A MONSTER CALLED CANCER: LAYMAN’S PERSPECTIVE
I am writing about cancer as a layman, a total ignoramus because, on matters medical, and specifically cancer, I am a layman: I don’t know anything worth calling home about. And ignorance, I am told, is a very dangerous thing. In my country, cancer is worse than the death penalty: it is death itself.
I know that cancer kills. I have seen many go back to dust whence they came from. I know that it has three ways to treat it, namely surgery to remove the tumour; chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I have heard people say that these modes of treatment help to spread the cancer more quickly than is the case for one who has not yet enrolled in the many cancer therapies. Is this true?
This layman called Me wishes to do lots of speculations in this paper. At the same time, he would wish to ask a few questions that, he wishes, would raise our concerns over the disease in such a manner that they would prick our collective conscience into action. The action will, hopefully, dehorn this monster so that our people do not die left right and centre.
The sages say that prevention is better than cure. The first question therefore would be, what causes cancer, that we may protect ourselves from it? Is there an animal that injects whatever it is that they inject into humans to trigger the formation of cancerous cells in our bodies, that we may protect ourselves from it? We sleep in treated mosquito nets to avoid bites from mosquitoes, and we successfully keep malaria at bay.
Could cancer, secondly, be a painful reminder that we are leading passive lifestyle? Could it be nature’s backlash at our nouveau riche status, reminding us of the harsh laws of karma that ridicule and rubbish any effort we exert to make our lives better? In my country – and I believe this scenario is replicated world-over – we have many labour-saving devices; gadgets that have made completion of our chores a button-away. They have also made our lives very passive. We have tractors for farming. We no longer dig. We have lawn mowers to manicure lawns. Sadly, we no longer slash the compound. We have bodaboda – motorcycles – for easy movement from point A to point B. We no longer walk. Remote control makes it cosy to change the TV channel without any fear of being caught watching something inappropriate. Lifts make accessing the topmost floor as easy as entering the lift and walking out. And the list is endless. Could the lack of physical exercise be taking toll on our health through, among others, cancer?
Then there is diet. Could the food that we gorge ourselves with be killing us? In other words, are we eating our way to the grave, courtesy of the food and, thankfully, to cancer? We all know how the food we eat is grown. The agro-chemicals applied to the fields are enough to smoke the life out of us. True, they maximize production. But is that all they do? Then there are genetically modified organisms (GMOs) whose genetic make-up, sadly, does not make up for the nutrients we are so much in need of. Affluence is the icing on this cake, once again. Money can buy sweet stuff, but the sweetness ends at the taste buds.
The other suspect in this cancerous quest is pollution. Everything around us is so polluted that, but for something inexplicable, we could all drop dead any time. Our air is polluted from fumes generously emitted from our industries. The effluence finds its way to our rivers and makes our water polluted. The land is not spared either. Other pollutants are worse than we could imagine, because of their nature – undetectable – and their effect on the human body – fatal. Radioactive radiations are a real threat. These could be a major cause for worry.
The list of cancer-causing suspects for this layman is endless. And it is sad that health professionals do not seem to know what they are up against. Worse is the fact that governments have not done enough to keep the disease at bay by making sure that the citizens are protected from it. Way forward? Research. Know what causes it. Prevent it from causing it. And invest in this research.
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