How to avoid all cancers?

[TopHatFox]

Person I know from college just started chemotherapy against cancer. I realized that I don't actually know much at all about preventing cancer, just to exercise, eat unprocessed food, and avoid carcinogenic chemicals in many commercial body care products.

What do ya'll think: what are some excellent tips to avoid most or all cancers?

[jennypenny]

Choose your parents carefully. And don't spend too much time on your bike.

Oh yeah, don't forget sunscreen.

[jacob]

* Don't smoke (tobacco, weed, car exhaust, ...)
* Go vegetarian or even better, vegan.
* Check your basement for radon.
* Consume three of less units of alcohol per day. (1-2 units is good for your blood/cardiovascular).
* Stay away from processed/cured meats (sausages et al.)

You're not going to avoid cancer, but you'll reduce your odds of dying of cancer. As a result you'll likely live longer and instead die of something else instead like cardiovascular issues, the flu(*), Alzheimer, or in a car accident.

(*) A great way to die. Absolutely my favourite by far. It's quick and "familiar".

[chenda]

Follow cancer screening programmes, as per medical recommendations. Remember dental checkups and eye tests can also detect early signs of cancer.

[Toska2]

Die early
Become a naked mole rat.* **

* the intermittent fasting and ketogenic diet conversation touched on "starving" early cancers.

** my favorite way of avoiding cancer

[C40]

Also, limit your sunlight exposure.

[C40]

And don't spend too much time on your bike.

That gives you cancer?

[George the original one]

Of all the cancers I've heard of, the most unusual had to be one gal I dated that had benign lumps removed from the arches of her feet. She was a runner, so I've always been suspicious that running causes cancer... (YMMV)

[Ego]

Cycling. Running. Crap.

If someone else says eating vegetables, traveling or shopping at flea markets causes cancer then I'm done for.

[George the original one]

Avoid breathing dust/smoke, partly because you don't know what's in it. Even without lung cancer, there could be mold, a basis for silicosis, or radioactive particles.

Back in the days when asbestos litigation was the big thing, evidence was brought forward that smoking (by itself) and asbestos exposure (by itself) produced about the risk of lung cancer. However, combine the two and the certainty of lung cancer was 100% (or close enough).

Also realize that an initial detected cancer is often not the cause of death. Sometimes the initial detected cancer is a migration of a different cancer (e.g. undetected & curable colon cancer or lung cancer gets swept up in the circulatory system and then becomes incurable brain cancer that chokes off the autonomic system). Then there's the likelihood the chemo will do you in, but your odds are much better if the cancer is detected early.

[C40]

Oh yeah -- I've heard that having regular sex reduces the risk of prostate cancer!

[Dragline]

You know there's a song about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oDAkmfoAgA

I would get your DNA analyzed at some point to see if you have any cancer related propensities. For example, all the women in my family have one for uterine/ovarian and all required surgery eventually.

Other than the obvious advice about not ingesting too many noxious chemicals, it seems to strike almost randomly, even in otherwise healthy people. Treatments are much better now, though. I lost a childhood friend to leukemia who would have survived now; my sister made it through her ordeal, but it was a long slog.

[Sclass]

Oh yeah -- I've heard that having regular sex reduces the risk of prostate cancer!

Cool. But there are a whole bunch of cancers transmitted by sexual contact. A friend of mine suspects his lymphoma was transmitted to him by his girlfriend virally. Something called HLVT or something like that. Cancer took her.

[steveo73]

* Don't smoke (tobacco, weed, car exhaust, ...)
* Go vegetarian or even better, vegan.

If you do this and add in plenty of exercise you give yourself the greatest odds of avoiding cancer and heart disease.

[C40]

Oh yeah -- I've heard that having regular sex reduces the risk of prostate cancer!

Cool. But there are a whole bunch of cancers transmitted by sexual contact. A friend of mine suspects his lymphoma was transmitted to him by his girlfriend virally. Something called HLVT or something like that. Cancer took her.

Yikes. Well, the prostate just needs regular orgasms. The sex could just be by yourself.

Another thing I remembered. For women - get the HPV vaccine. This will greatly reduce the risk of getting cervical cancer. At this point, it's better to get the vaccine quite young (since HPV is still very common and exposure is likely once you start having sex).

[Did]

A lot of these answers are debatable and in some cases eg vegan political. take with a grain of salt....

[jennypenny]

And don't spend too much time on your bike.

That gives you cancer?

I thought I read that here? There was a study that showed a link between testicular cancer and biking riding, horseback riding, and motorcycling. Can't remember where I saw it. Men's Health, maybe?


In addition to sun protection for the body, wear good sunglasses for your eyes as well. They get spots just like the rest of you. It's more common in blue/green/grey eyes, but anyone can get them. It's nasty business. When I'm down at Will's Eye getting my spots checked, the waiting room is full of people with bandages over one of their eyes. Looks like a pirate convention.

[JamesR]

Vitamin D is a powerful anti-cancer hormone.

Maximize your Vitamin D production by getting sun exposure when the sun is directly overhead (solar noon), that's when the atmosphere between you and the sun is thickest, which blocks out the more harmful UV rays and gives you the beneficial ones that the body produces Vitamin D with.

I suspect the rise of skin cancer is due to people being inconsistent in their sun exposure and not building up high levels of Vitamin D, and also bad diets.

[blackbird]

... that's when the atmosphere between you and the sun is thickest, which blocks out the more harmful UV rays and gives you the beneficial ones that the body produces Vitamin D with.

This is not accurate. Solar noon provides the LEAST amount of atmosphere for light to pass through. Draw a circle, and then a larger circle around it. Now draw a line perpendicular from the surface of the inside circle out through the outside circle. This is solar noon. Using the same point of origin on the inside circle, draw a line tangent to the origin (creating a right angle with the first line) to the outside circle. This represents dusk / dawn. The distance this line travels between the two circles is greater than the first line.

Atmospheric conditions also play a role. At dawn, particles have generally settled more and the air is less turbulent because the sun has been absent for several hours. As a result, there is less to block / deflect the sun's rays. In the afternoon, the heat of the day carries more particles higher and with more energy into the atmosphere. As a result, the sky appears clearer and brighter in the morning than in the evening. This is why we don't have pretty sunrises in the same way that we do sunsets. Late evening atmosphere blocks the shorter wavelengths of light (blues) b/c of the higher preponderance of particulates, causing warm-colored sky glows (reds, ambers, oranges).

[cmonkey]

I'm surprised all the talk of sunscreen. Don't ever wear sunscreen. Wear a wide brim hat!