4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To be or not to be is to read or not to read, June 12, 2004
This review is from: Everyday Cancer Risk (Paperback)
(2 of 3 found this helpful prior to this revision)
Being a constant reader of health letters and health books for over 30 years I find Levenstein's book worrisome, because I have read it 10 years late and have been unaware of some hazards and have misjudged the magnitude of others. Backed up by 24 pages of references (approx. 470 citations) she has created a highly permeable interface between the heavy-duty scientists and the rest of us who just want to know enough to be sufficiently motivated and informed so that we can protect ourselves. She is impressive in her 35 chapters of broad and skillful coverage of this broad topic and in her writing style which slapped me hard with persuasive truth many times and in her presentation of the compelling need for realistic action and in her providing of resources for guiding and assisting our action. Writers are famous for skipping "the elephant in the living room" in their books - could I criticize this one for skipping mind-body medicine - no - she digs right into it in her chapter on stress. She even wrote a chapter on protecting our pets from environmental hazards and from some pet foods which may contain even more potentially carcinogenic material than the foods most pet owners eat.
I am reminded that our cancer vulnerability is primarily determined a) by what we do to ourselves with varying levels of awareness, and b) by what we are exposed to because of the actions of others (engaged in providing us products and services) who limit or distort our knowledge about the environmental and potentially carcinogenic impacts of their work and their products. As a result of two cancer cases in my family, of general self-education on cancer, of reading Levenstein's book, and of writing my own set of book notes, the following have become realizations for me:
1) Buying organic foods is more health-strategic than most of us realize.
2) Cancer research works both ways for humans and rats - research on either, for a given carcinogen, often indicates likely cancer causation in the other.
3) One needs to develop and maintain throughout his/her life a plan for avoiding cancer with at least the same priority as plans for finances, education, career, child-raising and retirement.
4) It is more difficult, complex, and perhaps traumatic, to arrive at an understanding of the cancer-affected body and the methods and effects of cancer treatments than it is to arrive at an understanding of how most of us can prevent cancer.
5) The appetite of the masses for cheap electrical power has been stimulated far beyond our ability to produce that power while withholding carcinogens from the environment.
6) Industry has a simple bottom line - give the public what they want (or can be induced to want) or go into bankruptcy. Therefore, industry restraint in placing potential carcinogens in the air, earth, water and foods is impossible without the creation and enforcement of laws by an aware public along with its votes-sensitive public officials. Also informed individual restraint in the use of environmentally-damaging products and services can drive industry toward better choices.
The medical system - including the educators, researchers, manufacturers, marketers and practitioners - have failed to produce a cure for cancer despite the billions of dollars spent and the millions of persons killed by the combination of "early detection," conventional cancer treatment and the cancer itself. Yet, somehow, a proven effective system of cancer management - cancer prevention, as advocated by Levenstein and numerous others - is widely looked upon with suspicion and skepticism. For example, the practice of deliberately abstaining from known unwholesome foods and consuming other foods for prevention of and relief from some illnesses including cancer is considered unproven and risky.
Levenstein details throughout her book exactly which chemicals and radioactive products increase cancer susceptibility in the persons exposed, then she drives the point home (without saying so) in her last chapter on workplace hazards. Sure enough, the groups of persons who were more exposed to specific carcinogens did contract more of the types of cancer associated with those particular carcinogens.
I think that it needs to be recognized that this book is just as much about cancer prevention-of-relapse as it is about cancer prevention. Apparently the most functional aspects of Mary Levenstein's response to her own cancer case were her take-charge attitude toward her illness, her ravenous pursuit of all that could be learned about cancer and its treatment, and her recruitment of many supportive allies from within her immediate family, from among her friends, and from within the professional community. Many cancer writers have noted the association between longer survival times - and sometimes complete recovery - in persons who responded in this manner. Levenstein's book-writing response to cancer reminds me of the of Jacquelyn Rogers' successful book-writing response in 1977 to her own tobacco addiction and high cancer risk (You Can Stop).
I hope that Levenstein and the professionals who have created the vast cancer prevention literature that has inspired and informed her work will drive a revision in public activism so that instead of the cancer walks, runs, marathons etc. we will see "Cancer Prevention Walks To The Library" wherein we can order, find and read books on cancer prevention and can motivate libraries to bring into their systems more of the most useful books and other materials and to promote on-line material on cancer prevention. And I hope that the individuals who do read will communicate with those who don't.
Bill Norwood
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
