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 ?

My family has been wiped out by cancer and while I don't think there is any one thing that causes it or will prevent it some things I keep in mind are :

Plastics cut them out as much as possible there are studies now showing we all have plastic inside us it's just a case of how much , I've replaced anything plastic I could with glass or metal lunch boxes. I've got a water filtration system on our water supply at home that's pretty much where I get all my water from . I also seen something saying more muscle mass is highly beneficial. Organic foods this one i can't really afford to,l do to the extent I would like to but makes sense everything is sprayed and covered in chemicals . Dont use or sleep near your phone when it's plugged in charging also dont carry it near your ovaries in pockets ..honestly i could go on all day.

@Pludoniyum My first breast cancer symptom was pain. Having always suffered with painful breasts before my period, I knew that the throbbing that didn't go away after was not normal. Then I found the lump.

But you also found a lump. So you would meet the referral criteria.

Breast pain alone would not merit a referral for breast cancer unless in conjunction with other symptoms, which you had.

If I have breast pain in the absence of any other suspicious symptoms (swelling, redness, orange peel skin, thickening, inverted nipple, lump, discharge etc), then I'm not going to get an urgent referral, because evidence tells us that breast pain on its own is not a reliable indicator of breast cancer.

Of course plenty of people will say they had breast pain as a sign, but referral guidelines are not based on anecdotes for good reason.

Good point. However I have known ppl get a heads up on tumours from a scan or X-ray for something else entirely.

@Pludoniyum Yes I hear you. However, the practice nurse insisted it was a cyst and I didn't need a referral as pain was not an indicator. I know my body, I know what is right and what isn't. I could feel the tumour pulling but no it was a cyst she said. I did insist on a referral and thank God I did. This was at the start of the pandemic so if I hadn't things might have been very different.

I'm totally with you on that, absolutely you should be referred for any lump and I'm glad you pushed!!

I was really talking more about people who think they should be referred for isolated symptoms which on their own are not good indicators of cancer, egged on by people on online forums, sometimes well meaning, sometimes not.

You'll get someone saying, oh, I have changes in bowel habit but my GP won't refer me for a colonoscopy because my bloods and stool samples were all fine and I'm under 40. Then you'll get someone popping up saying, you must INSIST on a colonoscopy, I had this and they fobbed me off and it was stage 4 bowel cancer. Then you find out that it's not the same scenario at all- they had dodgy stool samples and/or dodgy bloods, weight loss, bleeding from the bottom and a family history of bowel cancer. They were absolutely fobbed off. The first person wasn't, they were investigated appropriately.

Of course you'll then inevitably get someone saying they had bowel cancer at a young age and their only symptom was X and bloods and stool samples were fine. They'll be the outlier. The NHS cannot, on that basis, start referring for colonoscopies for all possible bowel cancer symptoms, because a) it would be utterly overrun and (b) that's a whole heap of people who would have totally unnecessary and highly invasive procedures carried out.

The human body isn't designed to be a professional athlete or be vegan.

Human females are designed to spend most of their fertile years pregnant or lactating.

We get more reproductive organ cancers nowadays because the modern lifestyle isn't having babies young and breastfeeding them for years.

It's not that simple. You're basing your argument on a time when women would have been pregnant and/or breastfeeding for the majority of their lives because they'd be dead before 40. Unless you are suggesting that women today start having babies in their teens and have a dozen plus pregnancies, it's irrelevant. The biggest risk factor for getting cancer is being elderly.

You are misunderstanding the life expectancy in pre industrial times. It was low not because people died at 40 but because a very high number of infants died before age one and a lot before age 5. Once people reached adulthood they tended to reach their 60s/70s.

Go to an old graveyard and look for yourself or read the actual stats.

My tuppence worth:

Everything in moderation.
1 in 2 people does not mean it's you or your best friend right now. Maybe when you are both in your dotage, yes it could be one of you.
Organic food where possible, what about all the chemicals sprayed on food.
I'm vegetarian for over 30 years but that and the vegan diet don't simply mean you are healthier, there is some amount of processed crap in that diet.
Your heart is just as important.
You will always hear about the young person who died but you won't often hear about the young people that survived.
Cosmetics, often full of chemicals, ditto fake tans.
Don't take the joy out of living.

I met someone recently who was talking about a person we both knew that died from cancer. The person said, "She put up no fight at all". I was horrified. Judged in death, how nice. FML.

Scary headlines such as “cancer rates soar!” never mention the fact that life expectancy has also “soared” - to look at cancer rates and risk properly you would need to see a table of ages and types of cancer.

Also people used to be cagier about cancer. It was seen as something of a weakness in the past, and was mentioned in hushed tones or euphemisms used. My grandmother would boast, “There’s no cancer in this family” upon hearing of someone who had a (whispered) “lump”. That’s because everyone of her generation in the family died of bronchitis/pneumonia. The second people started living beyond three score years and ten, cancer was rife.

Yes I think it wasn't talked about much in the past . You just never heard about it, so it seemed super rare , but it probably wasn't

Tomatoes

Yes I think it wasn't talked about much in the past . You just never heard about it, so it seemed super rare , but it probably wasn't

It was unlikely to be diagnosed in the same way it is today. I mean we have come leaps and bounds with diagnosis and treatment and I'm sure a lot of people died of cancer and it was put down to something else. Certainly my long dead Nan wouldn't have gone to the doctors with a "lump" or anything gynae. Fortunately the world has come a long way. Actually to add, my other Nan had cancer for a long time and hid it. We didn't know. It was only when it spread and she became very ill very quickly that we found out. She died 20 years ago well into her 80's. She didn't have any treatment at all. She may well have been saved had she sought early treatment but I think it was generational "put up and shut up" kind of attitude. Bless her ❤️

What of them?

Tomatoes went through a period of being recommended as they contain lycopene which is an anti-oxidant.

They still contain lycopene. Particularly good for the prostate.

@AppleDumplingWithCustard

Ahh that's interesting. I actually love tomatoes and eat them pretty much every day, I get the little plum ones and eat them like grapes 😂

perhaps that's helping 🙏

The first identified workplace illness was scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps identified in the late 1700s.

OP kindly, please get help for your phobia. You are reinforcing your irrational fear, you are doing the equivalent of a spider phobic person putting conkers round their doorframes.

On an individual level, tomatoes and orange juice and whatever else is not making a difference to your cancer risk. It's not. And looking for answers like this is keeping you in the grip of your phobia. Plus anecdotally, people with cancer can find this stuff somewhat insulting/blaming - like if they'd tried hard enough not to get cancer they wouldn't have it, like they've done something remiss to get cancer.

The only fool proof way of avoiding dying from cancer, is to die of something else first.

1. I am getting help - I'm having counselling

2. nothing wrong with trying to be healthy and do things that are meant to help (especially if I enjoy it like exercise and eating certain foods etc)

3. I honestly don't want to offend anyone who's had it or got it or lost people (I've lost people too) I am aware that much of it is simply bad luck . So I'm genuinely sorry if this is the case as this wasn't my intention

Sorry that was in response to @nothingcomestonothing last post x

Yes, I said they went through a period of being recommended, not they went through a period of containing lycopene.

I'm really glad you're having counselling, I hope it's useful. Living with a phobia is no fun (speaking from experience).

What I meant was, by still looking for 'things that are meant to help' you are reinforcing your phobia. There are no things that will help, and by looking for them you're still in the mindset that your phobia is keeping you safe, you're feeding your fear.

I didn't think you were trying to offend people, I'm sorry if it came across I was accusing you. So many cancer patients have a well meaning MIL/cousin/school gate mum who sends them this stuff, and none of it is relevant and it can feel quite blaming to be told how to not get cancer when you've got it (or how to fight it when you feel like crap from chemo), like you were too lazy to eat enough asparagus or if you had researched properly you could drink green tea instead of having chemo. People don't mean it like that but it can feel like that I think.