Facing Cancer

SPEAKER_00 0:02

The following is for informational purposes only. For medical advice, please see a medical professional.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Welcome to Staying Alive with Margaret and Susie. I'm happy to say we're both here today. Welcome back, Susie.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Well, thank you. Yes, I'm back. I have missed our time together. Unfortunately, I had something come up in my life that uh needed my full attention. Um, I had to have cancer surgery, and this was a shock to me. Um, I did not expect to get cancer again. It's been five years, almost exactly to the day when I had cancer surgery before. But this time it was a little more um intense. Last time I had surgery and radiation. This time I had to have a mastectomy, which was a big deal. And fortunately, I do not need chemoin radiation after having surgery. So, you know, I think I'm a walking example of how easy it is to be in denial. Because I was in denial. I thought to myself, yeah. I thought I wouldn't get cancer again. Oh, I I mean, I really didn't think I would. And I thought, oh, the last time was really pretty minor, you know, it was a pretty low risk. I opted not to take hormone blockers, you know, I'll be fine. And then when it came back, I was like, whoa, wait a minute here. And also I live a pretty healthy lifestyle. I would say I eat really good. I I'm not perfect, that's for sure. I'm what I would call a yo-yo exerciser. You know, I exercise, but I'm not perfect at that either. And, you know, I grew up in an environment where I never smoked, but I grew up in an environment, both my parents smoked. Yeah. And then of course, when I was young, I was around other people who smoked, but I I never did.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

But I drank alcohol, but not very much. I'm not never been a big drinker. Now I don't drink at all. And in fact, I was the kind of person that when I went to the doctor, they'd say, Well, how much do you drink? And I'm like, I don't know, like two a month, you know, that kind of thing. So um I also got tested to see if my cancer was genetic or if I carried the gene for cancer. They also tested me for a whole bunch of other genes. Um, but because I have a daughter and a granddaughter, I wanted to make sure that I did not have the what's called the bracket gene.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

And also your mom was adopted, I remember. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

My mother's adopted, so I didn't have that history. So I was tested both times. And this used to be an expensive test, but now it's it's doesn't hardly cost anything. So I just I do not have the I do not have the inherited component for cancer.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Yeah. Let me just say here, first of all, I'm so glad you're okay. And I hope everybody's getting the message that because Susie stays on top of her doctoring, as do I, and hopefully all of you, it was able to be caught fast enough that she could get the surgery without requiring radiation or chemotherapy.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Right. Mine was very close to being invasive, but it was not.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

So she got it in the nick of time for that. Like in for those of us who've had cancer surgeries and such, the surgery is less intense than the radiation and chemotherapy on the body overall. It's just like one and done, and you get over your surgery. Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Radiation I found was it was intense last time, but I didn't I I would say chemotherapy is a lot worse personally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Um, and I I've had I know people who've had to go through chemotherapy and it's been horrible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yeah. Whereas for me with the throat cancer, the radiation was was much worse. And right, yeah. Many people need to be hospitalized and put on intravenous feeding tubes because um your throat uh swells and stuff. I don't want to go into the group. Right, right, yeah. But but I just remember I was worried about you. Let's put it that way. Um the the thing I'm and I'm fine. So um another important point you just brought up is that when we get cancer, that's the first question I asked. Did I inherit this? Because those of us who are involved in such healthy lifestyles, we want to believe that I haven't done anything to cause this, have I, Doctor? Like I'm living such a clean lifestyle, it's almost easier to accept, oh, I had an inherited gene that I was born with, so there's nothing I could do. But the reality is that less than 10%, like some say 5%, up to 10% at the most, have an inherited gene for the cancer. And in 90% to 95% of all cases, it is something to do with environmental factors. And um that's what you're gonna talk about next.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah, I think it's just really important to realize that so many things that can cause cancer, we don't have a lot of control over. We do have control over some of it. My first degree was in environmental health, and what I studied there that affected me the most was how toxins in the environment affect you at the cellular level. Because what they do is they cause a mute, a gene mutation in your DNA of your cells. So when you do that, anytime anything gets mutated, it becomes more vulnerable.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

And let me just add here toxins in the environment, our bodies are the environment. So Susie isn't necessarily meaning the environment out there outside our bodies, because anything toxic that we put in our bodies, we're putting the toxic thing into our environment, our environment being our bodies. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

But but also as an environmental health person, I I am concerned about what's out there in the environment that people don't people don't have any say over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Our generation started with that because Susie and I grew up with like they use DDT in the backyards to kill the mosquitoes in summertime. We're out there playing and the next door neighbors blowing the DVT.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Doctors used to smoke cigarettes on TV, you know. I mean, what are you gonna say? But um, but when cells mutate, you know, they just become more vulnerable. And so that can that can definitely impact what happens and it can lead to disease, not just cancer, but it can lead to other kinds of diseases as well.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

And let me just add that that is why aging is one of the biggest risk factors for cancer, because as we age, cells mutate. And all we can do is the best we can do to make sure the mutation isn't into a cancer cell. And we may not be able to do that. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

So um we can't always control everything. I mean, the the idea that you can disease proof your body is is just not true. I mean, you know, it just doesn't work like that. Um, but the the you know, two things that you can really do one is to protect yourselves, you know, protect yourself as much as possible. Um, the modern environments we live in are not always ideal. The food that people have access to is not always ideal. You know, the amount of things in our environment we can't control. And secondly, we need to do things to protect ourselves. So there's a lot of research, you know, out there about eating the right foods and doing the right things for our body to protect ourselves. Now, that does not mean that if you do that, you will never get cancer, you will never get diabetes, you will never get heart disease. However, if it gives you that percentage of protection, it's well worth the effort, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Yeah. So what Susie's saying uh in in part is that cancer cells flourish best and in and in an inflammatory environment. And so um what she's been telling us the whole time to decrease inflammation, decrease inflammation, by doing doing that, decreasing inflammation in our body, we are decreasing the ability of a cancer cell to flourish.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Right. I mean, you know, I think it's frustrating sometimes. I just don't want people to give up. I don't give up saying, well, you know, I'm gonna get cancer anyway. No, that's not the case at all. I mean, some people smoke cigarettes until they're 100 years old. They don't get cancer. You know, some people drink alcohol like a fish until they're 95. I mean, you know, it it isn't you you just increase your chances when you don't protect yourself. You're just not helping yourself at all. Yeah. Um, and like we've talked before, you know, it is, and Margarita said, it is kind of a thing of aging. I mean, you know, obviously we look at the population, there's only one percent of cancers that happen in young children, thank God, you know. But um the statistics just go up as you get older. Yeah. Yeah. And and a lot of that is just you live long enough. They say that most men die with prostate cancer when they if they live to be over 75 years old. So, you know, do they necessarily get prostate cancer? Maybe not, you know, maybe it doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

It's not fast growing, it's something in in small amounts, it's something by, it's just yeah, it's present, but not not affecting them.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah. Yeah. So I I just think that we really need to be good to ourselves and good to our bodies. I also think it's important to realize that you need to listen to your doctors, they're the ones who know about a lot of things that we don't know about. It's real easy. Like, since I got cancer, if I go online and I look at anything and you go onto social media, all this stuff comes up about, oh, do this and you won't get cancer, do this and you won't get this. You know, well, guess what? It's not true, you know, it's not necessarily true. You need to listen to people who are in the field of oncology. We're fortunate, both Margaret and I, to live in communities where there's really good oncology doctors. And we're very lucky. And there, and there are, but there's lots of good oncology doctors all over the country. And it's important to listen to them and you know, take their advice. There's also integrated medicine that is starting to become more and more widely used. My oncologist has a lot of patients who work with naturopaths, so and physical therapists and massage therapists, and a lot of things. One thing I'm doing right now is I have to I'm taking a medication to prevent myself from getting cancer again. And one of the things that can happen is um it can cause joint pain. So I've started right away started exercising because I don't want that. I don't want to live the rest the next five years, you know, being uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

And and I made up my mind to give that a really honest try this time.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

So yeah. Um as you said to me uh earlier, that statistically cancer is a disease of aging, and we can't help the fact that we're getting older, and now and Susie and I both know that our bodies can replicate cancer cells. Thank you very much, bodies. And uh and so we're we're doubling up our efforts because it you know, each cancer is different. Like in my case, um, I had throat cancer, and it turned out that the type of throat cancer cancer, I cancer I had, one drink a day, uh can lead to that. Will lead to it. And so um I no longer drink.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

I no longer drink breast cancer also has a very strong uh causation from alcohol.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Oh, and Susie no longer drinks either.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Yeah, I don't drink anymore. And and um I've lived my father died of cancer when I was 17, so I, you know, immediately thought, oh, you know, maybe I have a genetic predisposition for cancer, but as it turned out that that wasn't the case.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Yeah, I asked the same question of my doctor, same answer. And so um it's the aging itself because our immune systems are weakening and the cell oxidation increases, that that's what increases the ability of those cancer cells to replicate. And um I I wanted to be clear that even though maybe like 20-25% of aging people might get cancer, um, 40% of those cancers are on the skin. Like our exposure to the sun without you know, and the UV and the um it's it's it's and a lot of those are pretty minor, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah, and I mean skin cancer, skin cancer can be fatal. Yeah, but yeah, but mostly it's not most are not, so just stay on top of that and um Yeah, yeah, and and don't smoke cigarettes for gosh sakes, you know. There's a lot of things wrong with that. I got my husband to quit using tobacco by saying you're supporting the tobacco companies, don't do it.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Well, they say the no the I worked in public health, the number one thing is like putting the prices up. That's that's the thing that helps the most.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

But no, yeah. People, yeah, boy, I don't know what a carton of cigarettes costs these days. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Way more than I would ever spend, let's just put it that way.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

So I'm so glad that you're okay. Um what what do you want to end with? What would what do you want to tell people?

SPEAKER_01 14:36

I just think it's important to look to listen to your own body, but also to listen to your healthcare provider, get your screenings. Um, my case might have been even better if I had gotten my screening a little bit earlier. You know, I go once a year. Maybe I could go on a little more often, but you know, hindsight's 2020. I'm not saying blaming myself. It's just just get your screenings. I think it's really important.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

It is.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

And and listen to your body too. It's it is the most intimate relationship we have, is with our own bodies. And so I I know for me, sometimes my body will just say, you know, get this checked out or something. And and then I do it. I do it because uh we want to be as loving and and good.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

And sometimes it ends up being nothing, you know, like you go. I just had an ultrasound on my leg because I was worried about some ankle swelling, turned out to be nothing. You know, it's probably just a side effect of a medication, but you know, it's important to to always take care of that and always listen to your doctors, listen to your body.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Well, I'm so glad you're you're well. And um I I want people to see this as a hopeful thing that that Susie is fine, she doesn't even need any follow-up treatment now because she got in there and she took care of it and I had an excellent surgeon.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Great, yeah, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Yeah, so um we're gonna end this one here. And um, thanks for listening. Please like and subscribe. Yes, and until next time, we are staying alive.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

You've been listening to Staying Alive with Margaret and Susie. This show is hosted by Margaret Cooley and Susie Hymas. To subscribe to our show, leave a comment or ask a question, please visit staying alive with margaretandsuzy.com. Our podcast is available on all major podcast platforms. If you've enjoyed our program, please feel free to leave us a five star review. Thanks for listening.