It’s Friday and loads of people in offices will be treating themselves to a bacon buttie.  “Lovely jubbilee” as Del Boy used to say!  Do you prefer it with tomato or brown sauce?  Whichever, scientists have now identified a strong link between processed meat – especially bacon and sausage – and pancreatic cancer.

Just to darken the mood a little more – being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is pretty much the kiss of death.  It is the cancer with the worst survival rate, just 3 per cent of sufferers are alive 5 years after diagnosis.

Scientist, Professor Susanna Larsson, who conducted the study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, has identified that eating 50g of processed meat everyday (equivalent to 1 sausage or 2 rashers of bacon) increases your risk of pancreatic cancer by 19 per cent.  Previous research has indicated a link between processed meat and bowel cancer Eat less red meat says World Health Organisation and diabetes Processed meat linked to diabetes risk.

Health experts are making re-assuring noises about the risk of getting pancreatic cancer being low and the World Health Organisation are saying that obesity and smoking are a greater risk than processed meat.

Sausages have also been linked to yesterday’s big story about parabens where a strong link has been found with breast cancer.  Parabens are found in many household products such as cleaning products but also some sauasages!!!

Pancreatic cancer is sometimes called the ‘silent killer’ because symptoms are not evident in early stages.  Things to watch for are: loss of weight for no obvious reason, jaundice, pain in the stomach, loss of appetite and back pain.  Here is a link to a page on the Cancer Research website with more information about symptoms.

Written exclusively for The Life Dept | Live Longer | 13 January 2012

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