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One out of every two American men and one out of every three American women will get cancer over the course of their lifetimes. This book tells you how to avoid it.

Excerpt

Introduction

The overall mortality rate from cancer hasn’t changed in 60 years despite the billions invested to find a cure. Combining their experience in family medicine and epidemiology with their passion for disease prevention, the authors provide the most up to date and effective advice for preventing cancer from developing in ourselves and our loved ones. Many “how to” examples for preventing cancer by being environmentally aware, avoiding infections, living the proper lifestyle and getting the proper nutrition are provided.

Chapter by chapter summaries and listings of the latest cancer prevention web sites are great references. Highlights of Chapter 8 include ways to get 5-9 servings of fruit & vegetables per day, when to purchase organically grown food and a carefully researched list of super-foods that have been shown to reduce the risk of cancer. Worksheets assist readers in implementing the advice in very tangible ways, and the recipe collection of cancer avoiding meals is a winner!

This book is designed to provide practical, and in many cases simple, ideas to decrease your risk of developing cancer.  Most of the recommendations are based on review of solid studies published in credible journals, presented in an empowering, easy-to-read and sometimes humorous fashion.

What Are We Doing To Prevent Cancer

Why, despite the billions of dollars spent on research to find a cure, have we failed to make a dent in the overall mortality from cancer for over sixty years? Although the age-adjusted death rate from 1950 until now has halved for heart disease and pneumonia and nearly quartered for strokes, it has not budged for cancer. The reason is not because we are living longer. This is what “age adjusted” means in this statement. It would be easy to cast the evil eye at tobacco, but smoking during this time in the U.S. decreased from nearly 50 percent of adults to less than 25 percent. The incidence of cancer has risen steadily; however, in 2006 in the United States, it appears the incidence may be declining slightly. Unfortunately, the same experts who celebrate this exceptionally modest decline are not hopeful it will continue as the baby boom generation hits peak cancer time. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), global cancer rates could increase by 50 percent to 1
5 million by 2020.

Despite this, the five year survival rate for cancers overall has not changed significantly since 1950. Only about 50 percent of people diagnosed with cancer live longer than five years.

So what are we doing wrong? Why has the mortality from heart disease dropped dramatically, while that from cancer has remained essentially unchanged?

We believe a significant factor is that our society is driven by money, and that far more money is allocated to treating rather than preventing cancer. There is great potential for financial gain in developing and marketing an effective chemotherapy agent. There is little financial incentive in preventing the tumor the drug would treat. There is clear financial incentive in treating animals and crops with hormones, pesticides and antibiotics in order to raise production and increase crop yield. There is little financial reward in evaluating what these substances do to our bodies once we ingest them.

What Causes Cancer

Tobacco - 25-40 percent - one third of all cancer deaths, almost 90 percent of deaths from lung cancer are due to smoking.

Diet And Obesity - 25-30 percent - obesity, or being overweight, alone accounts for 14 percent of cancer deaths in men and 20 percent of cancer deaths in women in the United States. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), as many as 375,000 cases of cancer could be prevented each year in the U.S. through healthy dietary choices. In a person of normal weight, dietary changes can also play a significant role in decreasing the risk of cancer and are discussed in detail in chapters Six and Eight.

Infection - 10-25 percent - it is estimated that around 10 percent of cancer deaths are related to infection, whereas infections cause 25 percent of cases worldwide. The leading culprits in the U.S. include human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), giving rise to multiple cancers, human papillomavirus (HPV); which causes cervical, anal, vaginal, penile, and oral cancers, hepatitis B; associated with liver cancer, hepatitis C; associated with liver cancer and lymphomas, and H. pylori; associated with stomach cancer.

Ionizing/UV Radiation - 2-7 percent. UV radiation causes 90 percent of skin cancers. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer.

Occupational - 2-8 percent are due to exposure to occupational hazards, accounting for around 5 percent (6-10 percent in men and 1 percent in women) of cancer deaths, especially those involving cancers of the lung, bladder, and bone marrow.

Alcohol - 3 percent. Alcohol has been shown to have a causal link with the development of cancers of the breast, liver, mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, colon, and rectum. Alcohol is currently felt to be responsible for 3.6 percent of all cancers; 5.2 percent of cancers in men, and 1.7 percent of cancers in women.

Pollution And Environmental Chemicals - less than 1 to 5 percent in the United States, chemicals and pollutants account for roughly 1 to 5 percent of cancers. In other regions of the world, for example Chernobyl, Ukraine, pollution accounts for a much higher percentage of cancer.

Copyright 2008 Lynne Eldridge and David Borgeson. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

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