HOW TO LIE WITH MEDICINE - CANCER
MARIANGELA PEDRO
PART TWO - sweeping the relevance of knowing the causes under the carpet.
Fever. We must promptly lower it. But it is common sense the causes of it must be searched. Otherwise, fever will be back (once the patient is still alive).
I could not think of a situation - whether within the medical arena or not - where the identification of causes would not be paramount. That was true, until I decided to read more carefully articles about cancer.
What makes someone lovesick?Lovesick? OK. Refocusing, I now ask, 'What makes someone fall in love?' "Chemistry" - lately the most fashionable explaination that does not really explain anything; curiously, it remains the most cited. Second, astrology. Third, finding one's soulmate. Forth... The answers are not the issue here, but the number of them.
Virtually anything can be included.
And so is with cancer.
What such profusion of "causes" disguises is that the causes are actually unknown.
Craziness? Who is crazy then?
Retrieving that text quoted in part one will help us answer, as we go on analyzing it.
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=2587
Definition of Cancer causes
Cancer causes: In most individual cases of cancer, the exact cause of cancer is unknown. The causes may include increased genetic susceptibility; environmental insults, such as chemical exposure or smoking cigarettes; lifestyle factors, including diet; damage caused by infectious disease; and many more.Although they are not causes per se, many characteristics can influence the development of cancer. These include gender, race, age, and the health of the patient's immune system. When common causes for a type of cancer are discovered, this information can be very helpful in prevention and sometimes in treatment.
For example, the link between overexposure to the sun and skin cancer is well-known, and individuals can easily reduce their risk by avoiding suntanning and sunburns. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer for both men and women.
The second most common cancer in men is prostate cancer, in women it is breast cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer for both men and women in the U.S.
Cancer is NOT contagious.
Firstly, notice that ambiguity is back: "definition of cancer causes". What to take for 'definition'? One option: explain what the terms "cancer causes" mean, as if they were not self-explanatory. Like this: "Cancer causes are the factors that cause cancer." Another, the second option also provided in the Cambridge Dictionary, is to 'clear show', that is, identify. Holding to this, let us study this excerpt from the text above:
When common causes for a type of cancer are discovered, this information can be very helpful in prevention and sometimes in treatment.
For example, the link between overexposure to the sun and skin cancer is well-known, and individuals can easily reduce their risk by avoiding suntanning and sunburns. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer for both men and women.
Any smart student knows that 'link' is not the same as 'cause'. The text says "the link... is well-known". That should be understood as, "we do not have a clue what the causes are", despite the contradictory assertion about "discovery of common causes".
Illustrating, in winter there is more incidence of the flu. So the link is between winter and the flu. Thanks to the same line of reasoning, there is also a link between traveling by bus in rainy days and finding yourself with the flu on the following day. Then, an ironic (perhaps also incompetent) doctor recommends you not to travel by bus when it rains, and that you should walk instead. 'Experts' in cancer make the same kind of recommendation.
It is easily "felt" that traveling by bus is not the cause of the flu. Is it the rain? Neither. So how come your doctor tells you to walk in the rain instead of taking the bus? The cause of the flu is contamination by any of the variations of a type of virus, favored by the fact all the bus windows are closed once it starts raining. And people do not normally even open them again once the rain is over. So do not avoid the bus or the rain, despite the "link", but avoid instead being in the campanion of many in places with poor air circulation. And also avoid some doctors.
The plethora of "causes"
In most individual cases of cancer, the exact cause of cancer is unknown. The causes may include increased genetic susceptibility; environmental insults, such as chemical exposure or smoking cigarettes; lifestyle factors, including diet; damage caused by infectious disease; and many more. (from the text being analyzed)
Is there anything not on that list? Only religion. It is fashionable to link religion with miraculous cure, showing celebrities mainly. As I see it, there must be a partnership between the industries concerned, that is, between churches and medicine altars.
So we get to our main point here: why do we take cancer "treatment" in so high consideration, even though causes are unknown? Why do we just throw out the imperative principle elsewhere, which prescribes that causes have to be identified in order to get to a solution, a cure?
Being intentionally ambiguous
Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer for both men and women.
The second most common cancer in men is prostate cancer, in women it is breast cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer for both men and women in the U.S.
Just after the falacious assertion confusing cause and link, the author jumps to the list above of occurence of cancer types, being the most frequent cancer presented - no coincidence - the one related to the "link" mentioned, thus given the false impression that, despite the "unknown" in the beginning of the text, the "cause" of the most common cancer - skin cancer - is "well-known". The underlying message is, "So, stick to us, your only hope".
And you have swallowed that, I know!
All this hidden in that short text?
And there is more. No kidding.
THE ENGROSSING INDUSTRY
... the link... is well-known, and individuals can easily reduce their risk by avoiding suntanning and sunburns. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer for both men and women.
So here is where sun filters producers get the "inspiration" for their sunny profits. Do not go in the open without a filter. Never! I am afraid of the filter most. For centuries, people that worked in the rural sun prematurely ruined their sikn with deep wrinkles. But skin cancer became overspread... in the city, where people barely get sun. Avoid sunburn and suntanning, says the text. OK. Go get artificial suntanning (and maybe sunburns as well). And, I suppose, cancer also.
Last, if only listed
"Cancer is NOT contagious", vigourously proclaim the text, which is the only truth in it. Indeed, I do not question this statement, but a lot of silliness about cancer has certainly been highly contagious.
I am not against any decision regarding one's health. It is not my job to take sides. My role is to destroy alienation and the effects of manipulation. And strongly defend "I do not know" whenever it is the truth.
So we have to honestly admit we claim to treat cancer when we do not know its causes, going thus against a much-pursued principle. We must admit we go for that "treatment" so concerned with the chances of overcoming the consequences of such intervention that we place cancer itself second.
Above all, we must admit one loses his sense, his reasoning once being diagnosed with cancer. People close to that person also do.
As a result, this is the perfect circumstance to fall pray to the Industry of Medicine. I do hope you and your relations find here some strength and thus the means to change this awful picture. Before it is really too late. Too late for whatever you may have in mind now. If this seems so hard to accomplish, cancer is likely - as I so conclude - to be just the last straw on an already lost camel's back.
