Well, we are, aren’t we? Sooner or later. It’s all our own fault, you know, and it can be avoided.
Nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year – over 130,000 in total – are caused by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things, a review reveals.
Tobacco is the biggest culprit, causing 23% of cases in men and 15.6% in women, says the Cancer Research UK report.
Next comes a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in men’s diets, while for women it is being overweight.
See? Total abstinence, plenty of fresh fruit and veg and you will live forever. Well, maybe not, it will just feel that way.
Thing is, this is likely to be another piece of junk science with fiddled figures and scare statistics. Given the way that accidents are measured for being drink related for example, I don’t trust any of these reports, research or statistics – because, you see, these people will happily lie if it suits their purpose. So even if they are telling the truth this time, I tend to treat the whole thing with contempt – not least because it is banging the same old temperance drum. The other reason I tend to be sceptical is because the 2010 figures according to the journal are estimates. They also use BMI as a measure of obesity and the optimum levels of exposure to alcohol and tobacco are both – you guessed it – nil.
Still, that isn’t the end of the story. Because we have been naughty little children who won’t listen to our betters and do as we are told, they want the carrot to be replaced by the stick:
The president of the Royal College of Physicians, Sir Richard Thompson, said the findings were a wake-up call to the government to take stronger action on public health.
“The rising incidence of preventable cancers shows that the ‘carrot’ approach of voluntary agreements with industry is not enough to prompt healthy behaviours, and needs to be replaced by the ‘stick’ approach of legislative solutions,” he said.
I can think of a use for a big stick – preferably on doctors who think that it is their place to make decisions on our personal lifestyle choices. Still, hmg is gearing up for action. It is to consult on plain fag packets. Yeah, that’ll work. It might just kick start the market in cigarette cases.
The use of statistics to justify ‘legislative solutions’ always sets alarm bells ringing; is this, I wonder, a case of the deep-fried chicken coming before the high-cholesterol egg?
Most worrying of all, though, is the woman in the BBC clip making a public confession of how her unhealthy lifestyle ’caused’ her cancer – it’s positively Orwellian.
The most efficient way to reduce all cancers is to die young!
The correlation in Figure 3 at http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/prod_consump/groups/cr_common/@nre/@sta/documents/generalcontent/cr_072111.pdf says it all.
If you last beyond 50 you’re in trouble but heaven forbid you get past 70 – you’re in real trouble.
I concur —We’re all gonna die.
>The president of the Royal College of Physicians, Sir Richard Thompson, said the findings were a wake-up call to the government to take stronger action on public health.
They told us to stop smoking to prevent heart attacks and millions did.
They told us to live healthier lifestyles and millions did.
They told us that all their research would lead to more time soiling oneself and drooling at a grand old age, and it’s true.
And yet – SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!
Got my case already. Stylish little thing from Bond Street. Always one step ahead, eh? 😉
“Nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year – over 130,000 in total – are caused by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things, a review reveals.”
Soooooo, more than half of all cancers are NOT ’caused’ by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things, a review reveals.
The poor asses that do not smoke.drink, and eat the right things are properly screwed!!!! LMAO
I’ll take my chances and enjoy my life as I see fit.
I am stunned that any reputable so called scientific journal would publish such utter crap. There is nothing new in it and it was produced for purely political motives. Its contribution to science and medicine is zero. Richard Thompson is a preventable hazard to public wellbeing along with The Royal College of Physicians, which is a glorified pressure group that we would all be better off without. The government would be best advised to listen to almost any industry in preference to the hugely bloated arrogant monopoly that is public health.
Sir Richard Thompson? Ex Fairport Convention?
@ Gary K
Doesn’t that mean that these unwise lifestyle choices are not actually influencing your chances of getting cancer at all? Or have I missed something? I know that statistics can be a minefield for the unwary and I might be about to be blown apart by a dodgy inferrence but, as you say, if half the cases are attributable, in some degree, to bad lifestyle choices and half are not it would appear, on balance that these choices make no difference. I am trying to spot the obvious flaw in this argument. Is it because the drinking/smoking/bad diet element comes in addition to your chances of getting it anyway?