Do these 5 things and your chances of getting cancer will drop again and again!

Talking about cancer, many people are "scared" by it, and everyone hopes to stay away from cancer throughout their life.

So, can each of us stay away from cancer for a lifetime? This is probably difficult, because each of us has cancer genes in our bodies!

Follow these 5 steps to lead a healthy lifestyle and your risk of cancer will drop!

1. Quit smoking: Never smoked or quit smoking for more than 30 years

Smoking is a clear carcinogenic factor. Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 compounds and hundreds of harmful substances, including both carcinogens and cancer promoters. Therefore, smoking not only induces malignant gene mutations, but more frighteningly, the compounds and harmful substances in tobacco smoke can also accelerate gene damage and prevent gene repair, thereby inducing cancer.

Therefore, "smoking is harmful to health" is not just a saying, but for smokers, quitting smoking is the only option. Moreover, according to the World Health Organization's 2019 Global Tobacco Epidemic Report, quitting smoking at different ages will bring different changes to the body: quitting smoking at the age of 30 can increase life expectancy by about 10 years; quitting smoking at the age of 40 can increase life expectancy by about 9 years; quitting smoking at the age of 50 can increase life expectancy by about 6 years; quitting smoking at the age of 60 can increase life expectancy by about 3 years.

That is to say, if a person quits smoking at the age of 30, his life expectancy will increase by 7 years compared to if he quits smoking at the age of 60.

2. Exercise: At least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week

Exercise is also essential to ensure a healthy life.

The World Health Organization's "Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior" released in November 2020 pointed out that all adults, including those with chronic diseases or disabilities, should perform at least 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75-150 minutes of high-intensity aerobic activity per week. In addition, moderate or higher intensity muscle training should be performed at least 2 days a week.

3. Healthy diet: at least 4 kinds of food meet the recommended standards

The above research emphasizes that to ensure a healthy diet, at least 4 of the following 6 types of food should meet the recommended standards, including fruit ≥ 4 servings/day, vegetables ≥ 4 servings/day, fish ≥ 2 times/week, processed meat ≤ 1 time/week, red meat ≤ 1.5 times/week, and whole grains ≥ 3 servings/day.

4. Never drink alcohol: The safest amount of alcohol is 0

In July 2021, The Lancet Oncology published a large-scale global study led by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which provided the latest assessment of the global cancer burden caused by drinking. The assessment results showed that 740,000 new cases of cancer in 2020 were attributable to drinking, and even moderate drinking (about two drinks a day) led to more than 100,000 new cases of cancer a year.

The researchers demonstrated a causal link to alcohol for cancers including cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract (oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus) as well as colon, rectal, liver, and female breast cancers, and all cancers except non-melanoma skin cancer.

The world's top medical journal, The Lancet, also published an article in April 2018 pointing out that the safest amount of alcohol consumed is zero, meaning that not drinking alcohol is good for your health.

5. Body mass index (BMI): within 18.5kg/m2-30kg/m2

Body mass index (BMI) is an important indicator of obesity, and being overweight (BMI>30) or underweight (BMI<18.5) is not good for your health.

In January 2021, researchers from the University of Barcelona in Spain published a large study of 3.5 million people in the journal BMC Medicine and found that obese people with a higher body mass index (BMI) have an increased risk of 12 types of cancer. The researchers followed up these participants for an average of 8.3 years, of which more than 200,000 (202,837) were diagnosed with cancer.