Why cancer needs to be healed, not cured

Can disease be caused by bad luck? This question has precipitated many heated discussions in the past month, ever since a report published in the journal Science attributed many cancers to the “bad luck” of random cell mutations. Sections of the scientific community raised a ruckus, saying the conclusion of the paper was misleading, and may detract from research being conducted to identify the causes of cancer and efforts to prevent it.

But when you view the bad luck theory of disease from a larger perspective, you may see how wise it is. Though we are all aware of the cause-and-effect nature of most diseases, the fact is that many people with perfectly healthy lifestyles and DNA that doesn’t suggest predisposition, end up with cancers, auto-immune diseases and Alzheimer’s. What can we make of this?

Indeed, most sensible people wouldn’t push their luck too hard and expect their health to hold up against the onslaught of bad habits such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and other behavioural and environmental factors that are linked to high risk of disease. But the fact is that the body has a mind of its own, and random mutations of the DNA can’t be controlled. So preventing some cancers is next to impossible. Regardless of how hard scientists work at understanding the causes of cancer, there will always be some unanswered questions.

But this uncertainty doesn’t give anyone the right to exploit the mind-body theory and bombard those suffering with cancer with trite judgements about the causes. A recent meeting with a friend R, who is coming to terms with a diagnosis of breast cancer, revealed how rampant this practice has become. “I’m tired of everyone insisting that some emotional distress or my unfulfilled sexual yearnings have led to my cancer,” she lamented. From the reflexology practitioner to the masseuse, everyone she meets makes sweeping conclusions such as: “Your cancer is a cry for attention, due to blocked energy, repressed anger, not enough sex,” and so on. Therapists of the alternative kind use a set of catch phrases, taking mind-body medicine to an entirely new level. Healing is the word used, instead of curing. Sexism is inherent in this kind of labelling, as it is usually linked to female cancers. Breast and ovarian cancer are commonly attributed to a range of issues, usually linked to the nurturing metaphor: You give yourself away to others without nurturing yourself, your nurture comes at the expense of yourself… blah blah. By this theory, three-fourth of us women could be struggling with cancer.

Conventional medicine may not have all the answers, but conclusions with a scientific validity are certainly more acceptable than these sort of snap judgements, or advice of a similarly random nature. “You’ll have to change your life,” said one so-called cancer healer to R. Really? How should a 65-year-old lady who has invested years creating an existence she is comfortable with, actually go about changing her life? Should she chuck her husband? Get a new house? Change her career?

Anyone who goes around making statements of this kind to a person struggling with a serious illness really needs to stop and consider how offensive their judgement is. As R says, it implies that the life she is leading is wrong, that everything she has worked to build is not enough; that she has really gone off track, which is why she has been struck by cancer. Reducing mind-body medicine to whether you laugh or cry enough, have enough sexual fulfilment, or relate well with your mother makes a mockery of it. So, let’s stop doing this.