Prevention for Cancer

If you’re interested in preventing cancer, take comfort in the truth that easy lifestyle changes can make a variation. Consider these cancer-prevention tips.

1. Eat a healthy diet

Although making healthy choices at the grocery store and mealtime can’t support cancer prevention, it might decrease your risk. Consider these guidelines:

• Eat lots of fruits and greens. Base your diet on fruits, greens and other foods from plant sources — such as whole grains and beans.
• Avoid obesity. Eat lighter and leaner by choosing fewer high-calorie foods, including polished sugars and fat from animal sources.
• Limit processed meats. A report from the cancer agency of the WHO concluded that consuming large amounts of processed meat can slightly increase the risk of certain types of cancer.

In addition, women who eat a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil and different nuts might have a reduced risk of breast cancer. The Mediterranean diet focuses mostly on plant-based foods, such as fruits and greens, whole grains, legumes, and nuts. People who follow the Mediterranean diet choose healthy fats, such as olive oil, over butter and fish instead of red meat.

2. Don’t use tobacco

Using any kind of tobacco puts you on a disaster course with cancer. Smoking has been connected to different types of cancer — including cancer of the lung, mouth, throat, larynx, pancreas, bladder, cervix and kidney. Chewing tobacco has been connected to cancer of the oral cavity and pancreas. Even if you don’t use tobacco, exposure to secondhand smoke might raise your risk of lung cancer.

3. Maintain a normal weight and be physically active

Maintaining a healthy weight might reduce the chance of several types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, prostate, lung, colon, and kidney.

Physical activity counts, too. In addition to helping you control your weight, physical activity on its own might reduce the risk of breast cancer and colon cancer.

4. Avoid risky behaviors

Another useful cancer prevention tactic is to avoid risky behaviors that can lead to diseases that, in turn, might raise the risk of cancer. For example:

• Practice safe courtship. Limit your number of intimate partners and use a condom when you have sex. The more sexual partners you have in your lifetime, the more likely you are to get a sexually spread infection — such as HIV or HPV. People who have HIV or AIDS have a bigger risk of cancer of the anus, liver, and lung. HPV is most often linked with cervical cancer, but it might also raise the chance of cancer of the anus, penis, throat, vulva, and vagina.
• Don’t share needles. Sharing needles with people who use intravenous drugs can lead to HIV, as well as hepatitis B and hepatitis C — which can raise the risk of liver cancer. If you’re concerned about drug misuse or habit, ask expert help.

5. Get regular medical care

Routine self-exams and screenings for different kinds of cancers — such as cancer of the skin, colon, cervix, and breast — can raise your chances of finding cancer early, when treatment is most likely to be successful. Ask the surgeon about the best cancer screening schedule for you.

Screening for Cancer

Screening tests can help find cancer at an early stage before symptoms appear. When abnormal tissue or cancer is found early, it may be easier to treat or cure. By the time symptoms appear, the cancer may have grown and spread. This can make cancer harder to treat or cure.

It is necessary to remember that when your surgeon recommends a screening test, it does not always mean he or she thinks you have cancer. Screening tests are performed when you have no cancer signs.

Is screening for cancer helpful?

Between 3% and 35% of cancer deaths could be avoided through screening.

The risk of developing many kinds of cancer can be reduced by practicing good lifestyle habits, such as consuming a healthy diet, getting daily exercise, and not smoking. Also, the earlier a cancer is detected and treatment starts, the better the chances are that the treatment will be successful.

It’s important to understand even though most screening tests are noninvasive or minimally invasive, some do present little risks of serious difficulties. Some tests can also generate false-positives, which may lead to stress and additional invasive diagnostic procedures.

Even with some potential drawbacks, cancer screenings should be a vital part of your health care. the surgeons recommend screening people of average risk for colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, and breast cancer.

Deciding to participate in a cancer screening is a personal health choice that should be based on a discussion between you and your surgeon.