'Preventable' causes of cancer
07 Dec 2011
There's some interesting discussion in the media today following the report from Cancer Research claiming that 43% of cancers are preventable by life-style changes.
The report says 45% of cancers in men, and 40% in women, could be prevented (Cancer Research news release).
The research argues that more than 100,000 cancers – equivalent to one third of all those diagnosed in the UK each year – are being caused by smoking, unhealthy diets, alcohol and excess weight. This figure further increases to around 134,000 if a wider range of lifestyle and environmental risk factors (such as occupation, lack of exercise and exposure to radiation) are included.
Some people have reacted angrily to this (see for example the posts on the BBC News website). They feel that cancer victims are being blamed for causing their own illness. I don't see it that way, even though I could certainly argue that none of the main lifestyle risks applied in my case. Despite having lung cancer I have never smoked, have never been overweight, barely drink alcohol, have a healthy diet, and have taken plenty of exercise.
But self-righteousness - or for that matter guilt - is not the point here. I think it is encouraging that there is a wider discussion about factors such as exercise and diet. I was told that getting lung cancer was just 'bad luck'. No-one even asked me about my diet or levels of exercise. Nor did they suggest things I could do in this area.
Yet, even though my diet was pretty good (my wife is a health visitor, so I'm not allowed to get away with too much unhealthy food) I am sure I could have eaten more healthily and taken more of the right type of exercise. And - as I'll come onto later - I think my mental attitude could have been better.
Since my diagnosis I have changed my diet to include many more anti-oxidants (green tea, turmeric, mushrooms). I am juicing fruit and vegetables every day. I have almost completely cut out dairy products and have cut down on red meat. I am taking numerous supplements, herbal and homoeopathic remedies and I am trying to get to the gym or out on my bicycle much more. I really am feeling the benefits.
Some might say I am deluding myself - that it's just luck the course the cancer takes. But to feel you are doing something that may help feels so much better than just relying on chance or medical treatment (which in my case I was told was, anyway, only palliative not a cure).
There is another factor that is not covered by the Cancer Research UK report, namely what goes on in our heads. Again, there is a risk of upsetting people who feel they are being accused of causing their own cancers. No-one can make that sort of general accusation. Each individual case will be different. But - as with lifestyle factors - I am increasingly convinced that the way we think, and the emotions we have, can affect our physical health. After all, there is plenty of solid medical evidence of the placebo effect. So, if just thinking we are being treated makes some of us better, it seems likely there is a link.
I've been impressed with the arguments made by people like Gill Edwardes (author of Conscious Medicine) that the way we think affects our health. So I've been trying to put them into action.
So far - 8 months on from my diagnosis of inoperable Stage 4 lung cancer - I am feeling fit and well. That may just be luck and I recognise that others will have done all they possibly could and still not overcome the illness. But I certainly feel better for the better diet, for taking more exercise, and for thinking positively, relaxing, smiling and laughing as much as I can.
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John Izbicki - 07 Dec 2011
Cancer and lifestyle
Very much enjoyed Mike's response to the Cancer Research report. If we knew how and why cancer is contracted, we would also be able to discover a cure. So far, no one has been able to establish the true cause. However, the research lifestyle report cannot be faulted. The fact that Mike, who doesn't smoke or drink and already made sure he kept to a decent diet, has been feeling better, hopefully put paid to the medical diagnosis that his lung cancer was inoperable. It is clear that the diet and lifestyle have helped him. As yet I don't have cancer but suffer from ulcerative colitis (which could lead to bowel cancer). It was diagnosed 11 years ago and, when I asked whether there was anything I should orshould not eat/drink, I was told by my specialist consultant at King's College Hospital that I could eat and drink whatever I fancied. "There's no evidence that diet affects U C," he said. This surprised me because it stands to reason (though not medical reasoning) that if there's anything wrong with your gut, it must matter what you shove down your throat. I gave up all dairy from the cow (milk, cream, cheese, butter) but do eat some, but not a lot, of goat or sheep products (yoghurt, butter, cheese, even cream) and drink soya milk. I've cut down on tea and coffee, but drink herbal teas and Caro, a sort of ersatz natural coffee. I'm afraid I still eat meat but try to confine it to chicken, lamb and veal -- not beef or pork. I'm afraid I have refused to give up red wine, but I have cut down on it. One could drink small amounts of gin or vodka, neither of which contain yeast (which is a killer). I eat bread that has only natural, not baker's yeast. Sugar should be kept out of everything if possible. Anyway, I do feel better -- but still have UC, which nothing seems to shake off. Doctors have offered to operate and give me a colostomy bag. I have refused. I'm afraid that my faith in themedical profession has diminished over the years. Sorry to have gone on for this length. Keep up the good work, Mike.
Mike: Thanks for this and good luck to you, John. I'm with you on a small amount of red wine!
Marc Rowland - 07 Dec 2011
Blog
Mike
Thanks for this - it is so well written and balanced.
Marc
jimw - 07 Dec 2011
Preventable Problems
Most of our ailments are part genetic and part self inflicted. There are many factors at play and it is disapointing to read on your blog of the "shoot the messenger" syndrome.
At work today, a lovely lady with some Chinese ethnicity was explaining how diet and excercise (Tai Chi of course!) can help my colleagues shoulder - and cancer, my sore throat and the common cold (inter alia). I really suspect that there is something in this.
Today's tip was to cook vegetables with garlic and ginger to keep colds away. There was also something more complicated involving an orange, salt and steaming water - 3 goes will apparently relieve coughs and sore throats. I think I need to try this one before I share. Keep up the good work and keep sharing your advice and learning.
Gary - 08 Dec 2011
Cancer blog
Mike, this is a hugely thought provoking piece. I have long thought that a positive mind set is crucial generally in life and I suspect even more so when trying to live with cancer. My mother died many years ago from cancer of the thyroid and I remember thinking then that not only was the support medically poor but also there was little or no support for her or us in terms of the emotional aspects of what was a terrible time. I often wonder what might have happened if we as a family tried to be more positive and the GP and others tried to help her and us.
I hope much has moved on over the past 30 years and that people do get more information both on lifestyle and trying to stay positive when dealing with illness
Thanks Mike for the blog
Mike: Thanks, Gary, for sharing this with us.
Ian Nash - 10 Dec 2011
Cancer blog
We use words such as "cause" and "effect" in a slap-dash way when referring to medical issues. Instead we should think in terms of phenomena, physical and mental, that exacerbate or alleviate disease. In fact, the Cancer Research report is quite careful in this respect (unlike the journalistic commentaries on it). The classic disease in this respect is gout. I know because I researched and wrote a short book on it years ago for the Wellcome Foundation. Port, offal and red meat do not cause gout but they inflame tissue and contain high levels of purines that break down into uric acid which crystallises with sodium urate in the joints and cartilage to provoke acute then chronic pains. It doesn't "give" you gout but exaerbates the tendency in those who are genetically, environmentally or physiologically predisposed to the disease. So be it with cancer; here, however, what makes a person prone to the disease is harder to identify and is probably not a single phenomenon. To go into the blame and guilt game is pointless since we cannot know what has yet to be identified as carcinogenic, as Rumsfeldt might have said. It is an unfortunate fact that many of the so-called healthy aspects of living, taken a step too far, may turn out to be damaging; there have been perfectly sound dietary studies recently to suggest that too many anti-oxidants and green products may undermine our immune systems. If that turns out to be the case, how will we know what constitutes "too much"and what effect would this have on the cancers we all carry to a greater or lesser extent? We tub thump about alcohol while failing to mention that sugar in lesser quantities can have an equally deleterious effect. And how many people know that the so-called "safe" or maxiumum unit count for alcohol grew not out of medical research but from an arbitrary measure for insurance claim purposes when the brethalyser was introduced? Much of the subsequent "medical" research took this as the base line and looked for evidence of liver damage etc in line with previous assumptions. Like so much science, it is often more teleological than objectively evidential. Of course we know alcohol damages us to suggest otherwise is stupid - so does water in excess, and I don't mean just drowning. As with all so called authoritative evidence being thrown at us, we need to read it scepticlly and with a very open mind.
Mike, you are spot-on in your attitude towards diet and remedy because you are treating the whole person. Homeopathy, herbal remedies, Tai chi etc all contain "truths" which are borne out of experience and observtion. To exagerate the benefits is dangerous but to dismiss them is to miss out on potential benefits, physical and psychological. Even the placebo effect is important since the positive attitudes a mental process reduce the extent to which invasive and damaging biochemical processes exacerbate disease. It is a chemical as much as a mental process.
What you are demonstrating - and teaching us all in your blogs - is what Socrates taught, that the unexamined life is not worth living. The way you assess the mertis of your actions now and attempt to judge what qualities will or will not benefit you in a holistic way is what we should all be doing; as I have said before, we shouln't be waiting around for a cancer scare to kick us up the pants. I like a drink and probably drink too much. If I don't quit entirely, what other adjustments can I make to my life to compensate? Are there any or am I deluding myself? A friend who is exceedingly, obsessively, athletic was told by the doctor recently that her addiction to physical exercise has become so extreme that the level of endorphins triggered by the process are now doing her physical damage on a par with heavy drinking or even opium smoking. the trouble is, she said: "I just can't quit!"
None of us can "prevent" cancer, any more than we can stop the sun rising; as you show, we can only try to act as intelligently as possible, be aware of our emotions and listen critically to all the good advice offered in the hope that the balanced choice of lifestyles we adopt minimises the likelihood that cancer or for that matter any debilitating disease will take over our lives. That is the conclusion I draw from reading your blogs which, as ever, are most thought-provoking.
And well done on that CIPR award - it was thoroughly deserved.
Rebecca Hanson - 12 Dec 2011
Co-causality
It's interesting to try to contemplate possible co-causality between the identified 'causes' of cancer and cancer or even indeed with general lack of immunity.
To do so take us rapidly into the domain of spirituality and towards authors such as David Hawkins.