A recent study of mummies worldwide suggests that the epidemic of cancer, and indeed most cancer suffered today is the result of poor diet and the health hazards from modern life. The study analyzed literature and mummies from ancient Egypt and came to the conclusion that cancer may be a disease brought on in recent history alone.
So how does a disease that is practically unheard of in ancient Egypt now expected to become the leading cause of death finally overtaking heart disease in the year 2010? Scientists are not entirely sure, but the presence of chemicals and constant stress may have been factors. It has been suggested that people in these times simply did not live long enough to develop cancer, but these claims were dismissed when other age related illnesses were discovered.
The data collected by several teams of scientists has ultimately concluded that although it may have many sources, cancer is largely a manmade disease. The study, conducted in part by the University of Manchester seems to confirm what many researchers have been saying for years. So the picture painted by these findings is fairly bleak indeed. Cancer is almost entirely manmade, and it’s expected to be the main cause of death. But this also carries with it a seed of hope. For if it is really manmade, it is possible then to remove it almost entirely from our lives. Possible, but not incredibly likely.
An estimated one in three people will get cancer at some point in their lives, according to the international cancer research institute. The most common type of cancer is lung cancer, with an estimated 222,000 cases each year. And these are largely attributed to either smoking or industrialized pollution. The second and third most common types are breast and colon cancer with 207,000 and 147,000 per year respectively. The most survivable two types of cancer are thyroid cancer and melanoma, but new research in almost all areas of cancer study make fighting the disease more hopeful than ever.
So if cancer has been an incredibly rare disease forever prior to the 1800’s, then perhaps it is understandable why our society has had so much difficulty finding cures and preventative measures for its treatment. But if these findings prove accurate, it may change everything about how we look at the disease. And maybe the medicine researchers create to end cancer will not necessarily be directed at the cancer of each individual, but rather the processes in the society itself that causes the cancer.
Exposure to chemicals such as formaldehyde or asbestos have already been labeled as major cancer causes, but also lifestyle choices such as smoking have been linked to the creation of cancer cells.
And some vaccines have been suspected for years of being major causes of cancer throughout the civilized world, sometimes being accused by organizations such as the Anti-Vaccine Society of America of causing more harm than they prevent in some cases. So is the cure for cancer as simple as prevention?