Physical Wellness

Four Things Americans Need To Do To Reduce Cancer Risk By Half

By Sara Gale | Update Date: May 23, 2016 06:05 AM EDT

A new research has mandated four things to reduce the risk of cancer by half in Americans. Maintaining a healthy weight, reducing the alcohol intake, quitting smoking and including 150 minutes of workout a week could cut the risk of cancer down into half, says the study.

According to a study published in journal JAMA Oncology, the four healthy habits could help decrease the number of cancer cases diagnosed in the US by 40 to 70 percent. Adapting the health guidelines would help reduce cancer deaths by 67 percent and prevent the chances of developing cancer by 63 percent in both men and women.

As far as women are concerned, following the healthy lifestyle would help reducing the cancer mortality rate by 59 percent and decrease the chances developing cancer by 41 percent. In the study conducted by researchers in Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, it is noted that women that follow the health guidelines has 85 percent reduced risk of developing lung cancer and 60 percent reduced risk of developing colorectal cancer, according to SF Gate.

"The researchers also calculated that women who followed the guidelines could reduce their risk of pancreatic cancer by 53%, endometrial cancer by 37%, ovarian cancer by 34% and breast cancer by 15%," reported Detroit Free Press.

The reduction in risk of lung cancer and colorectal cancer in men that follows healthy lifestyle is observed to be 90 and 50 percent respectively. It is also reported that there is 40 percent reduced risk of prostate cancer, 62 percent lower risk of bladder cancer and 36 percent decreased risk of kidney cancer in men that follows the health guidelines.

"As a society, we need to avoid procrastination induced by thoughts that chance drives all cancer risk or that new medical discoveries are needed to make gains against cancer," wrote Dr. Graham A. Colditz and Siobhan Sutcliffe of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, noted Detroit Free Press. "We must embrace the opportunity to reduce the collective cancer toll by ... changing the way we live. [Efforts to promote those changes] will be our fastest return on past investments in cancer research over the coming decades."

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