Facebook is bad for your health
Cancer guru warns on dangers of the online ‘cures’ that won’t work
PEOPLE turning to fad foods such as kale as a cure for cancer will be bitterly disappointed, a leading Irish cancer expert has warned.
Dr Robert O’Connor, head of research with the Irish Cancer Society, said the recent growth in online claims that certain vegetables work as miracle cures are false and treatment is much more complex than that.
He warned against making ‘major life decisions based on the hearsay that goes around on social media,
‘Don’t make decisions on social-media hearsay’
particularly on Facebook’.
‘We are still adapting to this modern age of communications where anyone can say anything. I can send a tweet today and if it’s interesting it could be seen by millions of people around the world,’ Dr O’Connor said.
‘They could be changed or impacted by it but that is not dependant on whether it is accurate or not. It is a worrying time. Unless patients are experts, having gone to university courses, then really they need to rely on health experts with proven qualifications.’
One popular online claim is that eating kale can cure or prevent cancer. But Dr O’Connor said while eating healthily has a large role to play in preventing cancer and living well after diagnosis, this is not the same as a cure.
He said: ‘If you decide to restrict your diet to kale, giving up normal life, then you are doing to be very disappointed if you end up getting bowel cancer in your 60s.
‘Our bodies are the most expensive item we will ever have in our possession, they are like a Lamborghini. If you owned such a car, you wouldn’t risk it with some guy off the street, yet regularly people make major life decisions based on hearsay that goes around on social media, particularly on Facebook.’
He was also critical of ‘false claims’ against the HPV vaccine. This vaccine is administered to teenagers – boys and girls – to prevent the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which is passed on through sex. Uptake in Ireland has almost halved since a group of families claimed publicly their daughters were adversely affected by the vaccine. Dr O’Connor said: ‘People are dissuaded from taking simple measures because of the hearsay that is spread on social media. ‘The HPV vaccine is a safe way to avoid an extremely common infection, and yet the hearsay and false claims of links with diseases which are horrible but unfortunately common will cause people to die. This is a fact.
‘We know the rates of HPV infection, the rates of cancers which are caused by HPV. We know the vaccine works, we know it is safe.
‘It has been evaluated for well over a decade so we have over 80 million people to experience this
‘You wouldn’t trust your car to a guy off the street’
from. And there is no evidence there is any difference in the rate of these other illnesses.
‘We, as a community, need to work more earnestly to make sure people have proper information.’
He said his own son has had the vaccine and that unfounded fear is also affecting uptake of vaccines against measles. An epidemic in Italy and other European countries has claimed 35 deaths in the last year, with over 3,000 children infected in Italy. Dr O’Connor said: ‘Science really brings about some great advances, miracles in some cases, but if we allow ourselves to be taken in by people we don’t know, it can have real ramifications.’
People can misunderstand that the term ‘cancer’ refers to many diseases, and only some are treatable. Out of 11,000 people with skin cancer, it is likely to be fatal only for some of the 1,000 with melanoma. When bowel cancer is detected in the early stage then 19 out of 20 Irish cases can be cured, but if it is discovered at Stage 4, less than one in ten will be alive five years after detection.
He said: ‘Cancer is an umbrella term, it’s not a single disease. Progress has been made in areas like childhood leukaemia but in other areas it’s not so dramatic.
Roughly, four in ten cases of cancer are preventable, with simple lifestyle measures like not smoking, minding our weight and getting vaccinated against cancers like HPV. Most cancers take many years, typically decades, to develop so there would be years of early symptoms like bleeding or lumps etc. When caught early, the majority of cancers are curable.’
The Irish Cancer Society is funding 120 different projects through money donated by the public.
‘When caught early, most cancers are curable’