The cause of cancer (or causes)

[vannah]

I would really like to hear anyones view on what they believe causes cancer.

I ask this because I am baffled and devastated by the number of people I know or know of who have died of cancer in the past 5 years, most were young - ie in late 30's/early 40s.

I firmly believe that its more to do with emotions, and the effect of stress on your cells, more so than diet. I say this because of the people I know who have died, unhappiness seems to be the common denominator - or 'bitterness'.

Some people agree with me, a few friends believe its more likely genetic (though I believe this is not true for all cancers),

what are your thoughts? If you knew of someone who died, would you say that unhappiness or poor diet may have been a link?

thankyou

thanks for re-posting vannah. I did hope that you might feel at least more informed (if a little battered) I think many people think the way your OP was phrased so you weren;t by any means in teh minority

Wish I had seen this earlier.

Used to work for Macmillan, and we used to geta sked this all the time- the standard answer we gave was that cancer is the name for over 200 diseases, and that was probably about as many acuses as there was. genetics is of course I big thing- but a trigger is usually needed and nobody has any way of knowing if they ahve the gene, as it could be they do but nobody in their family has ever triggered it before, iyswim? but then you get poeple like my friend who hhas lost her Mum and several Aunts to breast cancer and knows full well what her outlook is.

I think personally a lot of the triggers are environmental ones we will never know about, but also we shoudl remember that a lot of it is age related- and as people grow older and live longer, then cancer will be more common anyway. So sometimes the rates fo up and people get scared. But i think you can place a fair bet lookinga round your family on what to watch out for and where to be carefula bout your health- in my family its heart disease every time, or ASD for the kids, but for tohers its cancer.