All of us have lived our lives reaching for the aspirin bottle for almost anything that hurts or causes fever. So many discomforts have inflammation as their root cause. Inflammation is defined as a protective tissue response to injury or destruction of tissues, which serves to destroy, dilute, or wall off both the injurious agent and the injured tissues. The classical signs of acute inflammation are pain, heat, redness, swelling, and loss of function. In other words, when tissues are injured or attacked, Inflammation sets in to enhance blood flow, activate the immune system, and generally protect the surrounding tissues. However, prolonged inflammation begins to cause pain and actually interfere with the healing process. So, immediate inflammation is good; chronic inflammation, not so good.

When a fledgling cancerous tumor invades a tissue, the protective characteristic of inflammation initially protects the tissue, including the tumor. Then it can interfere with the immune system’s attempt to kill the tumor cells. Since aspirin reduces inflammation, it is being given a close look as a viable complementary cancer treatment.

December 1^st was World AIDS Day, and December is AIDS Awareness Month in the U.S. I’m all for AIDS awareness, and I support all efforts to reduce human suffering from any disease. However, like all government expenditures, priorities must be set based on the magnitude of the problem. On the occasion of World AIDS Day, President Obama committed our nation to increase AIDS research funding by $50 million in 2012. Well, at first thought, we might celebrate that decision. But, let’s look at where our priorities should be, particularly in relation to our cancer problem in this country.

The federal appropriation for AIDS research and care in the 2011 budget was $27.2 billion. The same for cancer was $38.9 billion. AIDS got 70% of what cancer received.