the cancer epidemic

Hello everyone

Had a great day yesterday, completed 3 more songs and 8 more to do then I am done with the cd, well at least until I have to work on the cover. Ben, the producer, has a friend from Florida who plays indigenous flutes, who is visiting this week and will add a few tracks to a few of the songs.

I guess I have really gotten out of touch recently, not seeing the news at all anymore. Overheard Ken and Josh talking about the "swine flu" and heard all about the epidemic. I could not help but wonder how the cancer epidemic seems to just go unnoticed.

Since 1940 the number of cancers has increased in all industrialized countries, and this trend has worsened  since 1975, and particularly in the young. Between 1975 and 1994 the cancer rate in women under 45 has risen by 1.6 percent a year, and in men it has risen by 1.8 percent per year. In France the cancer rate has increased by 60 percent in the last 20 years. 

Brenda gave me  a book called "Anticancer a new way of life" and in it he, (Dr David Servan-Schreiber) outlines many of the causes for this, and he also presents a  lot of data to back up what he says. 

I remember with the bird flu "epidemic" we heard daily about which new country a few people had succumbed to the virus, yet I do not remember reading in the paper about this growing trend with regards to cancer. I think most of us are more than aware of it, just looking around at the number of people we know personally who have been affected by cancer. Apparently it was two smoking doctors who in 1950 proved that smoking caused cancer, and it was not until 20 years later that the first measure was passed against smoking.

My take on it is that infection is good for business, , the drugs, the cleaners, the extra plastic wrapping etc etc.  Industrial practices and products that cause cancer are also good for business. So it is unlikely anything will be done about it, so we must do something about it.

I would highly recommend this book, as a means of "protecting" ourselves from the disease that big business has exposed us to.  Cancer is a disease of  "rich" countries.

I read Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal, vegetable, miracle" last year and I would say that these two books complement each other very well.

She points out how we ended up in this mess after WW2, and he outlines what it is doing to us.

She also showed how one could live on only those foods grown either in her own garden, or locally.

Well back to work now.

Love and peace

Janet Bates

jankenb at gmail.com