

Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review - erinwatson
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16031149
Nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year - over 130,000 in total - are caused by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things, a review reveals.
======
pflats
I have a lifestyle cancer: melanoma.

That said, I didn't realize "going outside with short hair and no hat" was a
bad lifestyle choice until it was too late, so I'm posting here:

Hey fair skinned folks! Just wearing sunscreen _IS NOT ENOUGH_. Wear a hat if
you're going to spend more than a short time outside! If you have a family
history of skin cancer, ask your barber to keep an eye out for moles when
you're getting your hair cut.

~~~
giardini
Using sunscreen reduces the body's production of vitamin D, a potent anti-
cancer agent:

<http://greathealinggetaways.com/Sunscreenarticle.html>

Sunscreens often contain carcinogens:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_health_risks_of_sunsc...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_health_risks_of_sunscreen)

Consequently staying indoors and using sunscreen may _increase_ your
likelihood of developing cancer.

Children who avoid sunshine will get rickets, a disease that was once almost
absent from the US population:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8128781/Middle-...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8128781/Middle-
class-children-suffering-rickets.html)

Nonetheless, the fair-skinned must balance their exposure carefully. Good news
is that their skin produces vitamin D more efficiently than darker skin, so
the fair-skinned can obtain vitamin D in a shorter exposure period (minutes a
day):

[http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/painter/2009-04-19-your-...](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/painter/2009-04-19-your-
health_N.htm)

~~~
nottombrown
Vitamin D deficiency is extremely common in the US. If you are going to take a
single supplement, make it 1000 UI/day of D.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypovitaminosis_D#Cancer>

That said, if you are going to spend time outside, the benefits of wearing
sunscreen and a hat undoubtedly outweigh whatever risk they may induce.

------
tokenadult
"Dr Rachel Thompson, of the World Cancer Research Fund, said the report added
to the 'now overwhelmingly strong evidence that our cancer risk is affected by
our lifestyles.'

"Dr Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said leading a
healthy lifestyle did not guarantee a person would not get cancer but the
study showed 'we can significantly stack the odds in our favour.'"

Many of these lines of evidence where developed originally by looking at
environmental differences among different countries, as well as time series in
cancer rates as lifestyles changed in countries over time, and comparisons of
immigrants of varying ages of arrival (who adopt the lifestyles of new
countries either as children or as adults) with relatives who stay in the old
country. Then the best-understood models of cancer risk factors are further
investigated through controlled experimentation on laboratory animals or on
cell lines in vitro. Today it's plain enough that avoiding smoking, eating a
varied, balanced diet, and maintaining normal weight through a combination of
exercise and moderate eating offers substantial reduction of risk in all-cause
mortality, including but not limited to death from cancer.

After edit: the second reply here asked how a diet higher rather than lower in
fruits and vegetables can protect from cancers other than colon cancer.
According to what I've read about the research, it's thought that some
tendencies of healthy body cells to go into uncontrolled growth (cancer) are
made worse by lack of micronutrients, which may be lacking in the diets of
people who don't eat varied diets. It's also thought that the evolutionary
arms race between plants (which tend to evolve tough husks but also
phytotoxins as protections against being eaten) and animals (which have to eat
some food source ultimately derived from autotrophic organisms, that is mostly
plants) results in complex animals being selected for incidental adaptation of
phytotoxins to kill off errant cell lines. What's poison in a large does can
sometimes be medicine in the therapeutic dose and in the right time and place.
All human beings eventually die of something, but the epidemiological evidence
(and some laboratory evidence) shows that plant intake reduces chances of
dying young of cancer, and these mechanisms are some of those suggested as
reasons for that observation.

~~~
VladRussian
>After edit: the second reply here asked how a diet higher rather than lower
in fruits and vegetables can protect from cancers other than colon cancer.
According to what I've read about the research, it's thought that some
tendencies of healthy body cells to go into uncontrolled growth (cancer) are
made worse by lack of micronutrients, which may be lacking in the diets of
people who don't eat varied diets. It's also thought that the evolutionary
arms race between plants

antioxidant is keyword here:

[http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/prevention/anti...](http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/prevention/antioxidants)

------
melling
The top comment is from a healthy smoker of 65. People always love to discuss
how they or someone they know has smoked their entire life and never had a
problem. I know lots of smokers who still aren't convinced of the health
issues. Seems like there's still a long way to go.

~~~
ukgent2
It depends on the person,

I got a nan, 96, walks to town 3 times a week, still rides her bike, been
smoking 60 a day for 40 years, and recently cut back to 40. If i compare her
to my other nan 86 frail and pretty much falling apart, now guess which one
has had the better lifestyle? the second, very well off always comfortable.

At 96 i think she gets up to keep smoking, and if that keeps her alive then
keep doing it.

~~~
isamuel
This is like saying the dangerousness of Russian roulette "depends on the
person," because you have a grandmother who's played a bunch of times and
didn't die.

~~~
nsxwolf
That's probably not correct. The grandmother playing Russian Roulette is truly
the beneficiary of random chance. She's still susceptible to bullets.

The centenarian smoker likely was never susceptible to smoking-induced lung
cancer in the first place.

~~~
mortenjorck
The hammer is cocked when your embryo is conceived, and you can find out if
the chamber was empty a few decades later.

------
helipad
This was on BBC news the other day.

Apparently eating well, drinking in moderation, not smoking and regular
exercise reduce the risk of cancer.

When interviewed, man hiding under rock expressed surprise and gratitude for
the update.

~~~
randallsquared
_eating well_

I'm not sure "eating well" has the same meaning for everybody. :) Perhaps we
should say "eating safely" or something.

------
hvass
Related to this topic I think you might find Dr. Terry Wahls' story
fascinating, she pretty much 'cured' herself from Multiple Sclerosis by
adopting a 'paleo' diet. She presented her findings at the 2011 Neuroscience
conference ("Effects of intensive directed nutrition, progressive exercise
program and neuromuscular electrical stimulation on secondary progressive
multiple sclerosis (PDF)[1]") She also had a TED talk[2] taking us through the
process of getting out of her wheelchair and the specific food she ate.

I know this immediately turns on your B.S. sensors, but she changed her
lifestyle after spending hours on Pubmed doing research on nutrition's impact
on the brain and specifically the mitochondria. I highly recommend the talk,
it is both very informative and very moving. And there are some saddening
statistics about the lack of vitamins and minerals in the American population.

[1] <http://www.sfn.org/am2011/pdf/prelim/SUN_Poster_PM_v2.pdf> [2]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc&feature=player_embedded)

~~~
Shorel
As a Paleo eater, I'm happy to see this in the research.

(also replying as a form of bookmark)

------
barrkel
So if these 40% of cancers were eliminated, what's the chances that the
survivors would have ended up with one of the remaining 60%?

You have to die of something. What's important is years of high-quality life,
rather than merely avoiding death from any specific ailment. And of course,
quality is ultimately a subjective measure. All the behaviours that you must
conform to, to avoid these specific deaths, may themselves detract from your
quality of life.

~~~
AznHisoka
Eating healthy and exercising improves the quality of your life right now, as
well as in the future. As does cutting back on alcohol, and smoking.

~~~
barrkel
Almost all food advertised or described as "healthy", I've found to be neutral
at best, to actively unpleasant. High fibre, lots of vegetables, fruit, etc.;
I actively dislike almost all of it. My favourite foods are lamb, butter,
cheese and freshly baked goods, to the point that my morning ritual, before
breakfast, involves a (scooter) trip to a bakery.

Similarly, I've never enjoyed exercise. I used to cycle to and from school
every day, about 6 miles, fairly high intensity (due to my laziness, I'd start
late). My aerobic capacity was certainly higher then; I could run for perhaps
30 minutes, where I'd hazard a guess that I'd be out of breath after 10
minutes now. I'm not overweight, have no difficulty walking, jumping, running,
climbing hills etc. when I get the occasion to on vacation and such. But the
thought of actively exercising fills me with weariness. Not enjoyable.

What I'm getting at is that I have a lifestyle that I _massively_ enjoy, and
it took a lot of experimentation and experience to discover the things I like
best. Whether it is specifically healthy or not is secondary, by a long way,
to how enjoyable it is.

~~~
maxerickson
A still useful definition of eating healthy is to eat approximately the
correct amount of calories.

Obviously the what is also going to have impact, but it is easy to observe
that the great majority of people are not walking around with severe
nutritional deficiencies.

~~~
rhino42
Debatable. They clearly have enough _calories_ , but you need more than just
that to live and be healthy. I would strongly argue that omega-3's and vitamin
D3 are essential nutrients that a substantial portion of the population are
deficient in.

~~~
maxerickson
I said severe because there are clear complications for severe deficiencies
(rickets, scurvy, etc.). The science surrounding correct levels and
consequences of not quite correct levels of such nutrients is much less
settled.

So among the group of people that are not basically falling apart from a
nutrient deficit, the ones that eat about the right amount of calories tend to
be (quite a lot!) healthier than the ones that eat far more or far less
calories.

------
litmus
In more depressing news: 60% of cancers may not be due to lifestyle. The
correct phrase would probably be "known lifestyle choices". But seriously,
shouldn't people be surprised lifestyle only accounts for 40%. What if I
rewrote the entry paragraph in the following way:

Nearly half of low intelligence diagnosed in the UK each year - over 130,000
in total - are caused by avoidable life choices including not reading,
debating, or thinking about interesting problems.

~~~
Shorel
How many of the remaining cancers are colon or insulin resistance related?

------
itmag
I look around at my colleagues and see apparent misuse of the body. Carbs and
fat for lunch every day, smoking, no exercise, sitting in a chair all day
long, buckets of coffee, stress, poor posture and body alignment, doing the
same shit every day, poor outlook on life, no sunshine on you during half of
the year, etc. Of course this is going to wreck a person.

Yet no one seems to even be conscious of the wrongness of this.

~~~
richcollins
Where is the evidence that dietary fat and coffee increase cancer risk?

~~~
itmag
It was just a remark on poor health in general.

------
EdiX
OTOH, discounting tobacco, most cases of cancer (78%) are unrelated to
lifestyle choices. I also have problems coming to terms with the idea that
occupational hazards are lifestyle choices.

------
MartinMond
Can someone explain how lack of fruit and vegetables leads to cancer?

I can understand it leading to colon cancer, but does it also lead to other
kinds of cancer?

AFAIK even if you never eat fruits/vegetables you aren't lacking any
micronutrients?

~~~
jolan
Fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants.

~~~
DanBC
Antioxidants may not do anything to prevent cancer.

([http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2009/10/02/antioxida...](http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2009/10/02/antioxidants-
and-cancer-%E2%80%93-the-plot-thickens/))

------
jamesriley
From the headline I expected this article to be about over working and
exhaustion, a topic I'm sure many here can relate to in some way. In the
authorised biography of Steve Jobs, he comments on how he believes the
exhaustive hours worked in 1997 when driving back and forth between Apple and
Pixar were the cause for his cancer. In a similar vein, there seems to be a
higher ratio of cancer sufferers in high pressured environments like financial
trading. As a developer wanting to achieve amazing things, working what others
consider crazy hours, the worry does occasionally cross my mind. I love what I
do, but I do wonder how much harm can be caused by over working, regardless of
the fact that there's nothing else I'd rather do with my time.

~~~
Someone
_"Steve Jobs […] comments on how he believes the"_

Steve was lots of things, but I think few would say he was an expert in
medicine. For another data point with more or less the same weight: If I had
to guess, I would blame his stay in India, in particular the hepatitis he
reportedly got there. I know that is an unverifiable statement, and am willing
to change position once a fact presents itself, though.

 _"there seems to be a higher ratio of cancer sufferers in high pressured
environments like financial trading"_

Believes aren' worth anything here. Show me the numbers. For what it is worth
(zero), I would guess on lower incidence, due to higher risks of heart attacks
and of accidents with fast cars, all others being equal.

Summary: nothing to worry about, there, except for your own worries.

------
carldall
Thank god coffee wasn't on the list.

~~~
dredmorbius
Most of the research on coffee that I've seen is mixed-to-modestly positive
for moderate amounts (1-2 cups day). Essentially: if you're having a few cups,
have no problems with it, and enjoy it, no need to stop. Some people do
experience sleep and stress problems.

I've found that relying on tea through the course of the day (after a morning
mug of espresso) keeps my energy levels more even. Dittos knocking off the
carbs -- much more even energy levels, and no post-lunch slump.

------
araneae
Does anyone know why there's a little thumbnail of "reproduction" there?

My understanding is that in women, a lack of reproduction causes cancer.
Basically, each period you have adds to your risk of breast cancer. Did the
BBC just get it wrong or is there something I'm missing?

------
ghc
Right, I'm off to find some fruits and vegetables! Or do I get enough
antioxidants as a tea-drinker? I'm conflicted because I know I don't get
enough fruit in my diet, but the recommended daily amount of fruit seems
difficult to get in the winter.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
I eat fruits with every meal. Not a ton of them, just making sure I get some
nice tasty "vegetable candy" every time I eat food.

Also focus on getting enough fiber. Auto-magically this will ensure you get a
lot of veggies, minerals, vitamins, and so on - as long as you don't rely on
artificial means such as fiber supplements. Lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage,
tomatoes, stuff like that - all those are good.

I do eat meat, eggs, dairy and so on, I'm not a vegetarian by any means. I
just try to avoid eating too much red meat, or stuff heavy on cholesterol and
saturated fat. I emphasize fish, turkey, chicken, lean meat, etc. Once in a
while I will enjoy a good steak - it's not like you'll drop dead from eating
it, and cholesterol is actually used by your body to make hormones and so on.

As a remnant from my weight lifting days, I try to eat some protein with every
meal, and I try to avoid carbs-only meals. I think the low fat diets are
ridiculous; controlling the calories overall, and the carbs in particular, and
exercising, are far more important.

I reduced very drastically starchy foods. Bread, rice, potatoes - gone or
greatly diminished. Eat a salad instead (for dressing, use oil and vinegar,
not the sugary junk that most people use). Popcorn and potato chips are
blacklisted in my household. Ice cream - I'll eat some once in a while when
the kids are craving it. No candy. No soda.

I do eat a small amount of chocolate, Nutella, or drink some hot chocolate,
almost every day in fact, in the evening; cocoa has antioxidants too, and the
sweet taste gives you a serotonin boost when you're tired. This is the "vice"
that I indulge in. :)

My preferred drink is green tea. Black is fine too. I drink lots.

I take one fish oil capsule in the evening, unless I had fish for lunch or
dinner, in which case I skip it. I take one resveratrol capsule in the
morning, one in the evening; there is some controversy re: this substance, but
overall it still looks good; if the science changes, I'll change my habits
accordingly.

I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do (sorry for the rage comics pun) I
drink red wine. Mostly on social occasions.

I do strength exercises ("weight lifting") twice a week, maybe half an hour;
often this is just going out to a park and doing pull-ups on a tree branch or
something, then a few sets of clapping push-ups on soft ground, then one-leg
squats holding on to a tree, stuff like that; the gym is nice, but it's
optional. I ride the bicycle a few hours every week-end; I've a nice road bike
that takes me far over the hills, towards the ocean, or wherever I wanna go. I
walk every day about an hour - often I'll eat my lunch walking instead of
sitting in a restaurant. When I take a break from work, I go out and walk;
it's very relaxing and mind-expanding; a lot of innovative, out of the box
ideas come to you when you're outdoors daydreaming.

At 182cm (6') tall, I weighed 61kg (135lb) a decade ago and I was a couch
potato geek with awful eating habits. Then I started working out, changed lots
of things. After a while I weighed 85kg (187lb), no fat, and I was bench
pressing 100kg (220lb). Nowadays I scaled back lifting a lot, I eat less
calories, I weigh somewhat less, maybe 78kg (172lb) - I don't know for sure
and I don't care. The bathroom scale is full of bullsXXt, the mirror will tell
you the truth. I feel I'm in great shape, and I was told I do look very much
"in shape".

Sounds like a lot, but all this stuff was just a gentle, slow, very gradual
change in habits over a long period of time, years really. I never forced the
issues. If you take a vow and fail, so what? Tomorrow is another day. You turn
around and try again. This is not a sprint, it's a decades-long marathon. Once
the habits are changed, it takes no effort to keep the regimen. Nowadays my
diet is the way it is because I actually like it. E.g. I developed an intense
dislike for popcorn (tastes like flavored cardboard) and fast food (it's way
too salty and greasy). The body gets used to exercising and it gets restless
if you don't work out.

Slow gradual gentle changes, never forcing the issues, drive the habits deep
into the psyche. If you feel you can't keep this up for decades to come,
you're trying too hard - so scale back a notch. That's it. Good luck.

~~~
Patrick_Bateman
tl;dr: I believe in taking care of myself, and a balanced diet and a rigorous
exercise routine. In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I'll put on an
ice pack while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now. After I
remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a
water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face
an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial masque which I
leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use
an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your
face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye
balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.

~~~
rdouble
Perfect.

------
latch
What about the other 60%?

I'd argue that for, a lot of people living in developed countries, things like
exposure to poor air quality should be considered a lifestyle choice.

~~~
barrkel
Such things aren't choices in any conventional sense of the word - they're
package deals, and you don't get to renegotiate the package. You can live in
London for the opportunities and culture, but you can't easily escape the
crime and traffic pollution.

~~~
yummyfajitas
And it's illegal or impossible to leave London? You can't renegotiate the
package, but you can always choose a different package.

~~~
Patrick_Bateman
Perhaps, but the health benefits may be outweighed by moving from a city with
a large economy out to the country where you'll have to subsistence farm for a
living.

~~~
yummyfajitas
You are confusing the UK with India and China.

------
Zirro
I don't smoke nor drink alcohol (at all), but I can't remember the last time I
had vegetables or fruit in large quantities either. Time to get some ;)

------
known
Eating <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmeric> powder will prevent cancer.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
Lots of spices do that. Cinnamon is pretty good too. Ginger. Horseradish.
Garlic. Goes on and on.

~~~
hyko
Go easy on the cassia cinnamon though - it contains coumarin, which is a known
hepatotoxin.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coumarin#Toxicity_and_use_in_fo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coumarin#Toxicity_and_use_in_foods.2C_beverages.2C_tobacco.2C_and_cosmetics)

------
jimmeh2
The thing that I dislike about cancer reporting (and don't get me wrong I'm
all for improving ones lifestyle through better nutrition, exercise and social
engagement) is that cancer is fundamentally different from a disease like the
flu. If 40% of all flu cases were caused my lifestyle then it would be
reasonable to say that you could change your lifestyle and dramatically cut
down on the number of flu cases. But cancer is a disease of old age. Basically
all of us are going to die and the long you live the more likely it is that
you'll die of cancer, if not of the esophagus, then of the stomach, if not of
the stomach then brain cancer, or pancreas cancer. So a healthy life style on
average will delay the onset of cancer, but will by no means reduce the like-
hood that you'll get cancer in your lifetime by 40%. Actually it probably has
the perverse effect of making you much more resistant to cardiovascular
decease, and therefor MORE likely to die of cancer, albeit at a more advanced
age than you would have otherwise.

------
EricDeb
What I always wondered about eating healthy is, is it the unhealthy foods on
their own that is the root cause, or the fact that unhealthy eaters don't eat
wholesome foods?

For example, if I eat McDonalds, but then I also eat a bunch of fruits and
veggies, would that mitigate the risk?

------
mgh2
I don't get one thing, which is by luck...Steve Jobs died of cancer...and he
was vegetarian

~~~
adrianN
That's not how statistics work.

------
hs
there is trend in the 'key cause of cancer' down in the article, throat and
colon cancer follow power distribution, while breat cancer kinda follows
uniform dist

for breast cancer: the highest offender = obesity is 8.7%, only a multiple of
two to the mean <4%

to me it only means that the cause of throat and colon cancer is relatively
known (smoke and meat) while it's gray area for breast cancer

smoke -> throat kinda makes sense meat -> bowel? (turns out meat contains no
fiber, and lack of fiber accounts for 12.2% so lumping meat and lack of fiber
equal a whopping 33.3%) ... makes sense?

------
mike_ivanov
Reproduction is a key cause of cancer? WTF is that?

~~~
refurb
The incidence of breast and uterine cancer is lower the more children you
have.

I think the link is tentative, but pregnancy and breast feeding reduces your
lifetime exposure to estrogen which can be a promoter of certain types of
cancers.

------
hs
i find it interesting that 'meat' is not written (thus not searchable) in the
main article (it's down there in 'key causes of cancer' as icon)

FTA (scroll down): Colorectal / Bowel : meat 21.1%, obesity 13%, lack-of-fibre
12.2%

it's not surprising meat and lack-of-fibre are correlated (meat contains no
fibre)

------
herbivore
While the study did consider fruits and veggies, it did not account for
factory farmed meat and dairy consumption, genetically modified foods, animal
protein intake, food dyes, cell towers, etc. In 20 years from now we might
finally realize that genes alone play a very small role in development of
cancer cells. Time will tell.

------
skatenerd
i wonder where in the world the "occupational hazard" number is highest, and
what the number looks like

------
monochromatic
With socialized medicine, these people are stealing from the state. Britain
should outlaw smoking, drinking, and eating fatty foods. Two servings of
vegetables per day is now compulsory, enforceable by a fine of 20 shillings.

~~~
ThomPete
Or they should drop socialized medicine so that people can do whatever they
want.

~~~
arethuza
"people can do whatever they want"

People _can_ do whatever they want in the UK when it comes to healthcare - you
can go to the NHS or go private if you want. Nobody _makes_ you go to an NHS
hospital.

Of course, what you can't opt out of is the tax bill that pays for the NHS -
but as the NHS is reasonably efficient I don't mind paying for it if it means
that everyone in the country has access to decent health care.

