Your Health News at BAMI.us

Ten important steps to ward off cancer

1. Eat more fruits, vegetables, and grains. Read about the top power foods.

2. Minimize high-fat foods and meats in your diet. Read and understand food labels

3. Be active and stay fit. Get started on a regular exercise program that you will enjoy. The 18 benefits of exercise and how to get started.

4. Drink minimal alcohol, if you drink at all. How much is unhealthy?

5. Don’t start smoking, and if you do smoke, make every effort to stop as soon as possible. Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in our society. Stop smoking, get results, change your life!

6. Shield your skin from the sun. Sun damage to deeper layers of skin eventually can cause cancer.

7. Get regular pap smear screening and colonoscopy as recommended for your age, family history, and medical history.  Pap smear screening is an important method of detecting early cervical cancer. Colonoscopy both prevents and detects colon cancer. Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths.  Read about colonoscopy.

8. Girls age 11-18 should get the vaccine for HPV (human papilloma virus).  A decision about whether a woman aged 19 to 26 years should get the vaccine should be based on an informed discussion between the woman and her health care provider.

9.  Be aware of and try to avoid environmental carcinogens.

10. Ask your doctor about checking a blood test for Vitamin D levels. Many recent studies have found that adequate levels of Vitamin D appear to be critical in preventing cancer and many other serious, chronic diseases, yet the deficiency is widespread in the U.S. and worldwide. This has prompted a recent surge in the number of general practitioners and pediatricians who are now routinely screening for adequate blood levels of Vitamin D and recommending Vitamin D supplementation. 

Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)

 

Bookmark this page
E-mail this story
 Print this post