Cancer an Epigenetic Disease
Cancers are overwhelmingly caused by environmental factors and hence largely preventable; the focus on therapy based on genetic mutations is misplaced Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
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“We Fought Cancer…And Cancer Won”
The headline of an article in Newsweek Magazine said it all [1]. Richard Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971. Since then, the federal government, private foundations and companies have spent at least $200 billion in the quest for cures that resulted in an estimated 1.5 million or more scientific papers. But we are on the losing side of the cancer war.
Cancer was projected to kill about 230 000 more Americans in 2008, a 69 % increase over 1971. The raw number is misleading as the population has become older and 50 % larger. Death rates have fallen, especially for breast cancer in women. Between 1975 and 2005, the death rate from all cancers dropped by 7.5 %, though this compares unfavourably with the cardiovascular death rate, which has fallen by 70 % in the same period, thanks largely to less smoking. New discoveries on cancer pathways, new drugs, new treatments, and new ways to reduce side effects and suffering and prolong lives have all been achieved, except for the cure of cancer itself.
The main reason for losing the cancer war is that basic understanding of the disease continues to elude the army of cancer researchers who can think of nothing better to do than looking for yet more genes to attack as cancers develop resistance to new drugs. The National Cancer Institute admitted that “the biology of more than 100 types of cancers has proven far more complex than imagined.” Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society was quoted saying: “one tumour is smarter than 100 brilliant cancer scientists.”
• Huffington Post: Linking Healthy Hospitals with Healthy Communities and a Healthy Planet
Last week a coalition of eleven hospital systems and partnering health groups launched a new campaign to challenge the entire health care sector to embed sustainability into the core operating model of 21st century health care. The Healthier Hospitals Initiative (www.healthierhospitals.org), which includes over 500 hospitals nationwide, plans to enroll more than 2,000 hospitals in a nationwide effort to reinvent hospitals as community anchors for health, sustainability and disease prevention.
The timing for this Initiative could not be more urgent. It is becoming impossible to support healthy people on a sick planet. We have an epidemic of cancer, obesity, diabetes and asthma in this country which is threatening to overwhelm our entire health care system. Cancer impacts one in two men and one in three women. Learning disabilities affect one in six children. More than 100 million Americans are obese. A growing body of research confirms that these diseases are linked to environmental exposures in our food, air, water and consumer products. From both an economic and public health perspective, it is no longer viable to simply focus on treatment of these and other chronic diseases, which now account for 70 percent of all health care costs. We need to prevent them from happening in the first place.
A healthy environment is not a luxury item. It is an essential human right. We not only need to defend our air, our water, our food supply, our homes and communities …
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Dr Alison Bleaney: Who is supporting this approach to ‘health’ in Australia?
