[Like many Americans, this woman’s mind is going to be the cause of her own disease.]
CaaaChing! CaaaChing! The cash register rings.
Tyranny of the appetite.
Posted on 09/20/2007 10:34:02 AM PDT by qam1
Her latest mammogram was clean. But Deborah Lindner, 33, was tired of constantly looking for the lump.
Ever since a DNA test had revealed her unusually high chance of developing breast cancer, Ms. Lindner had agonized over whether to have a mastectomy, a procedure that would reduce her risk by 90 percent.
She had stared at herself in the mirror, imagining the loss of her familiar shape. She had wondered, unable to ask, how the man she had just started dating would feel about breasts that were surgically reconstructed, incapable of feeling his touch or nursing his children.
But she was sure that her own mother, who had had chemotherapy and a mastectomy after a bout with the cancer that had ravaged generations of her family, would agree it was necessary.
“It could be growing inside of me right now,” she told her mother on the phone in February, pacing in her living room here. “We could find it any time.”
Waiting for an endorsement, she added, “I could schedule the surgery before the summer.”
But no approval came.
“Oh, sweetheart,” her mother said. “Let’s not rush into this.”
Joan Lindner, 63, is a cancer survivor. Her daughter, by contrast, is one of a growing number of young women who call themselves previvors because they have learned early that they are genetically prone to breast cancer, and have the chance to act before it strikes.
As they seek to avoid the potentially lethal consequences of a mutant gene, many of them turn to relatives who share its burden. But at a moment when a genetic test has made family ties even more tangible, they are often at their most strained.........
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Agreed. The responses here represent much that is wrong with the population on this site, IMHO.
Every woman over forty in my family had breast cancer. Most survived it, but all are gone now. I don't doubt I have this gene and I just turned forty this year. If I could do this surgery and avoid the pain and trauma of having to go through this cancer I would do it in a heartbeat. No question. I don't understand how anyone could or should have a problem with that.
Oh that is just utter nonsense that sounds as if it came directly from Gloria Steinem herself.
It takes two things to trigger cancer. Initiation and promotion.
Initiation is a change in the underlying structure of the cell that in and of itself can cause cancer. Depending on they type of tissue, the latency period can be months or years.
Promotion is something that can speed up the development of cancer after the initiation has occurred. It does not cause cancer by itself.
The gene would be iniation. It can cause cancer in and of itself. Basically its a question of when rather than if.
Estrogen is a promotor. It does not appear to iniate cancer but will promote the development of cancer in breast cells that are iniated making that cancer appear sooner and grow faster.
Unfortunately, a young woman with the gene is now carrying cells that are iniated and promoted, the combination with will most likelihood of causing cancer.
I suggest you review:
The Hallmarks of Cancer by Douglas Hanahan and Robert A. Weinberg, January 7, 2000.
The good thoughts=good health paradigm is a blame the victim mentality that sells books and programs for ‘right thinking’ to the credulous looking for easy answers, but without actually doing any of the work necessary to prevent, treat or research the disease.
In general, the dumbed down masses are hypocondriacs and abusers of OTC and prescription meds. I can solve the health care crisis straight away .... stop enabling those who are obsessed with receiving medical service for every little ache, pain and sniffle.
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