Autism and Cancer, are they related somehow?

[Mr Allen]

I have no risk of cancer, I don't smoke, never have, never will, and IMO the smoking ban in Pubs was THE best thing the current government ever did, now I can sit in the Crown and Glove on quiz night and not come out smelling like an Ashtray.

 

[Major Tom]

I have no risk of cancer, I don't smoke, never have, never will, and IMO the smoking ban in Pubs was THE best thing the current government ever did, now I can sit in the Crown and Glove on quiz night and not come out smelling like an Ashtray.

I'm glad you live a healthy lifestyle, but in this day and age, just about everything it seems has carcinogens in it, be it food, clothing, cleaning supplies, etc. So while you are making the right decisions, unfortunately there's always risks. I Also believe there are genetic factors in cancer as well. Anyways, keep living the good, healthy lifestlye and you should be fine!

 

[Streetwise]

do you think there are any cancers autistic people don't get, great-grandmother had colon cancer ,her daughter had stomach cancer ,my mother rheumatoid arthritis ,my uncle my mother ,my cousin ,me allergies.

 

[Progster]

I have no risk of cancer, I don't smoke, never have, never will, and IMO the smoking ban in Pubs was THE best thing the current government ever did, now I can sit in the Crown and Glove on quiz night and not come out smelling like an Ashtray.

Unfortunately, everyone has a risk of cancer - not smoking and drinking, and leading a healthy lifestyle will reduce the risk of getting cancer, but not eliminate it entirely.

I agree with you about the smoking ban being a good thing, I wish they could do the same here.

 

[Mary Terry]

I wish perfume would be banned in public places along with cigarette smoke. Hospitals do not allow employees to wear perfume at work because so many people are adversely affected by it. Perfume, like smoke, consists of particulate matter which is inhaled. I once had an employee who seemed to apply perfume with a gravy ladle. I could always tell when she had been in the elevator by the lingering stench.

 

[OlLiE]

i would think that the condition itself probably has little correlation with cancer.
However, i could imaging that the condition could lead to behaviour that may contribute to cancer.

 

[S-Head]

Actually, I think that in my case, autism helped me to detect the lump in my breast at an early stage. I'm very touch-sensitive, and knew very quickly that the lump was there, and that it wasn't normal - it felt wrong, out of place, alien, not part of me. It also helped that I watch so many health and medicine documentaries, or read about medical issues, so knew that I needed to have it checked out straight away. Some other people can go for years with large lumps in their breast without noticing or doing anything about it (my surgeon told me this).

Reading your account, it sounds as if aspies and autistics are better at detecting when their bodies are diseased. And they can then do something about it. I'm happy to hear that you did.

Wouldn't this mean that they would live longer, because they are more aware of their bodies? Perhaps even they can feel that they are overdoing something and stop before really overdoing it. Something like shoveling snow (a very strenuous activity) and stopping or slowing down before they have a heart attack. Or stopping work for the day before they get too stressed, thus avoiding disease that comes from stress.

It's something that was on my mind for a while...

 

[Progster]

Reading your account, it sounds as if aspies and autistics are better at detecting when their bodies are diseased. And they can then do something about it. I'm happy to hear that you did.

Wouldn't this mean that they would live longer, because they are more aware of their bodies? Perhaps even they can feel that they are overdoing something and stop before really overdoing it. Something like shoveling snow (a very strenuous activity) and stopping or slowing down before they have a heart attack. Or stopping work for the day before they get too stressed, thus avoiding disease that comes from stress.

It's something that was on my mind for a while...

I think that varies, they can be hypersensitive, or hyposensitive, or a mixture of both. For me the idea of an alien lump in my body that will kill me if I don't do something about it is definitely motivation enough for overcome my fear of doctors and medical examinations. I now have to have regular scans and blood tests, and that might prolong my life too, because any further problem is likely to be spotted early.

 

[keebles]

First off, so sorry about your parents! I haven't dealt with it on the parent level, but I have dealt with it on the grandparent level, so I know what it's like.

Anyone can get cancer...it can be a genetic predisposition to it, something you are exposed to, or something you cause and even non-smokers who have never been around cigarettes can get lung cancer, I've seen it hundreds of times. But I work in a lab (even though I do I.T. now, I've been through almost every department in this lab and my sister is a cancer nurse at another lab), so I do deal with it every day either through my job or hers (there are times when she needs patient information from my lab which is covered under HIPAA and I do tend to answer the phone a lot too).

I don't think there is a direct link between cancer and ASD, but I do think that sometimes ASD behavior can cause it or at least I believe mine did. Let me explain and I'll apologize now for the length of this post...I have mentioned in previous posts that, at one point in my life, I was so desperate to be in a relationship and appear "normal", that I ended up marrying the first one that came along. That relationship was all about my ASD wanting to be an NT and my OCD wanting the idea of him (but not him specifically, he was the anti-version of my "type"). To say I settled would be the understatement of the millennium, but desperation breeds stupidity sometimes.

I'm going to go into a bit of detail here, so if anyone is squeamish, don't read anymore. There is a reason why...basically because I deal with this everyday and most women have no clue about this and they should, and it makes me very angry.

My ex had a questionable past, but I didn't care because I was afraid that, if I didn't take him, another guy wouldn't show because I was so desperate for that "normalcy". Of course it didn't last but, because of his said questionable past, I ended up developing HPV or Human Papillomavirus Infection...basically a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cancer in females (back in those days, only 1 in 10 women got HPV, so his promiscuity played a factor, now at least everyone who is sexually active will have at least one strain in their lifetime, both male and female, and condoms don't protect against it because it's a skin cell transfer, not a fluid one, so it really doesn't matter how sexually active you are, if you're active, you will get it, but not necessarily the cancerous version).

I very quickly got a very aggressive form of cervical cancer (which is rare, sometimes it takes months or years to manifest, sometimes it never does and it usually isn't that aggressive, just my luck). Eventually, the only treatment that was going to work was a hysterectomy, which is not something they recommend for someone as young as I was (I was 29 at the time), but since I didn't want kids, they went ahead and did it. I got divorced, got cancer, had a hysterectomy, and filed bankruptcy all in the same year and it was still the best year of my life, go figure. But I did loose three albatrosses...an annoying ex (although I did have stalker issues from him for several years afterwards), a bad uterus (I had always had bad periods, so no loss there), and a ton of debt (which I very quickly re-amassed again), so there you go.

I am paranoid about such things (because I work in a lab and see it every day), so I do go to my doctor routinely and that saved me. If I hadn't, I could have been dead within 5 years. HPV usually has no symptoms unless you get the wart kind (which I didn't have) and I think there are like three strains of those out of the over 100 total strains (I think about 15 of those are cancer-causing, but don't quote me on that), so you might not even know you have it and, if you do, you may not get cancer or have a bad Pap. Most doctors will tell you that you had a "bad Pap", but they don't mention HPV or, if they do, they don't tell you that HPV is a STD because the stigma of those particular letters tend to scare patients away or freak them out. I don't understand this. Obviously, my doctor knows where I work and knew he couldn't hide my results from me, but it never ceases to amaze me the things that all doctors tell their patients (or, more apropos DON'T tell their patients) about HPV. I don't like admitting that I had an STD either, but I did, it gave me cancer, so it's part of the story that people should know (and since the statics are so high for other women, they should know too). And a surprising number of women don't even want to know why their Pap was bad, which I also don't understand. I had to deal with co-workers knowing I had an STD as well, which wasn't easy because that was way before the days of HIPAA, so it took it all of five minutes to make the water cooler rounds, which was miserable and was more depressing than the disease itself, but that's another story.

The Gardasil shot they give young girls now only covers about 5 or 6 strains, so even that only helps a little bit (but every little bit helps...it would have protected me from the kinds I had, if it would have been around in my day, I had three strains, all of which are in the shot). Because I have already had those three strains, I am immune to them now (unless I get a mutated version of them), but that still leaves over a hundred varieties I could get and still over ten that are cancer causing (I can still get HPV-related cancer without a uterus, it will just be in another site). I don't understand why parents fight giving their kids this shot. It's not condoning their future sex lives, it's about protecting them later in life.

Men usually aren't affected by HPV unless it's the warty kind, but they can develop prostate cancer or throat cancer later in life. Most females are affected earlier in life, but not all. Part of me is glad I went through it at a younger age.

I'm not against having another relationship, but I also don't look for it nor do I need it anymore and, if I do, there will be testing done first before it progresses to THAT level which most men won't do anyway, so problem solved and testing is no guarantee anyway. At this stage of my life, it's just not something I care about anymore, but now I know I'm an Asper and I approach life differently. But then again, even if I would have known back then what I know now, I probably would have made the same stupid mistake. It was a lesson I needed to learn I guess.

I still get mammograms every single year (even though, because I've had cervical cancer but I still have my ovaries and I have no family history of breast cancer, my chances are low), I will get colon screenings when I reach that age (because I have had cervical cancer and I do have a family history of colon cancer, my chances are high), I watch every single mole (even though I haven't been in the sun since the age of 16, my chances are low), and I make sure my brain tumor is constantly monitored (even though it's benign). My Asperness keeps me healthy by making me paranoid about routine checkups but, at least in my youth, I do believe it caused me to get cancer in the first place, but I'm pretty sure mine is a rare case.

 

[Streetwise]

A young woman in the town I live in went to her GP 20 times saying she was bleeding and was fobbed off .
she was eventually diagnosed with cervical cancer and now shes dead .
her symptoms started at 18! but the gp blindly said was too young.
she died at 25 .

 

[keebles]

A young woman in the town I live in went to her GP 20 times saying she was bleeding and was fobbed off .
she was eventually diagnosed with cervical cancer and now shes dead .
her symptoms started at 18! but the gp blindly said was too young.
she died at 25 .

Yeah, it drives me nuts...there is no sense in things like this. Even the doctors don't take HPV seriously because of the stigma of the other three letters...STD.

 

[scrp14]

wish smoking would just be straight up illegal, wherever you are, just feels like when they off having a fag, I suffer from the second-hand smoke that rises, and whenever i complain about it they just shrug it off

tho some people go thru life having smoked all their life and never get cancer, maybe that's something to be thankful for in my bloodline

 

[Streetwise]

Yeah, it drives me nuts...there is no sense in things like this. Even the doctors don't take HPV seriously because of the stigma of the other three letters...STD.

to be honest I don't think it's got anything to do with an STD ,the doctors just don't care ,if she been paying privately they would've sent her to a hospital .

 

[Progster]

wish smoking would just be straight up illegal, wherever you are, just feels like when they off having a fag, I suffer from the second-hand smoke that rises, and whenever i complain about it they just shrug it off

tho some people go thru life having smoked all their life and never get cancer, maybe that's something to be thankful for in my bloodline

Agreed. Smoking is a real curse on mankind. If it had been introduced or discovered today, it would almost certainly have been banned, but now it's too late for that, because tobacco companies are way too powerful and politicians way too easily bribed... I don't undertand how people can be ok about working in this industry, when the product they produce causes so much misery and even death... certainly causes more misery than any good that might come out of it... sure, people need to feed their families, but tobacco isn't the only crop they can grow, there are other crops of much greater value and usefulness in the world.

 

[keebles]

to be honest I don't think it's got anything to do with an STD ,the doctors just don't care ,if she been paying privately they would've sent her to a hospital .

If it was cervical cancer and it wasn't metastasized from another location, then it was HPV-related. There really isn't another dominant source for cervical specific cancer unless it came from another location first. There is another form of cancer that causes the cervix and the entire vaginal tract to calcify, but that is something that even the doctors couldn't avoid because basically that whole area would be turning to bone. It is so rare that like 100 people have ever been diagnosed with it.

 

[Streetwise]

If it was cervical cancer and it wasn't metastasized from another location, then it was HPV-related. There really isn't another dominant source for cervical specific cancer unless it came from another location first. There is another form of cancer that causes the cervix and the entire vaginal tract to calcify, but that is something that even the doctors couldn't avoid because basically that whole area would be turning to bone. It is so rare that like 100 people have ever been diagnosed with it.

oh confused somebody else !what I meant was it probably was an STD but the doctor doesn't care what it is !what he cares about is getting rid of you out of his office.

 

[keebles]

oh confused somebody else !what I meant was it probably was an STD but the doctor doesn't care what it is !what he cares about is getting rid of you out of his office.

Gotcha! Yeah, we have patients call us all the time because their doctors don't explain their results to them and technically we're not allowed to under HIPAA, but we can give them a copy of their report and when they ask about certain wording, we can suggest Google (or at least I do). We get a lot of angry calls from doctors offices afterwards, but hey, that's THEIR fault in the first place for not explaining it. We didn't explain for them, we are required by law to give the patient their report. When I was a kid and I didn't know something, my mother would always say, "look it up". I'm just passing on the wisdom!

When it comes to smoking, I'm an asthmatic with an extreme allergy to it, so I'm totally against it too, but that's a double-edged sword. Obviously, despite my career, I would love for cancer to be eradicated altogether, there will always be other diseases for us to deal with. Smokers...and this will sound horrible, but my Asper mouth always gets me into trouble anyway...smokers guarantee my Sister and I a trip to Disney World once a year. Other people around us tend to cough around the smoking areas, we say "thanks!". I know, that sounds horrible and I should feel bad about it, but I don't.

 

[Streetwise]

Gotcha! Yeah, we have patients call us all the time because their doctors don't explain their results to them and technically we're not allowed to under HIPAA, but we can give them a copy of their report and when they ask about certain wording, we can suggest Google (or at least I do). We get a lot of angry calls from doctors offices afterwards, but hey, that's THEIR fault in the first place for not explaining it. We didn't explain for them, we are required by law to give the patient their report. When I was a kid and I didn't know something, my mother would always say, "look it up". I'm just passing on the wisdom!

When it comes to smoking, I'm an asthmatic with an extreme allergy to it, so I'm totally against it too, but that's a double-edged sword. Obviously, despite my career, I would love for cancer to be eradicated altogether, there will always be other diseases for us to deal with. Smokers...and this will sound horrible, but my Asper mouth always gets me into trouble anyway...smokers guarantee my Sister and I a trip to Disney World once a year. Other people around us tend to cough around the smoking areas, we say "thanks!". I know, that sounds horrible and I should feel bad about it, but I don't.

in this instance the doctor did absolutely nothing at all ,she spent years trying to get help and was finally diagnosed,I just can't see the point of doing a job you're not interested in .

 

[keebles]

in this instance the doctor did absolutely nothing at all ,she spent years trying to get help and was finally diagnosed,I just can't see the point of doing a job you're not interested in .

I see it a lot more with the younger generation of doctors...they are in it more for the money than the philanthropy of it all. I've been with my lab for a long time and I've seen an older generation transition to a younger one to an even younger one and this company has gone so downhill it's not even funny. It's one of the reasons why I'm going back to school to finish my education and get out of the medical field altogether. They just don't care anymore...any of them. I am lucky that my personal doctors all do, but I spent a lot of time amassing just the right group of them (plus, I'm a hard patient to deal with, so it's harder for me to keep them than for me to deal with them sometimes).

And then we have "interns" who are basically all pre-med students who work here doing grunt work and I try my best to instill in them that the paperwork they are handling are people, not just specimens or papers, but they just don't care either. They are too busy texting, talking, or doing their homework to care about the job. But they are cheap, non-benefit employees...so management doesn't care. These are the people handling healthcare today.

 

[Streetwise]

Gotcha! Yeah, we have patients call us all the time because their doctors don't explain their results to them and technically we're not allowed to under HIPAA, but we can give them a copy of their report and when they ask about certain wording, we can suggest Google (or at least I do). We get a lot of angry calls from doctors offices afterwards, but hey, that's THEIR fault in the first place for not explaining it. We didn't explain for them, we are required by law to give the patient their report. When I was a kid and I didn't know something, my mother would always say, "look it up". I'm just passing on the wisdom!

When it comes to smoking, I'm an asthmatic with an extreme allergy to it, so I'm totally against it too, but that's a double-edged sword. Obviously, despite my career, I would love for cancer to be eradicated altogether, there will always be other diseases for us to deal with. Smokers...and this will sound horrible, but my Asper mouth always gets me into trouble anyway...smokers guarantee my Sister and I a trip to Disney World once a year. Other people around us tend to cough around the smoking areas, we say "thanks!". I know, that sounds horrible and I should feel bad about it, but I don't.

i've got to say I'm frightened about the summer, people that live near to me on both sides smoke !for some reason now if inhale tobacco smoke I choke and cough so much my lungs hurt for a long time.
even if my front door is closed the smoke still gets in the house .
so now I've got to get in the house as quickly as possible if I see them outside !more stress in case they light up a cigarette.
you'd quickly lose your confidence about speaking if you've been harassed by people living in your street !even more so now that I've had a complaint about rubbish from the environment department and no idea who complained.