The Mayo Clinic published 10 tips to reduce cancer risk in their most recent issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource.

Here are the tips and below there’s more explanation:

1. Stop smoking
2. Limit alcohol intake – some alcohol is okay, too much is not
3. Follow recommended intake of fruits and vegetable (daily!)
4. Decrease the amount of fat in your daily diet
5. Lose weight if you’re too heavy, try to gain weight if you’re too thin
6. Move! Get active
7. Watch your skin (from the sun and don’t use tanning beds)
8. Don’t take chances when having sex. Protect yourself.
9. See your doctor regularly and take part in recommenced screening tests
10. If you have had cancer or are at particularly high risk, speak with your doctor about chemoprevention, which is taking medications to reduce the risk of new cancers

How and why do these steps help?

First of all, none of these are a surprise. All these recommendations, save for the last one, are recommended to help reduce the risk of developing many health problems, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and more. So by following these tips, you’re helping your body more than you may realize.

Smoking: Did you know that smoking not only increases your risk of developing lung cancer, but also mouth (tongue, cheek, palate, throat, gum) cancer? Your risk of bladder cancer also climbs quite a bit. Smoking affects your whole body, not just your lungs. Also, the social act of smoking is often accompanied by other not-so-healthy lifestyle factors, like drinking alcohol, limiting exercise, and so on. By quitting the cigarettes, your risk drops every day you’re no longer a smoker.

Alcohol: Many of us like to enjoy a good glass of wine, a cold bottle of beer, a good scotch – and many of us limit ourselves to a moderate number of glasses. However, if you drink too much, more than the recommended amount for your sex, you increase your risk of mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon and rectum cancers.

Fruits and vegetables: It’s not that difficult to add the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables into your daily diet, but it does take planning. Unfortunately, with the hectic lifestyles many people lead these days, food planning often goes out the door. Five servings of fruits and vegetables daily are the minimal amount that you should be taking in. The thing is, servings are not huge, so this is not impossible. Two and a half cups of fruits or vegetables over the course of the day is maybe one apple, one tomato and a couple of stalks of celery. That’s not too much, is it?

Limiting fat: This one may be of the easiest things to do. Fat is an essential part of the human diet; we need it for our body to function properly. However, the type of fat and the amount you get is important.

This table, from the USDA, shows you how much fat you should have according to the number of calories you should have per day:

And this table, from the same source, gives you an idea of what foods have what fat:

Source: ARS Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 17.

Weight control: Being a healthy weight for your body build helps your body in many ways. It can even help reduce the pain of osteoarthritis for some people. Being too thin also has health issues, so keep that in mind if you are trying to lose weight.

Get active: Enough said!

Watch your skin: Tanning is not beautiful – any change in your skin color means there is damage going on. Don’t use tanning beds – they’re even worse than the sun. Plus, too much sun exposure doesn’t just contribute to skin cancer, it makes your skin old, dry and wrinkly well before its time.

Protect yourself from sexually transmitted infections: Sex with people without protection exposes you to hepatitis and HIV, both of which are very high risk for cancer, let alone the disease itself. Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes genital warts, some of which can cause cervical cancer, cancer of the cervix.

Screening tests: Screening tests for prostate cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, are all over the news, but don’t forget the other screenings that you can have done. You can have a colonoscopy to check for the beginnings of colon cancer and you can have your skin checked regularly to look for signs of skin cancer. If you are at high risk of a particular type of cancer, speak with your doctor about screening for that, as well. And, don’t forget your dentist. He or she is the one who can detect signs of oral cancer.

Chemoprevention: This is a relatively new area, most commonly known for women who take Tamoxifen to help reduce the risk of breast cancer coming back. You may want to speak with your doctor about this if you are at a high risk of cancer or you have already had it.

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Images: MorgueFile.com

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10 Tips for Reducing Cancer Risk

Diseases of the colon (or bowels) sometimes require treatment with a colostomy. A colostomy is a way for the human body to excrete stool (bowel movements) through an opening in the abdomen rather than through the rectum. The stool is evacuated into a bag that is fastened to the opening and emptied on a regular basis.

There is a lot of stigma to having a colostomy. The idea repulses some people and it can take a while for patients and their loved ones to become comfortable with the idea. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Whether a colostomy is a permanent solution or just a temporary treatment, colostomies can save lives and most people who live with colostomies have learned that it’s really not a big deal to have one.

To learn more about colostomies and living with one, click on the TV screen below:

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Image: iStock.com

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Video Tuesday: Colostomies

President George W. Bush recalls Snow with fondness:

“He had a wonderful sense of humor. He loved to laugh. He loved his country. And he loved his family.

I just hope they understand that Tony was loved here in the White House.”

Full report from AP,  LA Times and The Washington Post.

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White House Aid Tony Snow Lost Battle With Cancer

According to the European Medicines Agency:

Erbitux can be given as the first drug in colon-cancer treatment in patients who carry an unmutated kras gene, restricting its use to about 65 percent of patients.

Erbitux is the first monoclonal antibody approved by the US FDA for the treatment of advanced colon cancer that has spread to the other parts of the body — either alone or in combination with other treatments.

Read more about the EU backing on Erbitux from Bloomberg.

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Erbitux Received EU Backing As First-Line Colon Cancer Treatment

This all happened at the Makati Medical Center where Mrs. Aquino was confined and earlier diagnosed with colon cancer.

All our prayers…hopefully will help. All the best!

Post from: Blisstree

Former Phils. Pres. Cory Aquino, On First Round of Chemo

The condition of Mrs. Aquino (fondly called Cory) was recently revealed by her family.

Former president Corazon Aquino is suffering from colon cancer and is in a hospital, her family said Monday.

Aquino’s daughter Kris, a people television host and actress, read a statement on television saying the cancer was discovered when the former president went to have a check up.

A weeping Kris, with her brother, Senator Benigno Aquino III beside her, said their family is asking for “compassion and prayers for our Mom’s recovery.”

Compassion, prayers and more — are what she’ll definitely get from the Filipino people and (hopefully) the rest of the world.

Read more from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

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Former Phils. President Cory Aquino Has Colon Cancer

Furey’s wife says the Hamilton-based artist died in his sleep early Wednesday after falling into a coma on the weekend. “It was a very peaceful death,” Theresa Furey said. “It’s how he wanted to die – he wanted to die at home and without having any discomfort. And that we promised we would do.”

She said she was by Furey’s side when he passed away, as was a nurse and another family member.

Furey’s daughter, Leah Furey, 26, lauded her father, also a sculptor, as a dedicated family man who was “extremely humble” about his talent.

“He was a great father and a great husband and a great friend and just a great man in general,” she said. “He was extremely humble.”

Conrad Furey (born in Baie Verte, N.L.) was known for colorful murals that were often inspired by his youth in Newfoundland.

Find more details from The Canadian Press.

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Canadian Painter Conrad Furey Died of Colon Cancer

1. Lung cancer
2. Colon cancer
3. Breast cancer
4. Prostate cancer

We should remember though that if detected in it’s early stage, cancer need not be deadly. Moreover, if you have a family history of cancer, you should keep in mind to adjust the other cancer risk factors that can be adjusted such as your diet and your lifestyle.

In any other form of cancer, smoking and drinking alcohol are always listed in the lifestyle factors involved. So make sure to avoid those.

Like in any other serious condition, prevention is always better than treatment in terms of cancer.

Check out the CDC’s cancer page to find more about facts and figures on cancer.

Now, I need your participation by helping me complete the list to 10

5.  ovarian cancer

6.  cervical cancer

7.  pancreatic cancer

8.  naso-pharyngeal cancer

9.  brain cancer

10.

Kindly use the comment section below. Thank you very much!

Post from: Blisstree

Top Deadliest Cancers

Now a Japanese study suggests that drinking three or more cups of coffee a day may reduce the risk or colon cancer in women (sorry guys, there was no significant benefit found in men!).

On the other hand, researchers at Johns Hopkins found that a pill combining chemicals found in turmeric and onions can help prevent colon cancer: curcumin and quercetin.

Well, maybe the wine-lovers should cut down on alcohol consumption — instead drink more coffee and add more spice into their food.

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Coffee, Turmeric and Onions Against Colon Cancer

The warnings will come as a huge worry to millions of middle class Britons who enjoy a glass or two of wine each night believing that they are not harming their health.

Many even think they are doing themselves good after doctors extolled the benefits of a glass of red wine at night, claiming that it could protect them against heart disease.

But the research has shown that even drinking within the Government’s health guidelines of two units a day for women – one large glass of wine, or a pint of normal strength beer – or three units for men could prove to be dangerous.

Bowel (or colon or colorectal) cancer is the third most common cancer (after lung and breast cancers).

Gee, then drinking or not drinking wine daily will just be a choice of the lesser evil between heart disease and colon cancer.

This finding must really hurt all the wine-lovers out there. What should we do then? Take a sip of two after each dinner, or only have wine on weekends or say Friday nights only?

Read the full report.

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Two Glasses of Wine Daily and Risk of Colon Cancer