Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 12/12/2006 3:44:54 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
mmcharry AT gmail.com writes:


> I've known a few people who've had ovarian cancer. I understand that
> being fat, not eating vegetables, and smoking raise your odds of
> getting the disease, but these women were slim, in fairly good shape,
> and had never smoked. I don't know about their vegetable consumption.
> The one who was in very good shape is still alive, twenty years after
> diagnosis (she was 40 when the cancer was found).

Exceptions are everywhere.  That's why we can only deal with such questions 
as "odds", not as absolutes.  It is likely, as Gene suggested, that this is 
more an indication of us not knowing as yet all the choices and behaviors 
that 
affect it.

But even if the finger of God and all the saints and apostles was pointed at 
a woman's ovaries and her prospects for avoiding cancer were dismal, what 
difference would that make?  Would she still not be better off avoiding the 
things 
that promote cancer and avoiding the things that do?  The woman you mention 
that was a slim non-smoker who got ovarian cancer at 40, the ODDS are that 
she 
would have gotten the disease even earlier had it not been for her good 
lifestyle choices, earlier and perhaps more aggressive.