I was confused and now I'm pissed

From MSNBC:

Emotions do not affect cancer survival.

WASHINGTON - People who are depressed about their cancer are no more likely to die than people who keep a positive outlook, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Cancer patients are often encouraged to stay as happy as possible and many people believe that a positive outlook helps recovery and survival.

Dr. James Coyne and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania set out to see if this was really true. They analyzed data from two studies of the emotional states of 1,093 patients with head and neck cancer.

Over the time of the two studies, 646 patients died.

The analysis showed that emotional status was not associated with survival rate. A person's emotions were not associated with survival even after taking into account other factors, such as gender, tumor site or disease stage, Coyne and colleagues report in the journal Cancer.

"The hope that we can fight cancer by influencing emotional states appears to have been misplaced," Coyne said in a statement.

"If cancer patients want psychotherapy or to be in a support group, they should be given the opportunity to do so. There can be lots of emotional and social benefits. But they should not seek such experiences solely on the expectation that they are extending their lives."

 

Are you fucking kidding me? Why in the name of everything sacred would you bother with a research project like this? Be far warned because I know this is going to come across as almost the exact argument for a religious matter as well but I'll address that in a minute.

 

First off, fuck you University of Pennsylvania. Your reasoning for this research has got to be similar to (a) we had nothing better to do and (b) let's decide to take away false hope because that's just no good. Let's leave them with no hope at all. How many of you University of Pennsylvania "scientists and doctors" can honestly say that you feel this is helpful? Apparently none of you have ever witnessed someone who truly believes they can get better simply by hoping and, here it comes, praying as well. This has nothing to do with religion, in a sense, but the argument is similar to the one I use often when talking about those of you out there who would rather work toward disproving something that you cannot see or touch.

 

If you are someone who decides that it is so much better if everyone knows all the flaws of religion and decides that every opportunity you receive you are going to shove that into those who believe in a God or a higher being then you need to listen to this. Picture it...you are dying or have just been told you have a terminal illness. I cannot imagine the feeling that must be going through your head at the moment but no sooner do you say to yourself "Okay, maybe if I just believe and keep positive thoughts in my head I may just live a little longer and get to enjoy my time even more" when suddenly a scientist goes "Naw, don't bother, it won't help anyway and I have new fangled numbers to prove it." I would take a frying pan and beat the shit out of him.

 

Faith and belief can be an extremely powerful thing folks. These things get people through the hardest times in their life and they believe they are made better by having this faith. Whether it comes to day to day living or being on death's doorstep. Even if all of the religious beliefs and expectations do not turn out to be true when you finally pass into death what harm can possibly be done by letting that dying person believe something or someone is waiting for them? How selfish are you if you decide that you are going to do everything to disprove that simply because you believe it garbage? Once the person dies they will find out what truly is out there after we die but make no mistake...if that person believes they can get better and wants to put faith in that to help them fight as long as they can and give them hope for something better after death...what place does anyone have to try and tell them otherwise? Is it affecting your life? Is it really a drain on your conscience to know that someone who is totally unrelated to you is having a belief they can continue to live? Yes, in the end they may be let down but to hold a belief so strongly in anything is a virtue in it's own right for if you truly do not believe in anything I don't believe you really have lived.