The end of illness?

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By Brynna Leslie

A new book is making waves across North America. It has a profound message that's making everyone sit up and listen: We're all going to die.

The End of Illness by Dr. David Agus retails for about $20. The oncologist and engineering professor from California tells you all the things you're doing daily that will contribute to your death. Of course, his prognosis is a little darker than the inevitable. He insists that the lives most of us are living offer a pretty good chance that we will suffer cancer or heart disease at some point. So really, the message isn't so much "we're all going to die," as it is, "we're all going to die a slow and painful death that we'll fight to the bitter end, even though in most cases it doesn't do much good." It's pretty dark, even for an oncologist.

Agus actually sees cancer differently than many in the medical field. Rather than something one acquires, he views it as a verb. "We are all cancering," he told Jon Stewart on The Daily Show in early January.

In other words, cancer is something that is in all of us. But depending on our unique make-up and the individual way in which we live our lives, we may or may not be aware of its presence in our lifetime.

The scariest part of Agus's message is that we're all doing things that make it quite likely that the cancer or heart disease will surface. For Agus, it comes down to activities that increase life-threatening inflammation. Over time, Agus believes this inflammation is what will cause the diseases to manifest within us. Every time we get the flu, we increase our risk. Every time we fly on a plane, we increase our risk.

He warns against sitting for more than four hours each day, even for someone who works out and is otherwise in good health. Sitting for extended periods is so bad that Dr. Agus equates it to smoking a pack of cigarettes per day. If you think about it, even if we didn't sit at our jobs, we would very likely sit for four hours each day at meals, watching TV, or traveling in the car. To be healthy individuals, and to ward off cancer and heart disease, in other words, our daily work should be physical. (As a writer, may I just say this scares the heck out of me).

Agus is also anti-vitamin. He cites studies in his work that demonstrate taking vitamin supplements can do more harm than good. Vitamins feed healthy cells, he reasons, and there's much to suggest they feed cancerous ones as well.

It's best to get daily vitamins from food. But again, if you've recently made the healthy switch to organic fruits and vegetables, you may be disappointed in Agus's advice. He argues organic, local foods are the only way to go. Anything that's travelled has been exposed to toxins in the air, reducing any organic quality it may have. He recommends opting for frozen foods over fresh in the off-season.

Among Agus's other controversial findings? Routine trumps quantity when it comes to rest. Go to bed and wake at the same time every day. Even if you only get five hours sleep, you'll be better off health-wise than your neighbour who sleeps eleven hours a night off-schedule. Oh, and don't nap! It messes up your system.

Finally, wear comfortable shoes. High heels and other fashion shoes that cut off circulation cause inflammation. And according to Agus, if we don't want to die a slow and painful death, inflammation must be stopped before it starts. He advocates people over 50 take statins daily (another controversy), along with precautionary baby aspirin (75 milligrams).

It's hard to know how much of what Agus says is true. It's certainly causing a stir in medical circles. As with most medical studies, I plan to take what's useful - increase movement in my day, eat a little healthier - and maybe wait for further evidence on vitamin supplements. We're all going to die. It would be nice to know that Agus's prognosis is flawed, and that death won't come through slow, painful, untreatable disease.