Ways to Prevent Cancer

Ways to Prevent Cancer

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QUESTION: Your advice is always so welcome in our home, for it always rings
true. I know many people write to you to ask about cures for disease, but we
think your emphasis on prevention is most important. Now if you could discuss
ways to prevent cancer, you would be doing everyone a service.
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ANSWER: If ever I wished I had a simple and complete answer for a question,
this would be the one. The problem is that there are so many cancers, so many
causes, that there are no simple answers. The basic rules of good health are
always a fine starting point, and must be emphasized over and over again, for
they help prevent illness of all kinds. Regular physical checkups, exercise
and diet are always in order. And the researchers have given us some specific
tips that may be useful. Foods high in fiber are not merely the latest fad,
but help to lower the risk of colon cancer. Keep the fat content in your diet
low to reduce risks of breast, prostate colon and rectal cancer. Avoid
unnecessary X-rays, but be quick to permit those that are important for
diagnosis, recommended by your physician. There are so many risk factors that
exist in the workplace that you must become knowledgeable about the materials
that you come in contact with, and the safe procedures that must be used in
handling them. Excessive exposure to the harmful rays of the sun may lead to
skin cancer, so keep covered or use the appropriate sun screens when out in
the open. The evidence for the harm that smoking does is dramatic, and our
new turn to a no smoking society is one that may prevent thousands of needless
cases of lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema. There may be many more
such tips, each directed at a specific cancer, but the call for moderation in
all things, which I call for here on frequent occasions, must still be amongst
the most valuable tips one can offer to prevent cancer, and in fact all
disease. One day, I hope, I will be able to answer your question more
directly, but until then, give these tips a try.