Living Well: Reduce cancer through awareness

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

By Teresa Griswold

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The war on cancer begins with one conscious action: becoming aware of your environment. Simply looking under your kitchen sink is a start.

Devra Davis, Ph.D., author of The Secret History of the War on Cancer and founder of The Devra Lee Davis Charitable Foundation, gives a powerful talk while translating scientific findings into practical actions people can take to reduce the risk of cancer. She began studying the effects of the environment on cancer after witnessing a cause and effect link between toxicity in the environment and devastating cancer. Now, Davis educates others about prevention with her charitable foundation which supports research as well as provides public health discussions and forums.

“There are environmental causes of cancer that we can do something about,” she said. The environment is what we eat, whether or not we smoke, and the chemicals we come in contact with in the world around us. By knowing what the risks are, we can make healthier choices, not just for ourselves but for our communities.
Davis says there are things we can do everyday to prevent cancer. For example, becoming aware that anything you put on your skin gets into your body.
“The skin is the largest organ and what you put on it gets into your body,” said Davis. Known and unregulated carcinogens in our personal care and cleaning products can permeate our bodies. It’s important that people know that many of the products we use every day are unsafe.           

As Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh, Davis is an advocate in facilitating environmental awareness on a global level, but her charitable foundation is focused on informing Wyoming citizens. Next week, Davis will present the first of six foundation-sponsored environmental lectures clustered in western Wyoming around Sublette, Teton, and Sweetwater counties. Davis will join with Deborah Axelrod, M.D., award-winning Chief of Breast Services at NYU Medical Center and author of Bosom Buddies, to present an “Environmental Forum: Breast Cancer and the Environment”.

Research suggests that most cases of breast cancer come about because of environmental risks rather than heredity reasons alone. Essentially, genes give us the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger, according to Davis. “There are occupational risks for breast cancer as well as obvious ones,” said Davis. “When girls start smoking as teenagers, their risk of breast cancer increases.”

And it is a more dangerous habit when a teenager starts to smoke compared with an adult who acquires the habit, because the brain is still developing in a teen, and the habit gets ingrained, hard-wired. Therefore preventing teens from starting to smoke through initiatives like establishing smoke-free communities is crucial, says Davis.

She also emphasizes awareness of nutrition. She says common nutritional elements found in yogurt and broccoli can reverse cancer.

There will be additional information provided at next week’s forum. The public lecture begins at 7 p.m., Feb. 18, at the Center for the Arts, preceded by a reception and silent auction at 6 p.m. and followed by a Town Hall Forum to discuss priorities for environment and health in Teton County. For more information visit www.environmentaloncology.org .PJH
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Living Well: Reduce cancer through awareness | Planet JH News Article: Living Well

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