Cancer is one of the most deadly diseases today. According to the American Cancer Society, there will be over 89,000 cases in 2020 and over 9,000 cancer deaths in young adults and adolescents.
There are different types of cancer, like colon cancer, liver cancer, and lung cancer. In most cases, we develop these types of cancer because of mutation to cell DNA, our lifestyle, and wrongful diagnostics by doctors. You can contact a personal injury attorney if you are diagnosed with cancer after taking Zantac.
Although cancer is treatable when diagnosed at early stages, it is often imperative to know its risk factors to prevent it.
Here are the five risk factors for most types of cancer:
1. Age
As we age, we tend to have lower immunity. Our body becomes more vulnerable to most diseases, and our risk of developing cancer is at the peak.
Most people diagnosed with cancer are generally above the age of 65 because cancer takes years to build in your body. However, it doesn’t mean that cancer is an adult disease – there are cases where children below five years have blood cancer.
2. Lifestyle
Keeping mental and physical fitness can help you prevent a lot of diseases. Your lifestyle contributes a lot to your risk of developing cancer. For instance, smoking cigarettes exposes you to lung cancer, and having unsafe sex can cause cervical cancer in women.
Drinking too much alcohol, being obese and blistering on sunburns makes you more vulnerable to cancer. You reduce your risk of cancer by changing your lifestyle and including regular physical fitness in your daily routine.
3. Genetics and family history
If your father or mother has cancer, you are more likely to have the disease. Studies have shown that cancer mutations are passed from one generation to the next. Meaning, if cancer is common in your family or lineage, you are at risk.
It is important to seek genetic testing to establish whether you have inherited mutations from your parents that can increase your risk of having cancer.
4. Environment
We contract many diseases from our surrounding. For instance, if your house is close to a factory that releases poisonous effluent like sulfur and benzene to the surrounding, you are at risk of developing cancer.
Also, if you live with someone who smokes or you hang around smokers, you can easily inhale nicotine in the smoke.
If you want to reduce the risk of cancer, you must ensure your environment is clean always. Plant more trees to help remove toxic gases from the atmosphere.
5. Your health
Your health condition is a significant risk factor for cancer. For instance, if you are obese or you have ulcerative colitis, you become more vulnerable to heart failure and some forms of cancer.
Therefore, it is crucial to talk to your doctor about your cancer risk whenever they diagnose you with a chronic health condition.
Final Thoughts
Cancer indeed claims the lives of many people annually. However, if you take into account the five risk factors we’ve highlighted here, you can lower your risk of cancer.
