Pressure groups wreck sensible health advice

This week we have had more morbid headlines based on the findings of Cancer Research UK which suggest that even one pint of beer a day can raise the risk of getting bowel cancer by 10% - an alarming figure.



However this is in contrast to an article in the New Scientist 18 months ago which suggested that beer can be a preventive agent of other types of cancer.

We have the British Heart Foundation saying that a moderate intake of beer per day reduces the risk of heart attacks and that tee-totalers are at greater risk.

These are just a handful of examples of the 'useful' advice given out by particular health agencies and pressure groups in support of their own particular hobby horse.

I'm not suggest that this is necessarily conflicting advice. All it tells us is that the human body is a complex piece of machinery which all day, every day ingests materials, processes them and then discharges the wastage via other necessary organs. All these elements we ingest have properties which appear to be good for some organs and bad for others. We are not a perfect design. Sorry if this upsets the devout but we were not put together by an all knowing God, we have evolved. As we have evolved our bodies have learned to adapt to certain tolerances, some organs better than others.

What am I leading to? That there is an overall common sense approach to diet and lifestyle which MUST give you a BETTER chance of a happy and healthy life. Nothing is guaranteed. Some people eat muesli and salads as a religion and die at 45. Others can eat burgers and chips , grow to 18 stone and die happily at a roly poly 90. Much of whether we live a long life is, in my view, genetic and when they finally unravel the human genome and piece it all together a lot more will become clear.

In the meantime I don't think it helps one iota for single issue groups to come out with statistics like a glass of beer increases your risk of bowel cancer by 10%..especially when that glass of beer could well be off setting other problems. These people should be reporting to government not making flash headlines with sensational findings.

People need constructive and balanced health advice. They don't need the Cancer Foundation, The Heart Association, the National Stroke Centre and heaven knows how many other well meaning pressure groups shouting each other down with who has the best scare story.