A new study, published in the Lancet, suggests that specific lifestyle changes would impact more than a third of cancer deaths worldwide. Many cancers have preventable causes that could be managed and prevented through changes in lifestyle and environment.

These factors include:

Smoking
Alcohol use
Unsafe sex
Low fruit and vegetable intake
obesity
lack of exercise
contaminated injections
indoor smoke from fuels

While the impact of smoking is a well-known risk factor in health, many of these other factors come as a surprise to many. Modern nations tend to have low intakes of nutritious whole foods and instead consume greater amounts of highly processed foods, containing high levels of salt, fat and refined sugar. Lack of exercise is also a significant lifestyle factor for many people in industrialized countries who tend to sit in offices and engage in little physical activity.

Indoor smoke from fuels creates a risk challenge for those who burn kerosene for heat. The invisible fumes and traces of soot damage exposed tissues including the lining of the lungs as well as exposed skin and the surface of the eyes.

These factors add up to 2.43 million of the annual toll of seven million cancer deaths reported in 2001 worldwide, according to data from the World Health Organization's Comparative Risk Assessment project, as well as other international sources. By reducing th

[1] [2] [3] 下一页