Lifestyle related cancers: Here’s all you need to know

Cancer has always been a growing concern because of its mysterious diagnosis, prolonged illness and tedious treatment. Lifestyle modifications along with extreme environmental changes have led to an increase in cancer cases in the last few decades.

Smoking and obesity have been proven to play a direct role in more than 40% of cancer incidences worldwide. Along with these, alcohol, genetic mutations and environmental pollutants contribute to the risk.

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Lifestyle behaviours contributing to the burden of Cancer:

Smoking

Tobacco has been proven a carcinogen for over decades and smokers have a 1 in 3-lifetime risk of dying prematurely from tobacco-related heart diseases, cancers or lung diseases. It causes cancers of the lungs, oropharynx (throat), larynx (vocal cords), esophagus (food pipe), kidney, bladder, colon (intestine), pancreas, and stomach.

Those who stop smoking have a 30-50% lower 10-year lung cancer mortality as compared to the ones who continue to smoke.

Obesity

Obesity and a high-fat diet has proven to cause various cancers, around 4% cases of cancer worldwide are caused due to obesity. These are mostly seen in 50-60 years of the population but are rising amongst the young too. Obesity-related cancers include colorectal cancer, female breast cancer, cancer of the uterus and gallbladder.

As per studies, decreased consumption of processed food, meat and high caloric diet can prevent such cancers. Adequate physical activity and a diet rich in fibre can also be beneficial to prevent such cancers.

Alcohol

Recent research has proven that alcohol is responsible for over 3 million deaths each year, worldwide of which 4 lakh people die due to cancer. Alcohol can increase the risk of 7 different types of cancer, breast, bowel, oral, esophageal, laryngeal, pharyngeal and liver.

Pollutants

Air pollution, toxins from industrial waste, highly processed foods, and exposure to plastic increase the risk of lung, stomach and colon cancer. Recent studies have proven that the occurrence of lung cancers in non-smokers is linked to passive smoking or air pollution. Drinking water exposed to heavy industrial wastes and metals can increase this risk too.

Hence, lifestyle changes such as regular exercise, moderate consumption of alcohol and a healthy diet need to be incorporated to prevent hazardous cancer or cancer-like diseases.

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(Inputs from Dr. Sharwari Dabhade Dua, MD Internal medicine, Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital)