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Dr. Steven Griffiths Monthly Column, published in the Times & Transcript
Cancer cells can be sneaky
Tuesday August 19, 2008
Consider two major threats to your lupins: A) lupin weevils and B) clumsy, BBQ-crashing neighbours.
What are our options?
Option A: Gamble. Everything's a bit of a chance -- maybe it won't be a good breeding season for evil weevils; maybe the neighbours will freeload off the Johnsons and squash their begonias instead. Besides, the sun's out right now so why worry?
Option B: Accept. It's going to happen anyway; the lupins may come up next year (hmmm ... but don't weevils eat the roots too?).
Option C: Pass me the Yellow Pages. It's time we had an account with that (oddly) government sponsored organization, the Lupin Aggression Reduction Strategies East or LARSE (free plywood goose lawn ornament with each consult!).
They cost a bundle, we're not sure what it is they do exactly and we're stuck with them for life but they're the only game in town and at least it will seem like we're doing something.
Option D: Prepare. Learn about your enemy, be proactive and pre-emptive! Pull up the weeds that weevil grubs need; put out 'weevil motels' for subsequent release into Mapleton woods and as for the neighbours, invite Junior and his varsity football buddies as event security. They'll spot the Dawkins sneaking under the fence and 'redirect' them to another backyard.
Option E: Moderation. Plant lupins in different spots around the garden. That way they aren't all trampled and eaten at once. Yes, Bob Dawkins, I'm talking to you. Learn how to spot early signs of weevil activity; use some Safer's soap to keep them in one patch and prevent them leap-weeviling to others.
The payments of preparation and moderation are easy, plus your juice money won't disappear into the misery of dealing with LARSE, which will show up only between 9 and 5, that is next month, that is accompanied by a sudden plague of telemarketers.
Besides, preparedness pays compound interest. Butterflies and hummingbirds show up, the plants enrich the soil with nitrogen and Junior's football chums, having successfully intercepted the Dawkins diaspora, delight us with their a capella interpretations of Nine Inch Nails' greatest hits while forming a human pyramid.
Now, let's just say that 'lupins' are metaphors for survival against some horrific state-sanctioned brutalization. In that case, the pamphlet described above might be passed around surreptitiously under the tables at Tim's, away from the all-seeing agents of LARSE.
Why, in other words, does it feel as if there is some surreal conspiracy at work preventing us from 'growing lupins' (staying well).
Preparation and moderation are something many of us can do to evade or manage cancer. But it seems that so little is being done to emphasize these truths that the weasels are in plain sight and things get done at the very last minute.
Some of the preventive measures are so ridiculously simple; they hide under the Cliché Berry bush next to the sweetly scented Platitudinas.
The Fort Beausejour of cancer prevention and management is a pentangle: sweat, veggies and moderation pointing out in front, the pointy bits at the rear being therapy and detection. Although they seem independent at their ramparts, each tip is in some way connected to the others.
The fort is besieged, not only by cancer cells, but also by Trojan horses filled with phony nutritional supplements, crystals and snake oil. The points work best together, but any combination of the ramparts -- particularly the trinity of veggies, sweat and moderation -- are things we can generally do without too much raking.
In future columns, we'll look at them individually and how they intercept one another. Some may seem self-evident, although a recent straw poll determined that extremely smart people could not tell me if or why exercise might be as beneficial for the prevention or continued remission of cancer as it is for the heart and lungs.
First, let's tackle one of the ramparts we have little control over: the availability of therapy.
Radiation, chemo and adjuvant are terms you have likely heard. These treatments are intended to push the cancer cells over the edge.
As grim as their reputation might be, cancer cells have generally taken decades to hop, skip and jump over the rules that govern normal cells, to the point that they are extremely dependent on rewiring.
These are their 'Achilles heels.' It's true that radiation may affect normal cells but these are likely to recover; in contrast, cancer cells are particularly sensitive and will not bounce back.
In chemotherapy, a similar situation exists. Researchers have found that the cancer cells may have a particular absorptive fondness for some meds, much stronger than that of neighbour cells.
Adjuvant therapy refers to treatment that is given in addition to, or to strengthen, more traditional approaches above. Currently adjuvant therapy is dominated by factors derived from or supporting the immune system -- our body's means of identifying foreign material.
We are not yet at the stage of vaccines that prevent the return or progression of cancer, but each year we are getting closer. How does a vaccine for cancer differ from one we might get for the 'flu?
If you can imagine having a barbecue family reunion this year, imagine bacteria or viruses as the annoying neighbours that gate-crash and ruin everything. If you're smart, you recruit Junior and his chums to bounce them out. Vaccines in this analogy might be akin to providing them with information about what the invaders look like: easily recognizable in Backstreet Boys Tee-shirts and trucker caps. And they say "whooo" a lot.
Cancer is a tough one. These are of our own creation and they're much harder to spot -- you might think of them as annoying cousins rather than neighbours. Alternatively the annoying neighbours might have gotten sneaky: they've been rummaging around in the toupee bin at Frenchy's for disguises and they distract Junior and his buds by dropping racy pictures of Hannah Montana.
Before you know it, the lupins are flattened and the mosquito-eater is in the punch bowl.
At ACRI we're trying to make this process much simpler by identifying things that -- as different as they all may seem -- most cancers do, and then identifying the things that allow them to dodge or distract our defenders. Like any good team they need good training and this is where good old sweat comes in.
Next month, we'll deal with how vigorous exercise is important in the prevention and remission of cancer.
Article as published:
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/389563
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