Avoiding Cancer - More Than Just Awareness

Avoiding Cancer - More Than Just Awareness
By Christina Major

Awareness, treatment, recovery... Where's Avoidance? If we simply live in a why that makes our bodies unattractive to cancer, our chances of developing it are greatly reduced. Why should we have to experience cancer in the first place?

We all have some risk of cancer, and some people have more risk than others. The majority of our risk truly comes from our environment and our lifestyle, not our genes.

There are 5 big lifestyle factors that actually encourage cancer. By doing the opposite of these, your chances of getting any types of cancer, especially breast cancer, is greatly reduced.

1) Poor personal habits: These include smoking, drinking and doing drugs, even legal prescription drugs. These all negatively affect the body and require our most sensitive organs to filter out the residue. Our liver and brains are most affected by these habits and are most susceptible to cancer. Quitting reduces chances of cancer from these habits anywhere from 10 to 100 times.

2) Eating processed foods: By their design, processed foods are devoid of healthy nutrients and packed with sugar, bad fats and lots of salts. Clinical studies have shown that an increase of sugar in our diets can raise our risk of digestive, breast and prostate cancers by 30% or more. If you want to avoid extra sugar, avoid anything in a box and get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

3) Avoiding the sun: We've been told the sun can give us skin cancer and that's correct if you spend hours in the sun. Most of us need 15 minutes or more of sunlight every day to produce the healthiest form of Vitamin D. This is one of our most potent anti-oxidants and it protects against cancer. It also helps to reduce the winter blues and depression. On days that are sunny, take 3 breaks of 5 minutes to stand in the sun.

4) Drinking soda, juice and energy drinks: Surprised at this one? Sodas, juices and energy drinks are the leading sources of sugar in our diet and the leading source of empty calories. They are suspected as being the leading cause of childhood obesity, the reason health officials are removing them from schools. Here's a helpful hint: there is currently no manufactured energy drink on the market that does not contain a harmful chemical, extra sugars or excessive caffeine. Drink water, and flavor it with just a splash of juice.

5) Being a couch potato: Sedentary lifestyles lead to obesity and obesity raises the risk of all cancers from 3% to 500%. 10 minutes of walking a day cuts the risk in half and activity that raises your heart rate for 20 minutes 3 times a week returns your risk to normal. You don't need the gym, just find an activity you enjoy, like dancing, swimming or volleyball.

While reversing these 5 cancer attractors will greatly reduce your chance of cancer, it doesn't eliminate it. You will still need to pay attention to your body and have regular check ups.

If you do get cancer, reversing these five factors will reduce the stress on your body and give you the best chance to a full recovery.

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