Nearly all of us know a loved one who has been diagnosed with cancer. Many of us have it ourselves, and thereās been an alarming increase of young people (under 50) receiving diagnoses. All this to say, a large number of us might be wondering what changes can be made in order to stave off the disease.
A few oncologists, along with a few other alleged medical professionals, shared what they personally do (or donāt do), given what they know about cancer. There might be a few discrepancies in opinions hereāparticularly in how strict to be with alcoholābut it does paint a good picture about how to create a lifestyle that can help prevent a visit to their office.
Here are 15 of our favorites, and many of them go beyond the usual "get diet and exercise" fare:
1. They donāt ignore their symptoms, or allow for any medical gaslighting
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Ā A woman describing he symptoms to her doctor. Photo credit: Canva
āCancer nurse here. If you get any unusual symptoms such as lethargy, swollen glands, pain, weight loss, night sweats, a cough that wonāt go away etc go get a simple blood test. If youāre bloated, have abdomen or back pain, changes in urine colour, headaches that persists, breathing changes, get an Xray/CT/ultrasound. If your GP dismisses you and doesnāt investigate at all⦠go get a better GP. The amount of patients that have been diagnosed late have usually been to their GP a few times and not had any tests performed. You canāt always prevent cancer but you can certainly catch it early and give yourself a better chance of beating it.ā
āItās heartbreaking when people ignore symptoms and donāt get diagnosed until the cancer is too advanced for treatment to be helpful.ā
2. They avoid alcohol. Pretty much at all times.Ā
āI hate to tell you this but itās alcohol. It directly causes at least seven kinds of cancer. Twenty years from now we will talk about alcohol the way we talk about cigarettes today.ā
3. Same goes for smoking.
āDO NOT SMOKE. It doesnāt matter what it is, no smoking.ā
4. For the love of all that is holy, they wear sunscreen.
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Ā A mom applying sunscreen onto her child. Photo credit: Canva
āMy best piece of advice is WEAR SUNSCREEN and get your moles and spots checked. Health insurance typically covers a yearly total skin check at a dermatologist.ā
5. They cut off any burnt pieces of food.
"My father was a genetics professor, and he also said not to eat any charred black food. That goes for toast, veggies, pizza crust, and especially meat. It can lead to DNA damage and mutations that lead to cancer. He just trims off the charred parts of steak and whatever else is burned."
6. They eat a balanced diet and donāt rely on supplements to āfixā anything.
āModeration is more important than āmagicalā ideas about certain foods. Rather than thinking that some food or even some additive causes cancer or, alternatively, some berry or supplements prevent it, think about balance. Red meat isnāt āpoisonā but 15 servings a week isnāt wise.ā
āAs someone who grew up with an oncologist in the family (though they are now retired), I can share: They donāt eat red meat. They eat a balanced diet of fish/poultry, lots of fruits & vegetables, and 1 sweet a day.ā
7. They take their coffee lukewarm.Ā
āI used to drink very hot coffee but I drink it warm now since very hot drinks damage esophagus can cause esophageal cancer.ā
8. They donāt put food in the microwave.
āUse as little plastic as possible for food storage and drinkware (glass is best!) and never put plastic in the microwave.ā
9. They donāt use toxic chemical on their lawn.
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Ā A person using herbicide on their lawn. Photo credit: Canva
āHematopathologist here. I never use herbicide (weed treatments) on my lawn. Iāve seen too many childhood leukemias/lymphomas, especially in children of parents who work in lawn care.ā
10. Theyā¦donāt join the military?
āThe number of people who developed cancer because of something they were exposed to while serving is just mind-blowing (camp lejeune, asbestos in the navy, the tar pits, agent orange, etc etc etc).ā
11. They say no to food coloring.
āFood coloring⦠we are just figuring out how toxic it is. Tartazine in relish and what that vibrant color in your Aperol Spritz?ā
12. They advise against taking vitamins for those who already have cancer.
āSomething that always surprise my breast cancer patients is when I tell them to avoid vitamins specially antioxidants, as they could be associated with more risk of recurrence and dying from cancer if you take them while on cancer treatment, or even before treatment. There is a lot of information regarding this issue with contradictory results, but until we get better information it is logical to be cautious about vitamins.ā
13. They pay attention to the amount of heavy metals in their food.
āIām also very cautious about cheap spices and tofu ā they can be contaminated with heavy metals (spices) and paraformaldehyde (tofu) both of which should not be consumed in any quantity.ā
14. Theyāre pro-HPV vaccine.
āA huge fan of the HPV vaccination for both males and females. So many preventable cervical and head/neck cancers.ā
15. And anti-antibioticsā¦at least in excess.
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Ā A bottle of antibiotics. Photo credit: Canva
āProtect your gut microbiome from unnecessary antibiotics. Our healthy bacteria keeps our immune system in balance and is linked to better cancer surveillance.ā
However, itās also worth noting that several oncologists chimed in to say that you can make all the perfect lifestyle choices in the world, have zero genetic risks, and still end up getting a cancer diagnosis. Yes, thereās many reasons to still make healthy choices, but one canāt simply blame themselves if they do end up unlucky. But keeping these things in mind does so much to, potentially, add not only years of life, but quality to those extended years. In the end, that's all any of us can really hope forāas many happy, healthy days as we can possibly accumulate before the time comes.