Wow…according to an eye-opening report that recently appeared in The Lancet, over a third of all cancer deaths world wide are potentially preventable – that’s approximately 2.43 million lives! The researchers, from Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard’s Initiative for Global Health, examined cancer mortality data for 2001 from the World Health Organization (WHO) and found, among other things, that 37% of all cancer deaths were from lung cancer (highly preventable,) the largest proportion of deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and men were nearly twice as likely to die from cancer as women.

These are rather depressing statistics for sure, but the upside is that we now have some idea of what we can do to prevent so much suffering from this disease. The following are what the researchers found to be the highest contributors to preventable cancer–

• Smoking
• Being overweight or obese
• Physical inactivity
• Low intake of fruits and vegetables
• Alcohol use
• “Unsafe” sex
• Indoor smoke from household use of solid fuels
• Contaminated injections in health care settings
• Air pollution

For those of us in higher income countries, the most important causes of cancer were smoking, alcohol use, and being overweight or obese. No surprise there, but it’s good to get the word out that you really can reduce your chances of developing cancer, and it’s really not all that difficult – don’t drink, don’t smoke, and make sure you eat right and get exercise…your body will thank you in more ways than one!

SOURCE: WebMD – 9 Ways to Lower Global Cancer Deaths

Technorati Tags: Cancer Blog, Cancer Prevention