President’s Cancer Panel comes around to WellBeing way of thinking

In a piece headed New Alarm Bells About Chemicals and Cancer, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof does the hard work for us and wades through the 200-page report released by the President’s Cancer Panel on May 5. Their main findings? That the amount of chemicals present in our lifestyle may be detrimental to our health.

WellBeing is one of many, many voices that have been saying precisely the same thing for more than a decade, quoting various studies and research findings to support our beliefs. So it’s not exactly new news, but it is wonderful news – to have such a well-supported and well-known research body reinforce our statements.

It also presents us with a great amount of hope; if the President’s Cancer Panel are advising us to reduce the number of chemicals in our homes (here’s how you can do that), eat organically (here’s why), protect our unborn babies from chemicals while in utero (this is a must-read for expectant mums & dads) and microwave our food in glass or ceramic (we’d also suggest eliminating BPA in other areas), then we as consumers will be presented with more, easier ways to make these changes.

The greater the number of people who become educated about, and convinced of, the risks of chemicals in our lifestyle, the louder will be the call for alternatives. The market place will respond and soon enough, living a healthier lifestyle will be so much easier for all of us. More importantly, it is likely we will see a reduction in the percentage of men, women and children diagnosed with cancer every year. That's something worth hoping and striving for.

Some salient quotes to leave you with:
“Noting that 300 contaminants have been detected in umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, the study warns that: “to a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted.’ ”

“Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have been tested for safety,” the report says. It adds: “Many known or suspected carcinogens are completely unregulated.”

“Some 41 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.” In Australia an estimated 114,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in 2010. Click here for more facts and figures.

You may also want to read:
Does technology cause cancer
Seven steps to reduce your cancer risk


You can read the full report here.

Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn

Elizabeth Blackburn has become Australia's first female recipient of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, along with her fellow researchers Carol W Greider and Jack W Szostak. The trio won the prestigious scientific prize, awarded in Stockhom earlier today, for their discovery of telomeres. Likened to plastic tips that keep the end of shoelaces from unravelling, telomeres are said to be responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of chromosomes, even when they divide, so that no genetic information slips into the void during cell division.

This newfound knowledge has also opened up new avenues to explore with regards to cancer and how it spreads throughout the body. Research has suggested that cancer uses the telomeres to promote and sustain its growth. It is thought that blocking telomeres may help to halt the spread of the disesase.

“The discoveries by Blackburn, Greider and Szostak have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies,” the prize committee said in its citation.

Exciting news not just for medicine but for the Australian medical community too. For more information on Ms Blackburn, check out the lovely profile written by Time in 2007.

Image courtesy www.sfgate.com