Living a Healthy Lifestyle Could Reduce Many Cancers

Surprise, surprise, a study commissioned by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, has suggested that living a healthier lifestyle could prevent approximately a third of the most common cancers in rich countries and a quarter in poorer countries.”

The study involved 23 experts who assessed the incidence of 12 common cancers across the world and data on diet, exercise and weight, to identify how these factors contributed to a range of cancers.

The researchers discovered that healthier living would prevent 43 percent of colon cancer cases and 42 percent of breast cancer cases in Britain and 38 percent of breast cancer cases in the United States.

Unsurprisingly they recommend that people choose diets based on vegetables, fruits and grains and cut down on red meat, dairy products and fat. (Source: Reuters)

Why does it take yet another study for this to be acknowledged? It’s so patently obvious that eating toxic foods is going to cause a myriad of health problems. Around seven million people die from cancer each year worldwide and this is predicted to rise to more than 10 million by 2020, according to the World Cancer Research Fund. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children in the US, only preceded by accidents. Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London, who led a policy report on the subject, has suggested that the rising cancer rates are, “catastrophic. The numbers are just frightening on a global scale. After cardiovascular disease, it’s the next biggest cause of death in this country.”

Marmot believes that cancer requires a similar sort of large-scale international intervention as global warming.

“With the same sense of urgency that at long last we’re now starting to address the climate change agenda, let’s address the cancer agenda because we think a large proportion of those cancer deaths are preventable of could be delayed. It’s urgent to be taking action now.”

Many researchers argue that 80 to 95 percent of cancers are due to environmental factors, including tobacco use, poor nutrition, exposure to air pollutants and other environmental factors. It is a shame that they largely ignore the significance of our exposure to the synthetic chemicals used in other consumer products as a risk factor.

Is it a coincidence that incidences of cancer and other previously rare health problems such as autism and chronic fatigue syndrome have escalated in parallel with the proliferation of synthetic chemicals discharged into our environment and ploughed into consumer products, including foods? I personally do not think so.

People the world over are chowing down on processed foods packed with artificial preservatives and additivies, ‘bad’ fats, hormones, antibiotics, bacteria and goodness knows what else, and surrounded by products containing cancer-causing chemicals such as flame retardants and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Even if you live on a mountain top in a cave you will be polluted with PCBS (industrial chemicals from old electrical equipment and building materials) which were phased out years ago but are still being detected in individuals the world over, including the inhabitants of Arctic regions. Expanses of pristine snow might be the image conjured, but in fact the Arctic inhabitants’ bodies play host to a myriad of synthetic chemicals making them some of the planet’s most contaminated living organisms, thanks to the legacy of the industraliased world.

I would hazard a guess that reducing our exposure to other consumer products laced with synthetic chemicals, aside from food, would reduce the risk of cancer even further.

If you ever get the chance I recommend you read The Hundred Year Lie: How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals that are Destroying your Health, by investigative journalist Randall Fitzgerald. It’s a sobering read, but it really puts into perspective just how toxic our environment really is thanks to “better living through chemistry,” a past slogan that increasingly haunts us as more researchers uncover the truth about the synthetic chemicals we are commonly exposed to.

Another sobering thought is that cancer organisations such as the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society concentrate largely on screening, diagnosis and conventional cancer treatments, even though experts have suggested that at least 50 percent of cancers could be prevented by applying current knowledge about the causes. Even in the 1980s and earlier, some scientists were recommending that emphasis needed to be moved away from treatment research towards preventative research. Samuel Epstein, M.D., Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition stated in 2004 that “cancer death rates have remained unchanged since President Nixon declared the 1971 war against cancer.” The incidences of non-smoking cancers and childhood cancers have increased alongside massive increases in the budgets of certain cancer organisations. So evidently more money being thrown at cytotoxic chemotherapy treatments isn’t helping us to win the war against cancer.

Samuel Epstein says, “The reason we are losing this winnable war is because NCI and ACS priorities remain fixated on damage-control screening, diagnosis and treatment-related basis research. All merit substantial funding. However, less funding would be needed if more cancer was prevented, with less to treat.”

Numerous other cancer organisations are guilty of directing their resources towards looking at diagnosis and mainstream cancer treatments, even though these methods are not reducing incidences of numerous cancers. Research conducted in 2008 and published in the Australian journal, Clinical Oncology, concluded that cytotoxic chemotherapy contributes around 2 percent to improved survival rates in cancer patients. The study authors comment that “Cytotoxic chemotherapy only makes a minor contribution to cancer survival,” and point out that “to justify the continued funding and availability of drugs used in cytotoxic chemotherapy, a rigorous evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and impact on quality of life is urgently required.”

It’s logical that cytotoxic chemotherapy is never going to be the ultimate solution. Cytotoxic means “kills cells that are extremely active” and chemotherapy destroys ‘healthy’ as well as ‘cancerous’ cells, which is why those undergoing chemotherapy experience a range of dreadful symptoms such as hair loss, vomiting and immune system deficiencies. It’s very telling that the first drug ever used to treat cancer originated from Mustard gas that had been used for chemical warfare during World War II. Chemotherapy literally poisons the body.

I sincerely hope that we move towards more preventative measures for cancer and other health problems, rather than seeing conventional pharmaceutical treatments (which are laced with toxic synthetic chemicals) as a solution.

We shouldn’t need another study to demonstrate that living a healthy lifestyle is a preventative measure to take against various illnesses. Instead governments and health organisations should be doing more to promote a healthy lifestyle by forcing the food, cosmetics, chemicals and other such industries to stop using toxic substances in consumer products and discharging them into the environment where they pollute the whole of humankind and other living organisms. In the meantime all we can do as individuals is boycott toxic consumer products, complain to manufacturers and do the best we can to minimise our exposure.