People often discuss risk factors and cancer…what can we do to lower our risk? What raises our risk? Is one risk more dangerous than another?

On a recent Causes or Cures Podcast, I chatted with Dr. Christopher Murray about his recent article  published in The Lancet (2022) titled The Global Burden of Cancer Attributable to Risk Factors, 2010-2019, a Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. This is the largest effort to date to determine the gobal burden of cancer due to risk factors. In the podcast, he discusses what the global burden of disease study is, how he and his team estimated the burden of cancer, the risk factors and the assessment framework used to link specific cancers to specific risks, what percentage of cancer is attributed to risk factors, what the greatest risks are, differences in high income vs low income countries and public health implications.

Dr. Murray is Chair of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington and Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). He also leads the Global Burden of Disease collaboration (a systemic effort to quantify the comparitive magnitude of health loss due to diseases, injuries and risk factors.)He is both a physician and a health economist and his work has led to innovative methods for strengthening health measurements, analyzing the performance of health systems and producing forecasts for the future state of health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House, European Commission, WHO EURO and Africa CDC have used IHME forecasts and policy scenarios as sources of evidence.

You can listen to the episode here!

In addition to this episode on risks factors and cancer, also check out this episode in which a top doctor/epidemiologist discusses a potential epidemic of cancer in young people. In fact, the reason I’ve done several episodes related to cancer is because of the rising rates in young people. As civiliazation advances, that isn’t a trend we should be seeing, unless….is something backfiring on us? Anyhow, definitely check out that episode.

One of the cancers being found at increasing rates in young people is colon cancer. I recently featured a researcher on the podcast to discuss risk factors for colon cancer. You can connect to that podcast here. Of course, there are other episodes unrelated to cancer posted, and I invite you to check those out too.

Thank you to everyone who listens to the podcast. I really appreciate the support. If you listen on Apple and have time to leave a review, I would really appreciate it. I keep asking people, but no one seems to do it, but ya never know. Maybe someone will lol.

Also, check out some of my public health musings here. I talk a lot about misinformation, public health campaigns, politics and public health, public health history and more.

Okay! Go ahead and listen to the podcast on risk factors and cancer and let me know what you think: erin@bloomingwellness.com.