8 Ways to Lower Your Cancer Risk
You’ve seen the hype-filled headlines: “The Cancer Prevention Diet!”
“Slash Your Risk of Cancer
in Half in Just Minutes a Day!” Is it true that you can cut your cancer
risk with simple choices you make every day?
Well, there’s nothing
magic about cancer
prevention, no “killer app” that can instantly keep you healthy. Genetics play
a big role in cancer,
so even if you try to live a perfectly healthy life, it’s possible that you may
develop cancer.
But experts estimate that at least a third of all adult cancer
cases are linked to lifestyle, which is within your control.
With every healthy choice you make -- and every unhealthy habit
you drop -- you’re chipping away at your cancer risk. Here are eight of the
healthiest habits you can develop to help prevent cancer (plus a ninth one that
experts are still cautious about).
1. Be Smoke Free.
Lung
cancer kills more women and men in the U.S. than any other cancer --
28% of all cancer deaths, or about 160,000 people every year. The vast majority
of those deaths are due to smoking.
And that’s just lung
cancer. Smoking
has also been linked to more than a dozen other cancers and accounts for 30% of
all cancer deaths overall.
That's why many doctors will tell you that the biggest
anti-cancer step you can take is to stop
smoking, or never start. But even if you’re having trouble quitting
entirely, you can reduce your cancer risk significantly by just cutting back.
A study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical
Association in 2010 found that smokers who cut back from about 20
cigarettes per day to less than 10 per day reduced their lung cancer risk by
27%. It’s a good first step, but don't stop there; quit completely for your
health's sake.
Even if you’re a nonsmoker, don’t assume smoke isn’t permeating
your life. About 3,000 cases of lung cancer each year occur as a result of
exposure to secondhand
smoke, and there are strong indicators that other cancers may be linked
to secondhand smoke as well.
1. Be Smoke Free. continued...
“If you’re in a closed bar or nightclub and 100 people in there
are smoking,
you might as well be,” says Mack Ruffin IV, MD, MPH, a professor in the
department of family medicine at the University of Michigan and an expert in
preventive oncology. “If you leave a bar and your clothes are smelling of tobacco,
you’ve inhaled a lot of cigarette smoke.”
So think twice before
spending regular nights out in smoke-filled clubs, or letting your child ride
home regularly with someone who smokes in the car.
2. Don't Weight.
Many people probably know that carrying too much weight
around isn’t good for your heart, but did you
know that it’s a major risk factor for cancer as well? Obesity is the
culprit behind some 14% of cancer deaths, and more than 3% of new cancer cases,
every year.
“Our No. 1 recommendation for cancer risk reduction is to stay as
lean as possible within a healthy weight range. This may be one of the most
important ways to prevent cancer,” says Alice Bender, MS, RD, manager of nutrition communications at
the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR).
In November 2007, the AICR put out an expert report summarizing how food, nutrition, and physical activity
affect cancer and cancer prevention. Being overweight,
according to the AICR report, is linked to a wide variety of cancers, including
esophageal, pancreatic, gall bladder,
breast,
endometrial, and kidney
cancers.
3. Bust a Move.
All forms of physical
activity help to prevent many forms of cancer, according to the AICR Expert
Report. You may not get six-pack abs with 30 minutes of moderate exercise every
day, but a number of studies have found evidence that just this much physical
activity can cut your risk of many common cancers by 30% to 50%.
“It doesn’t matter that much what kind of exercise you do, or when -- just do it,” Ruffin says. “Let’s correlate it to smoking. If you can cut your weight down to a healthy range, increase your physical activity, and increase your fruit and vegetable intake. That’s the equivalent to stopping smoking if you were a smoker. People don’t understand how important these factors are, 4. Plant Your Plate.
There are a number of different foods that may help to prevent
certain types of cancer. “For example, tomatoes, watermelon, and other foods
containing lycopene have evidence showing that they probably reduce the risk of
prostate cancer,”
Bender says.
But if you’re aiming to
slice your risk of many cancers across the board, load your plate with plants,
particularly non-starchy vegetables and fruits. That’s why the AICR report’s
No. 4 recommendation is to eat mostly foods that come from plants -- at least
14 ounces every day. The Mediterranean
diet, St. Tropez diet, and the green diet all are based on a diet rich in fruits and
vegetables. Diets that tend to prevent cancer are rich in plant-based
foods.
AICR’s “new American plate” plan offers an easy cheat sheet on
eating to prevent cancer. Fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains should
cover two-thirds of your plate; the other one-third should contain lean meats,
fish, and low-fat dairy.
5. Drop the Drink.
When it comes to health, alcohol wields a double-edged sword.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that light alcohol consumption,
especially red wine,may be beneficial for heart health.
But on the other hand, it appears that any alcohol consumption can raise your
risk of cancer.
“For cancer, there is no safe level of alcohol,” Bender says.
“It’s a dose response: The more you drink, the greater the risk, especially for
certain cancers like those of the mouth, throat,
and esophagus.”
And if you smoke, too, the combined effects of drinking and smoking shoot your
risk for these up even higher.
What to do? Both the AICR expert report and the American Cancer
Society recommend that women limit alcohol consumption to no more than one
drink per day, and men no more than two.
6. Shake Off Stress.
“People always want to know if stress can raise your cancer
risk,” Ruffin says. “There’s no convincing evidence that, by itself, stress is
an independent risk factor for cancer. But what it cando is lead people to
engage in unhealthy behavior in an effort to cope with stress. If you’re
overeating, drinking, or smoking to self-medicate your stress away, those
behaviors all raise your cancer risk.”
So instead, Ruffin recommends finding healthy ways of coping
with stress, like exercise (which helps to reducecancer risk), meditation, and journaling.
because they creep up over your life span.”
7. Pull Down the Screens.
Many screening tests for various cancers, like mammograms and prostate-specific
antigen (PSA)
testing, don’t actually prevent cancer -- they just catch it at a very early
stage, when it may be more treatable.
But other tests, like
Pap tests and colonoscopies, can help detect precancerous changes that, if left
untreated, can turn into cervical cancer
or colon cancer.
There are many confusing messages about what screening tests
different people should use, and when. Instead of trying to figure it out on
your own, Ruffin says, talk to your doctor about your individual situation.
Take screening mammograms, for instance. The question isn’t
“Should women under 50 get mammograms?” but “Should I,given my own personal
situation and family health history, start mammograms before 50?”
“And don’t think one conversation is enough,” Ruffin says.
“Things about your health situation change, and so does our knowledge about
cancer and screening. Ask your doctor about it this year, and next year, and
the year after that.”
8. Dig Your Roots.
Ruffin advises all of his patients to learn their family health
histories in detail. “Family history is where we can really create a
personalized strategy for cutting cancer risk and catching it early,” he says.
“But it’s a piece I don’t think people bring up nearly often enough.”
So next time you have a family reunion, make it a project to
gather information on who’s had what health condition and when. “Gather on
Skype or Facebook or face to face and talk about this,” Ruffin says.
The Surgeon General’s Family Health History
Initiative lets you create a personalized diagram that you can download to
keep on your own computer, or copy and share with other family members to keep
the info flowing.
9. Aspirin -- Maybe, and with a Dose of Caution.
Should you take aspirin
to prevent cancer? The jury’s still out, but at least some evidence points that
way. A large study published in 2010 found that daily use of low-dose aspirin
can cut the risk of death due to certain cancers (primarily lung, colorectal, and
esophageal
cancer) by as much as 21%.
But regular aspirin use can come with side effects, especially stomach
bleeding and irritation. Most experts say it’s way too soon to recommend a
cancer-fighting aspirin a day.
“We’d all like preventing cancer to be as easy as taking a little
pill, but the fact is that you’ll reduce your cancer risk much more by
maintaining a healthy weight, exercising, and eating fruits
and vegetables than you will by taking aspirin,” Ruffin says.
Talk to your doctor before you start taking aspirin on a regular
basis for any reason.
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