The latest study says almost one-half of all cancer deaths are attributed to risk factors within your control. Finally, science catches up to what I’ve known all my life.
Dale Shepard, M.D., of Cleveland Clinic did not take part in the study, but says it’s no surprise that many of these factors are bad for our health, but many people dont realize the impact of making healthy lifestyle changes.
Shepard says, “Half of the people who get cancer might be able to prevent death from their cancer had they modified some risk factors.”
The study looked at U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) records of cancer incidence and death for 26 cancer types in adults ages 30+ in year 2014.
They found that these cancers were largely a result of 17 modifiable lifestyle behaviors.
The behavior that had the most negative impact was smoking, but researchers also pointed to factors such as obesity, alcohol intake, poor diet and lack of exercise.
Again, that’s:
OBESITY
ALCOHOL INTAKE
POOR DIET
LACK OF EXERCISE
SMOKING
Dr. Shepard says its important to note that not all cancers can be prevented from lifestyle modifications, but studies like this show that if we do take the necessary steps to improve our overall health, our likelihood of developing certain cancers can be significantly decreased.
”People often times don’t link everyday lifestyle habits to cancer risk in the way that they do to heart disease, but it also holds true for our overall health.Eat a heart healthy diet; get exercise; watch your weight; be active,” says Dr. Shepard.
Those sorts of things are things that people are maybe more used to thinking about with other diseases, but we know that, with studies like this, up to 40 percent of cancers can perhaps be prevented by doing the same things.
Dr. Shepard says its important to remember that the more lifestyle risk factors that are combined, the more a persons risk for cancer increases.
If you drink alcohol, are inactive, are overweight, and have a poor diet, it can add up to a 20 percent increase in risk of cancers pretty quickly, he said.
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Complete study can be found in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
SOURCE: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.21440/full
So remember to make HEALTHY CHOICES daily like following this blog!
Sunday is World Cancer Day. It should be World Health Day!
A day to raise awareness about healthy living. What you focus on expands. Anyone diagnosed or living with cancer NEEDS to focus on health, not illness.
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