Top 5 ways you can help prevent cancer

If you make these simple changes to your lifestyle, your chances of getting cancer could be lower.

• Consider this: If you smoke, you're 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer than someone who doesn't smoke.
• By comparison, a woman with a first-degree relative with breast cancer only sees her risk go up by a factor of two. Yet what do women tend to worry most about? Breast cancer.

• Drinking beyond healthy levels (generally, one serving a day) is a major cause of breast, bladder, stomach, esophageal, liver, and colon cancers, among others.
• Scientists suspect the link may be due to the effects of acetaldehyde, a suspected carcinogen that forms as the body metabolizes alcohol.
• This compound reacts with natural compounds that are required for cell growth.
• This reaction can cause DNA damage to cells, which in turn lead to malfunctioning cell division.

• About one in three cancers are the result of poor diet and being overweight, particularly breast, colon, rectal, stomach, prostate, and pancreatic cancers.
• When you're overweight, your body produces more estrogen — linked to breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers.
• You also produce more insulin, which can increase inflammation and free-radical damage.

Be sure to get your seven to nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Studies have shown that diets low in red meat and high in whole grains also result in lower levels of various cancers.

• Physical activity not only helps you maintain a healthy weight, it also reduces your body fat percentage.
• Regular exercise also helps your muscles better use insulin, reducing insulin blood levels and free-radical production.
• Specific studies find that regular physical activity can slash the risk of bowel cancer by half, the risk of uterine cancer by a third and significantly reduce the risk of ovarian, breast, and colon cancers.

There are many different things we can do to lower our chances of getting cancer. In general, if you keep fit and stay healthy, you can tip the odds in your favour.