HOW TO PREVENT CANCERS

News came out this week that Lance Armstrong will team up with a new partner - the California Cancer Research Act. The Act proposes increasing the state's tobacco tax by $1 and funneling that money toward cancer research. California is facing a budget crisis and may be cutting huge (billions) sums of money from health care funds. California was one of the states at the front edge of reducing tobacco use through community-wide campaigns and tax measures. We don't know how it will play out, but the proposal has the potential to improve health in the state in two different ways. First, tobacco taxes reduce consumption. Second, by putting the revenue gained toward cancer research, the monies go toward prevention and treatment of smoking's leading health outcomes.

Research has shown time and again that increasing taxes reduces consumption of tobacco, particularly among those in younger age groups. In fact, the World Health Organization has called taxation the single most effective method for reducing the demand for tobacco products. After previously increasing taxes and funneling money toward cessation programs, California saw a 16 percent per capita decline in cigarette consumption. In part, this is because youth are highly sensitive to price changes and the higher cost deters many from taking up smoking. Basically, they have trouble coming with the extra cash.

Proponents of the legislation have offered another benefit of the tax - jobs creation. With state universities facing major budget shortfalls, the revenue being directed toward research could create jobs.

Exactly where the money would wind up is always a little unclear, however.  Despite the best of intentions, politicians have ways of directing tobacco money away from intended programs, as we learned when the tobacco companies settled with the states in 1998.  From a health standpoint, though, the money raised from the tax would almost be secondary; the real payoff would be the drop in smoking rates.  And if the lure of extra state revenue gets the new tax on the books, so much the better for everyone. 

There is a great scene in the movie There's Something About Mary where the crazy hitchhiker is talking to Ted about his genius new idea - 7-Minute Abs.

"Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man? "

I often think about this when talking to people about our 8 Ways to Stay Healthy and Prevent Cancer.  I often hear: "Why not 9 ways to prevent cancer?" "Why not 10 ways?"  Wouldn't that be even better?!? The 8 ways can sound so "simple" or "obvious" or "common sense" that it is easy to forget that there is an incredible depth of quality research behind them.

Yes, there are more than 8 things you can do to prevent cancer. But, the 8 ways were selected based on a scientific review of over 30 years of cancer prevention research to identify the biggest contributors to cancer risk and the ones with a strong body of convincing science behind them.

I recently saw an advertisement on a professional networking group I belong to for a seminar on cancer prevention. I was excited - how great that this group is bringing in an expert to talk about health and wellness - something we tend to forget to prioritize in the hustle and bustle of work, family and life. Imagine my disappointment upon clicking over and seeing that the seminar leader had no expertise in this area - no formal education, no experience conducting or reviewing research. This so-called "expert" merely had a laundry list a mile long of factors that prevent cancer - in her opinion. Many of those things have very little (or no) good science behind them. In fact, she listed things that have been shown to be not true.

Here's where I think the harm in this kind of post comes - we are all busy and most of us don't have time to do everything right every day. So we make choices about what to prioritize. If we mislead people about what can and what cannot prevent cancer, we send them down a path of prioritizing something with little or no impact instead of encouraging them to focus on the things where they are most likely to get a return on their investment (be it time or money or both).

That is what our 8 ways are about - identifying the factors that are going to reduce risk of several cancers, where there is a lot of quality science. The other important difference between the 8 ways and the "health tip" laundry lists you might see, is that our 8 ways are based on our evidence-based validated risk assessment tool Your Disease Risk. Again, we're using science to build science.

So while the 8 ways might seem like "simple health tips" they are really evidence-based medicine for prevention.

On the Internet, it's reader beware.  So it pays to take some time to learn how to assess what you're actually reading.  Surely, there are reputable organizations that have slightly different takes on the science than we do, but knowing who these groups are and what their background is helps determine what credence to give them.

For some tips on finding good health information online, see this piece we put together with the Komen Foundation: Using the Internet to Find Health Information.