Not the first
person who ever asked this; not the first time we’ve ever asked it – http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-do-so-many-women-have-breast-cancer.html
is there an ANSWER?
Anecdotally,
I’ve heard that the reason so many people are dying of cancer is because we
simply live longer. The average life expectancy of all Humans on Earth is 67.2
years.
So? That seems
like a really short time! How can that be? What did it USED to be?
Hmmm…according to Wikipedia (always my initial go-to source), the average
lifespan in Greece, Rome, and Inca/Mayan times was 28; in the Caliphates of
northern Africa and the Middle East it was 35. That was what, like 2500 years
ago? Right.
So it’s pretty
much doubled.
I’ve heard that
the reason we get cancer now is that even though cancer was PRESENT then, it
didn’t have enough time to kill the person it was growing in. People died of
old age before symptoms of various cancers like unintentional weight
loss, fever, being excessively tired, and changes to the skin appeared. As
well, coughing, difficult or painful swallowing, changes in bowel habits,
easily felt masses, coughing up blood, or blood in the bowels, the bladder, or the
uterus, localized pain or even painless swelling, and possibly a buildup of
fluid in the chest or abdomen could be attributed to lots of things in the
ancient world, up to and including the Black Death!
While
Hippocrates observed tumors of various types (including breast cancer) in
ancient times when life expectancy was only 28 years; and the Egyptians were
actually removing tumors 2000 years before the birth of Christ, no one had a
real handle on cancer until scientists and doctors started to pool their
knowledge in the 1700s and 1800s. By then, life expectancy had increased to
about 36 years.
“….cancer…[has] always been with us. People have been
getting cancer from the earliest days of their existence (whenever that might
be). Heck, most animals get cancer. Even some plants get cancer-like growths...the
potential for cancer is in each and every living creature…we also know quite
convincingly, and all nonsensical
prehistoric arguments aside, that the incidence of cancer has increased
dramatically over the last century.” (Written by a man who has no credentials
except that he likes to write disparagingly…)
“Incidence: In 2000-2004, across Australia, there were
3,083 cancers diagnosed among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The
most common cancers diagnosed among Indigenous males in this period were of the
lung, bronchus and trachea (19% of all male cancer reported), prostate cancer
(10%), colorectal cancer (10%), cancer of unknown primary site (6%), and
lymphomas (5%). The most common cancers diagnosed among Indigenous females were
breast cancer (25% of all female cancer cases reported), cancer of the lung,
bronchus and trachea (12%), colorectal cancer (9%), cancer of the cervix (7%)
and cancer of unknown primary site (6%). In the same period, more new cases of
cancer were reported among Indigenous females (1,598) than Indigenous males
(1,485) compared with the non-Indigenous population.” (http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/chronic-conditions/cancer/reviews/our-review)
So, what about cancer among non-aboriginal Australians?
Go to the site above and scroll down to the chart. If Aboriginal Australians,
who eat pretty much the way they always have (this isn’t just “city aboriginals”
– this is ALL of them), have cancer – some types being more common among THEM
than non-indigenous Australians. Statistics speak more loudly than someone who
uses the phrase “nonsensical prehistoric arguments”.
Conclusions? None really except to say that cancer has
been with us for a long, long time. There are some cancers that were more
common then, some are more common now. “Why
are so many people dying of cancer?” So many is a relative term. And the fact
is that it’s not important, really. Even mister “nonsensical” and the
Australian government will agree that cancers of ALL TYPES needs to be
destroyed.
Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cancer,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy,
http://www.jonbarron.org/alternative-cancer/historic-growth-rates-of-cancer
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