lung cancer fear

[Lenora]

Hi guys, I'm a 26 year old and have been worrying myself sick. The middle of December i had two biopsies done on my tongue to check for oral cancer. That sent me into major anxiety. So bad i lost weight and broke out in a rash. I got the results back and they eere negative. Made me feel better for a couple days but then i got a cold over xmas and it went away after about a week but the cough seemed to linger on also producing yellow phlegm. I also smoked but have cut down to none at all or maybe two a day if i bum one from someone. Well i got a pain in my left shoulder blade and pain in left breast when i take a breath. The pain is so mild im suprised i notice it but since im so anxious i notice every single thing. I'm not breathless I've also put my weight back on. Cough is going away. Had bloodwork done all was good. I just cannot shake the fear that i have lung cancer all because of the twinge i feel. I have kids and not being the mom i normally am. I dont have insurance so can't see a doctor. I had a ct scan for my kidneys not to long ago would that have shown anything abnormal?

[Lenora]

Anyone? I'm feeling really down and lost.

[Dava]

Hi I can't really offer any words of wisdom, other than I've seen similar issues discussed in symptoms forums. Maybe you could find some support there?

[Blinkyrocket]

Most likely nothing, just muscle tension, everyone would be surprised how much all their symptoms are just muscle tension. I get chest pains and tightness, almost exactly like a big weight is on my chest... Massage my pectorals and the pain amplifies until eventually going away the more I massage it into relaxation. If you're worried about smoking, just roll your own and buy organic or don't smoke, although I imagine quitting would suck, admitting that organic tobacco is ok would be just as hard :P to be fair to your worries and fears though, even organic tobacco probably has a little bit of fluoride in it, best bet would be a place like Leafonly.com or wholeaf.com

The original surgeons general report reported no significant findings in animal trials for smoking tobacco but they released it anyway. Nowadays there's enough fluoride in the tobacco (which is stems and filler mostly) and chlorine in the cigarette paper that when heated becomes dioxins to go above and beyond what the original surgeon generals report was trying to prove. Although, many many centenarians have survived on even Americas crappy brands of cigarettes co I question whether or not the toxins are all that bad. (It's actually a common trait of a centenarian to smoke all their life)

Idk if Broda Barnes was being paid by the tobacco industry or if the tobacco industry just saw what he said and thought his theories were good (for obvious reasons) but Broda Barnes blames lung cancer on hypothyroidism since the lungs are the major detoxifying site for many substances which are elevated when your thyroid isn't working so great. Coincidentally, a number of the substances present in conventional cigarette smoke in high concentrations is highly anti thyroid. These substances are not present in organic tobacco in high amounts and even if they were, simply supporting your thyroid would negate the effects.

Also, there's the theory that all tobacco really does is speed up the process of a tumor growing and maturing but never really causes cancer, in other words the ones who get lung cancer by smoking already had it but would have died of something else if they hadn't smoked.

And then there's the growing realization of beneficial effects of carbon monoxide, and even paradoxical effects of increased tissue oxygenation.

Anyway, the states with the highest cigarette consumption have the highest reported (important keyword there) rates of lung cancer.... But they also line up perfectly with the staggering amount of nuclear power plants in those some states, if you graph the countries lung cancer rates and dot in all the locations of nuclear power plants it lines up perfectly... So at the very best it's uncertain that tobacco has much to do with it. Although anecdotal evidence from a few smoker friends suggests that cigarettes are drastically different than organic tobacco, they say that when smoking conventional cigarettes their voice was hoarse and they coughed all the time and found it hard to breathe sometimes whereas switching to organic tobacco supposedly allowed them to breathe even better than non smokers. One of them said that if he smoked before a game of basketball, he would be comfortably breathing through his nose while his non smoker buddy's would be out of breath and breathing with their mouths open :D
Apparently this was due to availability of choice between a few strains of tobacco like Canadian Virgina Bright Leaf which apparently had very bronchodilating properties.
Anyway, I don't smoke, but I absolutely love the smell of tobacco and would wear it as a cologne if I could, so I support the right for ppl to fill the air with that glorious smoky scent.

[Thoughts]

Look dude, the odds are about 1/1,000,000. You can look them up on government web pages, but that is a hole you don't want to go down. Those unlikely few that get it at your age, and it really is a few, don't get it from smoking. In fact, smokers your age are less likely to get it than non-smokers. It is some weird effect where some stress activates the immune response or something like that. Long story short, you can smoke your heart out and quit when you are 30 and have identical mortality to a life long non-smoker. So, go to random.org, a random number generator, pick a number in your head, change the caclculator to 100,000, and generate a number. Did it match yours? I didn't think so. That's how risk works.

[Lenora]

Hi I can't really offer any words of wisdom, other than I've seen similar issues discussed in symptoms forums. Maybe you could find some support there?

Ok how would i find that. This is a bit confusing to me.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It's here:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=15

I would recommend the Health Anxiety one too. Both of these boards are busier and your worries are likely the same as theirs than on the Panic board.