LOWERING THE RISKS FOR CANCER

Chances of getting cancer can highly be reduced by lifestyle choices, at individual level, each one has the ability to help reduce the risks of getting cancer through their ways of living. Cancer screening, vaccination and most importantly the right health choices helps in lowering the risks for many common cancer types.

Better Healthy Choices

Cancer risks can be reduced by practicing healthy choices like avoiding tobacco, maintaining the right weight, protecting your skin from the harmful rays of sun and limiting the amount of alcohol.

Lung cancers, mouth, voice box, throat, pancreas, kidney, cervix and bladder cancers have been linked to the use of tobacco. Avoid being around secondhand smoking (SHS) also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as this has also led to many cases of cancer. Chewing of tobacco has also been linked with the cancers of mouth, throat and pancreas. It is therefore important to quit tobacco smoking to help prevent cancer.

• Eating a healthy diet can also help reduce the risks of cancer. Eating plenty of vegetables, fruits and other foods from plant sources like legumes and whole grains; limiting fat from animal sources and refined sugars and eating lighter and lean food
• Limit processed meats. Eating processed meat often can slightly increase the risk of certain types of cancer. This news comes from a report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer agency of the World Health Organization.

People who eat a Mediterranean diet that includes extra-virgin olive oil and mixed nuts might have a reduced risk of breast cancer. The Mediterranean diet focuses mostly on plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts.

Screening

Getting screening tests regularly may find breast, cervical, and colorectal (colon) cancers early, when treatment is likely to work best. Lung cancer screening is recommended for some people who are at high risk.  Screening raises the chances of finding cancer early. That’s when treatment is most likely to succeed.

Vaccination

Vaccines (shots) also help lower cancer risk. The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine helps prevent most cervical cancers and several other kinds of cancer, Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted virus that can lead to cervical cancer and other genital cancers as well as squamous cell cancers of the head and neck. The HPV vaccine is recommended for girls and boys ages 11 and 12. Hepatitis B can increase the risk of developing liver cancer. Adults at high risk of getting hepatitis B are people who have sex with more than one partner, people who have one sexual partner who has sex with others, and people with sexually transmitted infections.