WORLD CANCER DAY ..February 4, 2017

WORLD  CANCER  DAY    February 4, 2017

The word ‘cancer’ brings to my memory ‘SELVA RANI’. She was the first tribal girl in her village who went to school by trekking through tracts of forest. With ‘determination in mind’, she got -- a district first grade in Higher Secondary exam; a merit seat in B.Sc. Nursing; a gold medal in sports; a job in a cancer hospital; a recognition for dedicated service.  She completed post-graduate studies in July 2012 and, alas, she died of CANCER on 23rd of September 2012 at a young age.  Even during the period of her cancer treatment she rendered her free service at 60 medical camps.

Mr. J. J. Bharathi, a role model social worker of exemplary qualities of a good human being, made 'Selva Rani' immortal by founding a trust, after her name, called “SELVA CHARITABLE TRUST” in Erode which has been doing yeoman service. To know the activities of the trust, you may go to the ‘Facebook page’ of the trust. The members of the trust have been doing a praiseworthy service to the downtrodden, the needy and the society at large, especially in the remote tribal areas in forests.

Now, what is CANCER ? Truth to tell, we don’t know much about it. Of course, we have moved a lot from ‘Radium needles’ to ‘Robotic surgery’;  from ‘Family doctor’ to ‘Oncologist’;  from ‘Horoscope predictions’ to ‘Predictive gene testing’.  You might have heard the story of ‘Predictive gene testing’ and the American Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie. She had her both breasts removed surgically in 2013 at the age of 37 to prevent development of breast cancer in future (preventive double mastectomy), on testing positive for the gene BRCA 1, though she had no symptoms at all. We don’t know why the legend, Steve Jobs, the most outstanding ‘digital brain’ behind the APPLE (iPod, iPad, iTunes, & iCloud) died of cancer.

Incidence of cancer is said to be increasing day by day. Bad lifestyle; bad foods; bad habits; bad industries; bad gadgets; bad luxuries; bad modernity; bad consumerism; bad cosmetics; bad business; bad environment, etc. are said to be the promoting factors. Cancer is just one band of the wide spectrum of morbidity and mortality caused by these ‘bad’ things.  Unless a course-correction is made, mankind is doomed to perish in due course of time.  Wake up, dear man !

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently (2013) added the polluted air which we are breathing to the list of cancer-producing agents ! Quit the planet !  Instead of ‘cleaning’ the planet and ourselves, we are focusing on medical and surgical ‘cleaning’ of the affected people, by establishing a $1.72 trillion cancer business.  Nowadays, we see a lot of high-powered ads highlighting tangible improvements with survival and quality of life with new approaches like ‘Molecular Targeted Therapy’, Liquid Biopsy & Next-generation Sequencing’, ‘Conformal Radiotherapy’, ‘Immunotherapy’, etc.

Perhaps, it is the genetics (indirectly, heredity / constitution / biological phenomena / environment / nature / God / destiny / superconsciousness / supreme being / creator of geo-biological phenomena / fate / 'karma' or whatever) that play a major role in causing natural morbidity and mortality. And, perhaps, only some modification of the constitution in the body can be made by what all we preach (but not practise !) about health.  Curiously, in a study by Nir Barzilal (Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York) about 500 persons who were in the habit of smoking, drinking and eating junk food were found to be in the age group of 95-109 !  The researcher said that they possibly posses “additional longevity genes” to buffer them against the bad lifestyle. Genetics may be more important than habits, but it should not be a statistical excuse for indulgence.  We still do not know all about the genes.  There must be other ‘intermediate risk genes’ and other known (heredity, lifestyle, etc.) and unknown factors.  All the same, genetics should not be a cause for worry for those whose relatives succumbed to cancer. I know of some who left the world prematurely due to that worry rather than the 'predicted' cancer. No last word is said about the cause or cure for cancer. That is what makes it a wonderful field for commerce !  There is "the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in 'Modern Medicine' -- so also in cancer research, as is evident in the following quote:

“Everyone should know that most cancer research is largely a fraud
and that the major cancer research organisations are derelict in their duties to the people who support them.”
                                                                                 --  Linus Pauling, Ph.D. (Two-time Nobel Prize winner)

      

It is curious to see the same number (6) of alphabets in TEMPLE,  CHURCH  and  MOSQUE;  and the same number (5) of alphabets in GEETA,  BIBLE  and  QURAN !!

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