Wear Pink Then What?

For one month a year, most cancers are remembered. There are active campaigns to wear a certain color in solidarity with those affected and in some cases inform us about how we can reduce our cancer risk.

It seems as though every month we have to shift our attention to another kind of cancer to raise our awareness. This is bad and good at the same time.

Monthly Cancer Awareness Calendar

October – Breast and Liver Cancer

November – Lung and Pancreatic Cancer

January – Cervical Cancer

February – All Cancers: National Cancer Prevention Month

March - Colorectal Cancer

April – Oral, Head and Neck and Testicular Cancer

May – Bladder, Brain, Melanoma, Skin Cancer

September – Childhood, Gynecologic, Leukemia and Lymphoma, Prostate and Thyroid Cancer

But, how aware are we? When we see the pink swarms of people walking in memory of a loved one in October, we can better understand the scale of our awareness but literacy is another issue.

What is literacy?

An initial search may tell you that literacy is measured as one’s ability to read and write.

However, if we look at literacy as a measure of quality of life we must go beyond reading and writing. We live in a new information age where there is just simply so much information out there to read and interpret with our writing– there is a need for a more applicable definition.

“Literacy is the ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential.” National Center for Education Statistics”.

Instructors, educators, learning facilitators, students and all human beings who generally want to stay afloat in the information age must now focus less on “what” we learn and more on “how” we learn. Understanding the “how” of learning equips us with the ability to apply whatever information we encounter to stay afloat in an ever changing society. If we are fortunate we can even improve our quality of life and reduce our cancer risk.

If you are simply someone who communicates information in any of the careers related to science and research; marketing content development, mass media communications or education you understand that the efficiency of learning is much more important than finding out what we need to learn because there is simply so much information to plough through. Most professionals in these fields are either already limited by time or resources so there is no room to be inefficient in how we find the “what”.

So, back to cancer which is the leading cause of death worldwide (WHO,2008).

Back to cancer for which the majority of cases are as a result of tobacco use, unhealthy diet or infectious agents (WHO, 2008).

It is estimated that worldwide, 7.6 million people passed away due to cancer in 2005, this is 7 times Trinidad’s population.

It is estimated that 84 million will pass away by 2018 due to cancer. That is approximately double the population of the entire Caribbean. These numbers affect us all.

So, I Have Questions

How are we using our learning skills, awareness campaigns and valid information to reduce our risk to cancer?

The answer to this question is still unknown but there are researchers who continue to explore the “how” of learning and cancer awareness.

Studies have identified social media use during cancer awareness months as only a one-way communication tool when two- way communication is necessary to evaluate our awareness and literacy.

My main question is whether all of this information, awareness campaigning and education leads to efficient literacy towards the largest health problem our world faces. Accordingly the International Agency For Research on Cancer agrees that this problem is largely due to lifestyle and environmental risk factors, this health problem is therefore an environmental issue.

To answer this question it would be useful to evaluate the resulting effects of awareness campaigns in the first stage of cancer control - prevention. We already understand that there is a clear causal link between awareness campaigns and taking actions on the final 3 stages of cancer control - early detection, treatment and palliative care based on which organizations (e.g breast screening organizations) continue to sponsor awareness campaigns.

We can also see the causal link between increased awareness and more sensitive palliative care choices. Establishing the causal link between increased awareness and cancer prevention not as direct but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist for evaluation.

Of course there are still unknowns in terms of : -

• Why some of us get certain kinds of cancer and not others

• Why some of us have family histories and others don’t.

• Why some of us make certain life choices and never have cancer while others do.

Then, there is the factor of stress - how our minds and immune systems cope which has also been explored in relation to cancer. The Truth About Cancer website has been sharing information related to this stress factor based on their exploration and the experiences of many.

Perhaps we can not measure our reduced risk in correlation to our literacy directly yet.

But, what if we could reduce our risk in the meantime?

This risk reduction was the intention of the International Cancer Research Agency established by the World Health Organization. It is notable that although there are four stages of cancer control – their research emphasis is on prevention.

In their words – “This emphasis reflects the understanding that most cancers are, directly or indirectly, linked to environmental factors and thus are preventable.”

Where is the evidence?

There is extensive scientific evidence that using certain products can increase our risk to cancer whether products are labeled as carcinogens are contain chemicals which have been linked to cancer.

There is extensive scientific evidence which demonstrates that the strength of our immune system affects our ability to survive cancer and most health issues.

Specifically, the FDA just approved Keytruda an immunotherapy drug which could be the first line of treatment rather than radiation or chemotherapy. This drug would stimulate the immune system and this is already being seen as a major cancer breakthrough.

There is extensive information that the chemical burden we place on the environment with our consumer choices can also increase the cancer risk for those who live around disposal, industrial and manufacturing sites.

There is extensive market evidence in the form of sustainable, organic, non-hazardous, healthy and green products that the idea of reducing our cancer risk has been translated into the creation of products which are (insert a long list of chemicals here_______) - free.

This market means that there is enough evidence to convince companies to invest their funds and time into the possibility of reducing cancer risk. The fact that these products are the leading products creating economic growth and work opportunities is further evidence that cancer risk reduction is worth our attention.

With this evidence we have two choices to make – we can wait for cancer to affect us personally or we can act as though cancer risk surrounds us and do our best to reduce this risk.

Vote Everyday

As the U.S. gets ready to vote in a new president and we consider the power of choice, we should all consider the votes we make every day with what we buy.

There is an ocean of information available about why we should make our consumer choices - sustainable, non-hazardous, healthy and resilient.

We are swimming in this ocean to condense this information in culturally-relevant way and communicate it as far and wide as is possible through our Better Caribbean public engagement.

We are also diving into this information to find products which are accurately marketing themselves.

We read a lot of labels and ask lots of questions of any of the businesses in our ecosystem or really any products/technology we come across and we implore you to do the same.

After all, after these companies convince you to spend your money, will they be by your side for

......your doctor’s visits?

….when you get bad health news?

…when you feel what you feel if cancer affects a loved one?

I’ve been there and these companies weren't by my side I can assure you.

Singular Choices

So again I ask - what will you do with any information we are with you? What will you do with the information you find on your own about which products reduce both your risk to cancer and your contribution to environmental cancer risk factors?

Cancer is a worldwide burden. Cancer survivors and families can not battle this alone. This is not just about those affected by cancer because all of us make choices daily which can increase or decrease the cancer risk of others.

If we keep buying products which increase our cancer risk, because of the economy of scale, products which are better for us will remain costly and out of the reach of many.

This is all about collective responsibility expressed by singular consumer choices.

What choices will you make?

Everyone counts.

Cancer sucks.

Make a change for the better.

- Ariana Marshall, Ph.D.

Grand-daughter, Daughter, Niece, Auntie, Friend.

Dedicated to Sandra Sweetnam, Victor Marshall, Louise and all of my friends who have battled with or lost their family members to cancer.

Content from this blog was published on the Sports and Fitness Network blog under the article - Teaching the Difference Between Cancer Awareness and Cancer Literacy