BEWARE-IFICATIONS

I keep track of alerts, snippets of info, warnings...as well as facts.

BEWARE-ifications get filed into my pile of worry news that get me googling around to see if others are worried. Recently Time Magazine posted -- "Very hot drinks are a probable cancer trigger."

Wowie-eek, rang in my mind as I read, reread, checked it out, and read again.

World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) -- 23 scientists from 10 countries, reviewed 1,000 studies investigating the connection between high temperature beverages and their potential link to cancer. Based on the available evidence, they concluded that drinking very hot beverages (defined as anything above 149F), linked to a higher risk of cancer of the esophagus. Hot Drinks is now on the list of 116 probable cancer-causing agents in people, along with red meat, fried food, and DDT.
 
Mid-seventies they told us saccharin killed lab rats. Hey, we are glad to know from IARC that smoking kills you, that coffee, coca cola, and contraceptives (Huh?) can give you cancer. We have been warned to keep away from diet pills, sleeping pills, tanning salons, but gee... never heard about contraceptives...

In the Time Magazine article a top researcher explained that a new study shows that people who drank coffee had less inflammatory ailments than people who don't drink coffee.  

"Inflammatory" means ... hot?  Painfully hot?

Do drink it? Don't drink it?

Here's what I gathered from Wikipedia. Most cancers are related to environmental, (everything outside the body), or lifestyle, or behavioral exposures from tobacco, diet and obesity, infections, radiation, stress, lack of physical activity, and environmental pollutants. Age is a factor, as is what you inherit genetically. Where you live is also a factor ... lotsa factors....  

Okay, I always use saccharin, but I don't smoke, and I stay out of the sun, eat very little red meat, and I exercise. I bet there will be more research -- this study will give birth to more studies that will explode into those nice little headlines that get you worrying about various this's and that's.

Hey, wouldn't it be interesting if the study of inflammatory ailments said exercise less or proved that you do better if you're 10-to-20 pounds overweight...

Yiii, I'm getting a headache. IARC reports on factual real news. We're living in a time when we've got to question everything, figure out what's real, what's fake -- what do you do?

You head for the clouds

I looked at this film about your morning wake-up cup of something.

I know what I'm going to do.

It's going to be piping hot.