Let the Major Cause of Death be Living!

Sally Philpot said,

Alternative (English)Caption
Okay, So listen Henry when we get home – You pour the wine, I’ll cook the bacon sandwiches and we’ll watch Strictly Come Dancing together – Bliss.

Inger said,

I love this site – it makes me laugh out loud!

Vanessa Shaw said,

…And how many of us are truly that good with moderation? 1 glass of good red wine will help prevent against heart disease but a bottle or more could lead to family break ups and liver failure. Some sunlight is good for lifting our spirits and getting a dose of Vitamin D – too much can lead to skin cancer. An innocent flirt with a good looking guy can be a great boost to confidence but spending the night could lead to untold heartache. Moderation is the secret to having pleasure without the pain.

Adam Hartley said,

Hi Julie, I agree with you on that: moderation is the key. Have sent you an extract from the introduction to my book… thanks! PS what a great idea this is of yours. I know it will be a huge success for you.

Vym Vickers said,

The secret of eternal happiness I thought was to do everything to excess. Enjoy the moment, forget about inaugural fourier analysis and shade the world forever in Machiavellian overtones!
Be raidcal and don’t pander to the excess of ubiquitous carnivores; as laughter is the one true aphrodisiac!
Cool picture – by the way.

Graham said,

My grandfather fought at La Somme and many other horrendous trench battles.
I wonder what his regimental dietician recommended? Following demob, he became an illegal bookmaker plying his nefarious trade in London’s docklands where pubs were opened at 06:00 for night workers. His daily intake of alcohol during a 15 hour work day was estimated at 25 bottles of Guinness with the occasional rum chaser.
His meals, apart from the Sunday roast, were fried and greasy. He died aged 87, happy but tired.

My Doctor, slightly concerned about my uric acid levels, has given me a list of food products to eat in small quantities and food products to be avoided at all cost. In the forbidden column I read “Veal, lamb, pork and meat extract. Liver, sweetbreads and kidney. Herrings, lobster, sardines, anchovies, plaice, caviar and sole. Goose. Alcohol and coffee.

It’s going to be a sad Christmas.

For the anecdote, I visited my grandfather in hospital during his last days. I asked how they were treating him. “’Andsome boy, ‘andsome. Look at this, I’ve just chosen my lunch, liver and kidneys”. He showed me the card where he had ticked the boxes. “You silly old bugger” I said, “that’s a donor’s card”.

masterwriter said,

Graham sent this to me as an email:
Christ, I’ve just looked it up too, and I didn’t understand a word.
Which, as the great copywriter in the sky, David Ogilvy, once said, is a total waste of time. “Present a reader with a word they don’t understand and they’ll turn the page”.

Graham.

P.S. On the health kick, and on behalf of my girlfriend, I went into a health food store today to pick up some linseed, sesame and tahini.
It was like joining the queue at the morgue. If 50% of them made it home I’d be surprised. Then I went for my lunchtime pint to the village auberge and everyone was laughing, smiling, joking and, unfortunately smoking. But they were having fun.ouldn’t resist putting it up as a comment:

Adam Hartley said,

Graham, your comment reminds me about the joke about the old man who goes into hospital – but I have to phone my friend jonathan to remember the punchline. I’ll be back to you on that. Great story, thanks for sharing it. Enjoy your christmas.

Sandra – you sound nice. And clever. I don’t think I can sustain reading a book in french for more than a page. Check out the work of Byron Katie – who talks about the meaning of cancer, and how to love whatever it is you have. She has video clips on her website about people with cancer, and asks them to turn around the statements they make. For example – a man comes on with cancer in his eye. His statement is “I want my cancer to stop growing.” She asks him to turn it around and restate it as “I want my cancer to keep on growing because….” and he is forced to admit to himself why he is actively growing his cancer, but for reasons that until that moment remain buried within his subconscious. One of the reasons is because he gets attention and has a story to tell people, without which he is afraid of his abject normality. She has developed a very, very interesting truth finding process. She visits her friend in hospital with cancer and as she turns to leave, her friends thanks her for her visit and tells her that she loves her. “No you don’t. The minute I don’t agree with you or don’t give you what you want, you will transfer all your negative thoughts towards me. Until you can love your cancer, you cannot love me.” Her friend cries, and Byron says it is because she is so grateful to her for having told her the truth. Strange, but true. As she says, who are we without our stories?

Larry Gambit said,

Want a view to shake complacency? Read “Save Yourself”, page 64, Time Magazine, November 26, 2007. Excerpts: “Life isn’t worth living without a couple of vices.” Something’s going to get you in the end.” “I’ll take my chaces.” We all love to feign insouciance about cancer, or to tell apocryphal stories about its apparently random nature — of some haggard two-pack-a-day smoker who lived to be 96, versus the exquisite gamine who never smoked, always used sunscreen and did yoga, but went in for a routine check up and was told she wouldn’t see her 25th birthday. But while it used to be difficult to know who would and who would not be its victims, cancer is easier to predict these days. Its causes are actually very well understood, and many types of the disease are preventable – which helps to explain why braggadocio isn’t heard in the oncology ward, a place full of regret.
Picture yourself lying in one as your dumbstruck spouse and children hover over the bed. Are you really going to tell them you’re glad that you ate the wrong foods, never set foot on a treadmill and never stopped smoking?…..of course not. But are you willing, in the meantime, to modify your behaviour? Well, I wonder.
Late last month, the World Cancer Research Fund released a report…that unambiguously spelled out the things we can do to substantially reduce the risk of getting the disease….The report should have been greeted by a global outburst of thanks…instead it has been met with either irritated silence or trite complaints. The feckless comments made to a discussion thread on the BBC news website were typical: “So the choice is, eat boring food, drink no alcohol and spend all my spare time in the gym in exchange for an extra 10 years in an old people’s home”…why is eating healthily equated with being boring when nothing is more boring than being dead? …In the end, few people will read the World Cancer Research Fund Report and act upon it…They will go on telling any one of the fairy tales that people who are committing slow suicide always tell themselves and each other: that they are happy with their choices, that they have no regrets, that when your time is up it’s all to do with the archaic cosmological notion called fate and nothing to do with you.”

Adam said,

Hmmm…well Jules, I think you’ve got a point there. Apparently it does seem somewhat random. I suppose, to be perfectly rational about the whole debate (and, as you can see from my previous post, I tend to side with Larry – who has put forward a strongly worded and brilliantly forceful argument here), it is important to note that the report that was published distinguished between different types of cancer. And let us not forget the correct definition of cancer, which is the abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread), or that cancer is not one disease but a group of more than 100 different and distinctive diseases. As far as our debate here is concerned, the most important point of the report was its statement that two thirds of the occurences of cancer are preventable (i.e. by lifestyle changes – precisely Larry’s point) whereas one third are “apparently” more random – which is your point. But it is also possible that the cases you cite are caused by genetic conditions or maybe the result of some other lifestyle experience such as emotional trauma etc. (I remember my alternative doctor – she was a major in the Intelligence Corps and her ex-husband was the Colonel in Chief of the Gurkhas – telling me about one of her patients. She had bought her son a flying lesson for his 17th birthday, and she watched him come into land. Unfortunately the plane tipped up, and he was killed. Within a year, she was dying of leukemia – as Diana said – seeing your son killed in front of you, and blaming yourself, is enough to make your blood boil. That is what I mean by emotional trauma). Frankly, I think the debate you have sparked is interesting, and from your lifestyle choices and your wonderful BMI (must be thanks to Vanessa!) it is clear that you also agree with a healthy lifestyle. Me? I am still addicted to sugar – and no matter what I do, however long I give it up for, I eventually find myself swinging the other way (so to speak!). Perhaps the cycles are getting weaker… and I am beginning to make progress.

Adam said,

Jules, you are spot on with your dietary advice! By the way, driven by the change in my own lifestyle, from sub-urban/country commuter to city dweller, and the need to feed myself, I have found the best bircher muesli in Geneva – from the little juice bar on the corridor/ramp at the Cornavin train station – CHF 4.80 for a large pot. It also does a great plat du jour, exactly the healthy, balanced meal I like to eat. Talking of which, I can highly recommend the plat du jour at the Bagnes du Paquis – CHF 12 for a really nutritious, cancer fighting, balanced meal. Can’t beat that for value. Highly recommended. If you are gay, it is also a great pick up place apparently. Two for the price of one, alors.