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Which of the following raises the risk for cancer: alcohol, genetically modified foods or stress?
Only one is correct (it's alcohol), but according to a new survey from the United Kingdom, people have a hard time sorting out real cancer risk factorsfrom fake ones.
The survey asked more than 1,300 randomly selected people across the United Kingdom if certain things or behaviors caused cancer. The items included real, known risk factors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, being infected by HPV and being overweight. But they also included things and behaviors that — though commonly believed to be risk factors — actually aren't. These "mythical" risk factors included stress, cellphones and genetically modified foods.
Because the study was done in the United Kingdom, it's unclear if the results also apply to other countries and cultures, such as the U.S., said lead study author Lion Shahab, an associate professor in health psychology at University College London. But "insofar as the environment in which people obtain information and news is similar in the U.S., it's likely to extend to the U.S. and [possibly to] other countries," he said.
Elisa Bandera, a professor of epidemiology at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey who was not involved in the new study, agreed that the results probably hold true in the U.S. as well.
"I would think it can be extrapolated to the U.S.," Bandera told Live Science. "Information, including health information, travels widelynowadays through electronic and social media." But, she added, the belief in false information probably depends on other factors, like level of education and age. (▪ ▪ ▪)
► Read the full note here: Source
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