13 December 2011
Were any of us really surprised by the findings of research which found that nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year are caused by life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things?
Probably not, goodness knows there’s no shortage of information telling us exactly that. However I believe that despite the avalanche of warnings out there many of us still fall into the belief system that says “what will be will be” and that diseases such as cancer are “in the genes”. In other words, many people believe that if they’re going to get it, they’ll get it, no matter what their lifestyle choice.
There can’t be many of us who aren’t aware that smoking, eating too much of the wrong types of food and consuming too much alcohol is bad for us, and yet a huge swathe of the population carries on, seemingly oblivious to the advice around them and the evidence in front of their eyes.
I believe this comes down to a matter of responsibility – to ourselves, our families and to the nation itself. Cancer is one thing, we haven’t really mentioned that other spiralling problem – obesity.
Spire Healthcare, which owns Spire Bristol Hospital, recently acquired a business, called LifeScan Ltd, a leading provider of CT health checks for the biggest killer diseases, looking for signs of heart disease, lung cancer, colon cancer, aneurism, osteoporosis and other conditions, including skin cancer.
I suppose this isn’t hugely helpful just before Christmas, when most of us traditionally eat and drink far too much (and sit on the sofa watching too much telly!) but on the positive side New Year’s Eve could provide the perfect opportunity for us all to make a resolution to improve our health and, in doing so, vastly reduce our chances of developing life-changing, or worse still life-threatening, diseases.