Lifestyle Tips to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer

Here’s how to get started on a cancer prevention plan:

1. Radically reduce your sugar consumption. Normalizing your insulin levels is one of the most powerful physical actions you can take to lower your risk of cancer, and in order to do so, cutting sugars and grains out of your diet is a must. Eliminating fructose is one of the most important sugars to initially concentrate on. If you have cancer, you’ll want to reduce that to below 10 grams per day from all sources.
2. Optimize your vitamin D levels. There’s overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. Researchers within this field have estimated that about 30 percent of cancer deaths might be prevented each year simply by optimizing the vitamin D levels in the general population. Simply by getting optimal sun exposure year-round may reduce your risk by up to 50%  Alternatively, you could use an oral vitamin D3 supplement. Remember the BEST way to raise your vitamin D level is by sun exposure.
3. Exercise regularly. There’s compelling evidence indicating that exercise can slash your risk of cancer, primarily by reducing elevated insulin levels and normalizing estrogen. For example, women who exercise regularly can reduce their breast cancer risk by 20 to 30 percent compared to those who are inactive.  It’s important to include a large variety of techniques in your exercise routine. Integrating exercise with intermittent short fasts may catalyze the potential to reduce your risk of cancer and stimulate widespread healing and rejuvenation. There is evidence that lower caloric intake increases longevity.
4. Get appropriate amounts of high-quality fish-based omega-3 fats.
5. Eat as many vegetables as you can!  Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. Cruciferous vegetables in particular have been identified as having potent anti-cancer properties. Consider vegetable, not fruit, juicing to avoid excessive blood sugar spikes. Kale and Spinach and other leafy greens pack a powerful punch and work great in smoothies!
6. Use a variety of relaxing tools such as prayer/meditation, deep breathing, and social support to manage and relieve emotional stress in your life. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotional stress. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. Prayer has been shown to decrease stress hormone levels and increase endorphins.  Practicing feeling love and gratitude for the people and gifts in your life are powerful healers – for both brain & heart.
7. Maintain an ideal body weight.  Your BMI should be less than 25.  And if you carry weight around the waist – the classic “apple-shaped” body time, you are at much higher risk of having visceral adipose (fat) tissue which can lead to cardiac disease, diabetes and cancer due to its inflammatory potential
8. Get enough high-quality sleep.  That should be at least 7.5 to 8 hours per night of uninterrupted slumber.  Remember the majority of our body’s healing and detoxification take place while we sleep.
9. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners, air pollution, and plastic toxins like BPA.  These create
10. Reduce your use of cell phones and other wireless technologies, and implement as many safety strategies as possible if/when you cannot avoid their use.
11. Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.
12. Avoid artificial sweeteners, which are actually worse for your health than sugar.  There is some evidence they may be linked to brain tumors.

Photo courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net