12 Challenges for a Leaner, Healthier You

NAP-Logo-2-ColorCould you meet the New American Plate (NAP) challenge?

So far over 1,500 people from around the US (and the world) are ready to start. Beginning next week, these Challengers are stepping up to the NAP-PlateNew American Plate Challenge to lose weight healthfully and lower their cancer risk through healthier eating and increased physical activity.

Here’s how it works:

Every Monday for 12 weeks, you’ll get a specific challenge (diet or physical activity) that helps you move towards the NAP way of eating or to the AICR recommendation to get at least 30 minutes daily of moderate physical activity.

  1. Every Friday, you will receive a teaser email to prepare for the upcoming weekly challenge, describing what you need to buy at the grocery store or ways to prepare for moving more.
  2. The Monday morning email will reveal that week’s challenge and you’ll find more specifics, including tips, tools and recipes on the NAP Challenge website to help you meet the week’s goals. Continue reading


Cancer Research Month: How Your Doctor Knows the Latest

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-group-doctors-image13298319Cancer research often makes splashy headlines, especially if the study appears to contradict conventional wisdom or seems to offer a potential cure. If you don’t read past the headlines, you may think that scientists are finding cures but doctors aren’t staying up to date.

But while these studies may have a role in how we understand causes and treatment of cancer, no single study by itself can be used for practicing evidence-based care. Health professionals have to go beyond the headlines and put the research in context before it becomes part of evidence-based practice. The question they ask is: Is this study really a game changer or simply another piece of data to add to the overall body of evidence?

Your doctors, nurses, dietitians and other health care providers don’t always have the time to sort through all the research and decide by themselves how to apply all the new studies to their practice. Continue reading


One Message, Many Voices: Saluting the Ambassadors of AICR

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image5354459Here at AICR, we espouse a simple, evidence-based and empowering message: Every one of us can take steps to lower our cancer risk.

We enumerate those steps, and the research behind them, in an ever-growing variety of ways, for diverse audiences. Our brochures, health aids and website show people how to put the science of prevention to work in their daily lives.

Some of those people are looking for tips on becoming more active. Some want to try recipes we’ve developed that meet our cancer prevention guidelines. Others wish to dig more deeply into the decades of research behind our advice. Donors want to know how they can help support life-saving research. Scientists want to know about the grants we’ve funded, and which topics will be featured at our research conference.

AICR’s underlying message to all of these different audiences is exactly the same, but we speak in slightly different voices, tailored to their varying needs. The era of one-size-fits-all education, of expecting a single brochure to speak to everyone, is over.

And we can always use help. Help adapting our vital message to specific audiences, help getting into the hands, and the hearts, of the people who stand to benefit from it the most.

That’s why we’re so delighted whenever we see others taking up our banner, and advocating our cause.

All of us at AICR salute those of you who are helping increase awareness of AICR’s message and mission, and sharing the hard-won knowledge that we are not powerless before cancer.