I was recently bowled over by the news that a member of Ben's family, who lives near us, who we've visited a fair amount, who has been wonderful to us, has stage 4 uterine cancer. The five-year survival rate is 5%, and what shocked me is that it is highly treatable early on, and usually caught in a pap smear or other routine test. It is one of the more common cancers but not one of the deadlier ones. This sort of diagnosis is a terrible waste, because there are many unexpected and unpreventable ways to die, but shouldn't we all know what the common steps are to prevention where it is possible?

If you spend some time reading about different forms of cancer, you will see some trends. You will see that some things, like smoking or having a family history of cancer, increase your risk of developing a whole slew of different cancers. Some things, like eating a low-protein high-produce diet and getting regular exercise, reduce your chances of developing a variety of cancers. For some cancers there are specific screenings that you should be doing (breast self-exams and pap smears/pelvic exams for women, for example). It makes sense that the data on frequency and mortality are different for men and women. Here's a summary (taken from this 2005 data) of top cancers for men and women. ( I'm not an oncologist, but we should all know these things )

I went to the dentist yesterday, heard that all is well in my mouth, and that's good. But it made me once again think about something I've known for a couple years now... I grind my teeth in my sleep.

This is officially called bruxism, and there was an article about it recently in the New York Times. Surprise surprise, it was Ben who made me aware that I do this, and I would wake up in the middle of the night occasionally to him whispering "sweets?" in the background of this really horrible noise. I apparently still do it, though not that frequently and not always very hard, and Ben nudges me to get me to stop without waking me. This is very bad for my teeth though, and the two dentists I've seen both pointed it out to me (I have ridges in my molars from doing this).

There isn't a cure. Many treatments have been tried with little success. The best one is to get a dentist-fitted mouthguard, though some people can't sleep with it or spit it out in their sleep. I never had braces or a retainer or anything, so the idea of sleeping with a mouthguard is... unappealing. But so is the idea of horrendous premature tooth decay. Stress relief has been shown to help, but I think in general I'm not too stressed when I fall asleep. The dentist recommended wine right before bed, to relax my jaw muscles. I might try to make a more conscious effort to relax, maybe with a little yoga or meditation. Or aromatherapy, I don't know. In the end I may have to shell out for the mouthguard, though, and that's lame.