Lung cancer killing twice as many women as breast cancer
Breast cancer activists badly needed as lung cancer matters too!
What does it say about us, that we'd devote time and energy to the battle against breast cancer, yet turn our backs on the plight of the 33, 38, 44 or 50 year-old woman battling lung cancer?
Today marks the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the start of Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Sadly, national sympathy for women's cancer effectively ends today. Why? Because roughly 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths in women are caused by smoking.
According to the American Cancer Society, during 2012 breast cancer will kill 39,510 women while lung cancer claims 72,590, nearly twice as many. When men are included, total 2012 lung cancer deaths rise to 160,340, four times as many as breast cancer alone.
While a Google search of "Breast Cancer Awareness Month" returns 40,200,000 million search results, "Lung Cancer Awareness Month" returns just 102,000 hits, 394 times fewer.
As for government priorities, according to the Lung Cancer Foundation of America, 2008 federal funding of breast and lung cancer research was $14,145 per breast cancer death as compared to $1,529 for each lung cancer death.
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There were no pink ribbons for 38 year-old Deborah Scott. None. Click Deb's photo to read her journal documenting what it's like in America for a woman battling and dying of lung cancer. |
Many look upon a woman battling lung cancer as getting her just desserts after committing slow-suicide via the 81 known cancer causing chemicals so far identified in cigarette smoke. Sadly, such thinking misses the bigger picture.
What needs asking is, why do roughly half of adult female smokers smoke themselves to death, each an average of 14 years early?
Nicotine dependency is a mental illness and disease that is every bit as real and permanent as alcoholism. It is a dopamine pathway wanting disorder in which the brain assigns that next nicotine fix the same survival instincts priority as eating our next meal.
A number of brain imaging studies report "significant overlap" in brain regions involved in food use cues and smoking cues. When her blood serum nicotine level begins falling, the female smoker experiences the same brain dopamine pathway wanting that you feel when hungry: food cravings, nicotine cravings.
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Imagine being 44 years-young and fighting for your life. Click the above image to live Kim's nightmare. |
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Imagine being 33 years-old, a new mother and dying of lung cancer six months before your son's first birthday. Click on Noni's picture to read her tragic story. |
Why doesn't she quit? It isn't for a lack of trying. According to the CDC, 52.4 percent of smokers made an attempt to quit smoking during 2010.
What's lacking is an understanding of why she smokes and how to quit.
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. How much time would it take to share the above YouTube "how to quit smoking" video on your Facebook page or on Twitter? Why this particular video? Because it was created by Joel Spitzer, a leading stop smoking counselor (4 million downloads of his free ebook Never Take Another Puff), it shares key recovery lessons, and it leads to 167 additional free quit smoking videos by Joel.
Consider copying and pasting the following message to your Facebook page:
As Breast Cancer Awareness month ends and Lung Cancer Awareness Month begins, let us remain mindful that twice as many women are dying of lung cancer as breast cancer. While true that roughly 90 percent of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking, like alcoholism, chemical dependency upon smoking nicotine is "real" drug addiction, a brain dopamine pathway wanting disorder that costs half of adult smokers an average of 14 years of life.
Lung cancer matters too. I invite you to get involved. Please share this short YouTube video link on how to quit smoking. Thanks! Together we can make a difference! http://youtu.be/l27zWo7hbcY
Consider copying and sharing the following Tweets:
- November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Please help by retweeting this "How to Quit Smoking" YouTube video: http://youtu.be/l27zWo7hbcY
- Although no pink ribbons, twice as many women die of lung cancer and this is Lung Cancer Awareness Month: https://whyquit.com/pr/103112.html
Yes, lung cancer matters too. Together we will make a difference!
