The nurse hired to combat cancer myths online - Health Tips

The nurse hired to combat cancer myths online


A tumor philanthropy has selected a computerized medical caretaker to battle "counterfeit news" on the web, which they say leaves patients "terrified and in danger of sham cures".

Macmillan Disease Bolster discovered two-fifths of individuals with growth looked into data about their determination on the web.

One of every eight of those went online on the grounds that they didn't completely comprehend what their specialist had let them know.

Glaswegian medical caretaker Ellen McPake, who found the activity, says she needs to adjust the deception that exists.

She stated: "Once the specialist says 'malignancy', individuals consequently then close down and they don't take in the data that they're given.

"So they go home, address the family. And afterward they'll sit online that night and get themselves in a craze with what they're perusing."

She says individuals concentrate on the most dire outcome imaginable: "There's a considerable amount of myths out there," she said.

Here are some of them:

Sodium bicarbonate can cure growth

"A few people imagine that drinking it or taking it intravenously can cure tumor. There isn't any confirmation to help that," she said.

Taking a shot at Macmillan's help line, Ellen said individuals would report attempting it since it appeared to be less cruel than chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

"For a few people it can be very perilous - it influences their kidneys and influences them to feel very unwell," she said.

Sugar gives you tumor

Photograph of sugarImage copyrightGETTY Pictures

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A few people erroneously trust that sugar can give you growth

Ellen said a few patients misguidedly think sugar causes malignancy. While stoutness has been connected to disease, utilization of sugar itself does not expand hazard.

Medicinal practice the Mayo Facility expresses: "Sugar doesn't influence disease to become speedier. All cells, including growth cells, rely upon (glucose) for vitality. Be that as it may, giving more sugar to malignancy cells doesn't speed their development."

Ellen has seen patients attempt to kill sugar in light of false convictions. "It is extremely unlikely you can remove sugar from your eating routine totally," she said.

Vitamin C cures malignancy

Ellen stated: "I had a call once where a couple had been to a center and paid heaps of cash to be treated with vitamin C, which they were told could cure growth."

The treks abroad to the center cost them their life funds and gave no advantage.

"The man was so disturbed. He wished he'd utilized whatever investment funds they had for a superior personal satisfaction. Also, that choice is with them everlastingly," she said.

Just old individuals get tumor

Ellen said there is a conviction that lone the elderly get malignancy "since it's more typical as they get more seasoned".

Truth be told, half of all malignancy cases in the UK every year are analyzed in individuals matured 70 or over. This is on account of after some time our body's cells turned out to be harmed and this harm can develop and result in disease.

However, in late decades, it is youngsters who are having the best increment in being influenced.

Sharks don't get growth

Incredible medical caretaker sharkImage copyrightGETTY Pictures

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An incredible medical caretaker shark was found to have skin tumor in 2010

Ellen said patients imagine that sharks don't get tumor and along these lines their ligament could be utilized to battle or cure it.


This myth goes back to the 1970s, when scientists in Florida presented them to abnormal amounts of a cancer-causing agent and after that found no proof of tumors.

Yet, in various examinations, there has been no proof found that it acts as a treatment - not even in mice.

Furthermore, in 2010, it was discovered that sharks could in actuality create malignancy after a female attendant shark in Indianapolis Zoo was found to have a melanoma.

Espresso douches offer assistance

Ellen stated: "Espresso purifications were famous for some time. Destinations were coming up publicizing that they could accomplish a remark make-up of the gut and that would cure malignancy."

Actually, Growth Exploration UK states: "Espresso douches have been connected to genuine diseases, parchedness, blockage, colitis (irritation of the colon), and risky electrolyte uneven characters or even demise."

Ellen said the myth drove many individuals to venture out long separations to uncommon centers "being charged parcels and heaps of cash".

It's a cutting edge illness

"There is the possibility that it's a man-made present day ailment," says Ellen. "Yet, it isn't - it's been found in Egyptian mummies."

One of these, from 2,250 years back, was found with prostate tumor, while an old 1.7 million-year-old toe from South Africa was found to have a forceful sort of bone malignancy.