Can you cure ALS with a bucket of ice water over your head?

Is it the same as putting a pink ribbon on breast cancer? Don't get me wrong here, I think the ice bucket challenge is raising awareness of a horrible disease and it is increasing donations to a worthy organization (unless you are Catholic and have a problem with the stem cell research they advocate). Before you grab your big bucket of ice water and are thankful this challenge is going around in August and not in January, please take a moment to think.

Is what the ice bucket challenge is doing for ALS more than what a pink ribbon does for breast cancer? Seriously.

For everyone who wore a pink ribbon or did the ice bucket challenge can you please tell me three specifications on each disease? Statistics, or life expectancy, or number of people living with it? What does ALS stand for - spell it and pronounce it without looking it up?

While awareness is great and donations are even better, we all need to step out of our little bubbles and learn about these horrible diseases - and there are many more - and what else can be done besides painting the world pink or pouring ice water on your head.

And is this just a passing fad? Or will it be an annual event every summer where the world pours ice water on their head to make a horrible disease look easy and then everyone dries off before pulling out the pink stuff?

Can you cure ALS with a bucket of ice water over your head?

Is it the same as putting a pink ribbon on breast cancer? Don't get me wrong here, I think the ice bucket challenge is raising awareness of a horrible disease and it is increasing donations to a worthy organization (unless you are Catholic and have a problem with the stem cell research they advocate). Before you grab your big bucket of ice water and are thankful this challenge is going around in August and not in January, please take a moment to think.

Is what the ice bucket challenge is doing for ALS more than what a pink ribbon does for breast cancer? Seriously.

For everyone who wore a pink ribbon or did the ice bucket challenge can you please tell me three specifications on each disease? Statistics, or life expectancy, or number of people living with it? What does ALS stand for - spell it and pronounce it without looking it up?

While awareness is great and donations are even better, we all need to step out of our little bubbles and learn about these horrible diseases - and there are many more - and what else can be done besides painting the world pink or pouring ice water on your head.

And is this just a passing fad? Or will it be an annual event every summer where the world pours ice water on their head to make a horrible disease look easy and then everyone dries off before pulling out the pink stuff?

Over-Awareness, Focus, Hype and Expectations

The media did a damn good job about making sure we all knew about Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy. She went public, if I recall correctly, to raise awareness about the BRCA gene. I respect this decision and congratulate her on a brave decision to take something very personal and make it public.

In a recent survey, three quarters of us did know about her surgery and decision. Considering that it happened less than a year ago and and was much less significant than a war, earthquake, typhoon, etc 75% is a pretty good number.

I would also like to point out that all those years of breast cancer awareness and pinkification have allowed this to become a major news topic and not get buried under the carpet or something. However the information stops at awareness.

Only 10% of those asked in the survey knew about Angelina's BRCA diagnosis and why she had the mastectomy. I think I am okay with this. If you are not embedded in the breast cancer world you can't be expected to know chapter and verse about the genetic causes of breast cancer.

For example, I know there is some family genetic trait that leads to Huntington's disease and don't really feel I need to know more about it because it does not affect me directly. If it did, I would be up on it and have read all the research.

I think we have reached a level of breast cancer awareness that is overdone. But I do not think we need to expect that all American's know the great details of a breast cancer diagnosis and all its risk factors. There are many other diseases and ailments that deserve more awareness and shouldn't be hidden behind a pink curtain of over-hype and over-awareness.

I do think Americans need to embrace overall awareness of a healthy lifestyle and not focus on a few diseases at a time - the ones that are closest to them and causing them the most problems.

A cancer warning

Thyroid cancer has the highest increase in incidence in the US of all cancers. Thyroid cancer is one of the so called 'good' cancers as it has a 95% 'cure' rate.

However here are a few facts of warning:

• The 'cure' includes the removal of the patient's thyroid which results in a life time dependence on a synthetic replacement hormone. Your body 'sort-of ' runs correctly. Some people never can get their dose correct and live in constant imbalance.
• It hits the young and old - from toddlers to seniors. And its increasing in young patients to the same prevalence as Non Hodgkin Lymphoma in teenagers. 
• No one knows why it is increasing in incidence so strongly but radiation exposure is suspect.
• When I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer I think there were about 12,000 cases nationally. In 2014 33 years later, there were 63,000 cases. That is more than the number of cases of rectal cancer, all types of leukemia, or all types of oral cancers, or pancreatic cancer. Haven't you heard of those?

So its not a good cancer if it affects so many. And its increase is not explained. Most other cancers are decreasing in incidence but not thyroid cancer. There is no awareness for thyroid cancer. Visit thyca.org for more information on the disease.