Five Ways to Lower Your Cancer Risk
by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger
02 Dec 2007 11:02 AM
Here are some tips to help lower your risk of developing cancer -- after all, prevention is the best medicine!
- Cut back on the couch time. And the desk time. And the beanbag chair time. You get the idea -- get moving! Thirty minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week can keep your heart and body healthy. Exercise can also help cut your cancer risk! Lengthen and strengthen your workouts for better cancer protection. Aim for a forty-five to sixty minute workout five days per week to lower your risk of breast cancer by twenty percent. Workouts after menopause can lower your breast cancer risk by ten percent.
- Work on your waistline. People who are overweight or obese are at a higher risk of cancer-related death. Being just twenty pounds overweight can increase your breast cancer risk by fifteen percent.
- Make sure your diet includes plenty of fruits and vegetables. Get five or more servings of fruit every day and you can be up to forty percent less likely to develop colon polyps that can turn into cancer. Add just one more serving of produce to your diet each day and reduce your risk of head and neck cancers by six percent.
- Think long and hard about hormone therapy. Five years ago, the Women's Health Initiative reported that hormone therapy increased a woman's risk of breast cancer. Millions of women stopped hormone therapy and breast cancer rates went down sharply. If you must use hormone therapy, stick to the lowest effective dose and stop as soon as possible.
- Supplement your diet with the right vitamins and minerals. Vitamin D may reduce your risk of breast cancer by as much as fifty percent! Vitamin D with calcium is even better and will protect your body against other cancers (including colon cancer). Folic acid can reduce your risk of breast cancer by forty-five percent.
One more free tip -- if you're a smoker, it's time to quit. At least thirty percent of all cancer deaths are due to smoking! Your cancer risk begins to decrease as soon as you finish that last cigarette, but it takes ten years or more for your body to return to a normal risk level.
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