Evidence continues to mount that modifiable lifestyle factors like diet and exercise have a significant impact on reducing your risk of cancer.
New studies published Nov. 29 in Biomed Central, a medical journal, found that people who followed lifestyle recommendations made by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) had a lower risk of cancer. all cancers, as well as having localized cancers. Specific cancers such as breast, colorectal, and ovarian cancers.
“Our study suggests that following the WCRF/AICR lifestyle-based Cancer Prevention Recommendations is associated with lowering our risk of cancer, in particular two of the world’s top 4 cancers,” Dr. Fiona Malcomson, PhD, Lecturer in Human Nutrition at Newcastle University, and one of the authors of the study, told Healthline.
However, he noted that the observational nature of the study means it concludes a direct causal relationship between adherence and cancer risk.
For each recommendation, which included exercise, limiting sugary beverages, and maintaining a healthy weight, experts created a simple “score” system to measure how well an individual followed.
If, for example, you stopped drinking sugary drinks, you would get one point, but if soda was still part of your normal diet, you would get no points.
There are also more progressive scoring approaches; For example, if you partially respond to a recommendation, you may get part of a point.
After getting an individual’s score, researchers can simply take a look at fitness results to see if that score is associated, for example, with cancer incidence.
To conduct this study, newArray researchers used the UK Biobank, a prospective gym with more than one million participants. The cohort includes men and women aged between 37 and 73 from across the UK and includes insights into the fitness, nutrition and socio-economic prestige of its participants.
Researchers were able to draw on this wealth of data, including just under 95,000 participants with an average age of 56 years old in their study.
During an average follow-up period of 8 years, 7296 participants (about 8%) developed some form of cancer.
Using the WCRF/AICR Advice Point system, participants were assigned a score between 0 and 7 on their compliance.
What the researchers found shows how important lifestyle changes can be for cancer risk: for every point, cancer risk was reduced by 7%.
In localized cancers, the results were even more surprising.
For example, the risk of breast and colorectal cancer was reduced by 10%; kidney cancer had an 18% lower risk; Ovarian cancer (24%), esophageal cancer (22%) and gallbladder cancer (30%) also showed abundant improvements.
“It’s exciting to see that selling or following advised lifestyle adjustments can have a protective effect,” said Dr. Harris. Lidia Schapira, a professor of oncology at Stanford University, who was not involved in the research.
There are also obvious trends in scores. Participants in the highest diversity (4. 5 to 7), who demonstrated the highest degrees of adherence, had a 16% reduced threat of any cancer threat, compared to those with the lowest score diversity.
Site-specific cancers have also followed suit; Participants with higher scores had a lower risk of breast (18%), colorectal (21%), kidney (36%), esophageal (36%), and ovarian (43%) cancers than those with lower adherence.
The WCRF/AICR established new recommendations in 2018, its first major update since its previous publication in 2007.
Previous studies have looked at associations between the 2007 recommendations and health-related outcomes, but this is the first time researchers have been able to use the updated recommendations.
The recommendations come with the following:
They also recommend people who give birth should breastfeed if possible.
Some of the adjustments between the 2007 and 2018 councils come with the advice to “eat less salt,” due to inconclusive evidence; and the inclusion of the advice to restrict sugar in particular in beverages such as soft drinks and juices.
Malcomson encourages everyone to try to comply with the WCRF/AICR recommendations as much as possible, although small steps are also important.
“Even innovations in one or two of those parts are enough to make a difference,” he said.
Schapira also encourages other people who want to adopt some of those lifestyle adjustments to make them manageable and positive: “Focus on one thing, rather than just saying, ‘Oh my God, I want to replace those 8 things in my life and my diet. . . It’s too much, so I probably wouldn’t do it. “
“We should think about helping people to focus perhaps one or two recommendations, and doing it in an incremental or sequential way,” she said.
Lifestyle changes, such as nutrition and exercise, are a vital way to improve your fitness and avoid the risk of cancer.
New studies indicate that people who follow the 2018 recommendations from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) have a lower risk of cancer and site-specific cancer.
Small steps such as eliminating sugary drinks from your diet, eating less red meat, and exercising more can have a primary effect on reducing cancer risk.
Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.
Current Version
November 30, 2023
Written By
Gigen Mammoser
Edited by
Andrea Riz
Fact Checked By
Kelsey Costa, MS, RDN
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