A Diet to Die For! Breast Cancer in Canada.

After Dr. Ewan discharged me from daily nursing on April 24th and being on such a high from the news, I was watching CBC on Saturday night and heard the following news …

Smoking is linked to breast cancer.

After many years of smoking, I quit in September, 2006, and now can’t stand to be anywhere near it. Yes, I’ve become psycho-anti-smoker, and proud of it.

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Christina Applegate is Not The Poster Child for Breast Cancer.

Christina Applegate, even after a bilateral mastectomy less than a year ago, was recently caught smoking in Los Angeles. She apparently said the photo was taken on a rare occasion when she was feeling bad (or depressed). Please Christina, try to have your pity-party in private and try to remember that every time you go out in public, there are lots of young women who want to emulate you.

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The report has only been out a few days and already there is controversy amongst the ranks. Why on earth would the research community ever debate whether smoking and breast cancer are linked? Unbelievable, but here is an excerpt:

” … The report is “a sharp dissent” from the common belief among scientists that there is too little consistent evidence to determine whether smoke has a causal role in breast cancer, the Times reports …”

– Medical News Today. April 28, 2009.

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Regarding my own breast cancer, I suspected the link between smoking and breast cancer when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2008. Lung cancer may be the obvious disease for a smoker, but I think there are likely a lot more carcinogens in retail cigarettes that we’ve barely scratched the surface.

It was just a week ago that I said to the primary nurse that, other than smoking, I have lived a fairly clean lifestyle the last 20+ years: even she said she wasn’t aware of any link between smoking and breast cancer …

I don’t do any recreational drugs, no alocohol abuse, I eat fairly well and exercise regularly. My blood pressure was taken yesterday and it was 124/66. Not bad for an old broad if I do say so myself!

I don’t have high cholesterol or am on any medications for any serious conditions.

I have annual check-ups, including mammograms.

I may still be a fat ass (I’ve lost over 20 pounds though), have some allergies and sensitivities, and enjoy some good wine occasionally (add a good man in there …), but nothing I do should alert any doctor hopefully.

Other than being an ex-smoker, I am fairly healthy, or at least was on the right track to becoming very healthy … so the breast cancer diagnosis was a total shock in more ways than one.

If you are a smoker, stop worrying about gaining 5 pounds if you quit smoking … I’m living testimony that 5-10 pounds of weight gain is far easier to get rid than cancer. I would gladly trade more weight to get my tit back.

Various articles and/or information that discusses the link between smoking and specifically breast cancer are:

• 2nd-hand smoke causes breast cancer in younger women, review suggests. CBC News
• Report warns smoking raises risk of breast cancer. CTV News
• … Norwegian scientists have revealed that smoking women have a higher incidence and earlier onset of heart disease in comparison with male smokers. Stop Smoking Steps
• Smoking and breast cancer linked. Lilith News Blog
• May 3, 2009: The Toronto Sun newspaper’s article Study affirms smoking-breast cancer link.
• marketwire’s Health Canada should move quickly to put breast cancer warning on cigarette packages. Want to read the panel’s 83 page PDF report? If so, here is the link to it.
• University of Toronto’s report … “There is now enough scientific evidence to link both active smoking and second-hand smoke to breast cancer …” [April, 2009]

If you’re not going to take the advice to stop smoking from a complete stranger writing a blog online (that would be me), take it from the experts.

You. Yes, you. Stop smoking and live long enough to aggrevate your family.

… or you can call it the Canadian States of America.

There I’ve said it. It seems like our health care system is certainly becoming more Americanized than our previous socialized medicine of yore; circa not that long ago.

On the news and from the relatives I have in the USA, I hear about how bad the health care system is in the United States. Well you’ve now got Hillary Clinton … so why didn’t you put her in charge of healthcare? Back in 1993, Hillary Clinton worked stalwartly on health care reform [link opens Wikipedia]. Oh, stop yer whinin’.

I keep hearing that Canada doesn’t want a 2-tier health system. Um, it already is! I pay additional premiums to upgrade my medical services such as prescriptions and semi-private rooms. The extra cost is less than $100 a month and I’m not going to feel guilty about it.

And if I had more money, heck, of course I would pay to get the best of the best.

Ok, so the USA doesn’t have socialized medicine and we do — I’m not sure we are any better off than they are — it was in fact in Canada that has had a few news stories about some poor soul who was in an emergency wating room for many hours and died …

… and no one noticed … and now they’re dead.

Here are some links to CBC news stories:

• “Women dies in emergency waiting room” (October, 2002)
• “… man who died in Winnipeg hospital” (February, 2009)

Update: April 12, 2009

In my recent battle with CCAC, the case manager informs me that their new directive from the Ministry of Health is to push 100% of all patients into the nursing clinics — she said that the clinics work in the USA and why they are going to use them here in Canada. Do any of these officials read the newspapers or watch the news? They would figure out quite quickly that the USA uses Canada’s health care system as a model — hold on boys and girls, this is looking like a disaster in the making.