Blog

By Karen Oslund Executive Director, Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County Recently, a story on Facebook caught my attention and set off my inner alarm bells.  “Sunscreen Causes Skin Cancer!” was the headline.  The story went on to claim that the best defense against skin cancer is exposure to the sun. No! This is Fake Health News! Fake Health News draws from the same bag of tricks as fake political news. The writers establish an [...]

Current and Former Smokers: Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables (Source: Roni Caryn Rabin, New York Times, February 23, 2017) Each additional daily serving of fruits and vegetables that smokers and former smokers eat is associated with a 4 to 8 percent lower risk of their developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the third leading cause of death in the United States, a new study found. The study, in Thorax, looked at more than 44,000 Swedish men, ages [...]

A disturbing article is headlining the health-related news this week: there is an alarming upward trend in the incidence of colorectal cancers in younger people. According to Rebecca Siegel, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society, the incidence of colorectal cancer in older adults continues to decline, but, “people born in 1990 have double the risk of colon cancer and quadruple the risk of rectal cancer compared to the risk someone born in 1950 faced [...]

My first month as Executive Director of the Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County is drawing to a close and my mind is swimming with hope and possibility. I can already say that I am profoundly moved by the compassionate, very personal work of the CRC staff to ease the minds, relieve the suffering, and make the journey easier for the cancer patients and families we work with every day. I am thrilled to step [...]

CANCER SCREENING GUIDELINES BY AGE AND GENDER (Source: American Cancer Society) Colon Cancer – Women and Men Ages 20 to 49 Find out if you are at higher than average risk for colon cancer because of family history, genetic disorders, or other factors. If you are not, testing is not needed for this age group. If you have an increased risk of colon cancer, talk with your health care provider about a plan for colon [...]

Healthy Lifestyle Choices (Source: American Cancer Society) Habits that (statically) Reduce Your risk of Getting Cancer Stay Away from Tobacco. There is no safe form of tobacco. If you smoke or chew tobacco, stop!  Encourage the people around you to quit. See ACS’s Guide to Quitting Smoking (http://www.cancer.org/healthy/stayawayfromtobacco/guidetoquittingsmoking/index) or Guide to Quitting Smokeless Tobacco to learn more about quitting. Stay away from secondhand smoke.  It can cause cancer, as well as many additional health problems. [...]