Rants

Rants

1) Breast Cancer

The ads for the weekend to end breast cancer is EVERYWHERE. It is so nauseating!!!!
As a woman, with boobs, some would say I have a right to rant about this. As a woman who has not suffered or known someone who has suffered with breast cancer (cancer, yes; breast cancer, no). I guess it is more the media focus/obsession than anything else. My frustration lays in the facts.

First, American women are 4 to 6 times more likely to die of heart disease than of breast cancer.
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/heartdisease/risk/287.html

Second, "While the risk of breast cancer should not be diminished," Greenberger said, "women need to know that lung cancer actually kills more, claiming the lives of almost 70,000 American women each year."
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/hearttruth/press/fear_doubled.htm

Third, It is estimated that 10-15% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed in people that have never smoked. Unfortunately, most of these patients are women, and it has become increasingly more common for non-smoking women to be diagnosed with lung cancer. Statistics show that 1 out of 5 women diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked, compared to 1 out of 10 men.
http://cancer.about.com/od/lungcancer/a/nonsmokers.htm
As the number of men with lung cancer declines, the American Cancer Society estimates that 73,020 women will die in the United States of lung cancer this year, more than those who will die from breast, ovarian and uterine cancers combined.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Health/story?id=1014929&page=1

I think you get my point. Whether it is society's focus of breasts being the epitome of female sexuality in our culture or that the loss of woman's boobs are something both sexes fear, or that breast cancer is not your fault and lung cancer is. Breast cancer is overshadowing other diseases.

Heart disease is a concern, because there are lifestyle changes that people can make an any age to prevent (yes I said lifestyle and not drugs). I would like to see more awareness given to heart disease (really I would prefer it if breast cancer did not outshine heart disease). If you want to show your support, February is the month to do so.
In Canada
http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/c.ikIQLcMWJtE/b.3835787/k.CCA0/Volunteer_for_Heart_Month_2009.htm
In the USA
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/hearttruth/index.htm

Lung cancer, because premenopausal women whom are nonsmokers are dying of lung cancer (and a lung cancer diagnosis is like a death sentence). Would you judge a woman who drank alcohol had breast cancer (http://www.cancer.ca/Canada-wide/Prevention/Eat%20well/Make%20healthy%20eating%20choices/Alcohol%20and%20cancer.aspx?sc_lang=en) Why would you judge someone who has lung cancer (now if in 2008, that person was in their 20s as I am, I'd be like "you know through school as well as I did that smoking was bad" but those older than me, did not have the same foresight. Regardless, they are dying, they are addictive, refrain from judging and give them a break, eh.

Whatever you medical charity of choice, exercising and eating healthy is always a good prevention technique. I am not sure what doc I heard on the tv say, but in the past food was used as a way to heal and treat diseases. Medicine is great, but why not use food as well as medicine to heal the body? I want to find a doctor that does that.


2) Midwives and Drug Induced birth

First, I am the person that often refers to children as "it" or "offspring". I'll reproduce sometime in my 30s after my career has a good foundation and I am married. To say the least, I am not obsessed with having 8 pounds shooting out my vagina. However, this documentary I saw recently got me intrigued in this topic. Ricki Lake made this documentary on childbirth in America. Why am I bringing up this topic? I am watching 20/20 and they are talking about "orgasmic birth" http://www.orgasmicbirth.com/. After watching the Business of Being Born (http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/), I have a slight idea of natural, drug-free childbirth but this is the first time I've heard of orgasmic childbirth.

When I was in high school and my friend told me her sister had a midwife and she was having her baby at home, I could not understand why someone would give up a doctor. Who would do that? Was it safe? Why would you want to be induced my animal sperm rather than drugs? This documentary answered a lot of those questions, but for me it is just the beginning. I have investigating to do before I decide to reproduce.

For more info in Canada on midwives, http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/
In the USA, http://www.americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/midwives.html
North America, http://mana.org/


http://www.canadianmidwives.org/links.htm