7 Ways to Slash Cancer Risk

By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com senior editor

Would you change your lifestyle if you could slash your risk of getting cancer by a third or even half? That’s the challenge posed by a huge new report just released by The American Institute for Cancer Research that pulls together and analyzes the most comprehensive data on cancer prevention yet.

Okay, I admit it, you’re not going to like some of this advice, and neither are your family members. I know I don’t. Give up salami, one of my favorite lunch options? Yikes. And alcohol? As native Californians who grew up going wine tasting in the Napa Valley whenever possible, my siblings would be really sad if family dinners were no longer accompanied by a bottle of good zinfandel or pinot. And what’s a burrito without a cold beer and lime to go with it?

But this evidence is so compelling that I think all of us in Cancer World are going to have to look twice at some of our lifestyle choices and may feel newly motivated to make changes, or nag at our loved ones to do so. Imagine, by following these guidelines, we could prevent:

More than 45 percent of colon cancer cases
(Translation: 49,000 people would not get colon cancer)
38 percent of breast cancer cases
(Translation: 70,000 people would not get breast cancer)
One third of all the most common cancers

This report is a big deal because the experts who compiled it looked at every major study and based their recommendations on hard evidence of what really works to reduce cancer risk. “This is the practical application of five years of work sorting through what the science really says,” said panel member Steve Zeisel, MD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Next: The 7 Ways to Slash Your Risk of Getting Cancer (click through to end for printable version)

7 Ways to Slash Cancer Risk originally appeared on Caring.com.