Top 5 Cancer Risk Factors (that you have complete control over)

 Here are the top 5 risk factors for developing cancer, and most importantly since every one of these is fixable, we’re going to address what you can do about them. Between 30% and 50% of all cancers are preventable with simple lifestyle changes. This information is not intended as medical advice. Talk with your doctor before beginning any new health practice.

Transcript:

Hi everyone!  I’m Dr. Lisa Schwartz and this is Cancer Straight Talk.  Today we are going to talk about the top 5 risk factors for developing cancer and most importantly since every one of these is fixable, we’re going to address what you can do about them.  It’s no secret that cancer is both prevalent and frightening.  There’s hardly anyone that I know that hasn’t been touched by cancer in a family member or friend or neighbor or even as a cancer survivor themselves.  In fact, there will be over 14 million new cancer cases worldwide just this year...and over 8 million people will die of cancer this year alone.  That, my friends, is a significant public health problem, it’s a significant threat to society, it’s a significant use of our medical resources, and most importantly it’s a significant cause of suffering and loss.

But fortunately the problem of cancer is not insurmountable.  I promise this video won’t be a complete downer.  While we certainly don’t know what causes all cancer, we do know what causes a large number of cancers.  And that’s the good news, because it turns out that we as individuals have absolute control over the causes of about 30% of all cancers (at least in the US…and that would probably apply to most developed nations as well).  That 30% is an estimate that’s been quoted for at least a couple of decades, but it doesn’t matter what the exact figure is…The point is that you want to prevent cancer in you and the people you care about.  And if it happens to you, then it’s 100% so any reduction in that risk is a really good thing.

The best way I know to deal with this problem of cancer is to prevent it in the first place.  As an oncologist, I do everything I can for my patients to prevent the cancer from coming back because if it does...it’s a much more difficult animal to deal with.  By the same logic, it would make sense that you would want to do everything you can to keep from getting cancer so you never have to deal with trying to get rid of it.  By the end of this video, you will have 5 tried and true, evidence based, tested over time ways to reduce your chances of ever getting cancer in the first place.  So let’s get started…

What is the number 1 modifiable habit that causes cancer?  What’s that…yep, you’re right, smoking. There has been an identifiable link between smoking and cancer since at least the 1930’s but it wasn’t until the Surgeon General’s warning in 1964 that any kind of public education was done to warn people about the hazards of smoking.  The Camel cigarette was introduced in 1913 so we had over 50 years of experience with smoking and yet the tobacco industry was still able to convince us that somehow smoking was sophisticated, cool, and something young healthy people did…or handsome cowboys.  But once the Surgeon General warned that cigarettes were bad for you, a lot of people listened.  It is estimated that about 8 million premature deaths have been averted and the average life span has been increased by 20 years just because of this warning and public education effort.  Smoking causes a lot of other problems besides cancer too but we’ll leave that for another time.  Lung cancer is the big one caused by smoking.  About 90% of lung cancer is caused by smoking.  Other cancers are associated with smoking too including head and neck cancer, esophageal cancer, bladder cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic, stomach, leukemia…just to name a few.  And none of those are fun by the way—they are all pretty significant.  The good news is that your risk of cancer does decrease when you quit smoking and continues to decrease the longer you are tobacco free.  So that’s a clear habit that you can change that will significantly decrease your risk of cancer.  Now there is not enough time to cover it completely here but I often get asked about 1. Ecigarettes or vaping and 2. Smoking pot.  Let me just say that first of all, these two modalities for consuming smoke and burnt particles haven’t been around long enough (or legal long enough) for us to really know the damage that you are doing.  However, look at it this way…there is not ONE component of cigarette smoke that we have determined is the cause of cancer…there are at least 79!!! That means 79 different chemicals that each one individually is capable of causing cancer. Some people want to say that since pot is not tobacco it can’t be that bad for you.  Well… There are at least 79 carcinogens in cigarette smoke!!!  Now do you really think that inhaling smoke from a plant that is not tobacco or some vaporized liquid containing a bunch of chemicals is going to be safe????

Ok now I know I spent a lot of time on smoking but really it is probably the most important thing you can avoid to prevent cancer.  It’s just a no brainer.

Next up is...Nutrition.  Eat a healthy diet.  Now the problem comes in defining exactly what that is.  It seems that every time you turn around our food recommendations are changing.  Well, that’s partly because it is so difficult to do studies on the long term health effects of a particular food or category of food.  The studies would have to completely account for all the other lifestyle factors that may contribute to or protect you from a particular disease and often these nutritional studies rely on a person’s memory of what they had to eat over the last day or several days.  Now I can remember what I had for breakfast, but beyond that it gets a little sketchy.  But in spite of all that there are some generalizations that we can make about food and cancer. 

First of all, alcohol does increase your risk of cancer.  I know this is a grave disappointment for many of you.  But we also can’t ignore the evidence that alcohol decreases your risk of heart disease.  So it just depends on balancing your risks and benefits here. If for some reason you are at high risk for cancer, it might be wise to avoid alcohol altogether.   I don’t know what a “safe” amount of alcohol would be because the studies are really all over the map.  So this is a prime example of being frustrated with what studies can teach us about good nutrition.  It is safe to say however that you should certainly avoid alcohol in excess.

Next come fruits and veggies.  This advice is simple…eat more.  We do know from large population studies that diets with a high consumption of fruits and vegetables lead to lower rates of death from many causes, not just cancer.  So this is a pretty safe recommendation that has been borne out by study after study.  Fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients and cannot necessarily be replaced by a pill.  They are very nutrient dense without many calories.  And the evidence suggests that a high consumption during childhood and adolescence is most beneficial in preventing cancer…so make your kids learn to love fruits and vegetables.

Next up is refined carbohydrates and sugars.  Let me emphasize that I’m talking about refined/processed carbohydrates NOT all carbohydrates.  In fact whole grains probably have a protective effect when it comes to cancer.  So how do you know what a refined carbohydrate is?  Well, if it didn’t come out of the ground or off a tree or bush then it is probably refined in some way.  Another way to look at this is with the Glycemic Index measure.  Foods that have a high glycemic index will release their sugars faster and cause a spike in insulin.  This spike in insulin happening over and over again is really unhealthy and we could spend an entire post just talking about that.  But what you need to know is that high glycemic foods should be avoided.  To know what these are just google glycemic index and there are lots of resources that will give you that measure for various foods.

And lastly, there is emerging evidence that vitamin D may have a special role in cancer prevention (and other disease prevention as well) compared to other vitamins.  Many primary care physicians are including vitamin D levels in routine bloodwork and it is certainly reasonable to ask that yours be checked.

Now after nutrition we have two risk factors that are so closely related that I’m going to discuss them together.  And those are obesity and physical activity. Physical activity decreases your risk of cancer and obesity increases your risk.  While there is a lot of overlap in the physiologic processes related to both of these conditions, there are probably independent reasons for the impact of each of these conditions as well.  Physical activity means anything that results in energy expenditure.  But clearly 30 minutes of deskwork while it does burn calories is not the same as 30 minutes of running.  So when I talk about physical activity I mean that activity which is done for the purpose of getting some exercise.  Now if you are a construction worker you are likely meeting the definition of physical activity even though you don’t consider your work exercise.  But most of us are pretty sedentary.  In fact less than 5% of the US population gets 30 min of physical activity per day.  An even scarier statistic might be that almost 70% of the US population is considered overweight or obese.  Especially given how difficult it can be to lose weight. What impact do these two things have on the body and potential causes of cancer?  Let’s look at physical activity:

·       it boosts the immune system and we know the immune system plays a critical role in patrolling the body for cancer cells,

·       it increases insulin sensitivity meaning that your body will respond more normally to sugar loads,

·        it controls the production of growth factors which when overstimulated can increase your risk of cancer and other diseases,

·       It decreases obesity and central storage of fat around your middle,

·       It optimizes DNA repair capabilities,

·       And decreases something called oxidative stress which can lead to DNA damage and cancer

Obesity decreases your body’s ability to properly regulate insulin production and the production of growth factors.  It also increases the production of steroid hormones which increases the risk of steroid dependent cancers.  

And finally—I’ve been saving the best for last…the last risk factor that you can control is inflammation.  But you say, wait isn’t inflammation a good thing—helping to fight infections and heal wounds??  Well, those processes are part of the body’s acute inflammatory response and yes they are helpful.  But what is not helpful is chronic low grade inflammation.  This plays a role at every stage of cancer development from the initial DNA damage to uncontrolled growth of the cancer cells to invasion and metastasis of the cancer cells.  And on top of all that, this inflammation makes cancer cells more resistant to chemotherapy and radiation so that they are harder to kill in this environment.

 So what causes chronic low grade inflammation??…1. Smoking, 2. Poor nutrition, 3. Lack of physical activity, and 4. You guessed it Obesity!  All of these things make it more likely that you will get cancer and make it more difficult to treat.

So I promised by the end of this video I would give you 5 tools to be able to prevent a significant number of cancers. 

1.       Don’t smoke

2.       Eat a healthy diet

3.       Be active

4.       Don’t gain weight and lose weight if you need to

5.       Live an anti-inflammatory lifestyle by incorporating all of these things

So that’s it for today.  I want to thank you for your time and attention.  Feel free to share this with anyone you would like.  Leave a comment below and be sure to like this if you thought it was helpful.  If you are watching this anywhere other than my blog be sure to visit CancerStraightTalk.com and sign up to receive more information and future blog posts. Take care and be well.