Ideas

Do We Really Need More Breast Cancer ‘Awareness’?

Information gets us only so far on the road to health.

hin255 / Shutterstock

As stores fill up with pink products, we know it must be Breast Cancer Awareness Month again. Never mind the fact that these products generate only miniscule donations to breast cancer research, screening, or treatment. The pink ribbon is more of an advertisement for these “pinkwashed” companies than a genuine social good. And forget the crude advertising that suggests women’s body parts are worth saving because of their sexual value. Better to ask, is knowledge about health really as useful as awareness campaigns seem to suggest?

While good information is necessary to make appropriate decisions, overemphasizing “awareness” undercuts the role that other factors play in our health. At this point, public awareness of breast cancer is not going to increase no matter what we slap a pink ribbon on. Nearly every woman knows that breast cancer is a problem. Far more women need insurance, a primary care provider, or a ride to their nearest available mammogram appointment.

Further, too much information can be harmful. Do enough tests, and eventually false positives start to pile up. Too-frequent mammograms or blood tests for prostate cancer have been shown to increase anxiety-provoking and painful biopsies without preventing deaths. (This is why, for example, we don’t scan the brains of every person who has a headache—too many false positives for cancer.) Patients ask me to “get tested for everything,” not realizing that our symptoms, age, family history, and environment have to guide the testing we perform. Awareness without the right context does no good.

We don’t become healthy by passively receiving information about health and submitting to medical procedures. This is too bad, since this is what our medical system is currently designed for. Rather, we maintain and cultivate health by being attentive to our bodies’ needs and the physical and social contexts we are in.

When it comes to preventive care and chronic illness, the role of medical providers is not necessarily to fix us, but to judiciously use tests and procedures to be more attentive at the right times. In the case of breast cancer, our attention should be drawn to personal risk factors for the disease, like insufficient exercise, or social factors that prevent people from accessing care at the right times.

Many health concerns like cancer prevention and treating mental illness involve spiritual health as well: It takes spiritual and moral discipline to keep up with habits like exercise or regularly taking medication. Indeed, our systems of insurance and accessing care desperately need to be reoriented toward helping people take charge of their own health with guidance from professionals, rather than helplessly throwing themselves at providers in the hope of being fixed.

The role of medical providers is not necessarily to fix us, but to judiciously use tests and procedures to be more attentive at the right times.

A healthcare system that fails to attend to the spiritual contexts of our lives will be deficient. The moral and spiritual aspects of our lives are just as consequential as having the right information. Providers fail their patients if they focus only on the scientific provision of information for our bodies without addressing the spiritual guilt and shame (or joy and grace) that shape what we do with the information we’re given.

It’s true in our spiritual lives as well: Most of us are well aware we are sinning. We don’t just need more information about the severity of our wickedness. We need ways to attend to the habits that lead to health.

To take stock of our health, it’s fine to ask, “What do I need to be aware of?” or “What tests would find an insidious health problem while it can still be treated?” More often, though, we should ask ourselves or our doctors, “What habits can I practice that would help me care for the body God has given me?”

Paying attention to ourselves and to the world around us in this comprehensive Christian way will help us identify the problems no mammogram can find and deal with the symptoms no drugs can treat. That’s the awareness we really need.

Matthew Loftus practices family medicine in Baltimore where he lives with his family. They hope to return to their health care work in South Sudan. (MatthewandMaggie.org).

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

The World Is Yearning for Beautiful Orthodoxy

Putting Our Money Where Our Eyes Are

A Decade of Change

Where Kids Get Their Political Views

You Are the Manure of the Earth

The Other 'Christianity Today'

The New Baptist Covenant: Will It Work?

News

Charity Navigator's Overhead Overhaul

News

Manga Mania

News

Gleanings: October 2016

‘Why Christianity Today’ Revisited

The Cosmos Is Vaster than the Ancients Imagined

The Future of the Church Is Analog, Not Digital

Reply All

Art Advocates

Testimony

I Found the Gospel in Communist Romania

The Value of Friends Who Don’t Look, Think, or Vote Like You Do

Jimmy Carter: Pursuing an Arc of Reconciliation

Review

When Modern Medicine Becomes a False God

5 Books to Read Before Voting in a Presidential Election

New & Noteworthy Books

Excerpt

Why God Doesn’t Let Us In On Everything

Clinton, Trump, or Neither? 3 Views on the 2016 Presidential Election

James Dobson: Why I Am Voting for Donald Trump

Sho Baraka: Why I Can't Vote for Either Trump or Clinton

Ron Sider: Why I Am Voting for Hillary Clinton

View issue

Our Latest

News

Back at Shooting Site, Trump Supporters Pray for His Protection

Still shaken by the tragic attack, Butler, Pennsylvania, welcomed the former president back with cheers of triumph and a memorial for the previous rally’s victim.

News

JD Vance Says Trump White House Will ‘Fight for Israel’

The candidate’s message at an October 7 memorial rally was popular among Christian supporters.

Review

The Internet’s Sins Are Our Sins. But It Shouldn’t Escape All Blame.

A critic of tech panic forgets that our tools shape us just as we shape them.

Heaven Is A Homeplace

Hurricane Helene devastated the land I love. My pain points me toward what’s to come.

Review

We Have Never Been Deplorable

A new book critiques elites’ incurious accounts of the American right and illuminates their complicity in our social breakdown.

You Are the Light of the Public Square

American Christians can illuminate our country’s politics—if we engage with moral imagination, neighborliness, boldness, and humility.

Where Ya From?

From Pain to Empowerment with Orsika Fejer-Baas

Orsika Fejer-Baas shares her story of resilience and overcoming domestic abuse.

The Bulletin

October 7, 2023 Remembrance with Yossi Halevi

The Bulletin remembers the tragic events in Israel on October 7, 2023 and the year of turmoil that has followed.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube