Scientific Lecture Presented at the BIT’s 2nd Annual World Cancer Congress: Gateway to Future Medicine, Beijing, China, June 22-25, 2009

More is Not Necessarily Better:
Preventing Cancer in a U-Shaped World

David J. Waters PhD, DVM
Director, Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Abstract

More and more scientists are discovering that when it comes to “good things” that promote health, more of a good thing is not necessarily better. In fact, more of a good thing can be flat out dangerous. Yet the media environment has so effectively embedded the metaphor “more is better,” the public pays little or no attention to the issue of “how much.” Instead, the average citizen clings to an over-simplistic health strategy: “Show me the good things and I’ll consume as much of them as I can.” In this presentation, I will compare the scientific results and media coverage from a recent large-scale cancer prevention trial. My analysis will demonstrate how the media environment adversely affects the ability of people to understand cancer prevention issues and promote their own health. Moreover, we contend that a U-shaped world provides a distinctive challenge for cancer prevention scientists and media ecologists looking to impact public health in the 21st century.