A friend of mine died last night, following a battle with lymphoma. The disease came back last summer after he had been in remission about a year. It was discovered about a week after my daughter was born. The prognosis was not good with a recurrence within a year at mid-life. He was only 45 and left two teenage children.

We had fallen out of touch in recent years, but I knew through his sister that he had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

He was in the hospital while I was home on maternity leave, so we started talking to pass the time. He had just recently started taking care of his health, but hadn't won the battle over tobacco yet. He'd quit several times but never for more than a year. I nagged him about the studies showing that nicotine may interfere with chemotherapy, but he had enough on his plate without tackling that problem.

The most amazing information I uncovered was the fact that there seems to be an association between type 2 diabetes and some types of lymphoma. ANY type 2, not just uncontrolled. That seemed so farfetched to me. The abstract of the study (linked above) explains, "The risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is significantly increased in patients in an immunosuppressive state, and diabetes mellitus impairs the immune response to bacterial infections."

This disease is just a flag for so many other problems. Once again there is yet another reason to take the best care of your body that you can.

This holiday season, spare a thought for my friend's now fatherless children, the rest of his grieving family and all the other people having a holiday that's not living up to the greeting card illustrations.