting Radiation Fibrosis: A Cancer Survivor's Handbook (A Basic Understanding))
“
Red Light Therapy (RLT) is also a new alternative method of healing the body from protocol side effects and helps with external scarring. It is still in its infancy stage, yet deserves more delving into the research that is being done. It appears to be safe and unlike Ultraviolet light, may prove to be an option to help alleviate internal fibrotic tissue.
”
”
Ron Baron (Confronting Radiation Fibrosis: A Cancer Survivor's Handbook (A Basic Understanding))
“
Another new alternative possibility is adding hydrogen-rich water to your daily diet, best taken on an empty stomach. The research is in its infancy, yet the benefits are all positive, especially around fibrotic tissue and complete health.
”
”
Ron Baron (Confronting Radiation Fibrosis: A Cancer Survivor's Handbook (A Basic Understanding))
“
Prevention Plain and simple, cancer cannot live in an alkaline and oxygenated environment. That’s it! Cancer loves acidity, sugar (which is highly acidic), and less oxygenated places in the body, to grow and develop. When a person is diagnosed with cancer of any kind and if time is not of the essence to treat it, a three-month regime of organic alkaline nutrition and oxygenation under professional supervision would be ideal to return the body to health or reduce the severity of cancer. This may be something to consult a naturopathic physician or qualified health professional about. Keep in mind that there are places where people who were considered terminally ill have gone for treatment and left weeks later cancer-free. This is a fact.
”
”
Ron Baron (Confronting Radiation Fibrosis: A Cancer Survivor's Handbook (A Basic Understanding))
“
When beginning a new routine of vitamins and minerals for the body's health, it is important to read the recommended daily allowance (RDA) on each package, then consider multiplying the dosage by two, three, or four, depending on the product and what you’d like to achieve. The RDA is often for healthy maintenance guidelines and is oftentimes insufficient to achieve a noticeable difference. After taking the increased dose for three to four weeks, see if you feel a difference. If you feel a difference, lower the dose by one for another two to three weeks, after which you can either lower it again or follow the recommended amount. You get to choose. Note: If you’re familiar with muscle testing, that may be a good guide to help select dosage. Instead of taking all of your supplements in the morning, consider incorporating them into shakes and titrating them into your system throughout your day. Some supplements will tell you if they are more effective when taken on an empty stomach. Getting maximum benefit from your supplements is key. Immune System and Fighting the Common Cold
”
”
Ron Baron (Confronting Radiation Fibrosis: A Cancer Survivor's Handbook (A Basic Understanding))
“
The purpose of radiation treatment is to disable the prostate, to stop cancer there from continuing to grow. Because the prostate is the source of PSA, if PSA continues to be made and its level begins to rise, there are two possibilities. Either the cancer has reactivated locally, within the prostate or surrounding tissue, or a distant metastasis—a tiny bit of cancer that probably escaped the prostate before treatment began—has started causing trouble.
”
”
Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
need to have a prostate biopsy to confirm that the cancer recurrence is local; you will also need a bone scan and CT scan or MRI of the abdomen and pelvis to rule out the possibility that cancer has spread to distant sites. The guidelines above (see What Should I Do If My PSA Comes Back After Surgery?) may one day be adapted for men who have failed radiation treatment, but the overriding principles can be useful here in identifying the likelihood of metastases. If you have a high Gleason score (8 or greater), or if the PSA level begins to rise early after radiation therapy, or if the PSA level has a rapid doubling time, it is more likely that you have metastases than a local recurrence, and in this case, you should seek systemic therapy (see chapter 13).
”
”
Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
Carlton Church: Japan Finally Acknowledges Negative Nuclear Effects
One of the leading sources of news and information, Thomson Reuters, has just reported about Japan’s acknowledgement of casualty caused by the Fukushima nuclear power plant wreckage. However, it may be too late for the victim as the young man, an unnamed worker in his 30s working as a construction contractor in Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima Daiichi plant and other nuclear facilities, is already suffering from cancer since 2011.
The ministry’s recognition of radiation as a possible cause may set back efforts to recover from the disaster, as the government and the nuclear industry have been at pains to say that the health effects from radiation have been minimal. It may also add to compensation payments that had reached more than 7 trillion yen ($59 billion) by July this year. It can also cause a lot of setbacks from a lot of nuclear projects which were supposed to be due in the succeeding years.
A streak of legal issues and complaints are also to be faced by Tokyo Electric, mostly on compensations for those affected. According to further reviews, it is estimated removing the melted fuel from the wrecked reactors and cleaning up the site will cost tens of billions of dollars and take decades to complete.
Despite the recognition, a lot more people are still anxious. The recognition would mean acknowledgment of possible radiation effects still lingering in Japan’s boundaries. When it was once denied, the public are consoled of the improbability of being exposed to radiation but now that the government has expressed its possibility, many individuals fear of their and their families’ lives.
Hundreds of deaths have been attributed to the chaos of evacuations during the crisis and because of the hardship and mental trauma refugees have experienced since then, but the government had said that radiation was not a cause. Yet now, it is different. The trauma and fear are emphasized more.
Anti-nuclear organizations, on the other hand, are happy that their warnings are now being regarded. Carlton Church International, one of the non-profit organization campaigning against nuclear proliferation, spokesperson, Abigail Shcumman stated, “I don’t think ‘I told you so’ would be appropriate but that is what I really wanted to say”. She added, “We are pleased that at last, we are being heard. However, we continue to get worried for the people and the children. They are exposed and need guidance on what to do”.
- See more at: carltonchurchreview.blogspot.com
”
”
Sabrina Carlton
“
With the loss of acute illnesses we have seen a loss of human potential and a dramatic increase in chronic ‘incurable’ diseases. If we want to return to health, we have to look at disease in a way that is different from the accepted medical models, because these models do not work. There has been no overall improvement in the mortality rates for most forms of cancer in the past 100 years, yet still people put their faith in drugs, surgery and radiation. Terminal patients are often offered ‘new drugs’ in the hope of prolonging life but are in fact being treated as little more than guinea pigs. All disease is curable, but the cure can only be found within the body.
”
”
Barbara Wren (Cellular Awakening: How Your Body Holds and Creates Light)
“
overriding principles can be useful here in identifying the likelihood of metastases. If you have a high Gleason score (8 or greater), or if the PSA level begins to rise early after radiation therapy, or if the PSA level has a rapid doubling time, it is more likely that you have metastases than a local recurrence, and in this case, you should seek systemic therapy (see chapter 13).
”
”
Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
(ASTRO). As the name suggests, this was based on the agreement of a panel of experts, who in the 1990s met and chose to define PSA failure after radiation therapy as three consecutive rises in PSA (taken at least three months apart from each other) after it reaches its nadir—the lowest point PSA reaches after treatment. (PSA nadir is a key concept in radiation therapy for prostate cancer. Because radiation’s effect is gradual, it may take two or three years for PSA levels to hit rock bottom. Some men reach this nadir much more quickly—within months—and some men take much longer—several years. Ideally, once PSA has reached its lowest level, it should stay put.) Although the ASTRO definition has proven useful, it has not been perfect, and not all radiation oncologists agree that this is the best way
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
to measure success or failure. One criticism has been that PSA increases are not always consecutive. A man’s rise in PSA with one test might be followed by a transient decrease in the next, followed by another increase. Although there may be recurrent cancer, under the ASTRO definition, this man’s treatment would still be considered a success—even though it’s just a technicality. “Fortunately, any astute radiation oncologist will not blindly follow the consensus definition in making treatment decisions,” comments Danny Song. A quirk of the ASTRO definition is that, over a short period of time after treatment, it really can’t tell us much. This is due to the gradual nature of radiation’s effects; cancer
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
Because it can take two to even six years for a man to reach his PSA nadir after radiation, this initial “false rise” in PSA level after the hormonal therapy ends might lead to needless worry from a wrongful diagnosis
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
of biochemical failure when he’s actually cancer-free. Finally, there’s the phenomenon of PSA “bounce”—and this, too, can confound results under the ASTRO definition. While PSA declines after radiation, men who are ultimately headed for a healthy, low, stable PSA level may see it suddenly go up. Think of it as PSA’s last fling. This bounce is transient and has been studied using a variety of different definitions. It is generally described as a sudden rise of at least 0.1 to 0.5 ng/ml, followed by a decrease. This usually occurs within the first two years after treatment, and may happen in as many as 40 percent of men after either external-beam radiation or brachytherapy. In most studies, it seems more likely to occur in younger men. The
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
largest study to look at this phenomenon, involving nearly five thousand men who were treated with external-beam radiation alone, found that the PSA bounce did not seem to raise the risk of local failure or distant metastases. However, because of this PSA bounce, the ASTRO consensus definition may falsely identify some of these men as having a relapse—again, leading to unnecessary anxiety. Preliminary research using magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging (MRSI) suggests that the bounce may actually be caused by inflammation of the prostate after radiation. MRSI is also being investigated as a means to determine whether what’s happening with a man’s PSA is a bounce, or a return of cancer. Another study, published in the Journal
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
of Urology, evaluated nearly five thousand patients from nine hospitals who had received external-beam radiation therapy alone and had been followed for an average of six years. This study, too, looked at how well the ASTRO criteria and other definitions could predict actual clinical failure (the development of distant metastases or the return of cancer in the irradiated prostate). Despite its stellar acronym, the ASTRO definition did not prove to be outstandingly superior; in fact, the researchers found, some of the alternate definitions of biochemical success or failure were slightly better. The Phoenix Definition In 2005, another panel of radiation
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
oncologists met to discuss a replacement for the ASTRO definition. They decided to define treatment failure as a PSA level that has risen 2 ng/ml higher than a man’s PSA nadir (the lowest level it reached following treatment). This definition has been correlated more accurately with long-term results in all patients, and it takes into account such factors as hormonal therapy and the PSA bounce. Failure is now considered to occur when the PSA level reaches the nadir + 2 value. This is called the Phoenix definition. Still, it takes time to determine this value, so this equation should not be used to gauge the success of treatment in men with less than two years’ worth of PSA tests after radiation therapy. Furthermore, the consensus panel that developed this definition cautions,
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
Physicians should use individualized approaches to managing young patients with slowly rising PSA levels who initially achieved a very low nadir and who might be a candidate for salvage local therapies” (see below). The Phoenix definition is the new standard measure of the success of radiation therapy. And even this isn’t the one-size-fits-all, perfect definition of biochemical failure for all men who have undergone radiation. Nor is there a single best approach if a man’s cancer does return after radiation (see What Happens If My PSA Goes Up After Radiation Treatment? below). The good news is that the longer a man’s PSA remains stably low after radiation, the less likely he is to have a return of cancer down the road. Some men wonder whether any healthy
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
“
that the radiation alone has not killed the cancer, this should be clear long before your PSA level reaches that point. However, it’s worth repeating that the consensus panel that developed the Phoenix definition (nadir + 2) advises, “Physicians should use individualized approaches to managing young patients with slowly rising PSA levels who initially achieved a very low nadir and who might be a candidate for salvage local therapies.” If your PSA level continues to rise, what should you do? To determine whether you are a candidate for surgery after radiation, you will need to have a prostate biopsy to confirm that the cancer recurrence is local; you will also need a bone scan and CT scan or MRI of the abdomen and pelvis to rule out the possibility that cancer has spread to distant sites. The guidelines above (see What Should I Do If My PSA Comes Back After Surgery?) may one day be adapted for men who have failed radiation treatment, but the
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
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A man named George Daley, yet another member of the Baltimore lab, had finally accomplished this remaining feat. Daley took one group of mice and filled their marrow with the mutant bcr/abl gene present in the Philadelphia chromosome. Next, he destroyed the bone marrow of a second group of mice with radiation. He injected the second group of mice with the marrow from the first group, and the second group of mice developed CML. The experiment established the mutant chromosome, and therefore its protein product, Bcr/Abl, as the sole cause of CML. The proof bolstered Lydon’s belief that the kinase program at Ciba-Geigy should make Abl its top priority. Despite his and Druker’s conviction that Bcr/Abl was the best target for proving the principle of kinase inhibition, the program had
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Jessica Wapner (The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment)
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Over the last decade, the standard criteria for relapse, or biochemical failure, after radiation has been the consensus definition of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
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Patrick C. Walsh (Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer)
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Snow-melt in the stream: Mama Nature turning winter's storms into nourishment for the soil, fecundity, and beauty. This is what I must now learn to do with the stormy weather I've been passing through: turn it into beauty, turn it into art, so new life can germinate and bloom.
One example of a creative artist who does this is my friend Jane Yolen, who wrote her exquisite book of poems The Radiation Sonnets while her husband was undergoing treatment for the cancer that would eventually claim his life. This is what all artists must do: take whatever life gives us and "alchemize" it into our art (either directly and autobiographically, as in Jane's book, or indirectly; whatever approach works best), turning darkness into light, spinning straw into gold, transforming pain and hardship into what J.R.R. Tolkien called 'a miraculous grace.
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Terri Windling
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Fasting essentially slows (sometimes stops) rapidly dividing cells and triggers an ‘energetic crisis’ that makes cancer cells selectively vulnerable to chemo and radiation.” There
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Timothy Ferriss (Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers)
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We live in the irradiated lazy indoor cancer society.
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Steven Magee
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Licensing a nuclear power plant is in my view, licensing random premeditated murder. . . . It is not a question any more: radiation produces cancer, and the evidence is good all the way down to the lowest doses.*
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Darragh McKeon (All That Is Solid Melts into Air)
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Utility smart/AMR/AMI meters, cell phones and wi-fi are problem for people who do not want to get cancer, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) sickness, or Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS) in the future.
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Steven Magee
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Chemotherapy was developed from the chemical weapons of World War I; radiation resembled the nuclear weapons of World War II. Folkman imagined cancer as a disease of regeneration, not degeneration—a condition caused by the body growing, unlike most other illnesses, which are caused by the body decaying or failing.
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Kevin Ashton (How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery)
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The church of medicine has its own saintly patrons, the most prominent being Hypocrites who founded a new religion and its sacred oath and originated a new era of humanity. Then comes Paracelsus, the father of toxicology, who promoted herbal medicine, iatrochemistry and pharmacognosy. Next, Pasteur, the father of vaccines, who, like Moses, shepherded humanity away from the captivity of infectious diseases, led it towards the promised land of health and provided it with the tools for its salvation 8 (Clerc 2004: 7). There is Freud who founded a new sect within medicine— psychoanalysis (Cioffi 1998 [2010]; Rieff 1973) while Watson and Crick revealed to humanity the sacred mystery of life. Among these saints there are also martyrs, like the promoter of jogging Jim Fixx, who died of heart attack while running, or Rosalind Franklin, who died of cancer caused by her exposure to X-ray radiation.
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Anonymous
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How do you heal a soul? It has no marked place in the body, yet it is who we are, the essence of each of us. It radiates out of us when we are emotionally healthy and is palpable when a person has a damaged spirit. And how do we heal what’s wrong with health care that’s so lacking in … well, a good standard of care?
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Suzanne Somers (Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer and How To Prevent Getting it in the First Place)
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There is compelling evidence that a nutritional approach to post-op treatment of breast cancer far exceeds in safety and effectiveness any regimen of chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments.
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Suzanne Somers (Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer and How To Prevent Getting it in the First Place)
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UV spells disaster for your skin, and it’s been deemed a human carcinogen (the term given to any substance or radiation that is cancer causing) because it causes damage to the skin’s cellular DNA.
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Charlotte Cho (The Little Book of Skin Care: Korean Beauty Secrets for Healthy, Glowing Skin)
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Perri Sansi X-rays actually examine your teeth, soft tissues, gums and bones to give your dentist a complete picture. Extraoral X-rays are often used when a dentist suspects that there may be problems with the teeth or other parts of the dental system, such as toothache or tooth decay.
Super dentists perform X-rays when absolutely necessary, and protect their patients by letting them wear lead aprons to protect all their organs. Many parents are concerned about the radiation that comes with X-rays, but the risk of cancer, heart disease and other serious health problems is drastically low.
Pardip Sansi If you are concerned about radiation exposure, contact your dentist immediately so that your staff can assure you that all X-rays performed in the office are the safest measures that can be taken.
The purpose of X-rays is to enable your dentist to get a complete picture of your mouth and look for signs of oral problems. If you are a new patient, you should undergo an X-ray as soon as possible so that your new dentist can get a clear picture of you and your dental health.
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Perri Sansi
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The men we love are cancer, they eradicate where they are expected to spread love, escape the chaotic crisis they have constructed and destroy the latest dwelling they escape to because they believe they’re more intelligent than everyone else
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Elelwani Anita Ravhuhali (From Seeking To Radiating Love)
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Miss Chao was very dedicated in her practice of the Whole Body Prayer, and I had tremendous admiration for her. The biggest challenge was to calm her overactive mind, which was wasting energy that could otherwise be healing her. This is quite typical for an overachiever/Type A personality, whose mind is like a race car. In Miss Chao’s case, her brain “motor” was extremely hot, while her lower belly was cold, which presented a problem, as the Qi that we harness in the Whole Body Prayer begins in the gut. I used a metaphor to explain the problem to her: “When we put a kettle on the stove, the fire is below, and the water is on top. Your situation is the opposite—water on the bottom, fire above.” Years of unhealthy thinking habits had caused blockages in her meridians and had “rusted” the water pipes, so her spirit energy could not circulate. Decades of stagnation like this can lead to cancer. “Tumors are not your enemy,” I told Miss Chao. “It’s your nonstop lifestyle that’s eating your soul.” It was time to slow down. She accepted it. The results were extraordinary. Within three months of practicing the Whole Body Prayer, she was pain-free and could sleep without medication. Her swelling had disappeared. Her mood was uplifted. A few months later, her captivating smile was back, along with the light in her pretty eyes. Full of energy, she’d regained twenty pounds. In November 2002, nine months after she began the ZiJiu self-healing method, she went to the hospital for scans and a thorough examination. The doctors were astonished. They’d never seen a case like this. Miss Chao was entirely cancer-free. She had defeated stage 4 ovarian cancer without drugs, radiation, or any other external interventions. She’d simply used her own body’s innate power to harness cosmic Qi and heal itself. Given Miss Chao’s notoriety, this became a big news story. The three thousand friends and colleagues she’d hosted at her own “memorial service” one year earlier didn’t know what to make of this “miracle.” “It’s no ‘miracle,’” she told them. “It’s the science of Qigong.
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Yan ming Li (Whole Body Prayer: The Life-Changing Power of Self-Healing)
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While nuclear fusion is great achievement, it is important that we look into the negative aspects of it. The development of nuclear energy in the past was associated with the workers developing unusual cancers and dying premature deaths. My question is: What illnesses and diseases are these nuclear fusion workers developing and what are they dying from?
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Steven Magee