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For those with pancan, did you drink lots of Diet Coke or Coke?
Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: Dec 24, 2023 | Replies (28)Comment receiving replies
I'm pretty sure that I understand your drive to *know*. Having said that, I urge you to accept that you will never know -- none of us will. We humans are exposed to literally hundreds of chemicals (air, water, food) whose presence we can't control. Even people who eat as clean as they can can't know whether the bee that pollinated the healthful thing they're eating was previously in a field full of Roundup -- you know?
Fwiw, one researcher (M. Du) has been investigating the possibility of a link between pancan and PCOS (which I had; not clear whether it causes or is caused by insulin resistance). Obviously this would be only one possible link, given that bio-men can't have polycystic ovaries.
Also fwiw, I drank a little sugary soda from childhood until about 30 and then a little diet soda until about 50 -- but my sibs did too, and neither of them has or had pancan.
My diet was good in childhood but so-so for most of my adult life, and I took so-so care of myself, partly bc I was complacent (my family had relatively little illness on both sides). At 58, I finally became realistic and changed to a plant-based, almost-no-lab-chemicals, almost-no-added-sugar diet. Stuck with it for 3 years and 2 mos. And then got sick and and got the diagnosis of pancan. (Which one of my maternal aunts had, and I'll soon know, from a genetic counselor, whether I have some mutation / familial inclination.) (Also, my diet has been poor since diagnosis only bc I'm queasy much of the time; I plan to resume eating well after my current oral chemo.)
One in three Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Plenty of them practice good habits. (One of my close friends, in fact -- exemplary habits, but breast cancer.) It's a crap shoot. In some ways that stinks, but it is so.
I wish you well.
(And please think about whether "I need to know _why_" is maybe -- maybe -- a way of not letting yourself grieve, or of not facing an understandable anxiety about the unpredictability of life.)
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Thanks so much for your response. I have learned so much about the journeys others have been on. I appreciate all of your thoughts. You are right we may never know the why but being an optimist if we can send vehicles to Mars and back well there’s hope right? My diet previously to diagnosis was plant based, lots of exercise and never a smoker, never over weight. I too have not eaten the best since my Whipple. I have been trying to put on weight so eating mayo and butter red meat sometimes, and trying to load up on protein but not a fan of the protein drinks so I can relate to having poor food choices at times.
I have been a “why” person all my life nothing really new here.
Mostly it’s to help others. I really feel there needs to be more transparency with research involving all cancers. People shouldn’t have get answers only after they are diagnosed.
Not sure how would that work. The American cancer society, St Jude’s etc have ads to ask for donations for research which is greatly needed. And we are inundated non-stop with pharmaceutical ads for drugs. I would like to see ads helping people to make better choices with food and lifestyle. There are finally commercials many years later about lung cancer. Lung cancer Patients showing what can happen when you smoke. We needed that in the 60s and 70s.
I don’t think the sugar corporations in America would allow anything negative about sugar. We can’t even say someone is “obese”. If we can’t talk about it how can it be fixed? There are record numbers of obese children who will become obese adults. Why is this OK? We can see multiple ads daily for sports gambling and numbers to call for gambling problems, where are the numbers to help with obesity? Or obesity in children. Or to explain risks associated with excess sugar, processed foods and alcohol?
Ok sorry off on a tangent.
Thanks again for all your thoughts! Hope you start feeling better and can get back on track with your diet and to some kind of normalcy! Have a good night! Merry Christmas and happy holidays. 🎄