Thursday, February 17, 2011

Simple Life Changes Could Stop Millions of Cancers




This is the reverse of blaming smoking, poor food choices, lack of exercise and overweight for the things that kill us.  The numbers are compelling and assure us that these three key items represent around one third of the death rate.

That translates into an unnecessary loss of possibly a decade at least of the affected population’s lifespan.

The easy ones to resolve are food choices and exercise because they are handled simply be the establishment of effective eating and exercise habits in a positive and reinforcing manner.

Smoking is difficult because it is a deadly addiction and your mind and body will resist you.  At least apologists no longer attempt to justify the habit and it has now been driven out of doors.  The best advice there is to seek help to end the problem.

Then we come to the problem of over weight.  Part of the solution is in food choices.  Simply preparing your own healthy food and largely eliminating starch will see your weight drift down to around 125% of you best weight level as recommended by the charts.

To remove the spare 25% may or may not be necessary at that point, but can be done by applying my approach that is posted under with the ‘the Arclein Diet”.  The Arclein diet could be applied a lot earlier, but most folks who are seriously obese need to allow the body to adjust first to a proper protein rich diet.  They also need to learn how to eat properly.  Trying to conduct a twenty four hour fast is mixing it up way too early.

Once goals are met, one would do a twenty four hour fast twice a week, say Tuesday and Thursday and eat well all other days. This provides you six and a quarter day’s worth of food and leaves room for a little bit of the inevitable cheating.  Since one is now eating without fear of a weight gain, one can work at enjoying food.  In practice one has missed one meal a week out of one’s budget.  Even better, you have rested your digestive tract at least twice during the week.




Simple life changes could stop millions of cancers

By Kate Kelland | Reuters – Fri, 4 Feb 3:19 AM EST


LONDON (Reuters) - About a third of all common cancers in the United States, China and Britain could be prevented each year if people ate healthier food, drank less alcohol and exercised more, health experts said on Friday.

Estimates from the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) suggest that making simple lifestyle changes could prevent some 40 percent of breast cancers alone in Britain and the United States, as well as tens of thousands of colon, stomach and prostate cancers.

"It is distressing that even in 2011, people are dying unnecessarily from cancers that could be prevented through maintaining a healthy weight, diet, physical activity and other lifestyle factors," Martin Wiseman, a WCRF medical and scientific adviser, said in statement.

In China, 620,000 cases, or 27 percent are preventable, the WCRF said, as are about 35 percent, or 340,000, in the United States and 37 percent in Britain. Healthier lifestyles could prevent 61,000 cancers in Brazil and 79,000 in Britain.

The WCRF findings are backed by World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, which say regular exercise can prevent many diseases such as cancers, heart diseases and diabetes.

Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world and its incidence is rising. Each year around 12.7 million people discover they have cancer and 7.6 million people die from some form of the disease. There are about 200 known types of cancer.

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), cancer will kill more than 13.2 million people a year by 2030, almost double the number it killed in 2008 -- and the vast majority of deaths will be in poorer countries.

In a separate statement, the Geneva-based WHO said low levels of physical activity are the main cause of an estimated 21 to 25 percent of breast and colon cancers, 27 percent of diabetes cases and 30 percent of heart disease cases worldwide.

Rachel Thompson, the WCRF's deputy head of science, said that while the message was simple -- that not smoking, eating good food and being a healthy weight can help ward off many cancers -- it was still a difficult one to get across.

"It's all very well us saying 'this is what you need to eat and this is how much physical activity you need to do', but we need to make it easier for people to make those changes," she said. "Everybody has a role in that -- from international organizations, to governments, to people themselves."

The WHO says adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. This could be done by walking for 30 minutes five times per week or by cycling to work every day.

Peter Baldini, head of the World Lung Foundation, also called on all governments to introduce smoke-free laws and raise the price of cigarettes.

Tobacco kills millions of smokers every year, and tobacco-related lung cancers also kill hundreds of thousands of people who don't smoke but have been exposed to it second-hand.

"There isn't a magic bullet to cure all forms of cancer, but we have the opportunity and the obligation to protect people from developing cancer wherever possible," Baldini said.
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, editing by Matthew Jones)

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