To ask how else I can reduce risk of cancer ?

[iloveshetlandponies]

I just recently had a minor cancer scare and - thank god - after a long wait I've just found out that I'm okay. But I am absolutely terrified of it . I know one in two get it in their life time and that stat is beyond fucking depressing . I realise some cancers are sheer bad luck and nothing you can do. But I know some is lifestyle related etc

so want to try my absolute hardest to minimise my personal risk

This is what I do already

Intermittent fasting (16:8 but I try and aim for 18:6)

Eat at least 5 different fruit and veg a day (I need to eat way more I know)

I run most days for at least half an hour plus do other exercise

I don't smoke ever (Altho I did used to gave up 15 years ago at 29)

I very rarely drink alcohol

Always have smears when due and check my breasts monthly or so and keep an eye on any moles

Keep slim (8 stone 7 and 5 foot 2)

Always wear spf50 (on my face every single day) and any exposed bits of my body between say May and September

And - Don't laugh - but very cold showers at the end of each shower as it's meant to boost immunity (it defo wakes me up at least!)

I also, luckily, have no family history that I'm aware of

Does anyone else do this ? Or am I weird. And if there's any drs / nutritionists / scientists on here can anyone suggest anything else ?

In terms of food the main culprits that I keep reading about that have changed in our diets the past few decades:

1. avoid processed foods
2. refined sugar
3. careful with what oil you use to cook with - no seed oils ideally. Olive oil where possible even lard/ghee is better.

Otherwise sounds like you are doing the right things.

The cancer research website is a good resource where you can look up every type of cancer and it will tell you the risk factors.

You havent said if you have DCs. If you are planning to try to breastfeed for as long as possible to reduce your breast cancer risk.

Also sex/contraception impacts risk. Condom use reduces cervical cancer and throat cancer (oral sex). The combined pill for 5 years reduces the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer (the silent killer of women).

Almost no-one eats enough fibre. 30g a day is recommended and reduces the bowel cancer risk.

I'd be concerned about your use of spf. You may be making yourself vitamin D deprived which increases your risk of bladder and bowel cancer.

Decontaminate your home. Use essential oils/vinegar/ bicarb not spray cleaners. Always use gloves. No artificial air fresheners.

Don't get amalgam fillings.
Avoid anti-perspirants.
Avoid hair dyes.
Avoid parabens.
Avoid overloading on cosmetics & toiletries.

If you live in a city try to get out to the country as much as possible (air pollution).

Don't have mobile devices near your head or reproductive organs for too long.

Avoid toxins from redecorating eg paints, carpets. Try to have as many natural materials as possible and not plastics.

Be careful with what cookware you use.

Avoid sweeteners.

If you live near a power line, move.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/scientists-debunk-seed-oil-health-risks/

@nothingcomestonothing

Eat well, exercise and stay fit, look after yourself in terms of avoiding tonnes of unnecessary stress, don't smoke or vape, don't drink to excess. Just normal healthy living stuff. Life is too short to do stuff you don't like which doesn't work.

Beautifully put and I’m really glad someone is talking sense here. I do understand the anxiety around cancer and the natural desire to protect one’s health but it’s quite disturbing to see how much people are buying into the woo.

Turmeric and CBD will not stop anyone getting cancer. It’s snake oil. Do yourself a a favour and invest the money in counselling or exercise.

DH’s oncologist - a Professor - rather pooh-poohed the idea that stress causes cancer. DH recovered from his thankfully.

You cannot keep your body alkaline. The body has its own acid/alkali balance which it regulates efficiently. You can eat all the alkaline foods you like but your body will use the amount it needs and excrete the excess.

I believe dim supplements are supposed to help reduce the risk of a lot of female cancers. I take it for my skin and it really helps so obviously does something

@KimberleyClark

I'm so glad your dh recovered

Im glad his oncologist ruled out stress as a cause as I do worry (ironically!) about this factor

I also wanted to thank everyone for all the replies

I think my fear with cancer is i feel like a lot of the other dangerous illnesses mentioned are more rare. So no point worrying about something more unlikely. With cancer I feel like even if you survive it which I know a lot do now, there's always a risk of it returning and I know this sounds horrible but generally it seems when it returns that's your time up. And you have to keep having check ups and I can't imagine living with that constant fear . I am actually not afraid of dying. it will happen one day but i like not knowing when. what I am afraid of is being given the news I only have so long to live, and living knowing death is very imminent.

I also hope my thread has not offended or upset anyone who has had or is living with cancer x

You're right stress doesn't cause cancer, there is almost never a 'this caused it' with cancer. Everyone who thinks they're warding it off with vegetables, cold showers and not living near power lines are no different to people warding it off with crystals or prayer. I'm glad your DH is well.

@nothingcomestonothing

I don't think I'm "warding it off" I simply want to do everything I can to reduce my individual risk and be healthy generally

It's about time they found a bloody cure or prevention

OP cancer is also relatively rare, in younger people. The majority of people with cancer are elderly. Its quite likely that we'd all get cancer eventually,when we don't it's just because we die of something else first.

For a lot of cancers, past the first year post treatment the chance of it returning is about the same chance of anyone else getting it. It's not that case that it comes back and gets you the second time. And many people survive after multiple relapses too. You also don't have to 'keep having check ups' - initially you do then they space out, for something like Hodgkins you could be out of routine follow up in a couple of years, the risk is that low. 'Scanxiety' is recognised as an issue, and the stress of having ongoing scans and appointments plus the radiation exposure from multiple scans isn't worth it for a lot of low risk patients. So they don't do it - they move to patient initiated follow up, where you are only seen if you have a problem which needs to be checked out. A lot of people working in cancer care now recognise that it's better to leave patients to get on with their lives post treatment, not keep bringing them back for follow up when they are unlikely to benefit from it. Plus if you did get cancer, and we're not curable, of you asked not to know your prognosis they wouldnt tell you. And if you did ask, they'd only give you a ball park - short months, or about 2 years, or maybe a decade or whatever. They don't say 'sorry you've got 3 weeks' and then you have to watch the clock tick down, it's not like that.

I am not having a go at you, I do get that cancer is a scary idea to most people. But you are trying to control something that you cannot control. It might be more helpful to work on that.

People have to die of something. The main reason that so many people get cancer today is that they haven’t died of something else. We have to stop pretending that we can prevent death. We can only postpone it.

@bridgetreilly

Of course they have to die of something .

But what about all the young people that get it ? Loads get it far too young , as I say my friend in her early 40s and I know a good handful of others as well only in their late 30s or 40s. And last year I saw a crowd funder for the funeral of a local 8 year old child dying from it which is fucking beyond awful

So they need to find a cure !

More women die of heart disease than all cancers combined.

Take care of your heart first.

People are misinterpreting 'lifestyle'.

It's not just about obesity/smoking/drinking.

Kylie Minogue had what would be called a 'healthy lifestyle' but got breast cancer in her 40s.

But part of her 'lifestyle' was that she hadn't gestated or lactated. Breasts are designed to spend years of your life lactating. If you don't use your body for what it was designed for then the risk of it malfunctioning increases.

Same with Jade Goody. She had unprotected sex at a young age which increased her risk of cervical cancer. And I can't imagine the stress of the press hounding her after the race row helped her health.

This is the sort of comment I find ridiculous. Firstly, I'm a cancer survivor, my cancer was curative. Many many cancers are curable. The problem is that people think that there should somehow be a one size fits all magic treatment that will cover everybody and every type of cancer and that is vanishingly unlikely.

I have a scientist friend who has dedicated his career to cancer research. He speaks a lot of sense when he says that every single cancer diagnosed is exclusive to that person. There are so many factors at play, therefore it would be very difficult not to say impossible to find a "cover all" cure. He is working on preventative vaccine. However, again, that is unlikely to be a one size fits all. There are plenty of cancers that require far more research. Indeed the cancer that killed my own mum 22 years ago (oesophageal) has seen very little improvement in survival rates. Pancreatic and brain tumours too.

Ultimately, and in my experience, there is a limited amount you can do to avoid it. I recently lost a friend from an aggressive brain tumour. She was a health and fitness professional with an impeccably healthy lifestyle. She still died. Nothing she did would have prevented that cancer sadly. You cannot spend your life dwelling on "what if's".

So much cancer is about genes. My paternal grandparents lived well into their 90s, no cancer, despite chain smoking and not even a hint of a vegetable, they lived off fried potatoes and spam. It's always the same on that side of the family despite obesity, smoking, heavy drinking etc.

OTOH the three people I have known most recently to get cancer have all been slim, with very healthy diets, plenty of exercise, teetotal. But cancer features heavily in all their families.

My pragmatic view is cancer is fucking awful and I don't want it but we all have to die of something in the end and looking at the stats I don't believe giving up sausages or jogging a bit is going to reduce my risk in any meaningful way. I'll be sensible about my lifestyle of course but I'm not going to sit here and waste my time worrying about it.

Eat organic food.

There is 0 clear evidence that this makes any kind of difference.

The young people who get it couldn't have done anything to stop themselves getting it. They were basically unlucky. That's it.

Cancer is over 200 different diseases (that we know of, it will be differentiated further as we learn more)and each of those 200 diagnoses will have further subtypes, and within those subtypes there will be different genetic deletions etc etc. Some cancers already have very high cure rates - ALL in children for example is about 97%, testicular cancer is high 90s. Whereas a rhabdomyosarcoma or a brain stem glioma hasn't got great odds. Someone cancers will essentially be curable in my lifetime, some won't.

Live healthily, within reason. Go to any screening offered to you. That's all you can do.

I think they is only much we can do. Much of it is genetic.

Enjoy your life, do your best to be healthy, keep an eye on the usual stuff lumps and moles, go to screenings but dont spend this precious life worrying about something that may never happen , that you might not be able to avoid anyway and if it does happen may well be treated successfully .

I am not very good at science but "1 in 2"?

Would that mean that 50% of the population will get it?
In a household of any 4 people, two would get it?

I was aware that the rates per pop. in the USA were higher than the UK and even they weren't '1 in 2".
Unless there's been a rapid increase in either cancer or reporting of it.

If none of my grandparents, parents (all deceased), aunts, uncles and cousins (60 plus age range) have so far had it, are we outliers?

@HelloShupa yes it’s just under 1 in 2 I believe but that’s over a lifetime. My DGM got cancer in her 80s and died at 88. She had to die of something.
Don’t forget all those that will get and survive cancer.

Only if all 4 people in the household are elderly:

Incidence rates for all cancers combined in the UK are highest in people aged 85 to 89 (2016-2018).
Each year more than a third (36%) of all cancer cases in the UK are diagnosed in people aged 75 and over (2016-2018).

(From CRUK website here https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics-for-the-uk#heading-Two )