Diet And Exercise Can Lower Cancer Risk

(CBS)  One out of three Americans will get cancer before they die, CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace reports. Who is at highest risk?

Someone with a family history, who smokes, has a high-fat diet and doesn't exercise, says oncologist Dr. David Nanus, who has been treating cancer patients for more than 20 years.

"If you're obese or overweight, you have an increased incidence in a number of cancers — colon cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer," Nanus says.

According to the American Cancer Institute, about one-third of cancer deaths in 2006 were related to nutrition, physical inactivity and being overweight or obese — and therefore, could have been prevented.

So what can you do to reduce your risk?

Start by eating a diet that contains lots of fruit and vegetables. For example, studies show broccoli, especially broccoli sprouts, may help prevent colon and rectal cancer.

You can control your lifestyle, but not your family history. Five to 10 percent of all cancers are strongly hereditary. There are genetic tests for some kinds of cancers including breast, colon, and ovarian.

"It's important if you know you're from a cancer family, then you need to get screening," Nanus says.

Nanus believes those mammograms after age 40, and colonoscopies after age 50, may be the most powerful weapon in the battle against cancer.

"The biggest problem is the fear factor," he says. "People are so afraid of being diagnosed with cancer they wait." Nanus says waiting even three months can mean the difference between life and death.

[lonestartnow]

I'm co-founder of the LoneStart Wellness Initiative, and I find it interesting and frightening that almost one-half of all Americans report having a chronic illness--and that those illnesses account for 75 percent of our national spending on health care. Furthermore, almost 80 percent of all chronic disease is caused by three preventable health behaviors--physical inactivity (so we need to move more), poor nutrition and overeating (so we need to watch portion size and pay attention to healthy nutritional choices) and smoking (so smokers need to quit smoking).

We're talking about preventable illness, and research shows that some forms of cancer are also related to these same three factors. In addition, preventable illness has a direct affect on an employer's cost of health care, disability, worker's compensation, increased absenteeism, lower productivity, reduced safety and morale--and therefore it affects us all.

[sahalie30]

It's tragic that the medical profession fails to acknowledge that a vegan diet practically eliminates the risk of many types of cancer, including breast cancer and colon cancer.

[cathaleen]

Cancer does not effect just the fat and lazy -
the fellow that won the tour de france - I think
he exercised. How many celebrities that spend their time in the gym exercising like crazy get breast cancer - Suzanne Sommers. Skater Peggy
Fleming - she ate right and exercised.

It does help but it's in the genes and where you happen to live. New Jersey is called "cancer alley".

[dmoconno]

This story is good because most of us keep needing reminders of what is good for us.I read the other day federal cancer research has been going down the last few years because of the money needed for the war.BUMMER

[jeena2]

Yes, this story could have been written in 1958. If more were following the advice to eat right and exercise, it would not have to be published again and again and again.
If the benefits of diet and exercise were in pill form, everyone would take those pills.
New studies keep showing the same thing over and over again. Diet and exercise work. Try them.

[drinuk]

BAN ASPARTAME, that should bring these alarming figures down. Then throw all the executives of Big Pharma into the Slammer, Crooks, all of 'em.

[timberagain]

This story could have been written in 1958. Recycled old news.