GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

15-09-2004, 05:15 PM

lid writes:

Again, cancer takes years from the time a cell starts dividing
uncontrollably, until the time cancer becomes inoperable -- in most
cases.

I'm sure glad you added that "in most cases" because it doesn't "always"
take years. My sister died the day before her 21st birthday (the day
after Thanksgiving) of an aggressive cancer that "only occurs in old
people" (her doctor's words) with the chances of her getting it "one in a
million" (again, her doctor's words). As near as they could determine, it
started weeks before her second baby was born that February. That would
make it having been there far less than a year before her August surgery
which revealed the cancer to the doctors, and required extensive surgery
in a hopeless attempt to save her life. Even if they were off on their
estimate of start time by several months, it would still make it less than
year before surgery. Without surgery because of her extreme and
increasing pain, she would have died with only an autopsy revealing that
it was cancer . . . only the pain and lump were any symptoms which were
attributed to an enlarged spleen.

When cancer growth is talked about, one must take into consideration the
age of the patient . . . it commonly grows much faster in young patients
than older patients. That has to do with cell growth and regeneration
which becomes slower as we age.

And, yes, very healthy people can get cancer. A local doctor, a
competition iron man athlete, who I would have identified as the
healthiest person I knew if asked, died of brain cancer. He,
undoubtedly, was yet another victim of former Hanford employees.

So, a diet adopted in the last year pre-diagnosis, is of little
relevance.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see studies that show that a sudden
change in diet (of less than three years duration) has much of an effect
on warding off cancer which, as you said, usually takes several years to
reach a point of detection. Helping get it under control might be another
matter altogether since the mental attitude factor is an important part of
any cure. Often people who have a good mental attitude beat unbeatable
odds, against cancer and other medical issues, leaving doctors puzzled. I
have had the good fortune to know several of those in my life. We humans
are quite a complex machine with no one-size-fits-all answer or solution.
The best we can do is take as good as care of ourselves are we are able to
do, trying to educate ourselves to what is best (versus what we want!) and
implement it into our lives. That is likely a large part for most of us
on this group in having our own gardens. Even the few months a year we
can eat fresh-from-the-garden veggies is a big plus for our bodies. I,
for one, am not elated each fall as the garden is gone. As I type, the
nights are cooler and production is definitely down. I console myself with
knowing I can dig 'taters all winter.g

So, can we still plant garlic this late?

Glenna