Despite all the recent news about possible cancer risks from cellphones, coffee, styrene and formaldehyde in building materials, most of us probably face little if any danger from these things with ordinary use, health experts say. Inactivity and obesity may pose a greater cancer risk than chemicals for some people.
“We are being bombarded” with messages about the dangers posed by common things in our lives, yet most exposures “are not at a level that are going to cause cancer,” said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the American Cancer Society’s deputy chief medical officer.
I lost a friend last year to obesity. At 47, she was just a few years older than I am and she had rheumatoid arthritis plus related health problems. But it was the obesity that got her.
When you have arthritis (or, in my case, Lupus), the joint-related pain can be a problem but you just have to keep moving and exercising as much as you can. Gaining weight makes everything so much worse. And being so sick at a young age can be depressing, possibly causing one to give up and overeat for comfort. This was Kathy’s problem.
We would gently encourage her to exercise and eat healthy but she was very touchy about it and insisted that since the disease took so much away, she at least wanted to be able to enjoy her favorite food. She became huge and, in a short amount of time, couldn’t even walk anymore. She ordered a motorized chair. While she wanted to use the chair, it depressed her, as well.
The sad part is that we had finally convinced her to start exercising and modifying her diet. She had lost some weight and was feeling encouraged. But it was too little, too late. Her husband came home from work one day and found her sitting in her favorite chair, dead. It was a massive heart attack.
I had wondered how and why the doctors she saw so regularly could avoid the talk they needed to have with her. Her liver enzymes were bad and she was diagnosed with a “fatty liver.” She became diabetic. She had high blood pressure and known heart disease. But she said they always attributed it to something else, such as her RA medications or genetics.
I know that obese people suffer from poor self-esteem and it’s not PC to tell people they’re fat and offer help to change but it can be life-saving. Better to have a friend or patient who gets angry with you than to watch a person die.