Pink Ribbon Day

tiger lilies

“Early detection for breast cancer in young women relies almost completely on young women themselves, knowing their own bodies and picking up the early signs of the disease,” she said.

Dr. Helen Zorbas is quite right and this article is both well times and timely advice . The Sydney Morning Herald online has a pink navigation bar to remind us all about Pink Ribbon Day, but no one here needs reminding . We are surrounded by women who have or who have had breast cancer. There is a woman at work who has a remarkable story which is very moving, but she has reformatted herself and her life and she is just not looking back.Her motto is not to sweat the small stuff. She has grabbed her life with both hands, given herself a makeover and looks and sounds brilliant. There have been 5 other women at work who have been touched by breast cancer. I also have 2 members of my family and if you belong to online communities then there are always people you know. The brilliant thing about online communities is they raise awareness very quickly and people get off their bottoms and do something to help. We have had any number of stories of men getting out here and doing marathon walks or treks in order to support fund raising for Breast Cancer research. We have also had some very young and pretty high profile women in Australia who have died from breast cancer and that touches us deeply and does not let us forget. It is also why young women are frightened they will get it and understandably so. It is no use telling them off. The realities are out there. It is about getting the right information out to them so they can look after themselves…and getting the funding for research so we can nail this scourge once and for all.

Cross eyed parents

Image via WikipediaThere is research here which reveals 49% of parents can’t tell their children are overweight and 43% can’t tell their child is underweight. About half our parents have idea what fat or thin is in a child. Some don’t care I suppose. Some might just see their child and shape is irrelevant to them. Then there are the fat parents with the fat children and that I do not understand.How you could let your child become so overweight but maybe advertising and peer pressure to eat the wrong things are just too strong and parental influence is undermined. Some older children go through a tubby phase and then stretch up and become normal or underweight and then balance up their bodies in their 20s. There is a lot of attention to body shape and weight at the moment and lots of people just go through different phases and then get over it and settle into a normal happy lifestyle. Some people start off well and then deteriorate. I think our sedentary lifestyle with no safe areas to play and walk contribute to it . Then we have people who just eat manufactured food and prepare nothing fresh for themselves. We are getting very good at understanding the reasons. Now we know that parents are not noticing that is something else we can work on. It’s odd all the same….or maybe it’s that their parents made nothing of it and then they turned out to be okay. It’s hard to know but it would be interesting to explore further.

Stem Cell Therapy

Image via WikipediaI heard this programme on the radio this evening and radio has lost none of its power. I remember growing up thinking radio was just so boring and that it rattled on and on. Then I just listened to it for music. Now I have it tuned to news and talk back when I am in the car or home alone. Radio is actually really good to listen to and this small feature did a power of good. In a short space of time it highlighted how complex and far reaching stem cell research is and will be and how the stem cell tourism industry debate is fraught with tough decisions. We have to get the whole lot out of the cupboard and into the daylight so we can start talking about it and finding sound solutions. No one was going to argue with Perry Cross who is a quadriplegic who has had stem cell therapy overseas. Conventional medicine has not had an optimistic approach with him so he has understandably become very cynical. Originally he wasn’t supposed to live the night and then he was given 10 years and 14 years later he is still with us and talking to us on radio helping us to change the world. He has been helped by stem cell therapy but the cost is exorbitant. One researcher was saying there’s a possibility of a placebo effect whereby the patient believes so strongly something will work, so they change biologically. Faith healing I guess. Well, isn’t that one thing doctors could do? Make their patients feel so positive they increase their chances of improving their wellbeing? Surely it is valid to endorse positive deviation as part of your routine treatment? The whole stem cell therapy debate is complex, but Perry Cross brings it back to basics. For him it means so much and has changed his life. He literally can breathe for himself now. I think Christopher Reeves fought a greatly inspiring battle and showed us how nothing need be an impediment to living and that doctors need to help bolster our courage as well as provide us with treatments. Writing us off is not what we want. Oh yes, the other part of the argument is there will be people out there ready to take advantage and we should be cautious. It doesn’t devalue Perry Cross’ point. If it is working, it is working. If you criticise it, then you need to have something to put in its place. You were not living as a quadriplegic on a ventilator. Talking from the position of complete health is probably not the optimum way to look at it .

Top Five Global Problems

Image via WikipediaWe seem to have a few problems lately in the world. Not just easy to deal with problems…real , life threatening and planet endangering stuff. My top five would be:

Global warming
Health
Nutrition
Finance
Nuclear weapons

Any one of those has other associated issues. Global warming is affecting our food production, water, species and weather. Finance not only covers the share market meltdown but also the abject poverty in this world, the unequal distribution of wealth and then global financial practices. We have created these problems and we have worked really hard to create them. The only ones we seem to be able to manage and make headway with are health and nutrition. We have been hammering that everywhere and the message is getting through so the changes are occurring. We need signs that we, as a species, can actually create a world that thrives.

Body Image

Image via WikipediaThe new Code of Conduct which has been brought in by our government will no doubt have a lot of support. Gradually the momentum has been building up against skinny models and unhealthy female images and now we seem to be at that point of critical mass whereby we are going to nail it.The government stepping in at this stage to lend weight to what has become increasingly a community concern means we have a chance of restoring balance. It is not just affecting girls it is affecting boys too. More boys and men have anorexia now than ever before, so we do have to take action because anorexia is very tricky to deal with so prevention is far better than cure. The code of conduct will put an expectation out there for magazines to declare the digital enhancements made to their images. Not that you cannot tell. Even I with my limited knowledge of digital software can see when pictures have been tampered with. You get these unreal , non real forms looking at you. Plastic flesh and unnatural lines.There is a difference between fiddling images and artistic images. But I am not a kid. Increasingly they have been using adolescent boys and girls up and down the catwalk and these are people who are not yet formed and who become confused by the images, the imaging and the heady world of fashion. They used to use adults but they have been increasingly rejected as though the world cannot deal with real men and women. Why is that?