Research shows that HALF of all cancers are caused by six lifestyle factors. How many of these factors are you guilty of?
Nearly half of cancer deaths in America can be attributed to six decisions people make in their daily lives.
According to a new report published the American Cancer Society, forOne in 10 cancer cases and nearly half of cancer deaths in Americans over 30 are linked to smoking, obesity, alcohol use, inactivity, unhealthy diet and too much sunlight.
Other factors, such as exposure to second-hand smoke, eating red meat, unprotected sex, contracting HPV or HIV infection, and a diet low in calcium, were also identified as causing some cancer cases, but accounted for only a fraction of cases compared with the six major categories.
Despite anti-smoking campaigns and declining tobacco use, cigarettes are still the leading cause of cancer in the U.S., accounting for 20 percent of all new cancer cases and 30 percent of all cancer deaths in 2019.
“The number of lung cancer deaths in the United States attributable to smoking is alarming,” said Dr. Farhad Islami, the study’s author and scientific director of cancer disparities research at the American Cancer Society.
The new report from the American Cancer Society looked at cancer cases in 2019 and found that 44 percent of deaths that year could be attributed to behaviors people engaged in during their lifetime
Cigarette smoking was the largest contributor to cancer cases and deaths in 2019, the year ACS studied. Other risk factors included alcohol use, diet, physical activity, and infections such as HPV
After cigarettes, most cancers were attributed to obesity, alcohol use, sun damage and physical inactivity.
The authors did not define overweight, but it is likely that they based their definition on the Body Mass Index, a standard used by American physicians that classifies patients into four categories based on their height and weight: underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese.
Overweight can refer to both overweight and obese people, or it can refer to only obese people.
The researchers also did not specify how much alcohol the people participating in the study consumed. However, the US Centers for Disease Control defines regular alcohol use as two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women.
However, they recommend drinking less and say it is safest to not drink alcohol at all.
According to Dr. Islami, the results emphasize the importance of providing education about smoking cessation and the importance of proper nutrition and exercise.
“Interventions to maintain healthy body weight and diet can also significantly reduce cancer cases and deaths in the country,” Dr Islami said.
According to the NIH, about seven out of ten Americans are obese or overweight, a number that has been steadily rising since the 1970s.
Doctors believe that excess fat in the body changes the way your body regulates hormones and inflammation, which can lead to an increased risk of cancer by altering the natural life cycle of cells, Dr. Karen Basen-Engquista professor of behavioral sciences at MD Anderson College who was not involved in the study.
This leads to an increased risk of colon, breast, uterine, esophageal, kidney and pancreatic cancer.
In 2019, there were 713,340 cases of cancer diagnosed in Americans over 30, and 262,120 deaths from cancer, according to the report published in CA: A cancer journal for clinicians.
Nineteen percent of new diagnoses, representing 344,070 individuals, were attributable to smoking.
Thirty percent of the deaths, which amounts to approximately 169,810, were caused by smoking.
In 2019, obesity was responsible for 135,910 new cases and 43,520 deaths in people over 30.
Alcohol use was responsible for 96,730 new cases and 24,410 deaths among people over 30 in 2019.
In second place are cancers caused by an inactive lifestyle, poor diet, sun exposure and human papillomavirus (HPV) infections.
HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that has been linked to cervical, throat, mouth and anal cancers. Research shows that it causes more cancer cases than factors such as eating a lot of processed meat.
The disease is often spread through unprotected vaginal, anal and oral sex.
This showed that there is a “continued need” to raise awareness about the HPV vaccine, which is highly effective in preventing this sexually transmitted disease, said Dr Ahmedin Jemal, author of the study.
“Vaccination at the recommended time can significantly reduce the risk of chronic infections and, consequently, cancers associated with these viruses,” said Dr. Jemal, senior vice president of surveillance and health equity at the American Cancer Society.
Not every type of cancer can be easily attributed to risk factors like those outlined in the study, so the researchers focused on those with clear links to behaviors — such as lung cancer, melanoma, and colorectal cancer.
To reach these conclusions, the researchers did not survey all American households.
Instead, they used data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, which tracks cancer cases in the US.
The report stresses the importance of raising awareness of these risk factors, and argues that there is still scope to educate people and ‘significantly reduce’ the number of cancer cases and deaths in the country.
