Our verdict: a hat is a wiser choice
Today, a new study has led to headlines claiming that adding caffeine to sunscreen could improve its effectiveness in preventing skin cancer.
But don’t chuck away the sunscreen just yet, nor pour your coffee into it – this was an interesting study in mice, but it doesn’t prove that adding caffeine to sunscreen would have any effect on skin cancer.
Let’s look at what the researchers did, and what they found.
Our researchers have found that height can affect cancer risk
Today, Cancer Research UK scientists have published research showing that taller people seem to be have a higher risk of cancer.
This may seem alarming, but tall people needn’t be too worried about these results.
The results only point to a small increase in risk, and most people aren’t so much taller than average that their height would have a strong effect on their chances of developing cancer.
Let’s have a look at what the researchers found.
New year’s resolutions: easy to make, hard to keep. Yours might even have fallen by the wayside already, or a few slips weakened your resolve.
But don’t give up – making healthy changes to your lifestyle is really worth it. Last year we wrote about the changes that can really cut the risk of developing cancer. And the messages we included back then are just as relevant today – keep a healthy weight, keep active and, if you smoke, try to quit.
If it all seems a bit much, our brand-new interactive lifestyle assessment can help you to take the first step. By answering a few short questions about your lifestyle, you’ll get a tailored report telling you where you’re doing well, as well as suggestions for changes you might benefit from. You’ll also get plenty of information and tips to help you make those changes.
Click on the image to launch the widget
Starting to live more healthily can be hard, but it makes a big difference. Up to half of all cancers could be prevented by changes to lifestyle, so healthy living can have a huge impact on the chance of developing cancer in the first place. But that’s not the only benefit – many healthy habits, like getting more active or giving up smoking, can also make you feel better in the short term.
And remember, it helps to get support when you’re planning a change. Family, friends, colleagues and your doctor, pharmacist or practice nurse can all be there to help and support you to make healthy choices.
So after all that festive excess, now is a good time to start afresh. So take our lifestyle assessment to find out how you’re doing and get ideas for a change, so you can make 2011 the year you gain a healthy habit or two.
And if you’re thinking of upping your exercise levels, Race for Life 2011 has just launched – visit the website and sign up today!
Jess
Find out more:
Check out our January podcast to hear our health expert Ed Yong discussing some of the big issues around lifestyle and cancer.
The link between diet and cancer is in the news again
Today, a story appeared in the press claiming that following a “strict diet” for two days a week could “cut breast cancer risk by 40%”.
We think this headline is misleading. In fact, when you actually look at the research the story is based on there simply isn’t the evidence for such a statement.
The research itself was published in the Journal of Obesity, and it wasn’t even about breast cancer – instead it focused on weight loss.
But a press release accompanying the research did choose to make an intriguing leap of logic and heavily link a decent piece of research about diet to breast cancer (during breast cancer awareness month. Strange that.)
Let’s have a look at the study – and the press release – in more detail.
Today's headlines about cleaning products and cancer are misleading
Looking at the newspapers this morning, you might end up wanting to rush home and clear out all your cupboards of the products you use to clean your home.
The headlines have ranged from “Household cleaners may double risk of breast cancer”, all the way through to “Could being too houseproud raise the risk of breast cancer?”
But don’t throw them all out just yet. The study these headlines were based on simply doesn’t prove a link between these products and breast cancer. It does, however, tell us something interesting about people’s beliefs about cancer and how it affects their memories.
Sunbeds increase the risk of skin cancer
Sunbeds increase the risk of skin cancer – the evidence has been overwhelming for some time, and that’s why we supported the new law to protect children from them. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, part of the World Health Organisation), who provide gold-standard judgments on the state of the evidence about all sorts of things that could cause cancer, recently upgraded sunbeds to the highest risk category, to say that there’s ‘sufficient’ evidence they increase cancer risk.
Now, a new paper – one of the strongest so far – adds to this evidence and directly addresses some of the weaknesses of previous studies.
Everyone knows that quitting smoking makes a huge difference to a person’s chance of developing lung cancer. But what about people who already have lung cancer? Does quitting make a difference if you’ve already developed the disease?
A team of researchers from Birmingham University, led by Dr Paul Aveyard, has reviewed all the current evidence, and concluded that the chances of surviving early-stage lung cancer are greater for people who stop smoking after they’re diagnosed than for people who carry on.
Aveyard’s team searched through many years’ worth of research and found 10 studies involving people who had either continued to smoke or given up after they’d been diagnosed. The studies measured a whole range of outcomes, such as how many people died during the study (of any cause), whether people developed different cancers as well as lung cancer, or whether their lung cancer came back after treatment.
