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James “Rhio” O’Connor Memorial Scholarship Fund Essay Contest

    In the United States of American there is an epidemic that is taking the lives of thousands of people each year, an epidemic that touches the lives of everyone man, women, and child through the death of a loved ones, friends, or acquaintances. This epidemic is cancer, but as it kills, it also sheds light on larger and more deep-seeded issue.

    In 1999, when I was six years old, my father died of lung cancer. Since then, my aunt and grandmother have all had cancer. This past fall my uncle died from cancer, my best friend’s mom and my piano teacher are fighting it, and a number of acquaintances from school have lost their parents as well. It seems like everywhere one looks, someone has cancer. Currently, the scientific community has failed to find a “cure” for cancer, some vaccine or antibiotic that will stop the exponential and radical growth of cells in the body. I don’t believe they will ever find this magic “cure”, there is no drug or antibiotic to cure cancer because cancer isn’t just a disease, it is a message from our bodies trying to tell us that there is something very wrong with the way we take care of ourselves and our health in this country. Cancer is a direct cause of our unhealthy life style, the way our food, health care, work, and lives are set up: not to nourish the body but to degrade it over time. In America, where medicine and science only atomize and insolate components of the body, we fail to see the holistic view of the body: the way the physical and the mental interact with each other and the outside world to sustain health. There are four main issues to the American lifestyle, and their interaction in daily life creates a negative feedback loop directly related to the cancer epidemic.

   The first and foremost is food: what we eat and how we eat. For the first time in human history, humans have become alienated from their food. Not only do most people take no part in the production of what they eat (the life giving sustenance that fuels all parts of the body from the brain to the blood) but most people don’t really even know what they are eating. People gorge themselves on food-like substances, cookies, candy, pizza, and chips: highly processed food full of chemicals and preservatives. These foods provide no nutrients, and simply contain tons of sugars and chemicals which create a toxic mixture then circulated and fed to cells, organs and tissue throughout the body.  Furthermore, even if one buys fresh produce, chances are it will have been grown using a slew of pesticides and chemicals, so for every mineral gained, there are ten chemicals to go along with it. Most of these pesticides have only been tested by the corporations producing them not the FDA, and there are no studies by anyone on what happens when you mix pesticides in the environment or in the body. Yet most food is doused in this toxic syrup and fed to the American people. The problems doesn’t just stop at what we eat, but how we eat. For the first time, most people in American have access to more food then is good for them, drastically changing their relationship to food. Humans are not supposed to eat very much every day, yet people eat when they are sad or bored, because they can, consuming more food then is good for them, and leading to obesity, diabetes, and cancer.

     The second issue is exercise. In the natural world, one must burn calories to gain them- all living things must work to get food, maintaining a balance in their bodies. But in the modern world where money buys food, and one can sit in an office all day to make money, this natural equilibrium is broken. In today’s world, one must find time to move one’s body, instead of exercise being part of everyday life. When we do not use our bodies, they decay and breakdown, creating illness and death.

    A third component is the physical effects of an unhealthy mind. Many factors of the modern era, including high levels of stress, alienation from nature and alienation form each other, has degrading mental and physical effects. In a world where the average income has been steadily falling for the past forty years while the cost of living has sky rocketed and debt rules most peoples lives, everyone is stressed out. There have been countless studies that show that high levels of stress, and the hormone imbalance it creates, have very negative and degrading effects on the body, stumping cell regrowth and leading to general decay. In America, people are also severely alienated from each other. One of the most important aspects of human life is community, and a sense of love and support from those around you. As community and family have become less important in American culture, and people become more and more alienated from human relationships by technology, the ensuing feelings of depression and isolation have very negative effects on the body. Combined with alienation from the natural world, as most people live in cities and miss the rejuvenating qualities of the sun, clean air, and trees, this negative mental state has disastrous effects on health.

     Finally, everyday we come in contact with unprecedented amounts of toxic chemicals, used in every thing from cosmetics, to furniture, emitted from our cars and contaminating our homes and schools. We live in a world of preservatives, flame-retardants, cell phone radiation, and polluted air. Breathing, touching, and living in a toxic cocktail every day slowly poisons the body and runs down the body’s immune system, nervous system, and internal organs. Not only does our toxic environment create illness, but it also destroys the body’s natural defenses against illness as well.

      James “Rhio” O’Connor developed a rare type of cancer called Mesothelioma, which attacks cells in the tissue that lines the body cavity called the mesothelium, located in the chest and rib area, and affecting the cell tissue surrounding organs such as the lungs.  O’Connor’s cancer was cause asbestos exposure when he was younger, the only known cause of this type of cancer. Although O’Conner was given less then a year to live, surgery was impossible, and chemo ineffective, he realized the importance of a holistic body approach. O’Connor changed his lifestyle, began taking supplements, and really concentrated on the importance of diet in health. By addressing the components of his life style that had caused the cancer, O’Conner listened and worked with his body, cured himself of cancer, and outlived his original diagnosis by eight years. James O’ Connor is proof that a healthy lifestyle is not only the key to a cancer free society, but to curing the disease as well.   

      Cancer is a mirror, a mirror reflecting disease throughout the American way of life. If we truly want to decrease the amount of cancer in America, and save lives, we need a complete change in the American value set and lifestyle. It starts with policy makers, who must stop throwing useless money at a non-existent magic “cure”, and put their money toward ending the chemical contamination of America. We need to ban the use of toxic pesticides to grow food, and fund organic and sustainable food production. We need to ban the use of preservatives and chemicals in our cosmetics, clothes, and homes and implement healthy and earth friendly alternatives. We need to increase the standard of living for each American by increasing the amount of money that individuals and families make each year and decreasing inflation, so people are less stressed out, and have time to form relationships with people, move their bodies, and nurture their creativity. Americans need to make cooking and exercise part of our daily routines and invest time and energy into community, family, and being in nature. Finally we need to find healthy and environmentally sustainable alternatives to the products we use and how we get our energy. Ultimately, we need to change our mind frame, wake up and realize our current lifestyle is slowly killing us. We need to begin to care about what is being put into our bodies and change the way we organize our lives and the things we value.

To Learn More About James O’Conner and the caner that took his life visit: www.survivingmesothelioma.com