8 Ways to Reduce Your Cancer Risk
1: First and foremost, don't use tobacco.
Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death - with 400,000 Americans dying every year from their own cigarette smoking, and an additional 26,000 - 73,000 nonsmokers dying each year from exposure to secondhand smoke.
Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, card accidents, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides COMBINED!
Of the roughly 416,000 kids who become daily smokers each year, almost a third will utimately die from it. Smokers lose, on average, 13 to 14 years of life because of smoking.
Smoking damages nearly every organ in the human body. It is linked to at least 15 different cancers and accounts for some 30% of all cancer deaths, and 90% of all cases of lung cancer - the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women.
Yet, one in five Americans still lights up. And, nearly every adult who smokes (almost 90 percent) took his or her first puff at or before the age of 18.
What's in a cigarette?
Every time you smoke a cigarette, you inhale more than 60 carcinogens. Here are just a few of the ingredients Big Tobacco has snuck into cigarettes to, among other things, make them more addictive:
Tar - the same thick black substance used to pave roads and driveways. Formaldehyde - used to preserve dead animals, like the frogs you dissected in biology class
Cyanide - the main ingredient in rat poison
Lead - found in some kinds of paint and feared for its ability to cause mental retardation in children
Acetone - a common ingredient in paint and nail polish remover. Have you ever spilled nail polish remover on a table and watched it eat away the varnish?
Ammonia - a household cleaner that takes your breath away when you get too close to it
Carbon monoxide - the pollutant in your car's exhaust
Hydrazine - a chemical used in jets and rocket fuel
Radiation - That's right - polonium-210, one of the world's most radioactive poisons. Big Tobacco is not to blame for putting it there; it's a natural contaminant of tobacco. But Big Tobacco is to blame for knowing it was there and keeping it a secret in order to avoid "waking a sleeping giant," as a Philip Morris memo put it. A recent study by the Mayo Clinic and Stanford University states that polonium exposes smokers of 1.5 packs of cigarettes a day to as much radiation as they would receive from 300 chest X-rays a year.
Think because you don't smoke you're safe? Wrong!
If you inhale smoke from someone else's cigarette, you are compromising your health. Scientific evidence shows that there is no "safe" level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is classified as a "known human carcinogen," and each year about 3,000 nonsmokers die of lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke.
Menthol, & low-tar cigarettes are just as bad for you
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say the tobacco industry manipulates menthol levels in specific brands and engages in deliberate strategies to recruit and addict young smokers and African-American smokers. They've also created sweet and flavored cigarettes to draw in youngsters.
Call to quit - today!
If you or someone you love uses tobacco, call 1.800.ACS (227).2345 to get the help you need to quit. Or, visit www.cancer.org/smokeout.
Books to make your blood boil
If you'd like to read more about how Big Tobacco hoodwinked the public and made billions of dollars while sacrificing public health, here are some great reads:
The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America
by Allan M. Brandt (nominee for 2008 Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction)
Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris
by Richard Kluger (1999 Pulitizer Prize winner in general non-fiction)
A Question Of Intent: A Great American Battle With A Deadly Industry
by David Kessler
The People vs. Big Tobacco: How the States Took On the Cigarette Giants
by Carrick Mollenkamp, Adam Levy, Joseph Menn, Adam Levy, Joseph Menn
Ending the Tobacco Holocaust: How Big Tobacco Affects Our Health, Pocketbook and Political Freedom--And What We Can Do About It
by Michael Rabinoff
2. Maintain a healthy weight throughout life.
In the United States, overweight and obesity contribute to 14% - 20% of all cancer deaths. Being overweight is clearly associated with increased risk of developing many cancers, including breast (in postmenopausal women), colon, endometrium, kidney, and esophagus, and it is suspected to raise the risk of other types of cancer, as well.
The best way to reduce body fat is to restrict calorie intake and increase physical activity. To reduce calories, reduce your portion sizes (ditch the supersizing), avoid high-calorie foods such as fried foods, cookies, cakes, candy, ice cream, and soft drinks. If you have pounds you need to shed, we can help.
What's the deal with fat?
Well, for one thing, fat tissue increases estrogen levels and high estrogen levels increase breast cancer risk, particularly in postmenopausal women. Obesity also leads to high levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) in the circulation. This could prevent early-stage cancer cells scattered throughout the body from dying, since insulin-like growth factor inhibits the action of cell suicide genes. Fat cells also release inflammatory chemicals into the circulation that can stimulate the growth of cancer cells. The good news is that regular or moderate exercise lowers the levels of inflammation and IGF-1 -- even if the exercise does not lead to a healthy weight. And, regular exercise also lowers blood-estrogen levels in women, helping protect against breast cancer.
Being overweight in youth tends to continue throughout life, so keeping a healthy (not obsessive) watch on your weight is a good thing. This segues beautifully into our next recommendation.
3. Adopt a physically active lifestyle.
- Adults: Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, above usual activities, on 5 or more days of the week; 45 to 60 minutes of intentional physical activity are preferable.
- Children and adolescents: Engage in at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity at least 5 days per week.
Tools You Can Use
Body Mass Index (BMI) Calculator
Calorie Counter
Exercise Counts
Target Heart Rate Calculator
Nutrition and Activity Quiz
4. Eat real food
Have you ever read the label on packaged foods? It's sometimes hard to figure out what the actual food is inside. The more unprocessed your food is, the better. We recommend you:
- Eat 5 or more servings of vegetables and fruits each day. (This isn't as hard as you think. One serving equals 1 medium apple, banana, orange, etc.; 1/2 cup of chopped, cooked, or canned fruit; 1 cup of raw, leafy vegetables; and 1/2 cup of other cooked or raw vegetables, chopped.) The brighter the vegetable the more antioxidants it contains. Antioxidants include vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids, and many phytochemicals that help prevent damage to cells in the body from chemical reactions with oxygen. Whether they actually reduce cancer risk is open to debate.
- Limit French fries, chips, and other fried vegetable products, and avoid all trans fats. Major sources of trans fats are margarines and snack foods that contain partially hydrogenated oils, but fortunately trans fats are disappearing from foods, as well as restaurant fare in such cities as New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.
- Choose whole grain rice, bread, pasta, and cereals over processed (refined) products.
- Limit intake of refined carbohydrates (starches), such as pastries, sweetened cereals, and other high-sugar foods.
- Limit intake of processed meats and red meats - both linked to colon cancer.
- Choose fish, poultry, or beans instead of beef, pork, and lamb.
- When you eat meat, choose lean cuts and eat smaller portions.
- Prepare meat by baking, broiling, or poaching, rather than by frying or charbroiling. Cooking meat and fish at high temperatures causes cancer-causing agents to form. One way to alleviate this is to marinade your food in a lemon or vinegar-based mixture before you put it on the grill, and avoid having the fire flare up.
5. If you drink alcoholic beverages, limit your intake.
Drink no more than 1 drink per day if you are a woman, and no more than 2 per day if you are a man. Alcohol consumption is an established cause of cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, and breast. Regular consumption of even a few drinks per week has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women, and a new study suggests that no amount of alcohol is safe for women. How alcohol affects breast cancer is not clear. It may be because alcohol increases estrogen levels in the blood, reduces folic acid, or has a direct effect on breast tissue.
Read more about cancer and alcohol.
6. Play it safe in the sun
More than 1 million skin cancers are diagnosed each year in the United States. That's more than cancers of the prostate, breast, lung, colon, uterus, ovaries, and pancreas combined.
Most skin cancers are caused by too much exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays. Much of this exposure comes from the sun, but some may come from manmade sources, such as tanning beds. Follow these practical steps -- they provide the best protection when used together:
- Cover up: When you are out in the sun, wear clothing to protect as much skin as possible. The ideal sun-protective fabrics are lightweight, comfortable, and protect against exposure even when wet.
- Use a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or higher. If it's more than 2 years old, replace it. Look for one that protects against a 'broad spectrum' of the sun's rays.
- Use 1 ounce of sunscreen (a "palmful") to cover your arms, legs, neck, and face. For best results, reapply every 2 hours -- even more if you are swimming or sweating. Apply it a half hour before going outdoors. Don't forget to protect your lips by using a lip balm with SPF. And don't skip it just because it looks overcast outside: UV light still comes through on hazy days.
- Wear a hat: A hat with at least a 2- to 3-inch brim all around is ideal to protect your neck, ears, eyes, forehead, nose, and scalp.
- Wear sunglasses that block UV rays: Invest in a pair of wrap-around sunglasses with at least 99% UV absorption to block damaging UVA and UVB light.
- Limit direct sun exposure during midday: UV rays are most intense during the middle of the day, usually between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. It's best to plan your outdoor activities outside that timeframe, if possible.
- Avoid tanning beds and sunlamps: Tanning lamps give out UVA and frequently UVB rays, as well. Both UVA and UVB rays can cause serious long-term skin damage, and both contribute to skin cancer. Our advice: skip the tanning bed and try a bronzing lotion or self-tanning cream.
Listen to an American Cancer Society podcast about enjoying the sun - safely.
Take the sun safety quiz.
7. Find out if you're a good candidate for the HVP vaccination.
HPV is short for human papilloma (pap-uh-LO-mah) virus. HPVs are a group of more than 100 related viruses, each with a number which denotes its type. HPVs are called papilloma viruses because some of them cause warts, or papillomas, which are non-cancerous tumors. Genital HPV is transmitted mainly by direct genital contact. Infection is very common soon after a woman becomes sexually active. In one recent study, more than 50% of college-age women were found to have acquired an HPV infection within 4 years of first having sex.
Genital HPV is a very common virus. Some doctors think it is almost as common as the common cold virus. In the United States, more than 6 million people (men and women) get an HPV infection every year. Almost half of the infections are in people between 15 and 25 years of age. About one-half to three-fourths of the people who have ever had sex will have HPV at some time in their life.
What are the symptoms of HPV?
Genital HPV usually has no symptoms, unless it is a type that causes genital warts. Genital warts may occur within weeks or months after contact with a partner who has HPV. More rarely, genital warts may occur years after exposure.
Most people will never know they have HPV because they have no symptoms and the body's immune system causes the virus to become inactive. A small percentage of people with HPV will have the virus for a longer time and will develop cell changes that over many years may lead to cervical or other genital or anal cancers.
How is HPV related to cervical cancer?
Almost all cervical cancers (more than 99 %) are related to HPV. Of these, about 70% are caused by HPV types 16 or 18. About 500,000 pre-cancerous cell changes of the cervix, vagina, and vulva are diagnosed each year in the United States, and over half are related to HPV 16 and 18. Low-grade cervix cell changes are caused by a variety of HPV types, including 16, 18, 6, or 11.
In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine to prevent HPV in 2006. The American Cancer Society recommends:
- Routine HPV vaccination for girls 11 to 12 years old. (Girls as young as age 9 can get the HPV vaccination.)
- HPV vaccination for females 13 to 18 years old who have not yet started the series of vaccinations or who need to complete the vaccination series.
At this time there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against vaccinating all 19- to 26-year-old females. For the greatest benefit, the vaccine should be given before there is a possible exposure to genital HPV through sex. The more sexual partners a woman has had, the less likely the vaccine will be of benefit.
A decision about whether a woman aged 19 to 26 years should get the vaccine should be based on an informed discussion between the woman and her health care provider.
8. Be Proactive -- Get screened
For people aged 20 or older having periodic health exams, a cancer-related checkup should include health counseling, and depending on a person's age and gender, might include exams for cancers of the thyroid, oral cavity, skin, lymph nodes, testes, and ovaries, as well as for some non-malignant (non-cancerous) diseases.
All women should begin cervical cancer screening about 3 years after they begin having intercourse, but no later than age 21 years of age. Screening should be done every year with the regular Pap test or every 2 years using the newer liquid-based Pap test. The Pap test, named after Dr. George Papanicolaou who designed it, is a screening test to collect and microscopically examine cells taken from the cervix, the lower, narrow part of the uterus (womb) located between the bladder and the rectum.
Click here to read a more comprehensive list of screening tests men and women should get, and when.
We have a free email mammogram reminder to alert women 40 and older to schedule their yearly mammogram. Share it with your mom!
Keep up with cancer news
If you are interested in keeping up with cancer issues, read Dr. Len's Blog (www.cancer.org/drlen ). Dr. Lichtenfeld is deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society. He directs the Society’s Cancer Control Science Department, which produces the Society’s widely recognized guidelines for the prevention and early detection of cancer and guidelines for nutrition and physical activity for cancer survivors.
Click here to read his remarks about alcohol and cancer.
Don't believe everything you read: Rumors, myths, and truths
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If you ever have questions or concerns about cancer, call the American Cancer Society
24/7, 365 days a year at:
1.800.227.2345. We can help.
