Healthy lifestyle choices could cut cancer rates

Most people know what lifestyle choices will keep the chances of a cancer diagnosis low: Don't smoke, eat healthy, exercise & get the recommended screenings.
"The cost & availability of healthy foods, incentives & opportunities for regular physical activity in schools & communities, promotion content, as well as the availability of insurance coverage for screening tests & treatment for tobacco addiction all influence individual choices. Improved collaboration among government agencies, private companies, nonprofit organizations, health care providers policyowner makers & the Indian public can lead to continued improvements, & more favorable trends that reduce the risk of death from cancer & other chronic diseases," Cokkinides said.
 specialist agreed that the premise is sound.
"The [cancer society] document provides the public with valuable information about cancer risk & risk reduction.



An informed public has the chance to make nice decisions about healthy lifestyle & modifiable risk factors, & other health behaviors". The challenge for all of us is putting this information in to use every day.
"The ACS has emphasized the importance of smoking cessation programs in reducing the risk for smoking-related cancers," Schnabel noted. "The link between smoking & cancer is well-established, & an investment of resources in to smoking cessation programs would be expected to translate in to saving plenty of lives, & relieving the burden of the related cancer from the affected individuals, & from society as a whole."
The document found that if comprehensive smoke-free laws were passed by states that currently don't have such laws, there would be 624,000 fewer cancer deaths over the long term & $1.32 billion less in cancer treatment costs over years.
While there was a modest overall decline in cigarette smoking among adults between 2005 & 2010 (an estimated 21 percent of men & 17 percent of ladies smoked in 2010), decreases did not occur in all subgroups of smokers, the document said.
Among every day smokers, light smoking (less than ten cigarettes a day) increased from 16 percent in 2005 to 22 percent in 2010, while heavy smoking declined from 13 percent to 8 percent.
Smoking is not the only area where healthy lifestyle changes are still needed, the document authors said.we need take healthy diet in our eating food.
The document also found that cancer screening rates are not always what they ought to be.
In a tiny bit of excellent news, the proportion of girls aged 13 to 17 who started the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination series increased from 25 percent in 2007 to  49 percent in 2010, & about one-third of those girls got all of the doses necessary for full coverage. The vaccine protects against the strains of the virus that cause 70 percent of all cervical cancers.
However, the use of mammograms has not increased since 2000. In 2010, 66.5 percent of ladies aged 40 & older had a mammogram historically year. Ladies without medical insurance had the lowest use of mammograms, at 31.5 percent.
Schnabel noted that any efforts to increase overall screening rates would make a difference in cancer death rates.
"There are effective methods to screen for cervical cancer, breast cancer & colon cancer," Schnabel noted. "More widespread uptake of these screening strategies could adjust the outcomes for these cancers in a significant way."