For Your Health – It’s Not Just What We Eat, But When We Eat Can Matter, Too.

Photo of a traditional analog red alarm clock with red bells and white face with black numbers and mark, showing approximately 10:10 and 18 seconds, on light blue background.

“So far, studies suggest that people eating more calories earlier in the day are less likely to develop metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, than those eating more calories later in the day.” – Dr. Yikyung Park It’s that time of year where the calendar still says “spring,” but the weather and the […]

New IARC Brief Highlights Benefits of Single Dose HPV Vaccine

A new brief from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) adds further momentum to movements recommending a single dose of the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine.  Originally recommended as a three-dose series when first approved and made widely available, the CDC currently recommends two doses of the HPV vaccine for 9 – 14 year […]

For Your Health – At the Heart of It, Even a Little Physical Activity Has Benefits

“Really, every minute of activity can be beneficial,” says Salerno. It’s likely not the first heart-themed celebration that comes to mind in February – that of course goes to Valentine’s Day – but American Heart Month certainly deserves just as much attention as its more popular counterpart. While we’ve made a lot of progress in […]

For Your Health – Simple Tips for Keeping Weight in Check and Improving Health

Weight can be a tricky topic. While our weight has no bearing on who we are or how we should be viewed or treated, it can be quite important when it comes to health and well-being. And that can be very meaningful – not only to us personally but also to our family, friends and […]

For Your Health – The Many Benefits of Spending Time in Greenspaces

As wonderful as summertime can be, there’s also something really nice about the calendar – and the weather – turning toward fall.  The light starts to soften a bit, and the crisp mornings and warm afternoons invite us to spend more time outside.   Maybe that’s walking the kids home from school, cycling to the grocery store […]

For Your Health: Young adults, keep eating your vegetables (and other great advice)

If you’ve finally reached that age when you’re officially an adult and starting to branch out on your own for work, school or another adventure, you’ve likely received a lot of advice from the older adults in your life. Some of it you may have sought out. Most of it, probably not. And, yes, as […]

Simple Steps to Lower Breast Cancer Risk

This post first appeared as a For Your Health column in October 2019. For a disease as scary as breast cancer, one positive and very important message that deserves to be heard more often during Breast Cancer Awareness Month is that it’s a disease that can be prevented. Research shows that about half of all […]

In the News: Study Finds HPV Vaccine Lowers the Risk of Cervical Cancer

The results are not really a surprise, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important. In what is the first large study to directly look at HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccination and risk of cervical cancer – rather than risk of cervical pre-cancers – researchers found that vaccination substantially lowered cancer risk. And vaccination at younger ages, […]

In the News: Information on Colon Cancer – Screening & Prevention

With the surprise and tragic news that the actor Chadwick Boseman had passed away of colon cancer at age 43, there’s been a spotlight on the disease as people look for information and answers. While colon cancer is a disease that many people have heard of, they may not know a great deal about it. […]

Study Finds Smokers More Likely to Miss Cancer Screenings

Even though smoking is an important cause of multiple cancers, women who smoke are less likely to get recommended cancer screening tests than those who don’t smoke.  That’s the finding from a new study of the large Women’s Health Initiative.  Published yesterday in the journal, BMJ Open, the study followed 89,000 U.S. women for just […]

Pride, Progress, and Working toward Health Equity:  Cancer and the LGBTQIA+ Community

By Nora Leahy, MPH, CHES, Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities Every June we celebrate Pride Month and the great diversity, strength, and resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community.  We reflect on the past and honor those who risked everything to pave the way toward equality.  We also imagine and strive for a future rooted […]

Tips for Weathering Your Winter Workouts

As hard as it can feel at times, winter workouts can be pretty easy to fit in with a bit of planning. by Hank Dart Winter is a special time of year. It’s a season of festive holidays and long, cozy evenings spent with friends and family. Unfortunately, many of the same things that make […]

Guiding Daughters Toward Lifelong Breast Health Habits

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 […]

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: 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 […]

Study Links Eating Whole Grains with Lower Risk of Liver Cancer

A large new study has found that regularly eating whole grains may significantly lower the risk of liver cancer. The study, published online in JAMA Oncology, followed 125,000 men and women for an average of 24 years, gathering information on participants’ diet at regular intervals over that time. The researchers found that those who ate […]

Video Tour: 8 Ways to a Healthier Weight – and Lower Risk of Cancer

Take a quick video tour of the latest from our 8IGHT WAYS series: 8IGHT WAYS to a Healthier Weight – and Lower Risk of Cancer.  Whether you’re looking to maintain your weight or lose a few pounds, this new guide is filled with simple, useful, and brief tips to help you on your way.  Find it, […]

Physical Activity Lowers Cancer Risk – More People Should Probably Know That

A new study has found that a large majority of the public may be unaware that lack of physical activity can increase the risk of cancer. The study, out of Washington University in St. Louis and published Wednesday in the Journal of Health Communication, included a diverse sample of participants who were asked to list […]

HPV Vaccine Prevents Cervical Pre-Cancer – New Report

By Hank Dart An important new report further confirms that the HPV vaccine is both safe and extremely effective at preventing cervical pre-cancers that could develop into cervical cancer. The report, published Wednesday in the Cochrane Library, reviewed the results of 26 HPV vaccine clinical trials that included over 73,000 girls and women ages 15 […]

New Diet Study Finds “Ultra-Processed” Foods May Be Linked to Cancer Risk

by Hank Dart A new study out of France highlights another possible reason to avoid eating too many highly processed foods:  They may increase the risk of cancer. The paper, published yesterday in the British Medical Journal, followed close to 105,000 adults for an average of 5 years.  Along the way, participants were asked to regularly […]

Buder Center 8 Ways Brochure Series

This past fall, PECaD dedicated resources to creating and updating the 8 Ways to Reduce Cancer brochure series for the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Studies. PECaD’s partnership with the Buder Center has grown tremendously within the past few years. In feedback PECaD received from community members was a lack of educational information for […]

New 8ight Ways brochures in Large Print and Vietnamese

In spring 2017, the Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD) expanded the 8ight Ways brochure series to include large print versions and Vietnamese editions of each brochure. With these two projects, PECaD hopes to provide cancer prevention education and information to new subgroups in the St. Louis region. PECaD recognizes the need to be […]

A Meaty Topic: Red Meat, Cancer Risk, and the Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet

By Yikyung Park, ScDA recent report on red and processed meat and cancer risk, written by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO), sent shockwaves worldwide. After reviewing existing evidence, the report concluded that processed meat consumption is a cause of cancer and red meat consumption is probably […]

Physical Activity and Cancer Prevention: “Step It Up!” Walking Campaign

by Katy Henke In early September 2015, Vivek Murthy, MD, the Surgeon General of the United States, began a national campaign to increase the amount of physical activity Americans engage in each day (see video below).  The campaign, called Step It Up!, works not only to get Americans walking more but also to help facilitate […]

Eating to Lower Cancer Risk: Replacing Superfoods with Science

by Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH Article originally appeared in the Washington University – Institute for Public Health Blog When it comes to cancer, there are few topics as supercharged as diet. A quick search of “diet and cancer” in Google News alone returns over 3 million stories. And yet, however large these numbers are, they […]

New Dietary Recommendations Take Innovative Approach – and Not Everyone’s Happy About It

By Yikyung Park, ScD Editor’s note: Not surprisingly, the recently released report from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee was met with both praise and scorn.  Many in the medical and health fields lauded the report for its innovative approach to considering both the food environment and sustainability, as well as for its healthy […]

Setting the Record Straight on Cancer Prevention: Lifestyle Trumps “Bad Luck”

While the paper by Tomasetti and Vogelstein is certainly intriguing and will help guide future research on targeting prevention and early detection efforts, it is still a preliminary finding and does not reverse the long-term conclusion that is supported by decades of well-designed research in people:  that cancer is largely preventable. –     –   […]

Evolution of the Science on Aspirin Use and Colon Cancer Prevention

Yesterday, we posted about a new analysis suggesting that long term aspirin use is likely to have an overall health benefit in the general population even when its side effects are taken into account.  At risk of being wonky, we wanted to follow up on that with a figure that shows the general evolution of […]

An Aspirin a Day…May Have Overall Health Benefits

Photo: Flickr/JenR The writing was on the wall a few years ago, but it seems that we may have finally reached a point where the scientific evidence points pretty convincingly to the potential health benefits of long-term regular aspirin use outweighing the potential risks for most people. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis appearing last […]

Health behavior interventions prevent incidence and death from cancer

Flickr/NatalieMaynor At the annual meeting of the American Society for Preventive Oncology, I had the privilege of presenting the evidence that supports the potential for health behaviors and vaccines to have a huge payoff for prevention of cancer throughout the world. My slides from that talk are now available. Questions that I addressed include the […]

(Video) Nuts Cut Risk of Cancer, Heart Disease, and Early Mortality

Earlier this month, we posted about recent findings linking nut consumption with a lower risk of benign breast disease in young women.  Further confirming the power of nuts, new results from a large study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that men and women who are frequent nut eaters (7 or more […]

Colon Screening saves lives: Massachusetts Success Story

A new report by our CNiC team summarizes the rapid changes in colorectal cancer screening in Massachusetts and more broadly through New England over 15 years from 1997 onwards. The move from scientific evidence to public health strategy hinged on a sustained strategy described by the collective impact approach where common goals, a shared measurement […]

More than half of cancer is preventable now

The media release from the Washington University School of Medicine, yesterday, on our review of the potential to prevent cancer and barriers slowing our progress in acting on what we already know. (For article link here) Colditz, Wolin, and Gehlert collaborate on a number of cancer prevention projects through Siteman Cancer Center Prevention and Control […]

Prevention of Colon Cancer: time for action is now

Recent updated evidence from the United States National Health And Nutrition Survey (NHANES) show that the majority of US adults have more than one modifiable risk factor for colon cancer that needs attention (see article). While screening is advocated for prevention of colon cancer and supported by evidence from randomized controlled trials (1), we have […]

Smoking cessation reduces lung cancer mortality

A new rigorous analysis funded by the National Cancer Institute is published this month in the JNCI. Moolgavkar and colleagues (see report) now estimate that over 790,000 lung cancer deaths have been avoided by cessation from cigarette smoking since the 1964 Surgeon General’s first Report on Smoking and Health was released. This represents only a fraction of […]

Medical interventions to prevent cancer

Much has been written over the past few months on progress against cancer. For example, in the New York Times, Kolata summarizes funding for cancer research and shows the percentage of health research funding spent on cancer treatment research, cancer biology, and cancer causation, with only a small fraction on early detection and prevention (1).  […]

Prevention – 30 years on

Labor Day weekend 2011 marks thirty years since I ventured from Brisbane, Australia and arrived in Boston to begin my studies towards a Master of Public Health, and hopefully gain admission to the doctoral program at the Harvard School of Public Health. Mentors in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of […]