2 easy ways to cut down on your cancer risk

1 AVOID GAINING TOO MUCH WEIGHT

Extra fat in the body can have harmful effects, like producing hormones and growth factors that make our cells grow faster raising the risk of cancer. One in 20 cancers is linked to being overweight or obese.

Cancers more common in people who are overweight or obese, include breast (in women after the menopause), bowel, womb, oesophageal (food pipe), pancreatic, kidney, liver, upper stomach, gall bladder, ovarian, thyroid, myeloma (a type of blood cancer) and meningioma (a type of brain tumour). Quite a list!

There are three main reasons fat can raise the risk of cancer. It produces growth hormones and high levels of insulin which can programme cells to divide more often. It causes inflammation when immune cells release a cocktail of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines making cells divide faster.

Fat cells make sex hormones like oestrogen after the menopause and it can make cells divide faster in the breasts and womb. Too much fat around the belly is linked to bowel, kidney, pancreatic and breast cancers.

2 GET ACTIVE

I believe exercise is the secret of life. Being physically active can reduce the risk of some types of cancer, including two of the most common – breast and bowel. And being active is a great way to help you keep a healthy weight too.

As exercise lowers oestrogen levels it lowers the risk of many breast and womb cancers.

Activity also lowers insulin levels and as insulin signals cells to multiply, lowering it helps prevent some types of cancer. Being active helps control levels of inflammation in the bowel so it prevents cell growth from getting out of hand.

So get on your bike.