Prevent cancer with these simple lifestyle changes

Cancer is one of the top causes of illness and death worldwide. The number of cases varies depending on where people live, partly because of differences in what people are exposed to.

According to one of the latest studies published in the journal Nature Medicine, almost 40% of the new cancer cases across the globe may be linked to thing we can change, like behaviors, infections, environmental issues, and certain job conditions, can be changed or avoided.

This is why understanding risk factors and triggers are important so that once it is found out what is causing cancer in different places, countries can come up with effective prevention plans according to their requirements.

The aforementioned study looked at 36 types of cancer across 185 countries and found that risk factors like smoking, infections, and alcohol use play a big role in cancer development.

This suggests that many cancer cases could be prevented by making healthier, wiser choices and improving public health systems.

A team of researchers, led by Hanna Fink, studied data from 2022 and estimated how many cancer cases were linked to 30 different risk factors.

They also used information about how common those risks were about 10 years earlier, since it can take years for cancer to develop. They looked at how each risk factor was connected to cancer and considered that some risks may occur together.

They found that out of 18.7 million new cancer cases in 2022, about 7.1 million, could be linked to things that can be changed.

The biggest trigger of cancer was found to be tobacco smoking (15.1%), then infections (10.2%), and alcohol use (3.2%) at third.

Lung, stomach, and cervical cancers made up nearly half of all the preventable cases.

In women, infections were the top risk factor, responsible for 11.5% of cases. This includes infections like human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer, and Helicobacter pylori, which is linked to stomach cancer. In men, the leading risk was smoking, responsible for 23.1% of all cases.

These results offer hope as it shows cancer can be prevented by making better choices such as quitting smoking, getting vaccinated to prevent infections, and limiting alcohol.