What is Lifestyle Risk?
“Personal behaviors or choices that can increase a person’s chance of developing a disease. Lifestyle risk factors can often be avoided, controlled or changed to reduce the risk of certain diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart disease.” -National Cancer Institute
Why do I raise Lifestyle Risk now?
Two headlines caught my attention this week that suggest we need to double down on reducing our respective risk.
1/ Gen X faces higher cancer rates than any pervious generation
“It’s really something that has been observed in multiple studies, and now I think it really is an undeniable fact that we’re seeing cancer rise in younger people,” say Andrew Chan, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital
Researchers are attributing the increased rates to:
1/ Poor diet, lack of exercise and the obesity rates
2/ Food preparation and the increased consumption of processed foods and meals
3/ Overuse of antibiotics modifying gut biome
2/ Almost half of the cancer deaths in US adults could be prevented
The latest study published by the American Cancer Society is reporting almost half of cancers could be prevented with better lifestyle and adherence to recommended prevention screening.
Reportedly, the most impactful of the risk factors include:
1/ Smoking
2/ Excess body weight
3/ Alcohol consumption
4/ Physical inactivity
5/ Diet
Many of these findings are not new to those of us involved in healthcare and life sciences. However, the broader population reportedly attributes cancer to simply genetics.
Eight steps you can take to reduce your lifestyle risk
According to the CDC, there are eight things you can do to reduce your lifestyle risk.
1/ Quit Smoking or don’t start smoking anything
2/ Eat healthy
3/ Get regular physical activity
4/ Limit alcohol
8/ Know your family history
You’ve read the list or heard the same advice before but maybe you didn’t realize the importance of it or you’re having trouble modifying your habits.
Modifying your habits to reduce your risk
If you’re struggling to modify your habits, join me for a healthy habit challenge starting July 20th. Get a new healthy habit each week for four weeks.
Then join me for the Mind & Body Self-care Workshop to continue your wellbeing journey. You’lll learn the anatomy of a habit, develop 5 healthy habits to reduce your lifestyle risk and leave with a personalized self-care toolkit to help you stay the course. You’ll be well on your way to achieving your goals. Stay tuned for dates and the online workshop is coming soon.
