Over the course of my life I’ve lost an uncle, great uncle, great aunt and  grandma all due to chronic illnesses. They somehow seem to come out of nowhere. It’s just an average week, and then when you get a phone call, and suddenly everything that seemed normal isn’t so normal anymore. But the truth is that they don’t come out of nowhere. Somewhere, somehow, just the perfect amount of mutated cells combine and multiply exponentially, just enough to cause the perfect storm, and suddenly, everything changes, overthinking everything and anything. Putting blame on occurrences doesn’t add up like a perfect algebraic equation. It’s just life. Everything seems to be going wrong, as if there’s not even a particle of light at the end of this dark, draining tunnel.

Chronic illnesses have no cure or cause, so why do we spend so much time stressing over parabens and hot dogs and simple things that may or may not cause them? A lot of research has been conducted and introduced to the world regarding how chronic illnesses, such as cancer, start and spread and how one may possibly prevent such a matter from occurring. The fact of the matter is that we, at this point in time, don’t know how it starts or how to stop it. Stressing yourself out about such chronic illnesses is painful itself and completely unnecessary. Living your life in fear of contracting a life-threatening illness isn’t a way to live life. Remembering to take each day as it is and live in the moment is the most important things that we as a society can take away from the rise in awareness of these diseases.

According to the American Cancer Society, about one in two men and one in three women will get cancer during the duration of their life. Regardless of what kind of cancer it is, there is a multitude of issues with people knowing these statistics. It can cause extreme sources of fear and anger that don’t dictate how lives will be lead. People aren’t just statistics; they have brains and feelings and lives to live. The world has become a place where people criticize others on their food choices because a certain food has been “proven” to cause cancerous cells to form. But these statistics dictate nothing about specific people in the world. If you sit 10 men down, it doesn’t automatically mean that half of them will get cancer. Few, or even all of them may; the truth is that we don’t know. So why do we stress ourselves out about such nonsense that has no use to us furthering our lives? If these statistics are something you are interested in researching, maybe choose a career path that allows you to study such details and become educated as to why certain foods have been linked to cancerous cells or combat these cells. It is so easy to throw around such facts without probable cause, and all it does is cause fear, tension and unnecessary aggravation.

The worst thing that we can do is scare ourselves into thinking that we are going to die if we eat a hot dog or sit in the sun for 10 minutes a day in the summer. There is so much in life to live, and thinking that we are going to solve everything by not eating certain things or not doing certain activities is useless. Living life in fear of contracting such illnesses is exhausting. Remembering to take life day by day, living a balanced, healthy lifestyle by making appropriate food choices, exercising regularly and getting enough sleep are so much better than freaking out. Living in the moment and not stressing out about every little thing that may go wrong is so much better than restricting yourself or not allowing yourself to live life because of the fear of something not in your control.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Gabby Perelmuter at [email protected].