Pink Mist

Last week I joined thousands of others across the UK to support the fundraising efforts of one of our leading cancer charities. We all know someone affected by cancer and we all want to make a difference. What a shame most of our efforts are scandalously misdirected. Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) is a brand owned by Astra Zenica, the producers of Tamoxifen, which is the most commonly prescribed chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. When the World Health Organisation describes Tamoxifen as a probable Human Carcinogen what good comes from giving it to people already suffering from cancer? How does one put out a fire by spraying it with gasoline? BCAM supposedly intends to detect cancer early so that it can be more easily treated. Unfortunately, the outcome of mammography testing often results in false positive outcomes which leads to thousands of women undergoing unnecessary treatment. Again, since the use of ionising radiation itself causes cancer, regular mammography screening causes damage to sensitive tissue and over time increases the likelihood of breast cancer developing. Astra Zenica are using BCAM to cynically manipulate public perceptions of cancer and have us dreaming of a cure without addressing the cause. In this way they can continue to feed their profits at the expense of public health. ‘So if you’re so clever, what’s the cause of cancer?’ I don’t need to be particularly clever to read of the work of scientists such as Otto Warburg, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the metabolic processes of cancer over 80 years ago, or of today’s researchers like Thomas Seyfried who continue the exploration of cancer as a metabolic disease. Very simply, Warburg discovered that cancer cells use vast amounts of glucose to generate energy. They cannot use oxygen as other more efficient cells do, nor can they switch over to burning fats for fuel. This points to the most obvious treatment for cancer being to remove its fuel supply – restrict dietary glucose, and most especially, avoid all refined sugar. Can you imagine a Cancer Fundraiser Coffee Morning without biscuits and buns? In Irish mythology the warrior Cuchullain used to lose all reason when the angry ‘Red Mist’ descended upon him in battle. Today the term ‘Red Mist’ is more commonly attributed to the view from the sniper’s telescope. In my opinion the term rightly belongs in the arena of cancer research. The public should be incandescently angry at being misled and should target organisations that profit from their exploitation. This week the media has carried stories about the superior effectiveness of exercise over chemotherapy in the treatment of colon cancer. So, if you’re tempted to wear a pink T shirt and set off on a fundraising run, just know that the exercise itself, and the camaraderie in the crowd, provides the biggest benefit to you and your community. Astra Zenica doesn’t need your money; rather they need the Pink Mist of your contempt.