The “Latia Wants to Know” Cancer Prevention Story

October 31st, 2008

We wanna thank health correspondent Latia White for sharing some beauty tips concerning cuts, color and cancer prevention.

When UNC researchers realized that cancer incidence and death rates are disproportionately higher among black women, they wondered how to get the word out about cancer prevention. Instead of waiting for these women to come to the doctor’s office, Dr. Laura Linnan, an associate professor at UNC’s School of Public Health, decided to go to them where they were already comfortable talking about their health and asking for advice – the beauty salon.

Linnan’s North Carolina BEAUTY (Bringing Education And Understanding To You) Project used hairstylists to share information with their customers about how to prevent colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer, also called colon cancer or large bowel cancer, includes cancerous growths in the colon, rectum and appendix. It is the third most common form of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world. Colorectal cancer causes 655,000 deaths worldwide per year, including about 16,000 in the UK, where it is the second most common site behind lung cancer to cause cancer death.

In a 2002 study, researchers at UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center surveyed 40 local salons frequented by black women, finding that about 75 percent of salon customers visit their stylist once every four weeks and about 17 percent visit at least once a week. Many spend more than two hours per visit — partly to have their hair done, partly to chat with their stylists.

Building on their findings, researchers asked these salons to participate in BEAUTY, a four-year health and cancer intervention study in salons in eight North Carolina counties. Most of the stylists were excited about the project, Linnan says. They also preferred messages that were easy to communicate.

So researchers kept the messages simple: eat three to five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, engage in physical activity for at least 30 minutes most days, talk with your doctor about personal risks for cancer, and recommended cancer-screening tests.
They put these messages on interactive display boards in each salon, changing the displays once every three months.

The displays included quick tips on lowering fat intake; a scale that customers could use to estimate their body mass index and small pockets containing brochures, activity calendars and other materials customers could take home with them.

Preliminary results indicate that in all of the salons, there was a modest increase in the number of health conversations customers had with their stylists, in self-reported physical activity, and in self-reported cancer screening tests such as mammograms, Pap tests, and colonoscopies. Almost all of the salon owners said that all salons should offer programs such as BEAUTY.

There are more than 12,000 licensed salons in North Carolina alone, Linnan says. If BEAUTY succeeds, stylists could become health promoters, communicating messages of health in salons all over the state.

The first symptoms of colon cancer are usually vague, like weight loss and fatigue (tiredness). Local (bowel) symptoms are rare until the tumor has grown to a large size. Generally, the nearer the tumor is to the anus, the more bowel symptoms there will be.
Symptoms and signs are divided into local, constitutional and metastatic.

Local symptoms

Change in bowel habits, Change in frequency (constipation and/or diarrhea), Feeling of incomplete defecation (tenesmus) and reduction in diameter of stool, both characteristic of rectal cancer, Change in the appearance of stools : Bloody stools or rectal bleeding, Stools with mucus, Black, tar-like stool (melena), more likely related to upper gastrointestinal eg stomach or duodenal disease, Bowel obstruction causing bowel pain, bloating and vomiting of stool-like material. A tumor in the abdomen, felt by patients or their doctors. Symptoms related to invasion by the cancer of the bladder causing hematuria (blood in the urine) or pneumaturia (air in the urine), or invasion of the vagina causing smelly vaginal discharge. These are late events, indicative of a large tumor.

Constitutional (systemic) symptoms

Unexplained weight loss, probably the most common symptom, caused by lack of appetite, Anemia, causing dizziness, fatigue and palpitations. Clinically, there will be pallor and blood tests will confirm the low hemoglobin level.

Metastatic symptoms

Liver metastases, causing: Pain in the abdomen, more often the upper part of epigastrium or right side of the abdomen, liver enlargement, usually felt by a doctor. Blood clots in the veins and arteries, a paraneoplastic syndrome related to hypercoagulability of the blood (the blood is “thickened”)

For more information on colorectal cancer and possible treatment dial 1-800-4-CANCER or logon to the National Cancer Institute website at www.cancer.gov.

Portions of this article were based on ‘Parlor Talk,’ by Margarita De Pano, Winter 2007 Endeavors, by way of the Carolina Connects.

Colon Cancer. 9 August 2008, 11:24 UTC. In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Encyclopedia on-line. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_cancer. Internet. Retrieved 11 August 2008.

The “Latia Wants to Know” Cancer Prevention Story

October 31st, 2008

“And the winner is …” The M&F Bank 100 Years & Grand Celebration story

December 26th, 2008

“Music for My Soul” The Lisa McClendon Story

January 1st, 2009

“Yo! Read All About It” The NCCU Campus Echo story

December 30th, 2008

“Throw the Ball to Her!” Browns Mill Lady Jacket’s story

August 1st, 2008

“Let’s talk a lil politics” The Barack Obama story

November 3rd, 2008

“I’m Down With The King” The Holy Hip Hop Week Story

December 31st, 2008

“Let’s go by the book” The Kelvin DeMarcus Allen story

January 2nd, 2009

“Music for My Soul” The Lisa McClendon Story

January 1st, 2009