are vets smarter than doctors?

Minx, 44, quit a social smoking habit 15 years ago when she moved to a country town with her family. She had enjoyed good health all of her life until a routine X-ray following a sudden respiratory problem that she thought was related to local crop-dusting revealed a small lung cancer.


"Since moving to a country town I've often thought that the local vets are a whole lot smarter than any city doctor I once knew," laughs Minx. "I've learned things from vets that make good sense when applied to us, and a lot of people around here just don't need doctors."

"Take cancer, for instance," says Minx. "You'd think from all the stuff on the Internet that it's something only human beings get and is caused by lifestyle factors such as smoking (lung cancer), drinking (pancreatic cancer), eating meat (stomach cancer), etc. Right?"

"Wrong! All types of animals get all types of cancers just like we do, and while the anti-smokers may say that lung cancer in animals such as cats and dogs is caused by passively breathing their owners' cigarette smoke, what do they say about lung cancer in sheep, for example?"

"Yep, sheep get lung cancer just like we do and when was the last time you saw a sheep dragging on a fag or passively sucking up side-stream cigarette smoke?"

"Check out an article called 'Retrovirus-induced ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma, an animal model for lung cancer' and you'll see that a virus is involved which induces lung cancer in sheep that has striking analogies to human lung cancer."

"A virus, it makes sense doesn't it?" sighs Minx. "Cancer has been around since time immemorial, long before tobacco was discovered - it's a natural reaction when our immune system can't cope - but when is anyone out there in the human lung cancer world going to pay attention to cancer research in animals when it's so convenient to blame it all on a smelly habit like smoking that may be current or, in my case, 15 years old?"

"People who've never smoked get lung cancer, too – in fact, 60% of lung cancer patients are non-smokers or ex-smokers like me who quit many years ago," says Minx. "So, if there's a virus around here that caused my lung cancer then I want to know about it – and so should everyone, wherever they are."

"I've got kids to protect, and so does everyone else."

"I'm now wondering whether moving out of the city was a wise thing to do," says Minx. "I love the life, but I guess being close to farm animals and agricultural pollution exposes us to risks that may be worse than those we left behind in the city."


"I was lucky that the cancer was operable, and no chemotherapy was required afterwards," says Minx, "but it was a huge operation, very painful, and the whole thing was made worse by some of the medical professionals attending me who never let up reminding me in so many ways that it was all my fault, that I should never have smoked when I was younger."

"I can accept that I may be more susceptible than a non-smoker to respiratory problems because I once smoked, but I really cannot believe that a short history of social smoking 15 years ago is wholly responsible for my lung cancer," says Minx. "In fact, the more I read about all sorts of cancers the more I believe that something other than lifestyle factors is responsible for them."

"What's more, it kind of defeats the purpose of quitting smoking when people like me still get lung cancer," shrugs Minx. "I wanted to give up smoking and it was no big deal for me to quit - we were starting a healthy new life in the country - but for heavy smokers who really enjoy the habit then my story is only going to give them a good reason to carry on smoking, knowing that they are doomed whether they quit or not."

"In fact, that's exactly what my crazy heavy smoking girlfriend in the city said to me, and reluctantly I had to agree with her because if something else causes lung cancer then why should she quit doing something she enjoys and obviously needs to do in order to keep her sane?"

"I'm certainly not advocating that smoking is a good thing or harmless - I hate the smell of cigarettes now and sure don't want my kids to take up the habit - but a distinction should be drawn between something that smells bad and something that is the sole cause of lung cancer."

"If the anti-smoking medical establishment really wants to protect us from lung cancer - rather than stopping us from smoking smelly cigarettes as they line their pockets with kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies pushing quit smoking products - then it should pay more attention to cancer research in animals."

everything is killing us!

Cerise is an ordinary woman, with an ordinary education and job and she shouldn't have to worry herself sick about everything out there that is killing us, but when the people our taxpayer dollars are paying to do their jobs aren't doing them properly, ordinary people like Cerise must necessarily get involved.

“Because so many things are killing us, and nothing ever gets done about ensuring the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe is non-toxic, I have lost faith in the whole health system,” says Cerise. “I wonder every day how these hopeless people ever wormed themselves into health professional jobs they are obviously unfit to hold."

"Now that HPV has been found to be related to so many cancers I wonder if the sexual antics of patients are going to be proscribed just like smokers have been forced or shamed into quitting?" asks Cerise. "Will every guy need to have a warning label stuck on his appendage?”

“Will throat, cervix and colorectal cancer patients be similarly refused lifesaving drugs because of their 'dirty' disease? And if not, why not?"

"HPV is now known to be the prime if not the only cause of cervical cancer," says Cerise, "so what are they going to find next? Maybe cancer of all orifices is due to HPV and that would be a shock for all those with colorectal and bowel cancer, wouldn't it?"

"We already know that a simple bacteria (Helicobacter pylori) causes stomach ulcers -- not so long ago believed to be caused by too much acid -- so if medical researchers were taken out of their straight jackets concerning cigarette smoking being the prime if not the only cause of lung cancer maybe we would get somewhere."

"And then there’s asbestos – I remember my father building a garage with asbestos cement sheeting in the early 1970s," says Cerise, "and what's more he used the offcuts to build my brother and I a cubby house."

"Dad's in his 70s now and in good health -- despite asbestos exposure and a lifetime spent smoking," says Cerise, "but my brother and I, also smokers, worry about whether asbestos exposure so early in our lives may one day affect us and, if so, whether we will be denied lifesaving drugs for lung cancer -- caused by asbestos -- because we smoke."

Read more by Cerise on this subject:

denial of life-saving drugs

health bureaucrats play God

denial of life-saving drugs

Anti-smoking health authorities the world over have indelibly linked lung cancer with smoking -- ignoring all other causes -- and now Cerise has read a recent report showing that the spiraling death rates from lung cancer are not due to increased smoking but to deliberate health policy measures denying lung cancer patients expensive lifesaving drugs (Tarceva and Alimta).

"This new report by Professor Bengt Jonsson, of the Centre for Health Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics, and Dr Nils Wilking, clinical oncologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden -- google their names if you want more details -- puts the blame fairly and squarely where we all know it belongs," says Cerise, "and I hope the fat cat bureaucrats responsible for denying lifesaving drugs to lung cancer patients -- and causing their premature death -- are suitably punished."

"In relation to treatment and survival, the Swedish report showed that the UK, New Zealand, Poland, the Czech Republic and South Africa have the worst records for denial of lifesaving drugs for lung cancer and the lowest five-year survival rates," says Cerise. "Apparently the USA, Austria, France and Switzerland are the best places to be if you have lung disease -- they routinely use the new cancer drugs in treatment and, because they do, they have the highest five-year survival rates."

"Interestingly, the Swedish report came out about the same time as another report linking throat cancer to HPV (a virus causing genital warts) and advising against oral sex," laughs Cerise. "This interests me because throat cancer was also supposed to be another disease caused by cigarette smoking."

"Also, I always thought that asbestos lung disease was different to lung cancer but apparently not," says Cerise. "If it is being included in lung cancer incidences and mortalities then no wonder the rates are spiraling."

"Asbestos cement sheeting was the main building material until recent decades and everybody breathed in its deadly fibers whether they were working with it or not," explains Cerise. "Like the heath hazards from smoking, asbestos disease takes years to manifest itself and some of us are susceptible to it, and some of us aren't."

"Basically, to withhold lifesaving drugs on the grounds of cost or moral judgments is abominable," says Cerise. "The health policy advisors may believe that it is hardly worth giving expensive drugs like Tarceva and Alimta to lung cancer patients because they caused their disease by smoking and should sue the tobacco or asbestos industry to get the money they need for treatment -- but what if it was caused by something else?"

Read more by Cerise on this subject:

everything is killing us!

health bureaucrats play God

smoking and lack-of-heart disease

Kirsten is 47, a smoker and a nurse who should be setting a good example for the community in regard to healthy living but she fumes at scare-mongering, heartless, anti-smoking propaganda and maintains that smokers are no more or less healthy than non-smokers.
"Smokers are being blamed unfairly for the rise of lung cancers, heart diseases and spiralling national health costs," sighs Kirsten, "but I'm seeing far less smokers on my wards than I did thirty years ago."

"What I am seeing more of in my wards is patients who are far more obese and a far lot older than before," says Kirsten, "and that's a fact that airlines, funeral parlors and all health-related industries are noticing."

"When airlines and funeral parlors have been forced to widen their seats and coffins to cater for rising obesity -- and the average age of air travellers and dearly departed has also risen -- you get to understand that all the hype about smoking is a smokescreen to hide the true facts about community health."

"Sure, lung cancer is on the rise but so is every other type of cancer and heart disease," laughs Kirsten, "and it's all because people are living longer these days."

"If disease incidence and death statistics were published by age rather than per capita, everyone would see that the vast majority fall into the older age groups where you'd expect people to be developing degeneration of their vital organs. And, where they don't, obesity is the prime causative factor, not smoking."

"When you're 88 years old does it really matter if you die of lung cancer, heart disease or a bee sting?" laughs Kirsten. "Of course not, so why should it bother anybody else?"

"Antibiotics and modern medicine have eradicated diseases that once wiped out millions of people are these diseases are being replaced on the death statistics with conditions like lung cancer and heart disease that most people once never lived long enough to develop."

"The number one cause of heart disease is aging," says Kirsten. "If you stop smoking or change your diet in middle age -- by which time the aging process has set in -- you're not going to improve your chances of avoiding heart disease. The clock is ticking away and will stop exactly when it is programmed to stop unless something intervenes to make it stop earlier."

"Get it?"

"What's more, medical opinion is divided as to how much cigarette smoking is directly responsible for the rise in lung cancer and heart disease," adds Kirsten. "Very few people die of one thing or another. There are always a myriad of factors involved in disease and death. If an old lady with osteoporosis dies from a fall while she's smoking is the cause of death an accidental fall, osteoporosis-related or smoking-related?"

"Doctors have carte blanche, almost, to record causes of death as they see fit," says Kirsten, "and believe me, I've seen some records that are plainly wrong. In relation to AIDS, I can accept that pneumonia might be a kinder cause of death for the sake of the relatives than the true cause -- but in relation to lung cancer and heart disease I object to smoking because listed as a primary cause just because the deceased was a smoker."

"Fanatical anti-smoking health workers are naturally prone to inflate the figures of smoking-related disease incidence and causes of death, but thankfully there are still many in the professions who are open to consider factors other than smoking."

"Apart from the obvious reason -- that we're living longer -- factors such as increasing air pollution (from carcinogens not known thirty years ago), the stresses of modern living (more people on the planet, and increasing daily), personal stressful circumstances and all manner of bugs need to be taken into consideration when assessing lung cancer and heart disease in smokers."

"Whenever I see a list of risk factors I feel like adding ridiculous things like 'wearing pink shirts'," laughs Kirsten, "because that's just about as true as everything else."

"If just one non-smoker -- such as Dana Reeve -- dies of lung cancer," says Kirsten, "then it's pretty obvious that cigarettes are not the primary cause of the disease and other factors have to betaken into consideration. Bearing in mind that it's only recently that a bacteria was found to cause stomach ulcers and a virus was found to cause cervical cancer, it's imperative to keep an open mind."

"I'm pretty sure, too, that anti-smoking propaganda has had a lot to do with the spiralling increase in obesity," says Kirsten. "I'm seeing less smokers on my wards than I did thirty years ago because so many people have quit and started stuffing their faces with food instead."

"Everyone I know who has quit smoking has put on a lot of weight," says Kirsten, "and because obesity is more a health risk than smoking I believe the medical profession has a duty to make this fact more well known."

"I am most certainly not going to come out as an advocate for the tobacco industry -- I hate their sly tactics to increase addiction as much as I hate the anti-smoking lobby for creating fear," says Kirsten."What I am saying is that people who are happy smokers should not be bombarded with lies, damn lies and statistics to scare them into quitting."

"There are plenty of doctors who smoke but they are too cowed by the system to publicly counteract the anti-smoking propaganda," says Kirsten. "Like me, they are supposed to set a good example for the community in relation to healthy living but unlike me they have more to lose from the exercise."

"They believe it's better to keep quiet, keep a low profile and in time -- like alcohol prohibition -- the focus will go off smoking onto something else," sighs Kirsten. "They are probably right -- it's just a fad -- but I still believe it's unfair to jerk smokers around and rip them off."

"Here in the public health system I don't see any of the extra taxes being ripped off smokers being spent to pay for the so-called costs of 'smoking-related diseases'," says Kirsten. "So, if you expect your smoking dollars to ensure good treatment in hospital should you develop lung cancer or copd in old age, forget it."

"I've known many smokers who lie about being smokers when they need to come to hospital for some minor treatment," says Kirsten. "It's medically unwise, but understandable within a punitive system fed by anti-smoking hysteria where you're treated badly if you admit to being a smoker. Would you freely admit to being a Jew in a Nazi German hospital with someone like Dr Mengeles likely to treat you?"

"Forget about heart disease in smokers, it's lack-of-heart disease that's the real problem with our society."