Today we are facing an epidemic of cancer. One in four French people die of cancer. And often before the age of 65. I myself am the wrong side of statistics since I was 31 years ago when I discovered I had a brain tumor.
Since 1940, we are witnessing in our society to a rapid and dramatic rise of the most common cancers (lung, breast, prostate, colon). Cela s'explique en partie par le fait que nous sommes plus nombreux à vivre plus vieux – assez longtemps pour développer un cancer – et que nous savons mieux le détecter. Mais ces deux facteurs ne rendent compte que partiellement de l'augmentation des cancers. Car chez les enfants et adolescents, les chiffres progressent aussi : de 1 à 1,5 % annuellement depuis les années 1970. Et il s'agit de cancers que l'on ne dépiste pas.
Pour les cancers les plus fréquents les taux sont beaucoup plus élevés chez nous que dans les pays asiatiques. Mais quand les Asiatiques émigrent en occident, ils rattrapent nos taux en une ou deux générations. Les Asiatiques vivant en Asie are therefore not protected by their genes, but their lifestyles and their environment.
The latest studies show: 15% more cancers are due to genetic factors - and only partially. 85% do not. However, cancer strikes many families: a landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that children adopted at birth and whose parents died of cancer before the age of 50, had the same risk of cancer their adoptive parents, not their biological parents. What is transmitted from generation to generation, these are the habits and conditions environment. No genes responsible for cancer.
We continue to invest 97% of our research methods to better treatments and earlier detection. Only 3% of resources are invested in tackling the causes of the epidemic.
I was a founding member of Doctors Without Borders USA. I volunteered in Iraq, Guatemala, Tajikistan and Kosovo. I saw epidemics in refugee camps. No cholera epidemic can be halted by early detection or treatment by antibiotics - also valuable methods and effective to treat each patient individually. Because the epidemic is spreading faster than our ability to treat individual patients.
In the 1800s, Europe and the United States has undergone several major outbreaks of cholera. Everywhere they have been stopped each time without the support of antibiotics. At the time, the concept of micro-organism infection had not even been discovered. But our leaders had the foresight and willingness to act on what seemed like the most likely environmental cause: contaminated water sources. And in fact, they managed to stop the cholera. Paradoxically, if we had had antibiotics at the time - and if those responsible for the day had counted on them to confront the epidemic as we rely today on the anti-cancer treatments - they might never have succeeded to curb cholera.
Today we have much more data on the probable causes of the modern epidemic of cancer that our ancestors had to do about cholera. The International Fund for Research on Cancer has concluded in its 2007 report that "most" of cancer cases in Western societies could be avoided by changing our lifestyles:
- 40% by changes in diet and physical activity (more vegetables and fruits, less sugar, less red meat, regular walking or do 30 minutes of exercise, six times a week);
- 30% by stopping smoking;
- and 10% by reducing the consumption of alcohol.
There are now also given specific showing that certain foods like broccoli, cabbage, garlic, onions, turmeric may help to directly kill cancer cells and reduce the growth of new blood they need to develop into tumors threatening.
Reduced carcinogenic chemicals abundantly present in our modern environment (pesticides, estrogens, benzene, PCBs, alkylphenols in cleaning products, parabens in cosmetics and shampoos, phthalates in plastics, etc..) Could also contribute to the decline in Cancer as a committee now acknowledges the INSERM for "cancer and ENVIRONMENT.
By neglecting to invest in research and preventive programs that flow from these scientific facts, refusing even to discuss it, we create a sense of helplessness vis-à-vis the cancer. Most people still view cancer as a kind of genetic Russian roulette when it is not. Faced with cancer, we must certainly avoid giving false hope, but we must fight more vigorously against the false despair.
It is time to push our society, and each of us to face today the causes of this modern epidemic.
Dr. David Servan-Schreiber
Lecture by Professor David Servan-Schreiber (11-2009) to see EMERGENCY:
... We must pass the Knowledge and Truth ... ...
Truth always ends up Know ...
DJAMELITO
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