Cancer and Focus

Mar 6, 2012 @ 10:56 By 5 Comments

From The Conversation:

The fixation on potentially cancer-causing chemicals in the air, food and consumer products is diverting attention from the real risks, according to a review of global evidence by an Australian cancer researcher.

Writing in the medical journal The Lancet Oncology, Professor Bernard Stewart, from the University of New South Wales, said that lifestyle factors – driven by “personal choices” – were the most significant proven causes of cancer.

“Measures known to prevent cancer include smoking cessation, reducing alcohol intake, curbing obesity and avoiding deliberate sun exposure,” said Professor Stewart, who reviewed medical literature from around the world on known and suspected cancer hazards.

“Diverting attention from these messages threatens to undermine their efficacy to deliver proven benefits.”

 

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About Scot McKnight

Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than thirty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.

  • Kelly

    This is interesting to me because it seems that the messages around the risks of smoking, obesity, and sun exposure have increased in the recent past yet the cases of cancer seem to be on the rise (I’m coming at this as an unscientific observer). What appears to be happening is the opposite of what is said here.

  • Joe Canner

    Kelly #1: In the US, some cancers are increasing and some are decreasing.

    Lung Cancer is decreasing, likely due to anti-smoking campaigns and perhaps also to clean air standards.

    Skin Cancer is increasing, but it will probably take a while for education to have an effect since sun exposure many years in the past can put you at higher risk.

    Esophogeal Cancer (for which both alcohol and smoking are risk factors) is decreasing.

    The link between obesity and cancer is not as straightforward (as in smoking->lung cancer or sun->skin cancer) and there are other factors (e.g., screening) that could also impact cancer incidence. In any case, we all know that anti-obesity campaigns have not been very successful anyway.

    All that said, the fact that a certain cancer is increasing is not necessarily evidence that there aren’t enough messages about the personal risks. In fact, it could be evidence to support Dr. Stewart’s contention: that the messages are getting lost because people are blaming external factors that are less important at the expense of personal factors that are more important.

  • EricG

    As someone who has advanced stage cancer, something that always irks me is that people assume that there is a known cause for most cancers, and that the person fighting cancer had something to do with their illness. I had none of the risk factors or inherited traits, took care of myself very carefully, and still developed it at a young age.

    It is like the modern day version of Job’s friends: “What did you do to earn this?” Perhaps it makes modern-day Job’s friends feel better if they can attribute it to something, because then they feel safer themselves.

    But the reality is we really don’t know yet what causes a lot of cancers, other than the obvious ones like smoking/lung cancer and sun burns/skin cancer.

    The other thing we know is that it usually isn’t one thing that causes cancer in someone. That said, there are steps you can take to reduce risk, and the ones the article lists are good. Another obvious one, which isn’t listed, is lack of exercise, which is linked with cancer rates for some people.

  • Susan N.

    EricG (#3) – Job’s friends…adding insult to injury.

    We humans like to think that we are in control of everything, and that we can outwit and conquer all. Life has a way of disabusing us of these notions.

    I’m so sorry. My prayers are with you, EricG.

    I have a sense of late that I’m wearing out my welcome on Jesus Creed. =o

    I win no friends with my perpetual pessimism, but…”studies” like this irritate me, too. (I know, angry South Pole elf. I gotta work on my attitude.)

    Smoking, drinking, sun exposure, obesity, sedentary lifestyle – yeah, I get it. When we’re young, it doesn’t seem like we’re hurting anything. It all catches up to you in middle age. Natural consequences and all that; you reap what you sow. There is some truth in this, and I take the point to heart.

    But, as you shared EricG, sometimes bad stuff just happens. I know people who have done everything right, and get sick or lose their job or whatever. Other people take every foolish risk and abuse their health, and come out right as rain.

    The ax that I was going to grind is processed food. I grew up fairly poor, and we ate what was cheap — usually the processed foods. The healthier foods are the most expensive. That’s truer than ever these days of high inflation. I think the cumulative effect of nutritionally-depleted, processed (loaded with artificial ingredients and preservatives) foods take a toll in health, and certainly contribute to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Plus, if you do not have time (working two jobs?) to prepare whole foods (such as dried beans and peas, which require multiple-stage cooking), your options are reduced to quick foods. The health effects are more difficult to quantify, I suppose, than skin cancer from sun exposure, or lung cancer from tobacco or radon gas exposure.

    Peace, friend.
    ~Susan N.

  • Joe Canner

    Susan, I hear you… I inherited from my mother a slender frame (don’t have to watch my weight) and a propensity for high cholesterol. Go figure. My father, wife, and in-laws eat fatty foods like there’s no tomorrow and their cholesterol is fine. It’s all in the genes…

    I don’t care so much about when I die (although I guess my wife and kids might), but I would like to feel good in the meantime. So, if scientists could come up with diet for comfortable living and then dying suddenly at a reasonable age (not too young), I’d be all over that.

    And, yes, it’s a crime that eating healthy is more expensive. I keep hoping that healthy food is like new technology: when the novelty wears off and it is adopted widely the price comes down. I hope I live to see the day (still feeling good, of course).