What’s the Cancer Connection?

This week we will focus on what we can do to give our bodies a shot at fighting and preventing cancer and the return of it.

Diet and Physical Activity: 

How much do daily habits like diet and exercise affect your risk for cancer? Much more than you might think. Research has shown that poor diet and not being active are 2 key factors that can increase a person’s cancer risk. The good news is that you do something about this.

Besides quitting smoking, some of the most important things you can do to help reduce your cancer risk are:

• Get to and stay at a healthy weight throughout life.
• Be physically active on a regular basis.
• Make healthy food choices with a focus on plant-based foods.

The evidence for this is strong: Each year, about 589,430 Americans die of cancer; around one-third of these deaths are linked to poor diet, physical inactivity, and carrying too much weight.

Control your weight.

Getting to and staying at a healthy weight is important to reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of several cancers, including those of the breast (in women past menopause), colon and rectum, endometrium (the lining of the uterus), esophagus, pancreas, and kidney, among others.

Being overweight can increase cancer risk in many ways. One of the main ways is that excess weight causes the body to produce and circulate more estrogen and insulin, hormones that can stimulate cancer growth.

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/dietandphysicalactivity/diet-and-physical-activity