6 Ways to Lower Your Cancer Risk
By Living Better on June 25, 2020
Cancer touches everybody in one way or another and can often strike the most unexpected people at the most unexpected of times. However, there are a number of ways that you can change your lifestyle to lower your own cancer risk and inspire others to do the same. Thankfully, an estimated 15.5 million people survived cancer in the USA in 2016, but with approximately 38.4% of men and women likely to be diagnosed with the disease at some point in their lifetimes, it is critical that work continues to be done to increase survivor numbers.
Quit smoking
Quitting smoking is one of the most accepted methods of reducing your risk of cancer. In the United States, cigarette smoking is linked to around 80% to 90% of lung cancer deaths, so it is little wonder that, in 2015, about 70% of adult smokers in the country wanted to quit.
It is an incredibly difficult aspect of your life to change but doing so will dramatically increase your chances of staying healthy.
Get regular screenings
Getting regular screenings increases the chances of finding cancer early and getting it treated, improving your chances of making a full recovery. With advanced cancer treatments like curcumin IV therapy available, identifying the disease early and treating it straight away is the most effective way of combatting it.
Drink less
Alcohol consumption is another habit linked to the development of cancers in the mouth and throat, larynx, esophagus, colon and rectum, liver, and breasts. The link is so clear, in fact, that it is thought that drinking one alcoholic drink per day can increase the risk of breast cancer by 5%, while it is as high as 30% for esophageal cancer. If you drink regularly, introducing alcohol-free days or weeks to your life will reduce your risks.
Exercise regularly
In general, staying fit and healthy is the best way of reducing the risks of any disease. Research in the United States and Europe showed higher rates of exercise resulted in lower rates of cancer, likely due to how exercise changes the body: less inflammation, better immune functions, and higher levels of natural antioxidants.
Protect yourself
Protecting yourself against external factors is a simple way of reducing adverse effects on your health, including cancer risks. The biggest example of this is the sun, which can cause skin cancer through damage to DNA and skin cells from UV radiation. Staying in the shade and using sun lotion with a high sun protection factor (SPF) are the easiest ways to do this.
Eat less processed and red meat
Chemicals found in processed meats that make it last longer (nitrates and nitrites), as well as the pigment found naturally in red meat (haem), can both lead to increased cancer risks. This is also true of heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic amines (PCAs) that are produced when meat is cooked at high temperatures, which can damage the bowel.
Therefore, cutting down on eating these types of meats can help keep you healthy. If turning vegetarian or vegan is too much of a jump from your current lifestyle, simply implementing meat-free days (like the aforementioned alcohol-free days) will still begin to reduce your risk.
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