Can You Really Get Cancer From Eating Potato Chips?

Cancer is all around us, and no matter where we go there is a threat of getting cancer. People can try to change their odds of escaping this deadly disease, but the sad truth is that most of the things we do in our everyday life are cancer causing. According to Mayo Clinic's seven tips to reduce your risks, the only way to lessen the chances is to exercise, eat healthy, go to the doctor regularly, and stay away from high risk areas (such as power plants). Doctors are not expecting people to follow the rules all the time, they are just warning people not to live their daily life that way. The anti-cancer diet consists of all natural fruits and vegetables. People are not going to follow this diet on a everyday basis. Therefore these diets and advice from doctors are more like guidelines to staying healthy. So can you really get cancer from eating potato chips? The answer is hard to determine, but if you stay healthy there is nothing for you to worry about.

Can You Really Get Cancer From Eating Potato Chips?

Exactly, doctors are trying to scare people into taking percussions of almost everything. If we live the life that will "prevent" cancer, then would we be living a life at all? According to the article "How to Live Life to the Max with Beginners Mind," there are steps to living a full life. One of these steps is to "discard failure." This to me means not to have the fear of death or illness. Life of fear is not a life that anyone wants to live. There is a difference in being healthy and being scared of all the things that cause cancer. In a blog that gave tips on how to avoid cancer, the list of things to eat and not to eat limits your diet to just about nothing. You are right when you say "the things we are suppose to give up for prevention of cancer are not only boring, but ridiculous." Be healthy and you will live a long and healthy life and actually live it.

As I mentioned in my both of my previous posts about the hazards of laptops-on-laps, laptops have been reported to cause "toasted skin syndrome", also known as erythema ab igne or "redness by fire."

To counter this threat, I have found a few obvious solutions. First of all, ensure that the vents on your laptops are clean and able to receive and exhaust air. Therefore, do not block the vents by placing the laptop on pillows, or fuzzy blankets; instead work with the laptop on a desk, or other hard surface like a book. Though, it is probably best to invest in a cooling pad in the near future. Secondly, DO NOT use it as a laptop. I cannot stress that enough. Lastly, if you’re not using the laptop, turn it off. By doing this simple task, it will help preserve your battery and keep it from overheating. Also, a laptop can still overheat even in sleep mode.

All in all, laptops are not true to their name in being placed on the lap. Laptops can cause "toasted skin syndrome", also known as erythema ab igne or "redness by fire." It is generally harmless but can cause permanent skin darkening. In very rare occasions, it can cause damage leading to skin cancers. Also, men who used laptops on their laps had elevated scrotum temperatures. In fact, hot laptops have been found to increase the temperature of scrotums up to 35 degrees above the normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees. If prolonged, that kind of heat can decrease sperm production, which can potentially lead to male infertility.

In other words, let's keep our laptops off of our laptops from now on!

Laptops: Not Good For Laps?

As I mentioned in my previous post about this informative subject, laptops have been reported to cause "toasted skin syndrome", also known as erythema ab igne or "redness by fire."

This condition can also be caused by the overuse of heating pads and other heat sources that usually aren't hot enough to cause burns. It is generally harmless but can cause permanent skin darkening. Still, in very rare occasions, it can cause damage leading to skin cancers, as said by Swiss researchers from the University Hospital of Basel. Also, Dr. Anthony J. Mancini, dermatology chief at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, noted that chronic, prolonged skin inflammation can potentially increase chances for squamous cell skin cancer, which is more aggressive than the most common skin cancer.

In this post, I'd like to mention the effects of laptops on the male reproduction system. A medical report several years ago from researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook found that men who used laptops on their laps had elevated scrotum temperatures. In fact, hot laptops have been found to increase the temperature of scrotums up to 35 degrees above the normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees. If prolonged, that kind of heat can decrease sperm production, which can potentially lead to male infertility.

Also, I'd like to mention the fact that a warning is printed in the user manuals of the major laptop manufacturers. These manufacturers include Apple, Hewelett Packard (also known as hp), and Dell, and all of the companies supposedly have a warning that appears in their user manuals against the habit of placing laptops on their laps or exposed skin for extended periods of time because of the risk of burns.

The signs are obvious and, with the increase in the use of laptops recently, the potential for laptops to further increase our risk of cancer in the future is rather eminent. Also, the major manufacturers have made provisions to cover theirbacksides on this issue, therefore, I hope all of you will invest in "lap desk" for your laptop or just choose a regular desk to work on, but, if you don't, you might be paying for cancer treatment in the near future! Or, at least, you might have a permanent discoloration in your skin.

Can You Really Get Cancer From Eating Potato Chips?

The cause of cancer is defined by The American Cancer Society as “a complex group of diseases with many possible causes.” Today, many people are being told that cancer is caused from all the things around you. The little things that you do not think of are the things that are putting you into the most harm. Things such as bottles of water, microwaves, cell phones and potato chips have all been accused of causing different kinds of cancers. News articles have reported that cancer can be caused from anything from genetics to just simply walking down the street. Does this mean that everyone will die from cancer?

Things such as tobacco and radiation are commonly heard for causing cancer. But once giving cancer a closer look, I found that there are so many more things that are said to cause cancer. These items are ones that people on a daily basis would not give a second thought to causing cancer. They consist of using a cell phone, getting hit repeatedly, and dieting. Dieting is the one that people will be the most surprised about. In "The complete list of things that give you cancer," a article by epidemiologists, gum, alcohol, Chinese food, hamburgers, coffee, cokes, bread, baby food, and potato chips are just some of the things within a persons diet that could result in cancer. According to the epidemiologists, scientists that study "the patterns of health and illness in population groups, societies, and cultures", the everyday things that we eat are resulting in cancer .

The death rate of cancer had an all time high in the 1990's. As doctors and scientists have researched and discovered the causes and effects of cancer, the death rates have dropped significantly. This year alone the death rates have dropped twenty-one percent for men and twelve percent for women (American Cancer Society_ Facts and Figures). Scientists have tested items to see their effects on people and find out if they give off any rays that can cause cancer. But can they really know if all these everyday things can cause cancer? Even the American Cancer Society says cancer has many causes. Can the doctors really pinpoint the exact thing in a persons life or diet that caused them to get cancer?

According to The Big Site of Amazing Facts, throughout a year a person consumes five hundred and twenty-five pounds of food. This means about three hundred and sixty thousand pounds are consumed by the time we are seventy. Although cancer attacks people of all ages, the risk of getting cancer increases with age. That means many are consuming hundreds of thousands of food before their diagnosis. Without accurate documentation of all the food consumed through that persons lifetime up to that point, how can the scientists pinpoint the exact part of the diet that caused the cancer?

Although things within dieting can contribute to getting cancer, it is very unlikely for the doctors to say what in your diet caused your particular cancer. Things such as potato chips can give you high cholesterol and that can contribute to heart disease, including heart cancer, but potato chips may not be the only contributing factor. Eating right can help your overall health and keep your immune system high and prevent you from getting sick. The doctors and scientists are really informing people to stay healthy to prevent illness, not to inform them that the things they eat are actually causing cancer.

Laptops: Not Good For Laps?

Have you ever sat your laptop in your lap to work on a project for hours at a time, and you feel it heating up your legs? Well, I suggest you rethink that habit.


ABC News reported on Tuesday, October 5th, a young woman's encounter with "toasted skin syndrome", also known as erythema ab igne. The woman, 24-year-old, Kristin Manigault, said, "It started looking really funny. Then I kind of overlooked it. It started to spread and of course that made me really nervous."

A second case emerged on Yahoo News, where a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterened discoloration on his left thigh after playing computer games a few hours every day for several months was reported in an article in the journal, Pediatrics, by Swiss researchers. UPI also reports that these researchers at the University Hospital Basel in Switzerland say that laptop-induced dermatosis, whcih was first described in 2004, can lead to permanent darkening of the skin and, sometimes, skin cancer.

Yet another case is reported in Yahoo News involved a Virginia law student who needed treatment for the mottled discoloration on her leg. The doctor who treated her, Dr. Kimberly Salkey, was perplexed until she discovered that the student spent about six hours a day working with her laptop on her lap. Its temperature underneath was 125 degrees. This cause was reported in 2007, and is one of the 10 laptop-related cases reported in medical journals in the past six years. As UPI includes, the 10 patients, as published in the journal Pediatrics, had lesions on one or both of their upper legs.

Therefore, unless you're unclear on this subject, please do not work with your laptop on your laps, students. At least, not for extended periods of times because it can cause damaging effects to your skin. So, now that fall is upon us, cover up and stay warm, but not with your laptops!