Simple changes could reduce your cancer risk

If doctors invented a pill which could reduce your chances of breast cancer by 30 per cent and bowel cancer by a staggering 45 per cent, we’d all be standing in line for it.

But the truth is we all have it in our power to do just that – right now.

And on World Cancer Day on February 4, the World Cancer Research Fund hopes people will finally take heed of its prevention message.

Simply by making a few lifestyle changes, we could all help safeguard ourselves against the dreaded disease.

For while outcomes for cancer patients are now far better than they were just a decade ago, none of us wants to be diagnosed.

Professor Annie Anderson knows this only too well.

As co-director of the Scottish Cancer Prevention Network and Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the University of Dundee, she’s met hundreds of patients with the disease.

Annie is also a World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) grant panel member, which uses the charity’s findings to help decide the research projects relating to cancer and cancer prevention it funds and supports.

On Monday, February 5, the Scottish Cancer Prevention Network will host its seventh successful conference on the disease; the event is already a sell-0ut.

Among the speakers at that event – which takes the World Cancer Day theme of We Can, I Can – will be patients with cancer, NHS professionals, health students and Scotland’s public health minister, MSP Aileen Campbell.

And the conference’s theme is one Annie is very keen to get across to readers.

She said: “There’s a huge amount of evidence showing the links between lifestyle and cancer – billions have been spent on this evidence.

“But it’s not good enough to have it in journals so one of the most important jobs the SCPN does is communicate that to people via its quarterly newsletter and annual conference, which coincides with World Cancer Day.

“Smoking is still top of the bill in terms of risk factors, followed by obesity and diet and physical activity.

“If you deal with all three of those factors, you greatly reduce your risk of cancer.

“If a doctor gave you a pill that reduced your risk of breast cancer by up to 30 per cent and your risk of bowel cancer by up to 45 per cent, would you take it?

“It’s not a free ticket – we’ve all heard stories of people smoking like chimneys until they’re well into their 80s or 90s and those who do all the right things but are diagnosed with cancer anyway.

“All the evidence shows, though, that the likelihood of you getting cancer is significantly reduced if you do make some lifestyle changes.”

However, Annie is also quick to point out that the buck doesn’t just stop with individuals.

Indeed, the SCPN is currently drafting a response to the Scottish Government’s obesity consultation, A Healthier Future; it proposes actions to improve diet and weight in Scotland.The consultation will end on January 31.

“Two thirds of Scotland’s population has excess body weight and are physically inactive,” said Annie.

“We don’t have a brilliant diet, with too much processed meat in sausages and pies and we also like our booze.

“So it’s little wonder really that bowel cancer is one of the most common in Scotland.

“The biggest risk factor in terms of bowel cancer is diet and we all eat too little dietary fibre, found in wholegrains , cereals and pulses.

“That’s where retailers come into the equation. We need price promotions on wholegrain foods and fruit and vegetables to help make it more desirable for those on a limited budget.

“The ‘We Can, I Can’ theme was chosen for World Cancer Day because we all need to work together to improve the health picture in Scotland.

“It’s not just down to individual choices.

“The last thing we want to do is make people feel guilty about the choices they’ve made, particularly people who have already been diagnosed.

“Asking people to make lifestyle changes can be motivating but, if they don’t think they have options due to a limited budget, it can also be incredibly demotivating.

“So everyone has a role to play – from local authorities making choices about what’s in their vending machines to employers giving staff the time to take ten ... just ten minutes to go for a walk.

“Walking is free and 99 per cent of people are able to do it.

“It’s been shown, for example, that dog walkers are healthier because they walk more – th