Holly,

I do agree with some of your basic thoughts. However..I find myself wondering where the rest of your "advice" stems from. 

Fact 1.. I cannot believe what is written there. Utter nonsense and I would love to meet that "specialist."

Fact 2.. Your niece..are you saying she refused seeing a doctor? Her saying she "will get better", may have enabled her to live out the rest of her life in a happier frame of mind. I don't see how that could be a bad thing.

Fact 3.. I agree it's not a good thing to be obsessive about anything including your diet. However, for you to say "bad cholesterol is a myth", is beyond ridiculous. 

"Death is normal" of course, we all know that. However, it pays to look after your health..so..although "eat, drink and be merry" may be a good thing, only a fool would overeat or drink too much. As for merriment, I advocate that in truck loads!

I am glad you agree on the merriment, Sophie! As for utter nonsense: I am a nurse and quite a few doctors who happen to be friends of mine quietly share the very same views as that specialist who told my colleague it was just bad luck she had cancer. I say "quietly" as this opinion does not go down too well, as your response demonstrates. Maybe it takes away all hope, I don't know.

As for my niece, she did receive treatment which only made her remaining year of life hideously painful and debilitating. Amazingly enough, she hid it from her son. All I (and the rest of the family) am saying is perhaps her son should have been told the truth and not lied to, maybe giving him a chance to adjust to the inevitable. I know there is really no right or wrong way to deal with a cancer diagnosis but all I can say is, that little boy now does not trust any adult and says "you all lie".

Please do a little research on cholesterol, as a cardiac specialist friend says the myths about bad cholesterol are based on flawed research. More recent studies have shown that dietary cholesterol is not associated with heart disease.

I am not advocating we all weigh 100 kg and sit about like couch potatoes! But being slightly above average on the BMI scale is not going to kill you and people (including doctors) get obsessive.  That's really the point I was trying to make: we are becoming too obsessed with our bodies. And doctors in general are very slow to change their entrenched notions!

You say we all know death is normal.  After 40 years of nursing people who are so very afraid of dying that they cling to hopeless treatments despite the doctors telling them it is palliative only and will not really give them quality of life, I don't think the majority of people think death is normal at all.

Sorry if I made anyone angry. Maybe I should just keep my views to myself. Believe me, I only wrote what I did because I see too many people not enjoying themselves and wanted to say "look at the big picture".

Thank you Holly and good on you, you are entitled to your thoughts. 

The freedom of thought and freedom of speech is just about gone from this world, so unfortunate.

And thank you Sophie for your added comments; interesting subject, interesting comments, food for thought.

Holly,

Thanks for your reply. I don’t think you should assume anyone is “angry” with you, especially me. However, if one makes bold statements which over ride generally accepted perspectives, then of course, they open themselves up for discussion. To expect people to just soak up what you or I say is hardly fair. I do believe you are a positive person and I like that.

As I said before, I like your basic concepts, but must emphatically say my view on LDL remains steadfast. Although our bodies need HDL (good cholesterol), too much of the other stuff is a recipe for disaster.

As for your friend, the doctor's view on cancer..you may find this an interesting read.

https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/is-bad-luck-the-leading-cause-of-cancer/

Please keep writing your views are as important as anyone else’s.

Agree with you completely Holly. A close friend of mine died in her 60s recently. She was a moderate drinker, non smoker, big on exercise throughout her life (but not obsessive) and into nutritious eating for as long as I knew her from early 20’s. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why people get hit with cancer or other life threatening illnesses. We all have to die and something will take out all of us. I think that not wanting to leave the people we love is the hard part that makes many of us want to keep on living to an “old age”, rather than fear of death. However, many of us fear old age and the problems we might encounter. Not easy to look ahead. Deep down we all know we have to die so best to enjoy our living while we have it in whatever way brings us joy and contentment.