And, eventually, everyone dies of something. There's no such thing as eternal, perpetual health.
Which doesn't mean medical research, medical care, and personal care aren't worthwhile. My title here aside, I want to live a long, happy, healthy life, and I want that for my family, individually and all together.
But it does mean there is a point of diminishing returns. I have no desire to smoke, but I also have no desire to give up bacon. At some point, the measures you have to take, the things you have to give up, exceed in present value what you're hoping to get out of the future.
And the net effect of avoiding them may be a trivial one. For all the headlines this week about grilling and frying meat being INSTANT, CANCEROUS DEATH!, the fact is that's obviously not so, the actual mechanisms for the correlation that's being seen aren't understood (causality isn't established), and the actual risk factor hasn't been figured out (how does eating a steak compare to driving across town to a tofu joint as far as risks go?).
So — don't be stupid. Don't be panicky. Don't take unnecessary risks. But don't expect to find absolute safety in fleeing from every possible source of cancer.
Reshared post from +Les Jenkins
Is it time to just assume life causes cancer? http://stupidevilbastard.com/2014/01/is-it-time-to-just-assume-life-causes-cancer/
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Is it time to just assume life causes cancer? | Stupid Evil Bastard
Frying bacon, for example,produces significant levels of PAHs, probably due to volatilization of carbon in the bacon itself. An Iranian study published last year found that people who develop certain kinds of gastrointestinal cancers are more likely to have a diet high in fried rather than …
It strikes me as I get older that moderation is probably the key to a healthy and happy life. (Well, that and good genes.). Eat a steak once a month. Enjoy bacon on the weekends. Have your cake, eat it, too, but just have an occasional slice, not an entire cake every day.
As you live longer, you experience more random events. Thus, for all those events whose probability of occurrence does not diminish with age, your likelihood of suffering them increases. Since the likelihood of cancer increases with age…
+Gary Roth Yup. Medical science has knocked down all sorts of conditions that used to kill people. Not surprisingly, deaths and occurences of various other legal conditions have filled the gap.