Keys to Success for Cancer Prevention and Survivorship
Someone once said to me, teaching people to prevent cancer is simple: You need to eat a balanced diet, exercise daily and maintain a healthy weight. Sure, simple, but not so easy to do! What about those who want to prevent cancer from coming back, again? The same lifestyle applies.
The Lifestyle
Let's face it, one-third of cancers are related to factors beyond our control, such as family history, environmental pollution and occupational exposures. Most interestingly, only about 5 percent of all cancers are due to family history (American Cancer Society Facts & Figures, 2007), something many people think is one of the main factors associated with cancer.
When it comes to lifestyle factors, two-thirds are within our control. One-third is related to smoking and heavy alcohol use. The other third is related to our level of physical activity, our weight and our diet. We're going to focus on helping you find easy ways to maximize your cancer prevention and survivorship potential through these lifestyle factors.
Ask yourself, "Do I have the keys to prevent the initiation, promotion and/or progression of cancer?" The answer is "Yes, you do. We all do!"
Key No. 1: Daily Moderate-Intensity Physical Activity
Believe it or not, our activity level can influence our ability to control factors that impact our health. Current recommendations are to exercise at least 30 minutes per day and increase our heart rate most days of the week. This is what is meant by "moderate-intensity" exercise. To get started, visit the Center for Disease Control website for an easy plan.
Key No. 2: Maintaining a Healthy Weight
Study after study has demonstrated that there is a significant relationship between excess weight/obesity and the risk of cancer. Specifically, the risk of colon, prostate and breast cancer increases with elevated body-mass-index (BMI). Also, it has been shown that women who have survived breast cancer are at a greater risk for developing colon cancer if they are overweight. To find out if you are within a healthy weight, visit the National Institutes of Health BMI calculator.
Key No. 3: Optimal Nutrition
The important fact is the food that we eat -- good or bad -- has an effect on our hormone levels and on the genes associated with cancer initiation, promotion and progression. The cancer prevention potential of foods such as berries, broccoli and tomatoes are well documented. Including these foods in our diet can be delicious and healthful ways to positively impact our health and life. These foods provide an abundant source of protective antioxidants such as lycopene, polyphenols and vitamins A and C and are good sources of fiber.
There is much more to come on these and many other foods In the coming weeks. There will also be articles dealing with the "Cancer Continuum" and the many opportunities we have to reduce our risk of cancer and/or cancer recurrence. We will be focusing on making the current research on nutrition and cancer easy, fun and delicious!
LIVE TO EAT. EAT TO LIVE.
LIVESTRONG!
Member Comments
by AndyMiller on June 23, 2008 at 3:09 PM
Great article Chris. Too often, people want to focus on pills or shortcuts to improve their health or well-being, only to be disappointed when they don't live up to the promised results. We always seem to come back to the old "tried and true" ways though -- eat a balanced diet of real foods, be physically active, maintian a healthy weight. It may not be sexy or fast, but it works nearly all the time.
by tinalyons on January 13, 2009 at 8:47 AM
I fully believe that avoiding stress whenever you can helps, too. But as a 3-time primary brain tumor survivor, I don't think there's anything I can actually do to prevent recurrence. As for potential other cancers, in my case that would probably be the result of chemo and radiation for the brain tumors. So it's a bit of a catch-22. But I take - and fully enjoy - each day as it comes.
by denysedrebro on January 13, 2009 at 10:41 AM
As a 4 year breast cancer survivor, I fully believe in taking control of my own body and health. Yes, most cancers are not genetic as mine was, and at 31 yrs old it was the last thing I was thinking about. In some cases there is not much that you can do to prevent it or prevent a recurrence, however, I believe that improving our health also improves our well being and exercise, healthy weight and eating right helps our minds more than we know. If I cannot control whether or not I will get cancer, then I want to do as much as I can for my mind and body in order to fight it. There is a lot of healing power in a healthy body and positive thinking.