The American Institute for Cancer Research says we have the seventh highest cancer rate in the world. Once again, this is ripe for the picking by the media. I found this headline on a MSN website. I immediately became skeptical. It is not that I believe we are the healthiest country by any means. I just always look at these types of headlines with a jaundiced eye. When I went to the American Institute of Cancer Research website I found all that info I needed:
One reason is that high-income countries are better at diagnosing and recording new cases of cancer.
Ya' think? They then go on to mention how lifestyle (obesity, diet, smoking and lack of physical exercise) could be contributing factors. Don't get me wrong. These are the causes. The problem I have with the whole article is that the headline tends to give the pessimists and complainers ammunition to blame our health care system or our government or our country for this rise in cancer. The opposite is actually true. As the AICR website states, we are better and better at picking up all cancers. Do you think any other country has the amount of CT scans and PET scans that we have? Please. This study is flawed right from the get go. But it does put the blame where it should be which is us as individuals. I guess that is probably worth all the misinformation.
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