Thoughts on cancer…

Last night on the news and today on the ‘net there is a lot of talk about the significant reduction of breast cancer in women. The medical experts believe that this is due to the facts surrounding hormone therapy that is available for women. I totally agree with this. 7-10 years ago doctors were giving hormone replacement pills to women like they were candy. Two years before my wife got breast cancer, her screenings were totally normal.

Then our family doctor believed she would do good on a pill which would help her down the road. Within a year, she had Stage III cancer in her breast. That hormone pill was removed from her medications and she has been doing well, now going on seven years cancer-free.

But that event along with others make me wonder if we really need all the medications we are on? My Dad was a diabetic. He had to have a shot of insulin everyday and I do remember him having a multi-vitamin every morning and not much else. My Mom? I can’t remember any medications she took. Maybe they did, but it isn’t like it is today. There seems to be an illness for everything under the sun and a medication that will make it all better. Then years later, we find out that while some of these meds may have helped with some kind of an illness they may have caused a more serious and complex set of new problems. Our bodies have the “tools” to deal with most of our injuries and illnesses if we let them, but we seem to make them weaker with the many different medications we take.

One more thing, a group of smokers from Massachusetts want the tobacco companies to start paying for their medical screenings. These smokers, on the average have been smoking for over 20 years and more then a pack a day. When will we say enough is enough? We have become a society of people who won’t accept responsibility for our actions. These smokers knew what smoking would do to them and knew the consequences of their actions. Yet, they don’t want to say no one forced me to smoke. It is my responsibility to accept the fate of my actions.

I guess I’m just saying that I’m tired of people not accepting responsibility for anything in their lives and I’m tired of doctors who no longer want to treat illnesses by first finding a cause before dispensing pills to “cure it.”