Wellness

[jackiejenny]

Brain cancer replaces Leukemia as the leading cause of  child deaths. This is very sad, but not totally unexpected. 

[January121]

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@jackiejenny wrote:

Brain cancer replaces Leukemia as the leading cause of  child deaths. This is very sad, but not totally unexpected. 

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@jackiejenny I not surprised ... probably due to the over use of cell phones?

[jackiejenny]

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@January121 wrote:

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@jackiejenny wrote:

Brain cancer replaces Leukemia as the leading cause of  child deaths. This is very sad, but not totally unexpected. 

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@jackiejenny I not surprised ... probably due to the over use of cell phones?

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@January121 That is what I believe. 

[Buck-i-Nana]

The change is due to the increasing successful treatment of childhood leukemia, thus reducing deaths.

In contrast, there has been little to no increase in the understanding of brain cancer or in treating it.

[jackiejenny]

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@Buck-i-Nana wrote:

The change is due to the increasing successful treatment of childhood leukemia, thus reducing deaths.

In contrast, there has been little to no increase in the understanding of brain cancer or in treating it.

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While I agree with most of your post, many neurologists believe children using cell phones at such a young age, combined with constant use, may have contributed to the increasing cases of brain cancer. 

[Buck-i-Nana]

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@jackiejenny wrote:

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@Buck-i-Nana wrote:

The change is due to the increasing successful treatment of childhood leukemia, thus reducing deaths.

In contrast, there has been little to no increase in the understanding of brain cancer or in treating it.

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While I agree with most of your post, many neurologists believe children using cell phones at such a young age, combined with constant use, may have contributed to the increasing cases of brain cancer. 

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They're guessing.  You'll find just as many that are attributing the increase in childhood cancers to the increase in use of pesticides and chemicals.

[hoosieroriginal]

In my lifetime, two of my bosses have had young children with brain cancers.  The first, about 25 years ago, the parents were told the child had 6 months to live (brain stem tumor).  (Thankfully, one of his teachers noticed he was holding his head slightly to the right and told the parents to take him to a neurologist.)  My boss went online and found a specialist in NY who operated on him.  He is still alive today and doing well.  My second boss's son had brain surgery but is having a lot of difficulties with his speech, walking and with school.  It's reallly hard on the entire family.

[Brooklynny]

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@Buck-i-Nana wrote:

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@jackiejenny wrote:

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@Buck-i-Nana wrote:

The change is due to the increasing successful treatment of childhood leukemia, thus reducing deaths.

In contrast, there has been little to no increase in the understanding of brain cancer or in treating it.

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While I agree with most of your post, many neurologists believe children using cell phones at such a young age, combined with constant use, may have contributed to the increasing cases of brain cancer. 

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They're guessing.  You'll find just as many that are attributing the increase in childhood cancers to the increase in use of pesticides and chemicals.

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That's too great a generalization, and much more research needs to be done.  My 86-year old mother was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme in early 2013, the deadliest form there is.  Out of the blue.  Never sick a day in her life.  No cancer at all in her family history.  Hospitalized only twice, for my sister's birth and tonsil removal (I was born at home -- it was another era). Her geriatrics doctor boasted that she was the healthiest patient he'd ever had.  We got her a cell phone for emergency use, but she never used it.  She didn't work in a factory, was not around pesticides or chemicals.  

The doctors couldn't explain it because they didn't know the reason.  Her own doctor was shell-shocked when he saw the diagnosis.  Her life expectancy was 18-24 months, and that's how it worked out.  The brain is the most complex organ in our bodies.  There's too much that is unknown about brain cancer, why it happens, how it affects people differently depending on what part of the brain is attacked, and how to at the very least arrest its development until it can be cured.

Cell phones, cell towers, pesticides, and chemicals may be possible causes, but blaming them is not the whole picture.  I've seen the 60 Minutes stories about the polio virus being used on an experimental basis with limited success, but a lot more work needs to be done about causes, therapies, and cures.

[Buck-i-Nana]

@Brooklynny - You're right.  At this stage it's still pretty much all guessing regarding anything with brain cancer.  I lost my husband 16 years ago from inoperable brain cancer.  It was a glioblastoma on the corpus colosum.  Like your mother, my husband was never sick.  The difference in his case was he did work for a petroleum company and ran a truck stop.  A lot of bad environmental factors in his case.  He didn't have a cellphone.

Through the 15 months from diagnosis until his death, he was pretty much a guinea pig, not that they tell you that.  Unfortunately, the time frames involved with brain cancer patients, as in the case of my husband and your mother and the majority of cases is so short that it doesn't provide much time for study.

In the case of children and the desire to try and pin it on primarily cellphones, it just doesn't wash for me.  For adults, yes, I could see a possibility given that adults are more prone to talk on cellphones, holding them up to the head.  Children are primarily texters and the phone is not held next to the head and the power of the emanations from a cellphone aren't strong enough to have an affect unless held to the head.

Sadly, whenever I hear a diagnosis of brain cancer, I'm still always dismayed that after 16 years, the outcome and timeframe is still the same as it was for my husband even for those with access to the best health care money can buy.

[Brooklynny]

@Buck-i-Nana, I'm sorry for your loss, and I'm sure it must have been as much of a living nightmare for you as it was for us.  I became my mother's primary caregiver.  I can tell you I was utterly unprepared to deal with what we faced, and it was the most difficult challenge I've ever experienced.  It changes you.  Any challenge that comes to me after this will be a walk in the park to me.  My mother wanted to die at home, and we eventually had to bring in hospice at home when her needs exceeded our abilities to meet them.  She passed three weeks after hospice came in.  Brain cancer is a very cruel, vicious, and evil disease, and it is a guaranteed death sentence.  It must be urgently researched until a cure is found.  I believe it can be, just as other previously fatal cancers can now be cured.  It's just a matter of time.