Public Health Hijinks, A Case Study: Cancer, Part 1

by | Mar 10, 2020 | Big Government, Health Care | 319 comments

Cancer, Public Health, and Death

I never really knew anything about cancer. There’s zero of it in my family. No one I knew or loved growing up died of it; not a grandparent, great grandparent, uncle, or cousin – on either mom’s or dad’s side – with one exception. My dad’s sister, an aunt I knew well, died in her late-40s (I think) of breast cancer. Otherwise, nothing.

As a consequence, over time by a kind of osmosis, I came to think that cancer was likely a genetic disorder, with the possible odd case from some environmental exposure, like asbestos or some other serious carcinogen. I remember some discovery in the Nineties or the Aughts seemed to “prove” that cancer was a “genetic disorder.” For whatever it’s worth, if you search with Google using “cancer as a genetic disorder,” you get 66,000,000 results, with websites like Susan G. Komen, the National Institute of Health, the Mayo Clinic, and many, many others, all discussing the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which synthesize proteins that suppress tumor growth by repairing damaged DNA. Epidemiological studies show a strong link between a mutation on these genes and increased risk of breast cancer, in both men and women. So, there we go: cancer is just a case of bad genes or unlucky exposure… and so goes the current zeitgeist. We’ll come back to this in detail a bit later, but for now suffice it to say that the majority of work around cancer centers on the belief that cancer’s cause is a genetic mutation issue.

“Public health” is a fascinating concept, but unfortunately it’s a lot like every other word that you put “public” in front of… I invite you to try ‘bathroom,’ ‘transportation,’ and ‘nudity’ and run them around in your mind for a bit as a mental aperitif. ‘Schools,’ beaches,’ and ‘pools,’ fare only slightly better, but a pattern starts to emerge.’Public Servant’ is the one I’d really like you to mull over for a bit; after that, ‘public health’ falls right in line. Some of you may be offended by that, but that because you’ve been programmed – quite hard – to believe differently. I’m going to try to convince you of that with this one example that likely goes against what you’ve been told or to think. Suspend your disbelief for a minute.

There’s a Mister Death Here….

Chilling Scenes of Dreadful Villainy: Room For One More, Part 18 : Mr Death - The Grim Reaper ...
I have to admit, I kinda have a fetish for the CDC’s annual mortality statistics. It’s probably not healthy, but I can’t help myself. Did you know that roughly 2.8 million people die in the United States every year? That was (roughly) the number in 2017: 2,813,503. It’s been going steadily up for quite some time. In 2000, the CDC says it was 2,403,351. When I first started looking into those numbers, I was like, “Holy hell!! Almost 2.5-3 million people croak every year?!?” My first thought was that there couldn’t possibly be that many old people just timing out every year. I didn’t know just how depressingly correct I was.
People lose their minds about assault weapons and school shootings; it dominates almost all of our political discourse, media coverage, protests, but if we’re really interested in addressing “public health” concerns, we should start with the most deadly things, right? I mean, if you were dealing with all of the problems in your yard, for example, you would start with the most pressing problem, the most pervasive pest or threat, most whatever and at least address that first, and then maybe work backwards down the list from worst to least bad, right? You start by trying to plug the largest hole in the sinking ship, not the smallest; nor is it the time to address the paint scheme, while the water overwhelms the bilge pumps.
Assault weapons aren’t even a blip on the radar of “public health” if we measure that by who’s dying and we’re all about saving lives. For example, in 2011, “assault weapons” (yes, the term also deserves the quote marks) “killed” (and so does that) fewer than 323 people. How do I know it’s fewer than 323? There were 12,664 murders in 2011 reported according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. 6,220 were committed with handguns — about half of the total. By comparison, a rifle of any type was used on only 323 people, but rifle murders aren’t split out by “assault rifle” (as it’s been politically defined) versus regular, plain old garden variety rifles. It is a certainty, however, that “assault rifles” are a smaller subset of total rifle/long-gun deaths, so it is undoubtedly less than 323.
For a random comparison, there were 32,479 fatalities involving motor vehicles in 2011, according to the Nat’l Highway Transportation Safety Ass’n (NHTSA). That is two orders of magnitude more, and while we certainly spend some time on anti-DUI laws and some media campaigns around motor vehicle deaths, would you be willing to bet a paycheck that as a nation we’re spending roughly proportional amounts on the two as “public health” concerns? Me neither.
But what about cancer? It dwarves even highway deaths by an order of magnitude and a multiple. According to the American Cancer Society’s numbers, in 2017 there were 600,920 deaths from cancer in the U.S.; the worse news is that there were also 1,688,780 new cases of cancer in 2017. The CDC’s data is usually close to the ACS’, but it’s in a format I can’t pull on a Mac, so let’s just stipulate that cancer caused a BIG chunk of that 2.8 million, especially when compared to “scary guns” – which have been called an “epidemic” and all kinds of other apocalyptic language – or even motor vehicle deaths, or just about anything, with the exception of a cluster of related illnesses, diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke, et al, all of which account for another big chunk of that 2.8 million. My concern for this piece, however, is cancer.
According to the World Cancer Report, in 2012 there were 14.1 million new cases of cancer globally, estimated to have caused 8.2 million deaths. It is believed (annually) to constitute 14.6% of all human deaths, or about 1  in every 7. Given that list also includes things that kill people on a large scale, such as war and famine, cancer isn’t merely significant, it is the modern plague.
And not to pile on, but the recent claims of good news on cancer deaths is pure PR and tells us a lot all by itself about how we’re doing in fighting cancer. From just one of many recent media pieces touting the “good news” surrounding cancer:
From 1991 to 2016, the U.S. cancer death rate dropped steadily by about 1.5 percent per year, resulting in an overall decline of 27 percent during the 25-year-period, according to the report from the American Cancer Society (ACS). That translates to an estimated 2.6 million fewer cancer deaths than would have been expected if death rates had remained at their peak level, the researchers said.
(My italics on the important part that hides the misdirection above it.)
Understand what this means, only that the growth rate of fatal cancer is slowing. In reality, where we count each individual loss of life as a death, the number of people who died from cancer last year (2018) was higher than it was the year before that. Which was higher than the year before that. And on and on, etc. In the CDC Mortality statistics, you will find that “malignant neoplasms (C00-C97)” – that’s the CDC’s code for cancer – were 599,108 in 2017; In 2018, it was 599,274, or another 166 MORE people died of the same effing thing.
But hey, rates are dropping! I love it. Dr. Thomas Seyfried covers this quite well in this lecture. Go to the one-minute mark and he has the cancer statistics from the American Cancer Society, along with an in depth explanation on his slide entitled “Is the War on Cancer Going Well?” The data covers 1990-2015 and shows that by any honest analysis, the answer is a resounding “No.”
We have more new cancer cases every day and more cancer deaths per day, year over year over year – the numbers go in only one direction and it isn’t down – yet somehow we’re told there is good news(!) by the media. So good, in fact, that people are fighting to take ‘credit’ for it. The headlines on the search I put in “cancer death rates lower” in DuckDuckGo produces these absurdist results: “Trump appears to take credit for lower cancer death rates” from USA Today; “Trump Took Credit for Lower Cancer Death Rates. Advocates Say Not So Fast” from the NY Times; and “Trump makes misleading brag about lower cancer deaths…” from Politico (notice how in Politico, it has now been changed from “rates” to just “deaths”, which is completely and totally wrong), all which also tells us a lot about the tenor of our age. Try to imagine any other statistic involving dead Americans where the politicians and Media are arguing over who should get the credit for higher numbers…but MUH lower rates, Ozy! 
Cut to Walter Kronkite: “Good evening, America. Here is the news for today, April 23, 1970. Great news this evening from the Vietnam War where death rates have gone down for the third straight year! That’s right, compared to the peak in 1967, we here at CBS Evening News are happy to report that the death rate has dropped yet again! President Nixon has publicly claimed credit for the plummeting rates, while democrats in Congress have publicly chided the President for taking credit…” etc.
That should tell you everything you need to know about how we’re doing in the fight against cancer. It’s government-fueled propaganda. (I’ll explain why that is later during Tin Foil Hat Adjustment time).
Part of the terror with cancer, as opposed to school shootings, motor vehicle deaths, or even war, is that the latter three feel controllable. Yes, yes, we’re all aware that driving is statistically dangerous, but… at least I’ve got my hands on the wheel! I have some control. School shootings could also be solved, we tell ourselves, with – go ahead and say it, I know you know the line – “common sense GUN CONTROL!!1!1!” Cancer, however… well, as I note above, it seems to be just a matter of random chance. Nothing you can do about it, so no sense in really getting worked up until and unless it strikes someone you know.
…But what if that weren’t the case? Hypothetically speaking, what if our sense of the causation of these things were wrong? And how might one investigate to see if cancer might be caused by something else besides bad genes or repeated exposure to a toxic substance? Where does cancer even come from? Has it existed in every society, everywhere, throughout all of human history?? What is the earliest recorded case of cancer? These are the kinds of questions that were bumping around in my head, but that I had never really given much thought until a work trip some years ago took me to Omaha, Nebraska.

What is cancer?

Otto Warburg was a German scientist of Jewish descent, the son of a famed physicist, Emil Warburg, who counted Albert Einstein among his friends, and had two of his students later win Nobel prizes, in physics and chemistry. The younger Warburg was already a star in academia by the time WWI began and he astounded everyone in his family and at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute where he worked by volunteering for the German Army. In the field, he was promoted to a position as a cavalry officer in the famed Prussian Guards and won the Iron Cross for bravery. When the war looked all but decided, Einstein himself wrote to Otto at the front in an attempt to convince the younger Warburg to “support our efforts in securing your personal safety” and accept a reassignment back to Germany, lest a mind such as Warburg’s be lost in “that big scuffle.” Fortunately for the world, Warburg returned home and thence back to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, where he would later be the head under Adolf Hitler. Warburg would go on to receive 3 separate nominations for the Nobel prize in distinct areas of study, including winning the vaunted prize in 1931. That Nobel came as a result of research Warburg did in the early 1920’s.

In a paper published in 1924, Otto Warburg proposed the following:

“Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. Summarized in a few words, the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar.”

This was news to me when it was first pointed out by my good friend and mentor, Greg Glassman (yes, that guy). We were traveling together and, like most trips, it meant time to talk about a variety of subjects, after which I usually had some hours of homework to do. In this instance, we were discussing nutrition on our way to a quasi-political speaking engagement in Omaha, Nebraska, to a relatively ‘libertarian’ think-tank (the Platte Institute) and the subject of nutrition was at the forefront of Greg’s talk.

“Look up Warburg on cancer,” my friend adjured me. “You won’t believe it.”

It turns out that no one has ever disproved, or even disputed, Warburg’s Theory. I’m elevating it to that level because it is certainly more than conjecture or hypothesis, though maybe not quite Law, but modern PET scans are based upon, and constitute at least partial proof of Warburg’s claim. The process by which the tumor “lights up” on a PET-scan referred to as “the Warburg effect.” Positron Emission Tomography consists of injecting or drinking a short-lived radioactive tracer isotope into the blood’s circulation. From wikipedia:

The tracer is chemically incorporated into a biologically active molecule. There is a waiting period while the active molecule becomes concentrated in tissues of interest; then the subject is placed in the imaging scanner. The molecule most commonly used for this purpose is fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), a sugar, for which the waiting period is typically an hour. During the scan a record of tissue concentration is made as the tracer decays.

So what does that mean? Well, as Warburg pointed out, cancer cells don’t function the way normal cells do. Cellular respiration in a non-cancerous cell generally occurs by a process known as glycolytic oxidization – glycolysis, for short. In short, the cell takes blood sugar – glucose – and breaks it down into component parts to produce adenosyne tri-phosphate, ATP. ATP is the energy molecule that drives all biological processes. ALL. Even plants use sunlight to produce ATP in photosynthesis – while that is a very different chemical process than humans, the point is that ATP is the energy-producing molecule of all living things. Click here for a good, quick and dirty on ATP.

Healthy cells in humans can also produce ATP from the other two macronutrient molecules of the human diet, lipids and (under unusual circumstances) proteins. Cancerous cells, however, cannot produce ATP from anything other than glucose. Let me say that again for emphasis and also add a minor caveat: (the vast majority of) cancerous cells cannot produce ATP from anything except blood sugar; not from lipids, rarely from proteins. Cancer cells are also much more metabolically active than normal cells. They preferentially consume glucose over normal cells, in some cases by more than 200 times the rate. Thus, in a PET scan, the cancerous tumor cells gobble up more of the radioactive sugar, which “lights them up” as the isotope decays, producing the 3D image of the tumor. This is “the Warburg Effect.” So, the takeaway point is that cancer cells live on blood sugar, have a much higher metabolism than normal cells, and also don’t die – they do not undergo “apoptosis” – which is why they result in masses, or tumors, inside of their hosts.

Is there any group of people that doesn’t get or hasn’t gotten cancer?

Time for a divergence from biochemistry for some anthropology and to begin gnawing at one of my questions above: has there ever been a “cancer-free” society? Vilhjalmur Stefansson, born William Stephenson, was a Canadian Arctic explorer. Among his journeys was a notable stay with the Inuit in the early 1900’s, right as Warburg was beginning to get his PhD in 1905. Stefansson documented that the Inuit/Eskimo diet was comprised almost solely of fish and meat, with only a rare few carbohydrates from berries during the summer months. Captain William Levitt was a ship’s captain who frequently provided supplies to Stefansson’s explorations and also helped to confirm and document the Inuit diet of high-fats, moderate protein, and almost zero carbohydrates. It turns out that several anthropological, and archaeological, studies have examined the diets for a number of hunter-gatherer societies that were very low in carbohydrates. Many of these ancient societies – much like the Inuits – were entirely absent of cancer. I’ll let the impact of that sink in. When Stefannson first reported his experiences among the Inuits, particularly their diet, scientists and the medical establishment of the day called bullshit. They simply couldn’t believe it was true. Stefansson later wrote a book called “Cancer: disease of civilization? An anthropological and historical study.” He was among the first people to coin that phrase of cancer as a “disease of civilization.”

On a seemingly unrelated note, some of the most famous archaeology – and most interesting to even the modern lay person – surrounds ancient Egyptian society. The Great Pyramids, the Pharaohs, mummies, are probably a large part of the draw, and deservedly so. What I found interesting was a backhanded comment Greg made to me a while back about the instances of cancer found among the ancient Egyptians, one of the earliest civilizations that we know of that was largely agrarian. Dr. Michael Eades, author of “Protein Power,” has discussed this on his blog:

According to the New York TimesHatshepsut’s mummy is that of an obese, diabetic 50 year old woman with bad teeth. All the conditions that nutritionists today would have us believe would be prevented by Hatshepsut’s diet. It certainly didn’t work for her. And she is not a special case – most Egyptian mummies show the same disorders, especially the bad teeth. The skeletal remains of Paleolithic man, who consumed a meat-based diet, showed strong, perfect teeth. Bad teeth are the hallmark of carbohydrate consumption.

Obesity in Ancient Egypt, Dr. Michael Eades.

How did humans evolve to agriculture?

As a matter of human evolution, it’s easy to understand that the very beginnings of human intelligence would have consisted of socialization. It’s largely how we’ve arrived at the top of the food chain, at least on land. We certainly didn’t do so by physical prowess. Try imagining one lone human being defeating a pride of lions or tigers or even hyenas, or surviving against any of the myriad of animals in the varied environments people have lived: bears, wolves, alligators, snakes, etc. The fact is that we’re not the most physically capable species, but when we band together and use our natural gifts, we can be deadly effective. For some examples, opposable digits gave humans the ability to make complex tools, including weapons. It wasn’t just that, however. Humans also have the unique ability to throw on the run, as well as turn our torso so that we can run in one direction and throw in another, an ability no other predator has. (It may help explain why we revere football quarterbacks and baseball shortstops who demonstrate this at the highest possible level of athletic competition). We also have the innate ability to cool ourselves via sweating, which allows us to run incredibly long distances in hot conditions and persistence hunt animals to exhaustion; a near extinct skill with the advent of other means of locomotion, but in our nascent stages of development, it was the difference between eating or not, between survival and death. Then we found a way to domesticate dogs and horses and we went far beyond survival and rose to the top of Nature’s food pyramid. It’s rather easy to envision the emergence from small hunter-gatherer tribes to builders, to small villages, to larger settlements, to the invention of crude tools for digging, to domestication of beasts of burden, to subsistence farming, to larger scale agriculture, and on and on. Human evolution does not begin with agriculture; it ends with agriculture – and concomitantly larger settlements – and then come the “diseases of civilization,” diabetes et al, and cancer, chief among them.

Agriculture consists of the planting and harvesting of largely wheat or grain or corn crops, all of which share the same common nutritional property – they are carbohydrates. This is in direct contrast to the diets of hunter-gatherers that would have preceded agriculture: meat from animals, perhaps some berries, nuts or seeds (depending upon the climate), and the occasional vegetable/root/tuber growing in the wild. This is exactly what William Stephenson and Captain Levitt found among the Inuit peoples. They didn’t find agriculture because you can’t grow corn while crossing a frozen land bridge from Siberia to Alaska over the course of dozens of generations. There were no fields of wheat, or barley, no amber waves of grain or corn to feed the tribes of Eskimo. It was fish and fat, as well as fasting, day in and day out, for weeks, and months, and years.

In part 2, we’ll take a little peak at biochemistry, standards of care for cancer, and return to “public health” interventions.

About The Author

Ozymandias

Ozymandias

Born poor, but raised well. Marine, helo pilot, judge advocate, lawyer, tech startup guy... wannabe writer. Lucky in love, laughing 'til the end.

319 Comments

  1. leon

    By comparison, a rifle of any type was used on only 323 people, but rifle murders aren’t split out by “assault rifle” (as it’s been politically defined) versus regular, plain old garden variety rifles.

    I forget the rhyme to tell the difference. I think it’s “Brown and Stocky, Friendly Jocky; Thing that goes up and Black, Kills jack.”

    • R C Dean

      I thought it was “white guy, black rifle; colored guy, gets a bye”.

  2. Drake

    How did humans evolve to agriculture?

    I would argue that they de-evolved as agriculture and town-living were introduced. Early-modern (I still prefer Cro Magnon) people had significantly larger brains and more robust bodies than us present-day humans. Apparently sneaking up on a rice paddy is a lot less dangerous than hunting Mastodons. But big brains and string bodies need fat and protein, not just sugars.

    • Drake

      strong / not string

    • leon

      Hmm. I’ll take cancer over being squashed by a Mammoth.

      • Drake

        Both my parent-in-laws and my father died of cancer. When my wife worries about the cancer rate, I note that relatively few of us are killed by wild animals. other diseases, tribal warfare, or industrial accidents these days.

      • AlexinCT

        I advocate we change that reality….

      • leon

        More Animal Deaths?

      • RBS

        Bigger animals.

      • AlexinCT

        More Darwin. Let the stupid people die. preferably before they procreate.

      • Animal

        Leave me out of this.

    • R C Dean

      I would argue that they de-evolved

      I’m not sure “more successful as a species” and “de-evolved” can co-exist. Interesting point to ponder, though. As we became more social, we may have become less capable as individuals by some/many metrics, but if evolution is judged by the success of the species, then I would say that becoming more social, even if less individually capable, was evolution, not de-evolution.

      • Tundra

        De-evolution.

        It really is.

      • WTF

        Are we not men?

      • Animal

        The thing is, there’s no such thing as “de-evolution,” because evolution (as the term is used in biology) isn’t directed. There’s no goal. It’s just a shift in allele frequencies in a population over time, and as such it’s basically a drunkard’s walk through a series of ever-changing environments.

      • Jarflax

        ^ This. I’d go further it isn’t even really a drunkards walk. It is more like the display on a digital equalizer. Populations within and without species rise and fall. Sometimes a new one appears, sometimes an old one disappears, but every day individuals breed and individuals die and the number with each trait changes.

      • Drake

        You could argue that those weaker, slower farmers’ lifestyles were only possible after the Cro-Mags had hunted the massive ice-age animals to extinction. That was the point where our success as a species was assured. Imagine trying to grow wheat with herds of giant rhinos and mammoths in the neighborhood, not to mention predators big enough to take them, but not opposed to snacking on humans.

  3. Tundra

    Good subject, Ozy.

    I like when you pitch a grenade into the group!

    I’ve been reading/listening a lot lately about cancer as a metabolic disease. I’m a fan of Dom D’Agostino. He does a great job of breaking down some really complicated shit into accessible parts. His appearance on the Peter Attia Drive podcast was fantastic.

    There seems to be a lot of resistance among docs and the public alike to look at metabolic culprits for disease. I wonder why that is?

    Did you ever talk with Glassman about his relationship with Rippetoe?

    • Ozymandias

      Tundra, I was in the middle of that entire mess. So, to answer your question – yes, I have spoken with GG on that subject. I would also tell you that they’ve mostly resolved their public disputes. Mark still thinks there is One True Way to do the deadlift – the way he teaches it – but both have agreed that we can all still be friends while disagreeing over which end of the egg should be cracked.

      • Ozymandias

        I like Mark a lot because of that western Texas wit for which he is famous. I’ve counseled both men on different legal issues and still consider them both friends.

      • Tundra

        Rip’s work got me back into lifting. Both he and Glassman come across as stubborn, but very knowledgable assholes.

        In a good way.

      • Ozymandias

        I would say that is a rather pithy and accurate summation; I enjoy both of their company. They’re both brilliant – and funny as hell, too. Truly. I feel very fortunate to have worked for both. I can glance up from my desk right now and see my autographed copy of “Starting Strength.”

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Lift with your back right?

        *laughs nervously, weeps and rubs lower back*

      • Ozymandias

        I have a ruptured disc – have for over a decade – but I’m still a regular deadlift and back squat guy. Strengthening that area only helps protect it. Leaving it fallow leads to being doughy in the middle and that – the “core” – is the transmission of the human body.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I know and I’ll get back to it. The deadlift is my least favorite lift though. I would say it is because it can go wrong quickly, but in this case I am a rube who was doing a sudo-cat pose to stretch a little before doing the lift. Obviously I left my hips too high with a low chest and now here I am.

      • Ozymandias

        CPH – If you lift your head up and look at the horizon, it will help you keep that lordotic arch. The other essential part – which I believe gets missed more than any other aspect of that lift – is the absolute necessity of taking in a deep belly breath, then bearing down (val salva) and tightening that belly during the lift. That air cushion helps protect your spine more than you know. It’s also a great way of knowing early that things might go bad and bailing before harm. The minute you start to lose lordosis you open your hands.
        The deadlift is a phenomenally safe exercise done correctly because you can attempt above 1RM loads and still be fine. Same for the back squat, but you need to know how to bail.

    • Ozymandias

      Also, Dom D’Agostino is doing great things. He and Tom Seyfried are close colleagues and friends. Glad to hear you’re in tune with that.
      As far as the “why” the medical establishment is resistant, let me just give you one guess as to why that might be…

      I’ll give you a hint: what ranks among the most expensive medical procedures in a hospital?
      Or as Mark Twain so famously said: “You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinions is.”

      • Ozymandias

        That reads weird – D’Agostino and Seyfried are colleagues with each other. I’ve met Seyfried on perhaps a half-dozen occasions and like him a lot. He was forward air controller in the Army during the Vietnam War. Like his hero Warburg, he went right from the war zone back to academia and science within days. Interesting man.

    • Caput Lupinum

      There seems to be a lot of resistance among docs and the public alike to look at metabolic culprits for disease. I wonder why that is?

      Short answer? Because it isn’t helpful in the best of cases and actively harmful in the worst, and far too laden with quackery to make an honest effort worthwhile.

      Long answer? While what we eat can certainly have an effect on our health, the problem is detangling cause and effect. Certain things are easy, consume more calories than you expend and your body will tend to store some amount of te difference and you’ll gain weight. Others are more complex. Cancer is caused by damage to different pathways that govern cell reproduction and death, causing the cells to reproduce out of control. The issue is that there are many different pathways that can be damaged in many different ways, and not every person’s body deals with those causes the same way making the strength of those effects somewhat erratic. We’re slowly piecing the puzzle together, but it is impossible to overstate the complexity of the puzzle or number of pieces involved. So while we can say that certain foods for certain people can cause an increase in certain cancers, that doesn’t mean that everyone should avoid those foods, if you eat them you’re definitely going to get cancer, or anything of the sort. It means that people that have certain predispositions, generally genetic, are exposed to carcinogen ‘X’ contained in certain foods their risk of developing cancer ‘Y’ goes from percentage ‘A’ to percentage ‘B’. Somewhat useful, but that isn’t how it is reported. Instead, cancer researchers tend to find greater usefulness in looking into why carcinogen ‘X’ causes an increase in certain people. What pathways is it damaging, and how? More importantly why is it not damaging it in other people and can that effect be replicated? That is where the actual research is being done. At the end of the day it is damaged pathways that cause cancer, and looking into that is what will yield the closest thing to a cure that we could ever come up with for cancer. Noting what things increase the chance of damaged pathways is important, but eventually chance will eventually dictate something goes wrong even if you live a perfect life with a perfect diet. If you live long enough, you will develop cancer. Your diet can’t change that. There is more value in researching how to fix the damage when it occurs.

      • Ozymandias

        I hope you will stick around, Caput. In the meantime, I would strongly recommend you read the book “Tripping Over the Truth” by Travis Christofferson. If you want, I will pay to have a copy sent to you. No joke or snark at all.

      • Caput Lupinum

        No need. I’ve read it. My sister has a small library of similar books, it’s enlightening to read her footnotes and markup. I found it unpersuasive. He makes many errors, but the most damming is his view of cancer as a single unified disease, and that it therefore has a single unified treatment. It isn’t, and doesn’t. I’ll see if I can borrow my sister’s copy again, her arguments are much better than mine as she is a biochemist that is involved in cancer research. I’m just parroting her anyway, may as well do it exactly instead from memory.

      • Ozymandias

        I don’t disagree with that statement. Do you know if she has read “Cancer as a Metabolic Disease?” It’s more of a textbook and so not a “light” narrative like the Christofferson book.

      • Tundra

        How about as it pertains to treating cancer? What if the approach includes interventions intended to ‘starve’ the cancer cells, better enabling their eradication?

        That’s where a lot of the research appears to be headed.

      • Caput Lupinum

        I’m not going to pretend that I’m fully abreast of every development in cancer research, and there are plenty of channels that are being actively explored including metabolic research, but it would be a stretch to say most research is trending that way. Most of the research that I’m aware of is focusing on forcing apoptosis, but that’s because my sister works on that so I’m well aware of my own confirmation bias. There is also research into immune responses to cancer, tumor microenvironments, and several other avenues. Like I said, cancer is complicated. It isn’t a single disease, and there isn’t a silver bullet cure. Some cancers may well have purely metabolic cures, but many won’t, and many will benefit from a multipronged approach.

      • Tundra

        …a multipronged approach.

        This. And I meant metabolic research. Not general cancer research.

  4. Fourscore

    Morning OZY.

    As always, an interesting and maybe somewhat controversial article.

    Modern life has so many novel, different and unusual life styles but yet some of each get the Cancer while others doing the same things don’t. Some cancers seem to be more genetically oriented, like breast and prostate cancer.

    Now I’m waiting, waiting for part 2, to decide if I should be worried. At this point I hope coffee is the anti-cancer drug.

    Thanks, always enjoy your stuff

    • banginglc1

      At this point I hope coffee is the anti-cancer drug.

      A pot a day keeps the . . . well I don’t know exactly what it does, but I’m going to keep drinking it.

  5. RAHeinlein

    Thanks, Ozy. Too bad a waste of everyone’s time because cancer was caused by Monsanto – FULL STOP!

    • banginglc1

      When my mom worked at Dow Agro (now Corteva) she talked about how they all loved how all the negative attention was on Monsanto.

  6. Rebel Scum

    Did you know that roughly 2.8 million people die in the United States every year?

    Scourge of gun violence.

    • Lackadaisical

      sounds like fake news, everyone knows 350 million people die from fun violence everyday in America.

  7. Mojeaux

    I have not read the whole thing, but…

    over time by a kind of osmosis, I came to think that cancer was likely a genetic disorder, with the possible odd case from some environmental exposure

    Same. My family (dad’s dad’s side) dies of heart disease. Gma from Hell #1 got a spot of skin cancer on her hand in her 80s, but it was lasered off, no problem, but boy she milked that shit. I figure, if you’re old enough and spent enough time in the sun, you’re gonna get SOMETHING cancerous.

    It looks like my mom’s side lives forever, but they have no boys. My mom’s dad died young of a non-cancerous brain tumor, but his brothers all lived to ripe old ages.

    At some point, you die of old age and the cause doesn’t really matter.

    • leon

      What doesn’t kill you only delays the inevitable

      • pan fried wylie

        Somehow lacks the same panache…

  8. Caput Lupinum

    The Warburg effect is real, but the explanation Warburg proposed to explain it was wrong. He put the cart before the horse. Cancer isn’t caused by a replacement of normal respiration, cancer causes it. Most of the time, any way, cancer isn’t a single disease and presents many different ways. In cases where the Warburg effect is present, it is due to damaged mitochondria within the cancer cells, preventing them from using more complex chemical processes and forcing them to rely on glycolysis for ATP creation. The cancer comes first, the glucose preference comes second. The cells don’t decide one day to mess with their mitochondria and stop breaking down lipids, the damage forces them to stop.

    Inuit populations also were never immune to cancer, the rare Inuit that managed to make it past their twenties could develop cancer same as any one else. The reason for the low incidence was the same as any other non agrarian community, cancer trends to develop in older age and they didn’t live long enough to develop it. They are actually very susceptible to Epstein-Barr virus related cancers, something completely unrelated to diet and lifestyle.

    Humans also haven’t stopped evolving. Rates of genetic drift are fairly constant over time. What we have done is remove significant external pressures for new mutations to be actively selected for, though not entirely. For example many autosomal dominant genetic disorders are being selected against when they previously weren’t. Rates of Huntington’s disease are down, not because we can treat it but because now that people are routinely living to their forties so that the disease develops many people that have a family history of the disease are either not reproducing or are testing themselves first to see if if they have it before doing so.

    • Ozymandias

      So, Warburg just got it wrong, huh? We’ll have to disagree. I would respectfully suggest that cancer isn’t a cause, but a result and that’s why we’re not making progress. I hope you’ll stick around for some of my follow-on articles to explain some of the science I will present and square that with your hypothesis.

      • Caput Lupinum

        So, Warburg just got it wrong, huh?

        No, Warburg did science. He made an observation, came up with a hypothesis, and tested it. He got some parts correct, some parts wrong. He and other scientists then went back and repeated the cycle, and continue to do so to this day, refining our knowledge further.

        I’ll gladly stick around for additional posts, but it isn’t my hypothesis, I’m not a biochemist.

      • PieInTheSky

        biochemists are nerds anyway

      • Caput Lupinum

        I know several. This is true.

      • banginglc1

        it isn’t my hypothesis, I’m not a biochemist.

        Dude, this is the internet, you can be anythi9ng you want!

      • Mojeaux

        On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog.

    • Lackadaisical

      I strongly disagree with the idea that we’re not, or did not in the past experience significant evolutionary pressures. the skills you need to survive an agricultural society are very different from a huntergatherer society. everything I’ve read shows we’ve experienced substantial evolution in the past ~5k years.

    • Raven Nation

      In the thread:

      “GregGutfeld
      @greggutfeld
      i’ve been ahead of the curve. I’ve been social-distancing myself for the last 20 years.”

  9. Sean

    All I’m hearing is “eat more steak”.

    • PieInTheSky

      that gives CVD or something

    • Ozymandias

      Never a bad answer.

    • pan fried wylie

      Because chickens can’t write, so they have to chant. While cows always go with signage for their chiken-eating message.

  10. Fourscore

    About 1 % of people are going to die every year, we need the living space. More people, more deaths.

    • PieInTheSky

      i’d rather not though

      • R C Dean

        Something something not living something something never die.

    • Rebel Scum

      we need the living space

      Do you know who else needed living space?

      • PieInTheSky

        starving artists in San Francisco and elsewhere?

  11. PieInTheSky

    Good post, although brevity is not the soul thereof

    CEO Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai founded the CrossFit – crossfit sucks

    So, the takeaway point is that cancer cells live on blood sugar, have a much higher metabolism than normal cells, and also don’t die – they do not undergo “apoptosis” – which is why they result in masses, or tumors, inside of their hosts. – I understand they also have a lot more insulin receptors poi ting to insulin resistance as an aggravating factor… or not who knows

    • Ozymandias

      I lay no claim to wit, Pie. I’ll also suggest that people simply can’t be told directly – in brief – that they might be incorrect about something they believe fervently.
      It’s why the Scientific Irrationalists were both wrong and right simultaneously about “consensus” in science: they’re wrong because science isn’t consensus, but they’re probably right as a matter of human psychology. We appear to be herd animals flecked with pockets of individualists who do their damndest to scream “YOU’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!!!!” Mostly those people end up on a pyre; occasionally they’re listened to and the herd comes back from the edge of the cliff.

      • Mojeaux

        occasionally they’re listened to and the herd comes back from the edge of the cliff.

        Nah. SOMEONE in the herd gets a sliver of doubt, follows it quietly, then quietly informs another herdmember, who studies it quietly, then it’s passed around and they act like they thunk it up. Screaming dude is still in ashes and unpersoned even though he was right.

      • Ozymandias

        That’s probably more accurate; I like your version.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        +1 John Yudkin

    • Tundra

      …crossfit sucks

      Come on, Pie. That’s too easy of a take. I thought you were more nuanced than that 😉

      • PieInTheSky

        crossfit is unlibertarian

    • Ozymandias

      For the record, GG founded CF. LJ was a slightly overweight client in the early gym who Greg later married. She did the books and such; those who were there are well aware of this.
      When the divorce happened, LJ (and the Silicon Valley VC d-bags who were trying to execute a hostile takeover of CF) concocted the “LJ as Founder” narrative. It is impossible to “found” something of which you were a client in the beginning. I was there for most of it.

      • R C Dean

        Ozy, one day I’d like to get you drunk enough to violate the privilege and get the inside story.

      • Ozymandias

        Maybe at the Honey Harvest this year. 😉

      • Shirley Knott

        You’re going to be at Honey Harvest? That actually ups my odds of attending. 😉

      • Tundra

        Hey!

      • Shirley Knott

        Oh, they were already pretty high. But in my time here, I’ve come to think Ozy is somebody I’d very much like to meet in real life. He’s one of many, of course, but he’s further away than I would expect to easily meet. Honey Harvest, and thus you and FourScore, at least, is “only” a 13 hour drive away 😉
        If Mo comes too, well, squeee!

      • Ozymandias

        Thank you, Shirley. The feeling is mutual for a whole bunch of the Glibs. If I can start getting my “travel itch” back, I’ll announce it and hope to meet up in various places to toast a few glasses with all of you products of my imagination.

      • Ozymandias

        I really want to and would like to start planning it now. Firm dates yet?

      • R C Dean

        Can’t make the Honey Harvest this year.

        We’re talking about Fourscore’s shindig, right? Not a bar crawl through the University of Arizona entertainment district?

      • pan fried wylie

        The real question on everyone’s minds is which event leaves you stickier.

      • leon

        Now i want an article detailing Ozy’s opinion on Hostile Takeovers.

      • Ozymandias

        No, you don’t. You just think you do. Or wait – maybe you do, but probably not from me. It cost me the better part of two years of my life.
        I believe a good part of it is in the public domain, including some of my participation, but yeah… *stares blankly into space*

      • PieInTheSky

        Are you suggesting wikipedia might be wrong?

      • Ozymandias

        Perish the thought, Pie!

  12. PieInTheSky

    Now key question: does eating pussy give throat cancer? And is pussy carb or protein?

    • Ozymandias

      Ambrosia, Pie. With your name, you should know this without asking.
      It’s Pie, Pie.

    • leon

      I Never Said that thing i am on record saying!

    • Tundra

      Christ, what an asshole.

      • AlexinCT

        These fucks are still counting on the days where the dnc operatives with bylines would protect them from their ignorance/stupidity, and have not caught on that these operatives all managed to immolate themselves going after orange man and hence no longer can do that magic they used to do to hide the corrupt lying ways of people like Biden.

      • Rebel Scum

        He’s a lying, dog-faced pony-soldier.

      • Ozymandias

        ^^^^This is a great comment.
        There really is no end to the uses to which that phrase can be put, now. It’s funny that Biden has revived that – of all phrases.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Part of me still thinks Trump never wanted to be President and was shocked that he somehow made it as far as he did.

      Same for Biden?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Nah, not in Biden’s case at least. He’s just an idiot, an idiot with dementia.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Biden very much wants to be President. His first run was in 1988.

    • Rebel Scum

      Biden denies in this clip that he wants to confiscate anyone’s guns.

      He said something like “Bingo, if you have an assault weapon” in a fairly recent interview question regarding confiscating guns under an “assault weapons ban”. And I believe he said on camera even more recently “I’m coming for them” in regard to assault weapons modern* rifles.

      *tech from the 50s, but whatever.

    • Annoyed Nomad

      It seems that Biden’s dementia is becoming more and more obvious. The DNC has to be able to see this. Is it possible they’re pushing him to become the candidate so that by the time of the convention, after Biden beats Bernie, Biden’s family pulls him out so Hillary can step in?
      [adjusts tin foil hat]

      • Annoyed Nomad

        Also, best comment on that article:
        “I’m Joe Biden and I forgot this message”

      • R C Dean

        The endgame can’t be to have Biden take the Big Chair, at least not for more than a token period of time. The long knives must be out to be his VP and/or the brokered nominee. Maybe the plan is to have Biden get the nom more or less fair and square, and then have him step aside for his VP to actually campaign.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Said before, I think it’s a stealth nomination for his VP to become President. I don’t think it will be Hillary, though.

    • Tundra

      I didn’t see the drugs fall out of his ass. 😉

      • Drake

        His bowels and bladder had to be empty long before they landed.

  13. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Functionally, you’re going to die of something. As the other causes of death are pared back, cancer is the logical fallback disease. Time and entropy are not your friends. You get old enough, you may not die from cancer, but you will most certainly die with it.

    The statistics you should be looking at are cancer rates and survivability by age.

    • PieInTheSky

      you’re going to die of something. – nuhuh

      • AlexinCT

        I want to die doing the three Bs…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Vampiri excluded

      • Mojeaux

        Still percolating frumpy middle-aged hausfrau vampire story.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Turned when Rubenesque was considered the height of beauty?

      • Mojeaux

        No. A modern thing, at the height of “I wish a handsome 100yo sparkly vampire would walk into my life”.

    • leon

      Balko has a sad….

      • Ted S.

        I think you mean Ron Bailey.

      • leon

        ARGH! yeah. I knew it was some reason writer, but i couldn’t recall the name.

    • robc

      If we eliminate all disease, everyone will die from a horrible accident.

  14. Mojeaux

    When IS Honey Harvest anyway?

    *gives bank account the side eye*

    • Ozymandias

      I thought I saw somewhere a mention of September. I’d like to mark it on my calendar now and start planning some kind of route to be there, so RC can get me tipsy.

      • Mojeaux

        Rats. September is school and I don’t dare leave XY home alone, and XX can’t drive yet.

      • Shirley Knott

        Bummer ;-(
        One squeeee, reluctantly retracted.

      • Tundra

        Third Sunday in September each year. Minnetundra at evilco to get on the notification/update list.

      • Ozymandias

        Just sent. Can you check to make sure it arrived? My intertubez can be quirky.

      • Tundra

        Nothing yet. Did you send it to geemail?

      • MikeS

        “evilco” is a little vague

        *eyes outlook address*

      • Ozymandias

        Whoops! I hope the guy who owns the “EvilCo.com” domain isn’t offended!!

      • MikeS

        Nope. Not at all.

      • R C Dean

        Well, EvilCo.com set off the company firewall.

        I’ll just tell IT I was checking on the availability of a website for our new joint venture.

      • Ozymandias

        Okay, Tundra. That should work better.

      • Tundra

        Got it.

        Thanks!

      • pistoffnick

        “…so RC can get me tipsy.”

        He said something about violatin’ too. Be careful!

      • Ozymandias

        Yeah, I don’t want to re-enact “Pulp Fiction.” Ball gags, latex, and patent leather aren’t my things, but NO KINK-SHAME!

  15. banginglc1

    My first thoughts when reading the death rate stats on cancer are this:

    I hate cancer, but thank God it’s a leading cause of death. Everyone will die of something. People used to die of simple bacterial infections, starvation, simple injury. And I thank God every day that we’ve solved and (mostly) moved past things of that nature killing us. I could argue (without looking up any stats) that cancer has become a leading cause of death because we are finally living long enough to get cancer. And again, for that, I thank God.

    That’s not to say I don’t want us to cure cancer, but I do think we should always remember that there will always be a leading cause of death, no matter what we solve,

    Side note: I find the sugar theories very intriguing, but I hope we can disprove them, I don’t want to feel bad about eating a Reese cup.

    • Ozymandias

      I generally agree, BLC. And you don’t need to feel bad about eating a Reese’s cup, or anything, really. You just need to be informed about what is really going on with it. I take the same argument that Uncle Milty made in that youtube clip with young Michael Moore about the Ford Pinto and the costs of amelioration, etc. Accurate information, however, is necessary to honest market transactions.

    • Mojeaux

      Living longer while ravaged by the effects of chemo and/or in various states of physiological and mental decay and/or spending one’s life in and out of hospitals and SNFs and LTC facilities is not my idea of good anything.

      • Mojeaux

        e.g., My mom has about 6 manageable things (e.g., diabetes [mild] and atrial fibrillation) that she spends a lot of money and time taking meds for. Additionally, a back surgery gone wrong has left her in great pain for years.

        She’s still sharp as a tack but it remains to be seen if she will remain so (unlike my 90yo Gma from Hell #2).

        That’s not my idea of living.

      • Shirley Knott

        Amen.

    • Mojeaux

      Peeps appropriately aged out of packaging.

      • Shirley Knott

        Yes! Stale marshmallows with sugar coating for the win!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Agreed

      My best friend’s Austrian mother who smoked like a chimney used to swear up and down that she would never take treatment for lung cancer if she got it.

      True to her word, when she developed lung cancer she refused any and all treatment other than hospice and painkillers.

  16. Plisade

    Thought regarding coronavirus quarantines, the declining travel rates, cancellations of public events, etc. …

    I don’t see nearly as many kids outside playing as in my day; they’re inside playing video games and/or being helicopter-parented. There’s more of a push to video-conference in business, rather than travel for meetings. Working from home is more and more common. And now this coronavirus panic… Will the coronavirus push the trend farther and faster? Will voluntary isolation and segregation take a steep and permanent increase because of this and remain so on the flip side?

    • Ozymandias

      I know. It does feel like we’re slowly moving toward a completely bubbled existence, doesn’t it? My daughter is in Vienna for a semester abroad and the just had all classes cancelled because of coronavirus. Not sure what she’s going to do yet. Italy being so close by has the EU all in a tizzy over it. It all seems surreal.

      • Plisade

        Surreal and irrational. It’s almost as if society was looking for a reason to go all-in with being hermits. Never go full hermit.

      • Plisade

        Awesome article, btw. I dig the anthropology part. The paleo diet is partly justified by your history lesson. The Cain and Abel story is an analogy to the agrarian/pastoral evolution. The Gilgamesh story is as well.

      • Ozymandias

        Ooooohhh. Interesting. Now I’ve got more homework.
        Thanks, Plisade.
        (Your avatar is my absolutely favorite pick, btw.)

    • Plisade

      2020 BC – Before Coronavirus

    • R C Dean

      Will the coronavirus push the trend farther and faster?

      if it blows over (as it almost certainly will) in a few months, probably not. I ran into our infectious disease medical director yesterday and asked him if these were interesting times to be in his business. He said no, not really. The King Flu so far is following a pretty standard path, which is a bell curve, and likely isn’t more fatal than a bad flu strain. He expects it to taper off in the Northern Hemisphere in April and May, and then start making the rounds in the Southern Hemisphere.

    • Ozymandias

      *writes down note to get a Bee subscription*
      Man, they are just…mwah! ?

    • leon

      “It’s a smart, science-driven move,” the editorial said. “As important as democracy is, it’s just not worth dying over.”

      Damn.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Democracy is definitely not a suicide pact.

        /Bush the Lesser of Two Lessers

    • Q Continuum

      I think we need to do a Glibs fundraising drive for the Bee.

      • MikeS

        ^ Babylon Bee mole identified ^

      • Ozymandias

        ?
        Yeah, Q’s links are all a cover story to hide his secret affiliation with the Christian satire site.
        I’m with ya, Mike!

      • Tundra

        God made titties AND silicone, Ozy.

      • Q Continuum

        And gave surgeons the gift to bring out the best in both.

      • Ozymandias

        You will not find any argument from this guy.
        “Blessed is he who maketh the bosom fulsome and rounde, for it pleaseth to alle.”

      • Tundra

        (Titus 36:DD New Revised Standard Version)

      • Ozymandias

        Yeah, it might be worth adding them to IJ or whoever else the donations are going to. They are absolutely on top of their game.
        Put me down as a second on the motion, Q.

      • The Hyperbole

        As much exposure Glibs give to the Bee I would think they should be holding a fundraiser for us (the glib us, the royal us)

      • MikeS

        It would be interesting to see how much incoming Bee traffic comes from here.

        Is that info our there on the web, or do you need to own the Bee website to see it?

      • Fatty Bolger

        It’s not in the top 5 and under 2%, according to Alexa:

        Visited just before
        22.9% facebook.com
        14.6% google.com
        8.73% twitter.com
        4.02% pjmedia.com
        1.88% reddit.com

        Visited right after
        16.5% google.com
        16.4% facebook.com
        7.87% twitter.com
        3.44% pjmedia.com
        2.98% youtube.com

        https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/babylonbee.com

      • leon

        We have our target. We know what we have to do.

      • Sean

        Try to take over the world?

      • Tripacer

        I was expecting more pornhub

    • Tundra

      OMG, the closing line!

      They are almost SF-like.

  17. AlexinCT

    Anything going to come of this?

    From the article:

    Boasberg’s ruling was far more than a temporary suspension of FBI personnel’s participation in the FISA court. It is the first and only judicial finding in the Russia case that the FBI vastly misled the nation’s intelligence court and that blame must be shouldered by federal law enforcement’s top leaders, many of whom have spent much of the last three years trying to escape such accountability.

    I bet that nobody will carry this in any news to be shard with the public. Especially since it vindicates the people that have pointed out that the Obama administration weaponized the 3 letter agencies and they in turn helped him run a banana republic.

    • Ozymandias

      That’s a great link. Thank you.

      • Shirley Knott

        +1

    • leon

      For those who have begged the FISA court for years to more aggressively rebuke the conduct in the Russia case, Boasberg’s ruling was a welcome step in the right direction and a first effort to end the excuse-making. But those critics are holding out for more, including prosecutions or disciplinary action.

      Those who have begged for a rebuke from the court are fools. They should be demanding an abolishment of the FISA courts. Judges so love to sit on their thrones and deal out blame while acting like they were “mislead” into violating due process and civil liberties. The judges of this court are complicit in the whole thing.

      • Ozymandias

        100% agree, leon. If Boasberg had a hair on his ass, he would be writing an opinion that started with: “For years many have claimed that these secret FISA courts were so laden with procedures as to guarantee the safety of the Sacred Rights of the American people. That farce has now been laid bare for all to see…”
        And then it would end with his declaration that the entire thing needed to be scrapped.
        That would be heroic; this is instead a turd sandwich with lots of sauce to hide the flavor. But it’s still better than what the Top Men and their allies with bylines are telling us.

      • leon

        For sure something is better than nothing. But I think the (small government) right has some things to learn from the AOC left, and one of those things is that grovelling for tidbits from the entrenched government establishment will net them no victory for small government.

        Of course pushing for radical changes is somewhat antithetical to the right and conservatism.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Of course pushing for radical changes is somewhat antithetical to the right and conservatism.

        Part of why I’m not a conservative. They tend to be do-nothing losers.

      • leon

        I find i fall on both sides quite a bit.

        I’m very much a “traditionalist” in that i find a lot of value in traditions, and not making huge changes for little reason other than “We know better now than our foolish fathers”. Sometimes we do find out we now know better, but i think those changes will be more organic, and not imposed. Particularly when any dissent is labeled as “clinging” or “denialism”, it makes me suspicious.

        At the same time i see a liberal side of me that is very much willing to change things, because i recognize that the current system is so far from what is moral or just.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The progressives push their agenda forward (see Virginia right now) and when the conservatives finally get back in office, they just preserve the status quo with a few minor adjustments.

      • Ozymandias

        Exactly.

      • Q Continuum

        Which brings up an important point: what exactly is it they are “conserving” at this point? I recognize that the etymology of the term is referring to conservation of Constitutional principles, but at this point it’s conserving the slow slide toward socialistic mediocrity and neutering of individual rights.

        The “right” (or whatever the phrase du jour is for people who give a shit about liberty) needs radicals to advocate for sweeping changes back to limited government and Constitutional norms. Frankly, the ideas of scaling back the permanent bureaucracy, balanced budgets, non-interventionism, Federalism and strict adherence to the BoR is more radical in a practical sense than any of the shit Bernie’s peddling.

      • leon

        Yup. Which is why i typically pl;ace myself in the “social traditionalist” libertarian camp. I’m not trying to conserve the status quo. I’m trying to restore liberty so that i can live my life the way i want, and others may live theirs the way they want.

      • Tundra

        *signs up for leon’s newsletter*

      • R C Dean

        what exactly is it they are “conserving” at this point

        Their sinecures and social standing?

      • AlexinCT

        Those who have begged for a rebuke from the court are fools. They should be demanding an abolishment of the FISA courts.

        So much this!

        If anything, these abuses have proven those of us that pointed out the FISA court was not just a terrible idea, but a horrible vehicle for abusive government types to really fuck people over with, not just right, but showed the worst of the possible abuses of power: an attempt to first undermine a political enemy’s candidacy, followed by a 3 year attempt to run a coup against said candidate’s presidency when they failed to set him up and destroy his campaign efforts.

        If they can do this to a sitting president, it should be obvious us normal people would have zero recourse against these evil fucks. See General Flynn’s case.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Blessed are the tax collectors.

      • AlexinCT

        You joke, but I told some atheist leftist asshat using the Jesus meme to peddle his marxism this exact thing, and you should have seen his head assplode.

  18. leon

    https://babylonbee.com/news/the-babylon-bees-top-ten-books-of-2018

    9.) Owning Your First Lib: A Newcomer’s Guide to Lib Ownership — Ben Shapiro: OK, so Shapiro’s not technically a Christian, but owning libs is definitely part of the Great Commission, so we’re gonna count this. Shapiro’s whip-smart rhetoric will help anyone who’s new to lib ownership to treating their lib right.

    • AlexinCT

      BDSM articles in the Bee?

      SAY IT AIN’T SO!

  19. Ozymandias

    Related to comments on coronavirus, I was musing the other day… how much has coronavirus helped Hong Kong?
    Setting aside the obvious problem of the disease transmission itself, how much has COVID-19 tamped down the ChiCom’s stomping of HK’s democracy protests? Amidst the coronavirus concerns, HK has disappeared from the news cycle. While that in itself isn’t unusual, I’m wondering if the disease has in some way changed the Xi Govt response to the protests.
    Anyone hear anything I’ve missed?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I assume that the industrial shutdown and the forthcoming financial disaster that will result has the ChiComs occupied for the moment.

      The question is whether or not they will use HK as an example if the other provinces start to get restless.

    • leon

      You havn’t heard anything because the CCP used the chaos and confusion to sink HK into the ocean.

    • R C Dean

      how much has COVID-19 tamped down the ChiCom’s stomping of HK’s democracy protests

      Not at all. With the Kung Flu, large public gatherings are (a) not smart and (b) now prohibited as a public health, not a political repression, measure.

      You don’t hear about big protest marches any more because they aren’t happening, as far as I know. If the Kung Flu had first shown up in Hong Kong, I would be very tempted to believe it was a ChiCom bioweapon deployed to get exactly this result.

  20. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Shapiro’s only good for owning college freshman aged libs though. When people who can think their way out of a paper bag show up he tends to find excuses to not have discussions with them.

    • Drake

      Yep – he’s a gatekeeper who tries to define the acceptable boundaries on the right while also being a complete hypocrite when it comes to religion and immigration.

    • Ozymandias

      Part of the reason for that, however, is that is his demographic.
      God knows I couldn’t have those discussions with college kids without blowing an O-ring.

      • Q Continuum

        “blowing an O-ring”

        Depends on how hot the coeds you’re debating are.

      • AlexinCT

        I though hot coeds are Q-rings?

        At least we are not talking about blowing the ring-of-fire after eating a large bowl of very spicy/hot chili.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      When people who can think their way out of a paper bag show up he tends to find excuses to not have discussions with them.

      Are there many of these, of any age, among the liberals any more? It seems like the sane ones were excommunicated from the party for not toeing the line. Look at Camille Paglia.

      I wish we had one or two resident libs here who would discuss in good faith, but that seems as unlikely as Virginia recovering from it’s progression towards becoming the NJ of the south.

    • leon

      I mostly laughed because it was a list of the top 10 Christian books, and their comment “While Shapiro isn’t technicaly a christian…”

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Gotcha, I just dislike Shapiro enough that I have to say something when people talk up his overly hyped debating skills, even in the context of a joke.

      • leon

        Oh yeah. Shapiro is a warmongering little shit. Can’t stand the guy.

  21. Q Continuum

    Interesting article as usual Ozy. I’m always a little leery of “silver bullet” miracle cures and I doubt we could eliminate cancer by switching everyone to a ketogenic diet. However, I completely agree that government recommended, high carbohydrate diet, paired with a largely sedentary modern lifestyle, creates a myriad of health problems cancer chief among them.

    Having personally been keto for ~4 years now, anecdotally I can say that my bloodwork has improved as has my energy level and overall wellbeing. That alone is enough for me to keep at it. If it helps prevent certain cancers, so much the better.

    IANAD and I have no evidence to support this, but I’ve always attributed increase in cancer incidence to improved medical technology when it comes to other problems (infections, heart disease, etc.). Cancer, at its core, is cells that have been damaged and gone haywire, reproducing out of control and invading other tissue. By living longer, we just have a higher probability of such a mutation happening. IOW, cancer risk is the same, we just used to die of something else first.

    • Ozymandias

      Maybe – I certainly agree with most of the people here that cancer rates are related to our longer lifetimes, but I’ll just ask everyone to open their minds and await more on this subject. I’ve really just begun, though I don’t think this will be more than three or four articles, in toto.

  22. Toxteth O’Grady

    Jews seem unusually prone to cancer. I presume some genetic reason.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Lack of bacon.

    • banginglc1

      I presume some genetic reason

      Circumcision causes cancer?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I’m one of the people that actually gets the spine tingle thing and I’m aware of her. She isn’t afraid of showing off the goods is she?

      • Q Continuum

        There is an ASMR porn genre. We can only hope she makes the jump.

  23. Shirley Knott

    So, today is primary day here in MI. The Bernie Bros are apparently making a hard push to get out votes for their candidate. It’s reminiscent of the Obama elections, with the cadres going door-to-door. I just hustled him onwards; it would be sweet to see a serious challenge to Dementia Joe here.

    • leon

      Nice. I think it’s funny that Bernie was blindsided that all his “youth” supporters just stayed home last week. Of course the did. They are the “youth”, and everyone knows they don’t vote.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Why would they expend the effort when they can get somebody else can vote for them? It’s only just.

      • Q Continuum

        They’d, like, have to get up off the couch and, like, *go* somewhere. That’s bullshit. So much easier to spark up another J and talk about the coming revolution.

      • leon

        And then, if Bernie wins, you can’t bitch about how the election was totally stolen because your candidate was a) politically out manuevered, and b) could only garner 30% of the electorates support.

      • Rebel Scum

        “Voting by text message is a human right.”

    • Nephilium

      I got one of the Bernie texts last night. I think that was some stupid helpful kid blindly sending texts off some (terrible) list of potential Bernie voters.

    • grrizzly

      According to this poll, only 48% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters are enthusiastic about Biden. Among those younger than 45, only 28% are enthusiastic.

  24. Francisco d'Anconia

    DISCLAIMER: The following story is second hand and confirms not only my biases but those of the subject in question (both of us eat “primal”), so take it with a spoonful of sugar:

    Long story short. My best friend started bleeding out his asshole. Went to get it checked. Gave him the ass-scope. Found the cause of the bleeding to be hemorrhoids, BUT while they were in there found YUUUGE polyps. And the doc tells him the rhoids are his new best friends, cuz if he’d waited till his next scheduled ass-scope, he’d likely have full blown ass-cancer.

    Anyway, he sits down with the oncologist and they get to talking about diet. His position is exactly what Oz is pointing to. Claims cancer cells cannot grow without sugar and he has multiple patients in remission with no-carb diet alone. He also gave my friend some no-shit studies that support this claim (which I have asked for and have yet to see).

    Anyway, I suspect there is something there. As Oz points out, we evolved eating meat and fat with little carbs. It makes sense that our bodies would work the best eating that which we evolved with.

    As a side note, and again completely notional, has anyone else noticed that since the anti-fat (meat) craze, fully supported by the government, started in the late 80s, that Merkinz have become obese? Correlation is not causation, certainly, but correlation is required to determine causation and might indicate something that needs to be looked into more closely.

    Look forward to part 2, Oz

    • pan fried wylie

      so take it with a spoonful of sugar

      dude…

      • AlexinCT

        Sugar coated ass not your thing?

      • pistoffnick

        Yeah, yeah, yeah, Whew.
        Brown Sugar how come you taste so good?

    • Lackadaisical

      love your careful description of the medical problems and procedures of your friend.

      I also think it is diet, primarily. Sedentism being the next cause.

      • Stillhunter

        #metoo

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        love your careful description of the medical problems and procedures of your friend.

        I was playing to my audience. 😉

    • Mojeaux

      It makes me happy to hear of an MD who takes the time to discuss nutrition in an informed fashion.

      I’ve never had a doc who approved of low-carb.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        “I’ve never had a doc who approved of low-carb.”

        You are not alone in that, even at this site.

        Looking forward to part 2. May it be as good or better than part 1.

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        Yeah. I get my meds at the VA (I go downtown for the rest of my care…because VA), so they require me to come in once a year. Last year the nurse looked at my blood work and proclaimed that she’d never seen more perfect numbers. The PA then proceeds to berate me for my diet and tell me I’m eating all the wrong shit.

        I read a lot about this. I see studies all over the place that contradict what we’ve been told for 40 years. Yet the medical profession still refuses to take any of it seriously.

        So my question is…are they just lazy and not keeping up with the changes? Or, is it that they’re ashamed to have been spouting bullshit for decades and won’t admit it? Or, is the stuff I’ve been reading actually bullshit from quacks?

        Found this the other day. The word “consensus” bothers me. Am I just confirming my biases?

      • Stillhunter

        I think people are fed up with this part of medical science and are taking matters in their own hands. People realized the shit being spouted is not matching reality so fuck it, we’ll do our own science.

        At it’s core science is observing, forming a hypothesis and testing. While what’s happening may not be a controlled double blind experiment, I think when you get to thousands of n=1 saying the same thing we can call that building evidence.

        Are we learning causation? Probably not, but most people don’t care why, they just want to feel good and live a healthy life.

    • IRBE

      I started a mostly carnivore diet 18 months ago and follow the trend on-line… Anyway, I lost 25 lbs,IBS is gone and I like it. In following this diet the comments I get from people are you are gonna die because you eat too much meat.

      • Stillhunter

        Do you have a newsletter? I’d like to know more. Seriously, consider writing something up about your experience. I may after a few months if you aren’t interested.

      • IRBE

        See Dr. Shawn Baker and meatRX on-line. No newsletter from me. Not a paid spokesman! See below comment to you as well.

  25. banginglc1

    I don’t know how many of you remember me talking about Lilah a while back. She’s the little girl with Epidermolysis Bullosa. Her mother wrote a children’s book about her life. It is releasing April 17th, Lilah’s 5th birthday! Below is a link to pre-order and a short description.


    Cotton Candy On the Moon
    from 13.99

    This is a story inspired by Lilah Miller, a brave little girl battling a rare and challenging medical diagnosis known as Epidermolysis Bullosa. This story details one very special little girl’s impossible dream from a hospital room she knows all too well. The dream is made a reality in this fantastical adventure with stars, rainbows, and her beloved teddy bear to guide her. Lilah knows ALL dreams are possible if you just believe it!

    By Kelsey Townsend-Miller

    Illustrated By Caitlyn Chase

    If you want to know more about Lilah or EB, just let me know.

    • Q Continuum

      EB is absolutely horrific. Sympathies to her and her family.

    • Raston Bot

      sounds like a sweet tale. post this on publication day.

    • pan fried wylie

      Winston’s Dads?

  26. MikeS

    I’m currently looking out my home-office window (I’m home with a non-Kung-Flu illness) and am watching a Bald Eagle perched in one of my trees. Cool AF. ?

    • Q Continuum

      I see them around here sometimes eating out of the dumpster behind King Soopers.

      • Raston Bot

        okay that made me larf b/c you took Mike’s majestic image and stomped on its balls until its head fell off.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        stomped on its balls until its head fell off

        I see you’ve met my wife.

      • R C Dean

        ‘Merica.

        *wipes away single manly tear*

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        We see em all the time on deer carcasses by the side of the road. Nothing says Merica like a scavenger’s bloody white head.

        OBTW, one more lie you were taught in school.

      • Mojeaux

        Scavengers are rational actors.

    • whiz

      I saw 5 deer going through the neighbors yard a few days ago, and we’re pretty far from the edge of town. Our dog was transfixed.

    • Rasilio

      We’ve got a nesting pair of Bald Eagles that live somewhere within a mile or so of us. See em flying around above the creek behind our sub division all the time

      • MikeS

        Sunday a pair flew over our yard when we out sitting on the deck. They flew right over our heads, low enough you could hear their wings flapping. We’ve had geese do that before, but never eagles. It was pretty cool. They are awesome birds.

    • Raston Bot

      yep.

      sold for $225K. rightfully so.

  27. Mojeaux

    Go Tulsi. Voted D for the first time in my life.

    • leon

      I voted for a Dem against Orin Hatch. Think that was the first time i voted Dem.

    • Rebel Scum

      I have always been on team V, myself.

      • banginglc1

        Veto Party?

        Vote BLC1 2020: I don’t have my shit together and don’t plan to!

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      So, given that people that libertarians vote for don’t win. She’s pretty much toast.

      • leon

        kiss of death….

        Feel like we could monetize this in some way.

    • grrizzly

      There’s next to nothing libertarian about Tulsi, plus she has failed to generate excitement in the Democratic primary. If I were voting in the Dem primary, I’d rather vote for Sanders. More chaos, longer senile Biden has to keep campaigning in the primary race.

      • Mojeaux

        You’re assuming I voted for her because I agree with her policies.

        Oh, no.

        It was a FYTW vote to everybody else.

    • Fatty Bolger

      For President, or for any office?

    • Rebel Scum

      The author comes off as a legitimately paranoid delusional. Period.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      What did you expect this to say? Thank goodness for Trump’s steady leadership?

      • AlexinCT

        If Trump comes out tomorrow with a cure for prostate cancer, the NYT headline will be “Evil orange man promotes patriarchy and has it in for victims of breast cancer!”

    • leon

      The coronavirus is no longer just a slow-moving public health crisis that may soon turn into a rapid-moving one. It’s a crisis of transparency. It’s a crisis of government legitimacy. So it is in this spirit that we all have to say: enough.

      Brother! I too find Government Illegitimate — Ow — stop hitting me — Ow — i thought we — ow — this seems intentional on you — :dies:

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        But that’s not what she means.

        She just finds our current leadership illegitimate. Change the identity of the President and leave the rest of the ineffective and corrupt bureaucracy in place and she would be defending it to the death.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The author notoriously wrote a couple of hagiographies of the Obamas. She writes what the New York elite want to believe.

  28. Stillhunter

    In the last couple weeks I started the carnivore diet. Not because I’m worried about cancer caused by carbs or vegetables, but because I had to change my diet. I have a hard time with all the planning and focusing on macros or whatever. I just want to eat, though I do enjoy cooking to some degree. I’m also a snacker as are my dad and his dad (98 years young and quite vibrant!).

    Anyway, I became interested in the paleo diet 10 years ago and more recently keto, and even started each at different points. But I couldn’t keep it up. I knew shitty food and living on carbs was terrible, and being a logical thinker it made sense that my body was evolved to live on mostly meats and animal parts with whatever else could be scrounged locally. After tons of digging, I came to the conclusion that I have been experiencing inflammation, mood swings, lack of energy, lack of sex drive (what?!), and general depression. I’m sure some would chalk this up to getting older, reduced testosterone or whatever, but at just shy of 50 I cannot accept that the next 20-30 years will be like this or worse.

    So I decided to try carnivore as an elimination diet that will hopefully convert me from surviving on carbs to surviving on fat (and protein). I’m not saying this will be forever or that it will “cure” some of my “issues”, but the number of people who independently claim success gave me enough evidence to give it a whirl. We shall see…

    • Tundra

      Good luck. Maybe not a bad idea to do some tacking in case you need to supplement?

      How long is your experiment?

      • Tundra

        Or tracking.

        *grumbles about stupid phone*

      • Stillhunter

        Right now I’m just focusing on keeping it simple, but going forward I may incorporate some organ meats to help with any nutritional deficiencies. I’m not naturally a tracking sort of person and part of the reason for this is so I don’t have to track what I eat.

        As for timeline, I don’t know. Until I know it’s not working, I guess. If it does, I will problem incorporate some foods back in, but only whole foods, no processed crap. Having a piece of cake at my kid’s birthday is a possibility but only on those rare occasions.

      • IRBE

        I am carnivore for 18 months. Lost 20-25 #s. Great improvement in health via BP and improved labs. I was dad fat and now am Uni soft 5″11/170#. Not bad for 54. Workouts are better and actually go to gym less, sleep better too. Have done dry fasting too..for fun but kind of weird. Need to be fat adapted which takes some time. Recommend it; save money on food. No supplement, except vitamin C.

    • Mojeaux

      Long ago in a land about 3 miles away from where I am now and where I should have stayed put, I was on a ListServ for low-carb. Someone had developed the Texas Elimination Diet (PDF).

      It was to pinpoint not only what you respond best to but what you’re sensitive to or outright allergic to. It also pinpointed a candida albicans problem if you had one.

      I did not come up with this but I don’t remember who did. Her name was Kathleen and that’s all I remember.

      • Stillhunter

        Thanks, I’ll give that a closer look later, but an initial skim seems to track closely with what I’m doing. I’m not ready for intermittent fasting since I still get hungry and have cravings, but I plan to do that once I get settled into a groove.

      • Stillhunter

        Also thanks, looks interesting. Curious how people even then seemed to eschew a meat heavy diet. I wonder if that was mostly the learned though and not the people living on the farm.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      What have you got to lose?

      • Stillhunter

        Hopefully about 20 pounds of fat! But yeah that’s what I kept thinking.

    • Plisade

      So now only criminals will contract the Coronavirus?

  29. pan fried wylie

    JD is Unemployed on March 10, 2020 at 7:33 am
    I don’t think so, but I’m more interested in how they [porcupines] mate without impaling each other.

    Missionary, duh. And lots of oral.

    • R C Dean

      I’ll take your word. Ain’t googling that. IT is already on their way over EvilCo.com.

      • MikeS

        I went there and it’s just a blank white page. Which actually creeped me out more than I would have thought.

      • pistoffnick

        It’s for sale.

      • MikeS

        IT’S STILL CREEPY!!!11!!!

  30. Mojeaux

    Speaking of Tulsi, where’s Just Say’n aka TGA been?

  31. R C Dean

    Getting my office repainted and recarpeted. Packing everything up. One thing is clear: I am apparently a filthy, disgusting animal.

    • Q Continuum

      Some guys would pay good money for that.

      • AlexinCT

        Some guys, huh?

      • Rebel Scum

        No one Q knows, obviously.

    • MikeS

      Would. Just not on Mexican Mondays.

  32. Yusef drives a Kia

    Great Article Ozy! A great discussion, i was very enlightened, Busy, gotta run!

    • Mojeaux

      Hey Yusef. Job interview update?!?!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Position filled, but I did all the paperwork for the next thing that comes my way, never heard from the Census, but they are jacked up right now,
        Trailers aren’t that bad, I’m in one right now, Good Fortune Mo!

      • Akira

        Trailers aren’t that bad, I’m in one right now, Good Fortune Mo!

        I’ve toyed with the idea of buying a trailer home… Land and the structure are both pretty damn cheap, and I could conceivably be living without having to pay any rent or mortgage.

        … But I already bought this dang house, so I may as well pay it off and sell it. This town seems to be growing, so I’m guessing I’ll be able to sell it for more than I paid.

  33. Mojeaux

    As there was not one person who would talk to me about renting after bankruptcy discharge except the local trailer park, who said renting post-discharge was just fine, I went there to look. It was very nice (all new). I don’t know what I’m going to do about an office, but I’ll deal with that later. I now know where we’re going to live so I don’t have to stress about that anymore.

    #Win

    • Pine_Tree

      Congrats on knocking that stressor down. 🙂

      • Mojeaux

        This whole process has turned me into Royal Empress Bitch. If I’m not pissed off, I’m crying. I can’t talk to anybody without crying. I haven’t gone to church or talked to anybody from church in weeks because I will cry. My family is tiptoeing around me very carefully.

        The ONLY thing I’ve had to be excited about is XX’s new job and now, I can take the “Where will we live?!” panic off my shoulders.

      • kinnath

        It is painful to live through, but it eventually makes life better.

    • pistoffnick

      Was supposed to be a reply to Mojeaux Re: trailer park living.

      If you see a neighbor that looks like this, he has kitties he’ll let you pet.

      He also plays a mean guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8a9eqkSqM8

      • Mojeaux

        You’re going to be my neighbor?! *squeeeeeeeee*

  34. Dr. Fronkensteen

    Don’t hate me.

    I have no mortgage.

    I hate property taxes.

    • whiz

      We just made the final payment on our mortgage last week. It’s a nice feeling.

      And I hate property taxes, too. I have to remember to pay it myself since before it was included in the escrow account.

      • RAHeinlein

        Is your plan to stay in the same house once you retire?

      • whiz

        At least for a while, but warmer climes beckon.

    • Mojeaux

      I do not hate you. Even if we were given this house free and clear, I would not take it. It needs a new roof and the furnace is about to die. Also, it would be $500/month for taxes and insurance.

      I will rent till I die, and once the children are gone, it’s going to be in a nice apartment complex. Mr. Mojeaux hates apartments. I do not care if he does or not. The only compromise I’ll make is that we won’t live in the city proper or in a high rise.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        That’s what I’m afraid of myself. The odds on this house becoming a money pit and crumbling into dust is on the high side. But right now. It’s mine.

  35. Donation Not Taxation

    “but if we’re really interested in addressing “public health” concerns, we should start with the most deadly things, right?”

    Latest available from the CDC:

    “In 2016, 623,471 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 48 reporting areas. The abortion rate for 2016 was 11.6 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years, and the abortion ratio was 186 abortions per 1,000 live births.”

    https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/index.htm

    *prepares popcorn*

    • Raston Bot

      186 abortions per 1,000 live births

      that seems high.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Not a typo at this end. The quotation of the government statistic at that URL was accurately reported.
        Whether or not to believe what the United States government puts on an official site is another matter.
        Births are registered state by state with varying degrees of public transparency. We are reliant on the same CDC to tell us how many live births there were in order to do the math.

      • Rasilio

        why?

        There are 3 possible outcomes to a pregnancy

        abortion
        miscarriage
        live birth

        from the stats we have 168 abortions per 1000 live births which would have abortions at 15% of all non miscarriage pregnancies (roughly 1 in 300 pregnancies) however we don’t have any stats on the miscarriage rate which is hard to know because many first term miscarriages occur without the woman ever even knowing she was pregnant but it is estimated that 10 – 20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriages. That would mean that for all pregnancies the outcome odds are approximately…

        10% – abortion
        15% – miscarriage
        75% – live birth

        10% is probably higher than we’d like to see it but I don’t think it is all that high

      • R C Dean

        from the stats we have 168 abortions per 1000 live births which would have abortions at 15% of all non miscarriage pregnancies (roughly 1 in 300 pregnancies)

        1 in 300 is more like 0.33%. I think its more like 1 in 7 or 8.

        If we say 15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, that would mean out of 100 pregnancies, 15 end in miscarriage, and 15% of the remaining 85 end in abortions, or more like 17 – 18% of non-miscarriage pregnancies end in abortion. So the rough numbers are:

        15% miscarriage
        17% abortion
        68% live birth