The Seed + Soil Theory

Kylie Minogue has it..
Sheryl Crow has it..
Heather Clarke had it..
Koh Chieng Mun has it..

My hubby's sis-in-law has it..
And now, my sister too has it..

What is happening to our society that is bringing this dreadful disease to the famous and the ordinary women folks like us? And why does it appear to be hitting us younger and younger?

Is it the food we eat? Is it the clothings we wear or the perfumes we splash on? Or is our day-to-day inactive office lifestyle making it conducive for cancer cells to grow and multiply? I wonder..

We asked the good doctor on the very day when Nellie 's cancer was declared as being in remission, the one question that had been on our minds all those 6 months through chemo:

"So how and why was it that Nellie was stricken with this cancer in the first place, Doc?"

His answer took us by surprise. Based on our best recollection, this is what he tried to tell us in the simplest terms:

He said he believes in the "seed and soil" theory. Our body is constantly exposed to cancer-causing stuffs called carcinogens.. things we eat, stuff we breathe. But our body's immune system battles against these carcinogens and wins. Almost always. But there comes a time when our body's natural immune system meets with a cancer-causing agent but fails to wipe it out and flush it off our body. This one abnormal cell starts to multiply and therein lies the beginnings of a cancer growth.

So what caused the body's immune system to fail us, we asked? His answer.. stress!
Stress from everyday life.. from work, from family, from relationships. Therein lies his "seed and soil" theory. The seed (cancer-causing agent) happens to sit on the soil (an organ in our body) at the very moment when the soil was 'weakened', so to speak, by stress.

Does this makes sense? We looked into Nellie's past. She's a relatively active lady, meaning she works out in the gym at least once a week, jogs when she can and plays golf perhaps twice a month. As recent as last August, she took her regular healthscreening test and all seemed fine. But taking another deeper look, we realised that she was indeed subjected to some serious stressful situations, both at work and within the family.

We can only look back and connect some dots. But can it be true what the doc said .. that stress could be the big culprit afterall? Till today, we look back and wonder... perhaps the smart thing to do is to make a vow to not let any stress bring us depressingly down from here on. With the benefit of hindsight, this makes perfect sense to us, and we hope it gives you something to think about too, for health's sake.

And please, do listen to your body and if something is not normal, go and have it checked early! As I write this, the results of my sister's report was told to me.. she's in Stage 1. Her surgeon added.." it's a good thing your sister came to us early". Thank God, indeed.

>>gleefully ntangle