November 1, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:
Mental Stress Does Not Cause Cancer, Racial Disparities in Screening Narrows, Universal Health Care at the Ballot Box, Who Uses CAM?, Mining the Web For Health Info 

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NEWS HEADLINES 

Study Concludes Psychological Stress Does Not Cause Cancer

Procedure Offers Relief of Intractable Bone Pain by Rachael Myers Lowe, cancerpage

Racial Disparities in Cancer Screening Narrow

Thalidomide-Like Drugs Excite Cancer Researchers

23 new cancer news stories since last week's newsletter.

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UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE - OREGON BALLOT ISSUE

Voters in Oregon on Tuesday will be voting on whether to establish universal health care for all state residents. Proposition 23 will create a single statewide health plan for all Oregonians, replacing private and public insurance programs that now finance healthcare for individuals. The system will be financed through an income tax, a payroll tax and the budgets of existing government health programs. Supporters argue that this non-profit system will solve the problem of increasing cost and uncertain access to healthcare for a growing population of state citizens. Opponents say it'll break the bank and threaten the state's economy and the quality of healthcare.

To read more:

The Portland Oregonian Voters Guide: http://www.oregonlive.com/elections/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/1034769365173480.xml
PRO website : http://www.healthcareforalloregon.org
ANTI website: http://www.nounhealthytaxes.com


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WHO USES CAM AND WHAT DO THEY GET OUT OF IT?

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine this month examines which cancer patients are likely to turn to complementary and alternative methods and how those that do feel about the therapies they chose. 

American Cancer Society report on the article: http://www.cancer.org/eprise/main/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_1_1x_Alternative_Medicine_Improves_Cancer_Patients_Outlook


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MINING THE WEB FOR HEALTH INFO - TRUST THE DOC

Americans are going online for health information in ever-greater numbers but they still turn to their docs for the definitive word on recommendations for medical treatment. A telephone survey of 800 people by the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) found that patients seeking information about a particular medical procedure are twice as likely to seek that information from the Internet than their doctor but ultimately the doctor's recommendation carries the most weight.

In May, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported, on a typical day, 6 million people go online for medical info; that's more people than will visit a health professional on any given day. Online health information seekers appear pretty satisfied with what they're finding though they're turned off by sites that are "too commercial or seemed more concerned with selling products and providing accurate information." Sixty-one percent say the Internet has "improved the way they take care of their health."

Website for AAD release: http://www.aad.org/PressReleases/homework.html
Website for Pew Internet and American Life Project. Vital Decisions - How Internet users decide what information to trust when they or their loved ones are sick
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=59