Disease and Mortality

By Owen Walcher

While life expectancy has increased from 47 years to 76 years in the last 100 years, more and more people are getting cancer and other diseases. How can we be living longer, if more and more of us are getting sick every year?

Part of this anomaly has to do with how statistics can be misinterpreted. For one thing, infant mortality has fallen from 165 per 100 births in 1900 to only 7 deaths per 1000 births in 2000. This skews life expectancy by almost 10 years. But what of those other 29 years gained?

Although more and more people are getting sick, over 53% of all cancer-related deaths in the United States were associated with four sites: lungs, colon, prostate (primarily male) and breast (female). And from 1990 to 1998, death rates have increased from 1.7% per year among men, and 2.9% per year among women. So, not only are more people getting sick, but more people are dying from cancer than ever before.

Why are there more incidences of cancer, and higher death rates? Many would say it has to do with the foods that we eat here in the US, specifically the genetically modified seeds used to grow our fruits and vegetables, and the hormones and anti-biotic additives ingested to increase size and reduce death in animals.

Others would say that it has to do with a person’s karma, and that there is something in their mental, emotional or spiritual bodies that has caused this outbreak of disease. Regardless of your own opinion, more and more people are looking to alternative food sources such as organics to reduce their risk of getting a disease, whether fatal or simply debilitating.

I was diagnosed with testicular cancer in September 2006, and as a 45 year old, was considered too old to get this type of cancer. But it was the same type of cancer as Lance Armstrong had, so it much be easily beaten. What I learned about cancer since that first diagnosis is frightening.

I had the initial operation to remove the primary source of the cancer, and then found out that it had spread to my lymph nodes. Testicular cancer is well studied, and there is a known regime of chemotherapy that works in 98% of all recorded cases. It is a grueling therapy (most folks get chemo therapy once a week or every two or three weeks, this is an everyday therapy), and include not one but three different chemo drugs, not to mention the other 3-5 drugs used to mitigate the side effects.

Alas, after the chemotherapy, my lymph nodes still showed signs of cancer, so off to surgery again, this time it was major, with an 8 day stay in the hospital, with the side effect (in my case) of getting lymphedema in the left leg. I am off tomorrow to get another CAT scan, to see if all is well inside me.

So, cancer has gone from a word one hears about related to death and disease, to a personal attack on my body. If you or someone you love has cancer, or some other nasty disease, we are here to help. Know that new cures are being discovered every day, and that there is hope for you and your loved ones.

Owen Walcher is an author and recovering from cancer. Visit his disease and cancer website that lets folks who are sick or who have family that are sick discuss their disease, cures, and non-traditional ways of helping folks get better at http://www.diseasesdiscussed.com/

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