With the Covid-19 pandemic, social health has become the most important issue of the 21st century. When it comes to health, the first thing that comes to mind is cancer, which is one of the most feared diseases. Making the necessary lifestyle changes to cope with the cancer disease, whose prevalence is increasing day by day in the society, is shown as the most important factors to adopt a healthy diet and a active life.
Associate Professor of Medical Oncology at Memorial Bahçelievler Hospital. Dr. Teoman Yanmaz gave important warnings about cancer types and prevention methods prior to “1-7 April Cancer Week”.
Watch out for these types of cancer!
In the world and in our country with breast, while lung cancer is the most common species in Turkey in recent years shows an increase in colon cancer. The main reason for the increase in colon cancer is the change in our diet. Because this type of cancer is closely related to the foods we consume and the preparation conditions. Increasing fast food habits, less consumption of pot meals, and the preference of processed and fatty foods cause more people to catch colon cancer every year.
Obesity is an important factor!
Obesity plays an important role in many cancers, especially breast and colon cancer. Cancer is more common in obese patients. Cancer is thought to be triggered with insulin resistance in these people. In addition, weight gain of people who survive cancer increases the risk of recurrence of many cancers, especially breast cancer. For this reason, obesity patients should take care to lose weight and individuals with normal body mass index should take care to maintain their ideal weight.
With lifestyle changes, we can avoid 3 in 1 cancers.
According to last year's World Cancer Statistics; While one out of every 5 people gets cancer during their lifetime, 8 out of 11 men and 1 out of every 3 women dies due to cancer. While the incidence of cancer is rapidly increasing in the world and in our country, environmental factors in addition to genetic factors play an important role in this picture. However, it is possible to prevent one third of cancer diseases with general lifestyle changes.
14 tips for cancer prevention
- Eat a healthy and balanced diet, take precautions against obesity.
- If you smoke, be sure to quit and do not be a passive smoker.
- Do not use alcohol, limit its consumption.
- Stay active and exercise regularly throughout the day.
- Make your special vaccines for some types of cancer.
- Avoid some cosmetics that may be carcinogenic
- Use natural products for cleaning and personal care
- Get fresh air whenever possible
- Keep your distance from your electronic devices
- Take care of stress management
- Pay attention to sleep quality.
- Take advantage of the sun.
- Pay attention to some of the symptoms in your body.
- Have your routine checks done.
Why are regular health checks important?
The person should take care to protect his health without encountering diseases yet. Regular health checks come to the fore here. Adults should go to a doctor's control once a year from the age of 30-35. In this way, it is possible to protect especially from cancer, but revealing the current picture for other diseases before symptoms develop, increasing the success rate of the treatment in the future. In this way, diseases that are noticed early can be prevented from becoming serious problems. It can be life-saving for everyone to see their family doctor or a doctor specialized in this field and pass certain tests.
Do not neglect cancer screening tests
It is observed that this disease develops in approximately 80-85% of the patients who applied to our center, although there is no family-wide cancer patient. Based on this fact, the fact that the person does not have cancer in his family does not mean that he will not get this disease. Screening tests are very important for early diagnosis, which is extremely important in terms of quality of life and survival in cancer. One should be more sensitive about some common types of cancer. For example, women must have mammography and doctor examinations for breast cancer from the age of 40. It is recommended not to disrupt gynecological controls. Colonoscopy or other examinations are required for both women and men, starting in the age range of 45-50, in terms of colon cancer. It is important for men to go to the urologist regularly from the age of 50 against prostate cancer. Patients at risk for lung cancer, especially those with a history of smoking, should have low-dose CT scan from the age of 55. If all these are taken into consideration, it is possible for many cancers to be diagnosed early and the risk to be eliminated. In other words, for types such as breast, lung, colon, prostate cancer, when these diseases are detected at an early stage by looking at the last year's data, about half of all cancer will be detected and treated at an early stage.
Cancer patients must have Covid vaccines
Recently, one of the most talked about issues is the ones that cancer patients should pay attention to during the pandemic process. Since the immune systems of cancer patients are weaker and inadequate than other individuals, it is possible that they are more affected by the diseases. In this regard, double attention should be paid to mask, distance and hygiene measures. Cancer patients are prioritized in Covid-19 vaccines, as lung involvement, which can be seen especially due to Covid-19, may aggravate the conditions of some patients. Cancer patients should definitely have their vaccines and take care to protect the health of both themselves and those around them.
Be the first to comment