Cancer is one disease that rarely comes with any warning signal. While there is a pile of research and medication that comes up to the spotlight every now and then, there’s one long known fact that doesn’t seem to lose lustre. The fact is that a person’s lifestyle does play a big role in preventing many types of cancer. There are studies that suggest that cancer-related deaths might be reduced by up to 50percent by means of integrating some basic lifestyle changes.
Here are five such simple lifestyle tips that you can accommodate in the daily course of your life to prevent yourself from turning a victim to cancer:
1. Follow A Healthy Diet
(Image Source: Shutterstock)
Eating healthy is one virtue that comes bundled with many benefits, the most important being that it helps to maintain a disease-free body. While intake of right dose of nutrition rich food doesn’t guarantee keeping cancer at bay, it definitely helps in reducing the risks of its incidence.
Healthy eating would include proper intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and beans. It would also include limiting the intake of processed meat and alcohol and swapping sugary drinks to drinking more water and fresh juices.
In fact, it is said that one must avoid consuming too much salt, for salt and salt-preserved food can damage the lining of the stomach and lead to stomach cancer.
2. Maintain the Right Body Weight
(Image Source: Shutterstock)
Maintaining a healthy body weight points towards avoiding obesity, and at the same time also making sure that you’re not underweight. Along with the right diet, exercise is equally vital for maintaining proper body weight.
Being in shape not only helps you to look and feel better but also lighter when you carry out your daily tasks. The fact is that a regular and healthy dose of exercise also lowers the risk of incidence of several types of cancer including breast, prostate, lung, colon and kidney. Ideally, if you’re engaging in a moderate aerobic activity, you must devote at least 150 minutes a week. This may be reduced to 75 minutes if you opt for more vigorous activity.
No matter how busy you might be in your daily activities, it is an absolute must that you take out at least half an hour to invest in some form of physical activity. If you are unable to join a gym, you could take small steps like walking to buy your grocery, dancing for a few minutes at home or spending a few minutes doing yoga.
3. Stop Consuming Tobacco
(Image Source: Shutterstock)
Consumption of tobacco in any of its forms, be it smoking, inhalation of second-hand smoke, or ingesting smokeless tobacco, significantly raises the risks of developing cancer of many types.
If you happen to consume tobacco, you must take steps to stop having it completely. If you are unable to get yourself to stop, you must at least avoid it and curtail your present levels of consumption with the right level of intervention and external help.
4. Protect Your Skin from The Sun
(Image Source: Shutterstock)
Skin cancer is one of the most common types of cancer affecting people. However, taking measures to prevent the cancer of this kind is fairly simple and can be integrated into your daily lifestyle without much difficulty.
Living in a tropical climate like that in India, you can exercise caution and avoid stepping out of your home between 10 am and 4 pm, when the sun's rays are the strongest. If you do have to head out during those hours, you must protect yourself with shades, sunscreen lotion and staying under covered areas as much as possible.
5. Take the Necessary Steps for Your Immunity
(Image Source: Shutterstock)
Preventing cancer is incomplete without taking the prescribed vaccines from certain viral infections that raise the risk of cancer. Hepatitis B is one such disease that can aggravate the risks of developing liver cancer. Similarly, attack of the HPV virus can lead to cervical, genital and squamous cancers. Immunisation against these should hence not be taken lightly.
Additional Precaution: Opt for Cancer Insurance Today
A dreaded disease like cancer can threaten the foundation of an individual’s family. Due to the alarming increase in cancer incidences as well as the cost of cancer treatment, having a cancer insurance policy has become vital now than ever.
Cancer insurance is designed to provide financial aid to you in case you are diagnosed with cancer. A cancer insurance policy is a comprehensive insurance policy that saves you from depleting your lifelong savings by providing coverage for cancer treatment, which can include chemotherapy, radiation, hospitalisation, surgery, cost of prescribed medicine and so forth. Insurers like Future Generali provide coverage against the diagnosis of major as well as minor cancers. In case of an early stage of cancer diagnosis, all the future premiums are waived off, whereas, for major stage diagnosis, the dual benefit of lump-sum payout plus income is paid to you.
Cancer is rising at an alarming rate and treating cancer can be just as nightmarish in a financial sense. But the good news is, at least when it comes to treating cancer, you can financially secure yourself by purchasing a cancer insurance policy.
