Originally appeared in: TOGETHER – Every Woman’s Guide to Preventing Breast Cancer. Health is a strange thing. It is something that is both very personal and very communal. As individuals, of course, we ultimately have control over the choices we make when it comes to what we eat, how much TV we watch, and how much […]
Category: Cancer News in Context
Help Build a Healthier Community (Video Tips)
Dr. Graham Colditz’s latest For Your Health column talks about ways we can all help make our communities healthier. And, it turns out, we don’t need to be public health superheroes to make a real and lasting difference. As he writes: Big efforts can have an impact. Smaller efforts can, too. Together, they can all […]
Being a Smart Consumer of Health Information
Originally appeared in: TOGETHER – Every Woman’s Guide to Preventing Breast Cancer. Although the modern version of the Internet has been around for close to twenty years, it still functions a lot like the Wild West. This is especially so when it comes to health information. Although there has always been unreliable and outright dangerous […]
For Your Health: HPV Vaccine Prevents Cancer
By Dr. Graham A. Colditz You’ve likely heard of the HPV vaccine, but what you may be surprised to hear is that it is one of the most important advances in the field of cancer in the last 20 years. And while it may not be on the list of required vaccines at your child’s […]
For Your Health: Don’t Sugarcoat the Health Risks of Sugary Drinks
By Graham A. Colditz We have a love affair with sugary drinks in the U.S. And it may, quite literally, be killing us. About 25,000 deaths each year are linked to drinking beverages like full-sugar sodas, sports drinks and energy drinks. It’s a startling number, especially for something so common that we often don’t give […]
New Study Finds that Walking May Lower Risk of Dying – and With Fewer Than 10,000 Steps per Day
A new study further confirms the health benefits of lacing up your shoes and heading out for a walk. The study, published today in JAMA Internal Medicine, followed over 16,000 older women for an average of five years and compared recorded step counts with deaths that occurred in the group over that time. The researchers […]
For Your Health: Lung Cancer Screening Can Save Lives
by Dr. Graham A. Colditz Among scary diseases, lung cancer can be one of the scariest. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the nation, and in both Missouri and Illinois. And for smokers and many ex-smokers who are at increased risk of lung cancer, it can feel especially scary. But there is […]
For Your Health: The Blistering Truth About Teens and Indoor Tanning
by Dr. Graham A. Colditz Part of being a teenager is feeling a sense of youthful invincibility. The health concerns of middle age are just that – concerns of middle age – and are so far away that it’s hard for teens to even think about them, let alone want to take steps to avoid […]
Questions About Colon Cancer Screening? We Have Some Answers
By this time in March, you may have heard that it’s Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. And with spring in the air and other health awareness promotions competing for your attention, it’s easy to lose the significance of that. But colon cancer is really important. It’s the third most common cancer in the United States and the third […]
For Your Health: Making Friends with Your Bathroom Scale
by Dr. Graham A. Colditz It can feel like a real victory when we discover those little tricks that make daily life a bit easier. Whether it’s a quicker way to finish chores or a simple dish that tastes like it took hours to make, it’s hard to beat the satisfaction of getting more done […]