Living Well February 13, 2008

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

By Teresa Griswold

Environment and cancer author speaks Tuesday
Promoting a healthier environment is a powerful weapon in the fight against cancer, according to Dr. Devra Davis, an environmental health expert.
Davis is the Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh and her newest book “The Secret History of the War on Cancer” exposes the truth behind the losing battle. Many of the things known to cause cancer like tobacco, the workplace, radiation, or the global environment have been ignored for special interest’s gain and profit.

Filled with credible research about how we began fighting the wrong enemies in the war on cancer, her book packs a punch. On Tuesday, Davis will present her book at 6 p.m. at the Teton County Library as part the Teton Wellness Institute’s Speaker Series.
The following interview is a call to action.

Planet Jackson Hole: What are some things one can do to reduce the risk of cancer?

Dr. Devra Davis: First of all, you have to look under your sink, and you need to understand the skin is the body’s largest organ, and most people are not aware that if you put something onto your skin it goes into your body … and we need to understand that right now in the United States the FDA does not have the authority to monitor carcinogens in our personal care products, and the Consumer Products Safety Commission does not have the authority to monitor carcinogens in our cleaning products. People think that when they go to the drugstore or hardware store to purchase a product that it has been tested to be safe, but in fact it has not.

PJH: I read that 95 percent of all cancers are caused by the environment. What does this mean?

DD: The 95 percent number has come from earlier studies of the World Health Organization, but let’s talk about what that means. Let’s take breast cancer as an example. In about one in 10 or about one in 20 cases … breast cancer come[s] about because you’ve inherited defects from your parents. That means that 19 out of 20 cases of breast cancer come about because of something that happens to you after you are born. We say that in a sense, genes give us the gun but the environment pulls the trigger - and the environment refers to what we eat, whether we smoke, and the chemicals in the world around us.

PJH: If we have this healthy awareness about our environment, how do we live joyfully and happily and healthfully without becoming overly fearful of everything?

DD: You have to realize that we were created with repair capacity and that every day, every one of us is exposed to things that cause cancer, and we are perfectly fine. We were created with the capacity to fix damage to our DNA; and that our DNA is exquisitely powerful and sensitive and has the ability to repair damage. If you understand that then instead of being fearful, you understand that we have the capacity to fix things.

PJH: Let’s say you’ve already been diagnosed with cancer. What do you recommend people do to maintain their quality of life and to bolster the healing capacity of the body?

DD: There [are] tremendous resources in the Jackson Hole community now - people who are working in acupuncture and Chinese Medicine to provide nutritional support to help people get through chemotherapy. … We now understand that some of the things we use to treat cancer like chemotherapy and radiation cause it to occur later on. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat cancer. It means we need to find better ways to boost the immune system.

PJH: Are there things that we, as citizens, can do to help win the war on cancer?

DD: People have to vote at the national level, and they have to get involved in local community efforts. … The decision to take the bus has to be recognized as a public health decision, and the decision to switch your light bulbs like Lower Valley Energy is offering is a public health decision, and it affects not only our health locally and regionally, it affects the polar bears, it affects the planet.
Visit www.preventingcancernow.org to learn more.

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Living Well February 13, 2008 | Planet JH News Article: Living Well

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