Right now, the furthest thing from the minds of most young people is the topic and concept of cancer. Why should young people even be thinking of such things, you say? Well, in the society we live in, the habits -- both nutritionally and lifestyle-wise -- are being formed as kids grow into teenagers. Before long, those habits become adult lifestyle traits and therein the road to possible cancer development begins.Think about this:
There are many foods and beverages, from what I have read, that contribute to all types of cancer. Mostly, these are highly-processed and chemical-filled foods. But are teenagers these days eating raw, vegan or organic diets? Will the habits they are learning now carry over into adulthood?
Contributing to the world -- not achieving things -- is what every human's goal should be to the world. That's from Peter Drucker, a famed management and personal inspiration guru. One of the best contributions we can make would be to educate our youngsters on health issues they may face in the future -- and cancer is going to be one of the top ones in my opinion.
1. Boy, is this a complex subject. Since I was DX with Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma I can barely get my now 18 year old to talk about it. Can't even lead her to the water. The old saying is "wait until the time is right" and I have no particular medical reason at this time to discuss the subject with her, but she does sort of avoid me, thinking, I suppose, I am going to jump right in, which I am not going to do.
On my blog I hear from many caregivers about many issues, but this is seldom one of them, perhaps because kidney cancer patients tend to be older. But I am sure there are lots of folks out there with some confused or angry kids because mom or dad have cancer and won't talk to anybody about it.
Anybody with some comments?
David Foster
www.mpablog.typepad.com/david_foster
Posted at 10:26PM on Jun 22nd 2007 by David Foster