Category Archives: Physical activity

The science of healthy habits

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Understanding healthy and unhealthy behaviours through research is crucial

Understanding healthy and unhealthy behaviours through research is crucial

We all know the old ‘maxim prevention is better than cure’, and this is certainly true of cancer. More than 300,000 of us develop the disease in the UK each year. Each diagnosis is devastating for the person and their loved ones.

Huge progress is being made in treating cancer, but it would clearly be better if we could prevent people developing the disease in the first place.

There are many things that affect our cancer risk that we can’t control – including our age and genes. But there are several things that we can do to reduce the risk.

Smoking, being overweight or obese, eating an unhealthy diet, and drinking too much alcohol are all preventable causes of cancer, and more than four in ten cases could be prevented by changes to lifestyle.

So it’s easy then is it – all we need to do is lead a healthy lifestyle to cut our cancer risk?

That’s easier said than done. Ever found yourself making a conscious effort to stop eating from the bowl of crisps on the table only to find yourself reaching out for them without realising it? Made plans to go for a jog but never quite got around to it because something urgently needed tidying?

We’ve all been there.

That’s why we fund groups like the Health Behaviour Research Centre at University College London, run by Professor Jane Wardle.

The Centre carries out research on lifestyle behaviour, to find ways to help people achieve their healthy ambitions. The work isn’t about coming up with flash-in-the-pan health fads, but developing evidence-based ways to help people adopt a long-term healthier lifestyle, and improving how information about health is communicated.

The centre focuses on three broad areas: food choice and weight (the ‘Energy Balance Research Group’); cancer communication and screening; and the tobacco control group.

Some of their recent work includes:

In this post we’ll look at some of the HBRC’s current projects, including whether weight loss can help cut cancer risk, what advice cancer survivors want about their lifestyle, and how people make decisions about whether to go for cancer screening. Continue reading →

No, TV is not “giving kids cancer”

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Child watching TV

Watching TV or playing computer games will not “give kids cancer”. Image from Wikimedia Commons

“TV & COMPUTER CRAZE IS GIVING KIDS CANCER” – The front page of today’s Daily Mirror might give you terrifying visions of cancerous death rays shooting from the screen.

Rest assured this is not happening. But today’s papers paint a muddled picture about something that is a genuine cause for concern – that living a sedentary lifestyle can increase a person’s cancer risk.

First off, let’s establish what this story wasn’t about. Despite the headlines this story is nothing to do with TV or computer screens themselves. It’s about how “experts” are warning  that spending too long sitting down (as opposed to specifically watching TV or playing games) could increase a child’s risk of cancer later in their life, as it can lead to obesity and inactivity.

Continue reading →

Some inspiration for those healthy resolutions

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As we clean up after New Year's eve, our thoughts often turn to healthy resolutions
As we clean up after New Year’s Eve, our thoughts often turn to healthy resolutions

The living room floor has started to accumulate worrying numbers of pine needles; the last of the turkey trimmings have long gone; and the recycling bin is filled with more wine and beer bottles than usual. Christmas is over, and the New Year is upon us.

No doubt many of us over-indulged with one too many mince pies, mulled wines or servings of stilton. And other than eating and drinking, the main activity over the festive period was likely to have been playing couch potato around the Christmas tree.

But a new year means a new you, right? For many people, January is traditionally when they think about getting healthier. And we have our own important tradition on the Science Update Blog – each year we try to think of ways to help you reach your healthy living goals.

The stakes are high – more than four in ten cancers could be prevented by lifestyle changes such as not smoking, keeping a healthy body weight and cutting back on alcohol.

Making healthier living choices isn’t about going on a post-Christmas crash diet though – it’s about making sustainable changes for the long run. Last year, we launched our lifestyle assessment widget, which gives personalised advice on how to live healthier.

This year we’ve spoken to people who’ve managed to make positive, healthy lifestyle choices. If you’re thinking of changing your lifestyle for the better, then watching these videos of like-minded people could be just the motivation you need.

  • Meet Jeff, a lorry driver from Portsmouth who lost 5 and a half stone by being creative about eating healthily and keeping active while out on the road:

 

  • Meet Maria, who cut down on alcohol and gained a new-found confidence:

 

  • Meet Mark, who used to wake up coughing and spluttering, but has found a new lease of life since giving up smoking:

 

  • Meet Emilie, who smoked since she was at school, but finally managed to kick the habit 18 months ago:

Is being inactive really ‘as bad as smoking’?

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Inactivity

Just how bad is a sedentary lifestyle?

In July, top medical journal The Lancet published a series of articles looking the worldwide health problems caused by people being inactive, in the hope of galvanising action.

The articles contained a bold, eye-catching claim that the worldwide impact was “comparable to the impact of smoking” – some 5 million deaths worldwide.

This was widely reported in the media, with the tabloids taking a characteristically bombastic tone (“You lazy lot!” cried the Daily Express), and other news outlets toeing a similar line.

There’s no doubt that a wide range of what researchers call ‘non-communicable’ diseases – heart disease, type-2 diabetes and, of concern to us at Cancer Research UK, certain types of cancer – become more common the less active a life people lead; nor is it a surprise that many of us lead less-than-perfect lives when it comes to getting enough exercise.

But is comparing inactivity to smoking valid, based on the available evidence? We spoke to Professor Max Parkin, a Cancer Research UK-funded statistician from the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine in London, to get his take on the story.

Professor Parkin was the man behind our landmark study on preventable causes of cancer last year, and an expert in this field.

He felt that, without wanting to detract from urgent need for government action on inactivity, the comparison was an ‘exaggeration’, which could potentially confuse people about the relative importance of different risks to their health.

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News digest – abiraterone, childhood brain tumours, exercise and more

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It's time for our weekly news digest

It was a yet another big week for cancer-related news, and not all of it good. To save you from the task of rummaging through the papers, we’ve summarised all the important stories of the week.

If you want to know more about any of the stories, click on the links for further information.

  • The biggest story of the week was a disappointing one – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) provisionally decided not to recommend abiraterone for advanced prostate cancer, an announcement we found hugely frustrating. The decision is now open for consultation, with a final ruling expected in May. Patients and doctors value the extra months of life abiraterone can give if prostate cancer has come back after chemotherapy. You can read our official response to this preliminary decision, and our discussion on the blog about why we want to see a solution to the impasse between NICE and the manufacturer.

Continue reading →

UN meeting on non-communicable diseases was only a partial success

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The meeting was a huge opportunity

‘A limited success’ is how we’d best describe September’s United Nations high-level meeting in New York, which gathered to discuss non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

This was only the second ever meeting of its kind, bringing together heads of state and health leaders from around the world. The first meeting was back in 2001, and focused on HIV/ AIDS. With NCDs set to cause up to two-thirds of all worldwide deaths over the next 25 years, it was agreed that they too need global action. Back in August we discussed exactly why this summit was too important an opportunity to miss.

But now, in the aftermath, we think the meeting could have gone much further, and we have some real issues of concern.
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Fighting ‘active fat’

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Following on from Yinka’s post on the growing issues of obesity in the UK, this week we’re launching our Active Fat  campaign for the second year running.  We’ve joined forces with British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK to work together on this campaign, and this year we’re trying to encourage men over 40 to measure their waist.

Last year we got the message out about what ‘active fat’ is and let people know about the dangers of a ‘spare tyre’. And because that was successful, we’re coming together once more to get men to take action.

Continue reading →