No Cancer deaths by 2050?

Back in 1971 President Nixon declared war on cancer, predicting victory by 1976. In 1984 the American National Cancer Institute said mortality would be halved by 2003 and eliminated by 2015. Despite the billions of pounds spent on cancer research, raised by well meaning people running millions of collective miles to honour their prematurely dead relatives, things aren’t getting better. They are getting worse.

Back in the 70’s the lifetime risk of cancer was 1 in 5, despite everyone smoking. Now it’s 1 in 3, and expected to hit 1 in 2 by 2030. Since 1970 the five year survival rate has barely changed from then 49% to now 54% surviving. In the US, more than a million are diagnosed each year and a half a million die from it. Having crossed the 50% surviving five years line allowed cancer charities to declare ‘more people are living than dying from cancer’ but that’s a pretty lame claim, especially when more are getting it. Also, earlier diagnosis means more survive 5 years. If you take a look at 10 year survival rate it doesn’t look good.

The single biggest cancer success has been the fall off in lung cancer from people not smoking. While smoking accounts for 30% of a woman’s risk for cancer, being obese accounts for 20%. One Italian study estimated that 15 per cent of breast cancer could be attributed to eating sweet foods. If we want a cancer ‘success’ we need to target diet changes – no sugar, less dairy and low GL for less weight. That’s because fatThere are many different types of fats; polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, hydrogenated, saturated and trans fat. The body requires good fats (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated) in order to… cells make oestrogenOestrogen is one of the main female sex hormones…. which promotes breast and prostate cancer cell growth. So too does insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), stimulated by dairy products, and insulinInsulin is a hormone made by the pancreas. It is responsible for making the body’s cells absorb glucose (sugar) from the blood…., stimulated by sugar.

The higher a person’s vitamin CWhat it does: Strengthens immune system – fights infections. Makes collagen, keeping bones, skin and joints firm and strong. Antioxidant, detoxifying pollutants and protecting against… intake the lower is their cancer risk. The same applies to fruit and veg. What we need is a new diet. If you want to find out how to not get cancer in the first place, read my book Say No to Cancer.