Cancer Myths
Separating fact from fiction isn’t always easy when it comes to cancer, partly because there are plenty of unknowns in the scientific community and plenty of stories that people like to share. Keeping up with all the new information and recent studies is a challenging feat, and it can be difficult to know who to trust, especially when you’d rather believe the positive or simple explanation rather than dig deeper into the evidence.
Before you commit to a hard and fast stance on cancer-causing factors or cancer-curing compounds, beware these cancer myths that have no basis in scientific fact, and need to be busted right away.
1. Cancer Is a Modern Disease
It may seem like cancer cases have spiralled out of control in just a few generations, but that’s a misconception. People have known about cancer for thousands of years, and there’s documentation in historic texts to prove it.
Today, screening procedures, detection, and general cancer knowledge is so much more advanced, that undoubtedly more cases of cancer are diagnosed. Also, there are more dietary and environmental factors in modern life that add to cancer risk, which very likely makes certain types of the disease more prevalent than they’ve ever been.
However, it’s important to realize cancer is not a man-made disease; in fact, over 15% of cancers are caused by naturally occurring bacteria and viruses.
These are a few suggestions for how to support someone with cancer after diagnosis. They're going to be working to manage their own needs and feelings.
