There’s a big article in the Washington Post today about strokes.
The headline reads, “Strokes are common, but you can avert them”
Reading the piece, the prevention hints are “lower your blood pressure,” “quit smoking,” “trim your waist,” and “drink moderately, if at all,” among others.
These are all good hints for all of us to follow, but it hit me that the same could be said for lowering your risk of cancer too. As the years have gone by and dieticians have entered the expert field in cancer world, diet has taken on a much bigger piece of the prevention pie. Life style is part of the prevention picture. Remember, experts from the U.S. Agriculture Dept. have just come up with a new food group pyramid too. In fact, it’s not a pyramid anymore. It’s a plate. And there are five major food groups, not six or four. Dairy, Protein, Grains, Fruits and Veggies.
And don’t forget the exercise. They can’t put that on the plate, it’s considered a big part of overall health too.
I know all this makes sense and it’s good advice, but I think back and can’t help but remember a big, healthy, 6-foot-5-inch man in this house, who was the healthiest guy I knew. Sure he probably would have included chocolate somewhere in those five major food groups, but he was a strong, healthy guy, until cancer came to call. No question, in Leroy’s case, genetics played a role.
And sometimes, as we all know, you can do all the right things, but if that genome has other plans for your future, there’s not a protein or a vegetable that’s going to make a difference. It will be what it will be.
June 8, 2011 @ 8:43 am
So five year mark just past, no drinking, no smoking, weight gain from treatments and then some lost, health eating, exercising to beat the devil, I am the picture of health now, a poster child for surviving cancer and returning to the ‘normal world’.
Wham, heart trouble, weeks in and out of hospital, clots, drugs, cardiologist seem to feel treatments is the reason for all this.
Joke to all is the heart trouble was found in three month xray/scan just before my five year mark.
So I’ll pick the combo of genetics and treatments behind door number three.
But I would not have survived the initial heart failure without having been in such good shape.
So taking the time to eat properly, practice moderation in all things, quit all tobacco and find the time despite of all the ‘demands’ of friends, work and family to exercise, it’s better than the alternative(s)
June 8, 2011 @ 10:30 am
Sorry to hear the news about your heart problems Brady, but LOVE your attitude. I am sure you are right that you would have had many more problems if you had not been in good shape to face this new problem.
I think we all realize that the cancer treatment sometimes has more “bad” effects than good but our primary objective at that point is to just survive and to think about the other in the future, if we make it there. It’s important to keep that fact in mind when we have achieved some semblance of “recovery” from the cancer, if these worries that we put aside become realities.
I guess we are all living on borrowed time…sometimes we just don’t stop and realize it. That’s why it is so important to “live” in the days that we have. Trust that your heart doctor has things under control and that you’ll soon be back to normal again. Congrats on passing that “5 year” mark!!
June 7, 2011 @ 8:25 pm
I know it never hurts to keep your body fit…but healthy? Who knows when it is and when it isn’t? Eventhough Jim could have taken better care of himself, his family history was terrible. After he, his brother and his father had bypass surgery in consecutive years a friend told him that it might be a good family to find out you were adopted into. I think genetics dealt him a lousy hand of cards to play and no matter what, he would have had the same health issues. Now…the doctor that brushed his prostate issues off early on (we didn’t know we should be worried) and said it was just an infection…he was a big contributing factor to it getting out of control.
June 7, 2011 @ 6:49 pm
Cancer….I know about all too well! Strokes.. I am just learning about. I just had a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) about 2 weeks ago. I could not talk. I knew the words but they would not come out in a coherent fashion that made sense. I spent the weekend in the hospital. Now for the upsetting news..at least I think so. Strokes could be clots that have dislodged and find their way into your lung or brain, etc. Or they could be plaque from cholesterol. I had just had a complete physical the week before and everything was normal according to my internist. My cholesterol was within the normal and acceptable range. We eat the good stuff mostly; I exercise about 4 times per week on a treadmill or elliptical for about 30 minutes each time; don’t smoke; get checkups, etc. In the hospital my overall cholesterol was 170. So my doctor puts me on a statin drug to lower my cholesterol and one to help prevent my platelets from clumping. My wife had triple bypass back in March. Her cholesterol was and has been within normal limits in all of her checkups. Where she goes for cardiac rehab is a guy in his early 60s who is a marathoner..everything normal based upon tests but he underwent a quintuple bypass. My point is that the tests we all assume that tell us how we are doing are giving so many of us a false sense of security. But what choice do we have unless we elect to have an invasive angiogram to be the definitive test.
The same applies to the cancer world. We can do all of the “right things” but cancer still makes its appearance in our lives. If we have signs or symptoms that suggest it might be cancer and if the tests confirm the worst, it is generally too late then…the cancer has usually spread and taken up residence in some organs. There is no easy answer or even an answer that we can depend upon. We can only do our best and hope and pray that strokes and cancer are not programmed in our genome. It seems that some of us have a faulty genome. The human condition is mostly flawed. BUT if you look closely, 10s of thousands refuse to give in and move forward each day showing that in spite of the hand they are dealt, their lives are meaningful beyond description no matter the age, the economic conditions, education or any other flimsy measures. No test measures the heart and soul!
June 7, 2011 @ 6:22 pm
A friend of mine overheard her aunts and mother talking about ovarian cancer. She was like -wait a minute -when were you going to tell me. One of them said-we think this is ‘personal’.
My brother in law had colon cancer surgary and he has lost about 25 pounds in a short time. The surgery was twice as long as scheduled because the doctors needed to take extra care. When he is stronger he will start chemo.
I wish people shared unpleasant and personal items with people that share the risks.