Lifestyle interventions to prevent Cancer

According to an extensive study review, four lifestyle interventions can prevent cancer - exercise, smoking cessation, reducing excessive sun exposure, and healthy eating. The review looked at how human behaviors change cells, producing malignancies. The researchers also identified which types of cancer can be prevented, or made less severe through lifestyle interventions.

Obesity will soon usurp tobacco smoking as the top reason that humans get cancer. Lung, colon and rectal, breast, prostate, and skin cancer, especially melanoma, are the focus of the review. All of the cancers could be prevented with specific lifestyle interventions.

Lung Cancer and Lifestyle

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among men (31 percent) and women (25 percent) in the United States. Eighty-five to 95 percent are related to tobacco use. Forty six million adults in the US smoke and worldwide, almost a billion men, and 250 million women, are smokers. Lifestyle changes that can help prevent lung cancer include a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, exercise, and smoking cessation. Exercise can also improve survival among lung cancer patients, and is also an important lifestyle intervention to prevent colon cancer.

Lung cancer patients who stop smoking have a better response to chemotherapy, and less chance of recurrence. The review of studies revealed that lifestyle interventions that include exercise, eating more fruits and vegetables, and smoking cessation can prevent lung cancer, and increase survival in those diagnosed with the disease.

Colon Cancer, Diet, and Exercise

Colon cancer has been studied extensively as related to diet. The incidence of colon cancer is high, as are health care costs associated with treatment. Consuming more than 180 grams of red meat daily is found to increase colon cancer risk in a large European study. Eating red meat seven days a week is responsible for a whopping 85 percent increase in the chances of developing colorectal cancer. Simply cutting down on red meat is a lifestyle intervention that could prevent colon cancer. Eating more fiber is also linked to colon (but not rectal) cancer prevention in one large European study. The study review also found that moderate exercise is an important lifestyle intervention to prevent colon cancer, and reduce incidence of recurrence. Colon cancer was also found to be lowest among those who exercise the most vigorously.

Lifestyle Changes and Breast Cancer

Given the high number of breast cancer survivors in the United States, the study found lifestyle changes can have “enormous” implications for breast cancer prevention and survival, yet little is still known about the cause and exactly what lifestyle factors improve survival. The effect of diet, supplement use, and weight still require more study. The study review found that exercise can reduce risk of breast cancer by twenty percent, even if started later in life, including women at high risk. Consistent, low-level exercise is an important lifestyle intervention to prevent breast cancer, and improve survival among women diagnosed with breast cancer, extracted from the review.

Prostate Cancer

Obesity seems to increase the risk of prostate cancer. The strongest support from studies for prevention begins by controlling obesity in childhood and early adulthood. One study was found linking saturated fat intake to prostate cancer recurrence after prostatectomy. The best evidence found for lifestyle intervention that can prevent prostate cancer is by consuming a healthy diet to avoid obesity and excess fat, beginning early in life.

Lifestyle Interventions to Prevent Skin Cancer

Melanoma is the second most common skin cancer in young women and the third most common in young men in their twenties. Exposure to UV rays alters DNA. Avoidance of tanning beds and excessive sun exposure are the most important lifestyle changes identified to prevent skin cancer.

In addition to lifestyle changes that can prevent cancer, the study authors say it is important to know your family history. “Our lifestyle has to accommodate our genes. Testing for carrier status of susceptibility genes for breast and colon cancers is commercially available”, and can help individuals prone to certain cancers develop a prevention plan.

In addition to lifestyle interventions, regular visits for cancer screening, physician counseling, and chemoprevention for individuals at high risk for cancer are important for prevention. A focus on four lifestyle interventions: diet, exercise, tobacco cessation, and avoidance of excessive UV radiation could prevent lung, colon, breast, prostate and skin cancer, especially melanoma.

Source: American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine

Height to Weight Ratio Chart

Calculate your ideal weight to height ratio using the handy height to weight guide chart to help you avoid obesity related illness or even future disability later in life.

Height to Weight Ratio Chart:

Health experts worldwide agree that adults who are overweight and have weight related medical problems or a family history of such problems can benefit from weight loss. Even a small weight loss of 10 to 20 pounds can improve your overall general health by lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol levels.



Maintaining a healthy weight is very important for protection against obesity related illness or disability. If your weight is currently over the healthy range for your height, losing weight will certainly be beneficial to your health, your looks and how you feel. Check your height to weight ratio using the approximate height to weight chart guide below.

If you're underweight you may need to gain some weight, this should always be done as part of a balanced and nutritious diet, see the New Food Pyramid. In addition you should also be sure to Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI)

If your weight is in the ok range then you're eating the correct amount of food to keep your weight in the desirable range for health. However, if you are overweight for your height, try to cut down on the amount you're eating, especially food and drinks high in fat or sugar, and try to do more physical activity, exercises, workouts, etc., as being over weight can increase your risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, high blood pressure, and osteoarthritis. Be sure to check with your doctor if you need to lose weight and had problems losing it in the past.

So What is the right weight for my height?

How much should you weigh according to your height? This height to weight chart is a guideline to an Adults ideal bodyweight:

Female Height to Weight Ratio					Male Height to Weight Ratio
Height	Low	Target	High		Height	Low	Target	High
4' 10"	100	115	131		5' 1"	123	134	145
4' 11"	101	117	134		5' 2"	125	137	148
5' 0"	103	120	137		5' 3"	127	139	151
5' 1"	105	122	140		5' 4"	129	142	155
5' 2"	108	125	144		5' 5"	131	145	159
5' 3"	111	128	148		5' 6"	133	148	163
5' 4"	114	133	152		5" 7"	135	151	167
5' 5"	117	136	156		5' 8"	137	154	171
5' 6"	120	140	160		5' 9"	139	157	175
5' 7"	123	143	164		5' 10"	141	160	179
5 '8"	126	146	167		5' 11"	144	164	183
5' 9"	129	150	170		6' 0"	147	167	187
5' 10"	132	153	173		6' 1"	150	171	192
5' 11"	135	156	176		6' 2"	153	175	197
6' 0"	138	159	179		6' 3"	157	179	202

Height to weight chart you can print:

Right click the chart below and save it to your computer. You can then print the height to weight chart for future reference.

Asking Questions to Find Answers on your spiritual Journey!

This is something which I received from one of my friends and I still do not know the source but, it is one of masterpieces. A Must Read article! - Rajesh.

I believe that asking questions are often far more important than answering them. If you do not have questions, maybe you will never have answers. Absence of questions is an indication of indifference, apathy and often shallowness. Most people never seriously think about purpose of their lives and as they do not think about it, they do not know what they want in life. Each one of us has a destiny and a high call from God and asking questions is a process that will lead you to the answers about your life, your calling and your mission. Let me look today about some important thought provoking questions that every one of us should ask ourselves from time to time.

Would you cling to what you know or you would better try something new?
What holds you from achieving what you really want?
What motivates you on daily basis?
How do you use your time?
What has to happen for you to completely lose hope?
If you had to choose between security and freedom, which will one you choose?
How long can you do a job that you hate?
What kind of job would you choose: a boring and well paid or an interesting one and poorly paid?
Are you afraid of making mistakes?
Whose mistakes are you learning from: yours or those of others?
What do you do after making a mistake?
Career, money, friends, family, love! How would you rate them according to level of importance?
Are there white lies and in what situation you could tell them?
Do you believe that principle of “sowing and reaping” really works?
What are some of the principles or rules that you think you would not break under any circumstances?
What would you change about your life if you knew you had only twenty four hours to live?
If you could come back ten years, what would you do differently?
What do you do when you reach a ‘roof’ in some area of your life?
Would you do everything to prove you are right or you could make a compromise?
Which is more important: your beliefs or flexibility?
If you died today would you have a lot of regrets?
Do you really live or you only exist?
Do you compare yourself with more or less fortunate ones?
Do you concentrate on what you can or what you cannot?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Do you love or hate yourself?
What matters more your genes or your attitudes?
What movies and books have influenced your life most and why?
Which people have influenced your life most and why?
Which character quality would you like to develop most?
What are some of the important things that you are grateful for?
Do you believe there is a God and who He is?
Have you seen any miracles in your life? Do you believe they happen?
What is your mission in life?
What is your recipe for success?
Can external circumstances stop you from being successful?
Who or what is in control of your life?
What is the difference between being positive and positively naïve?
Are you a leader or a follower?
Can everybody be happy and why not everybody is?
What are your short and long term goals?
What do you need to change immediately about your life?
Have you made a plan on how you are going to achieve your dreams?
To what extent do you care what others think about you?
Can opinion of others stop you from doing something you want to do?
Do you help others expecting something back?
What is your greatest fear and do you do something to overcome it?
When you think about challenges do you concentrate on what you fear or what you desire?
If you caught a gold fish what wish would you ask it to grant for you?
How much have you “invested” on your self-improvement?
Where would be a ‘perfect’ geographical place for you to live?
Do you imagine what your dream house should look like?
Do you often see big problems when they are really small and small problems when they are really big?
If you thought about solution to all humanity’s problems what could that solution be?
What activities do you pursue in your free time?
Have your dreams already come true? Why? Why not?
What self indulgences do you have?
What do you think lack most in your life?
Do you think you have enough resources to achieve what you want?
Do you enjoy taking initiative or you like being given specific orders?
Do you lie to yourself and if you do why?
How do you budget your income?
Do you evaluate your progress each year?
How do you handle stress?
If you haven’t changed anything about your life anymore do you believe you will achieve your life goals?
Do you believe you have missed most opportunities in your life or the biggest opportunities are yet to come?
What are the ways that you believe you waste your free time?
If a person whom you love stands on your way to your dreams, what do you do?
How can you gain wisdom in life?
How much is enough for you in terms of money?
Do you often feel lonely?
Do you become more optimistic or pessimistic as you grow older?
Do you often stop and ask yourself questions like these ones?

As you may see these thought provoking questions cover a lot of areas of life. They have not been structured very strictly, but have been presented in quite a loose way. I do not think that all questions can be answered in a single way. Some of the questions will actually raise other questions. Do not be afraid of that. A mature person will often have more questions than answers, but that is not a problem. Being indifferent about your life is a much bigger problem for most people do not even come closer to what they have been called to just because they are indifferent. Hope the questions will help you to awaken lifelong purposes in your soul. God bless you!

Amazing health through your daily showers!

Hydrotherapy heals through the fundamental nature cure concept of balancing and moving the blood and lymph. It might be hard to see why such a basic concept could be so rewarding but the blood is responsible for approximately 1/13 to 1/12 of the total body weight and the lymph fluid is an amazingly approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of the total body weight. Purifying and moving the blood and lymph is essential to restoring or maintaining proper health and harmonious vibration of the body. As the blood flows in, it brings with it nutrients to nourish our vital tissues. Then, as it leaves it carries out toxic and inflammatory by-products to cleanse and detoxify.

How Water Heals

Ever wonder why you can tolerate 120°F sauna but not a 120°F hot-tub? Or why winter waters are so much more dangerous than winter air? Water has a profound ability to transfer heat and carries heat rapidly to and from the body over twenty-five times faster than air. Water has the ability to both absorb and expel large quantities of heat because it has a high specific heat. Its fluidity also allows it to contact all areas easily.

Short hot, 98-104°F lasting less than five minutes, is intrinsically stimulative to the circulation. Short heat causes direct dilation of blood vessels. It increases the metabolism, oxygen absorption, carbon dioxide excretion and blood glucose levels while, decreasing tissue tone, red and white blood cell count.

Short cold, 55-65°F for less than a minute, is reactively stimulative. It has an immediate, momentary and insignificant vasoconstrictive effect followed by a direct reactive vasodilatory effect. This vasodilatory effect increases skin and organ circulation, metabolism, detoxification, oxygen absorption, carbon dioxide excretion, and nitrogen absorption and excretion. It boosts immunity through increasing white blood cells and promotes nutrition through increasing red blood cells. Short cold also increases tissue tone, peripheral white blood cell count and decreases blood glucose. Cold is a greater difference from our normal body temperature, making it perceived as more of a threat and therefor reacted to faster than hot. On days when you can't do the full treatment, try to still end with cold!

When alternating hot and cold, each subsequent application is magnified by the application prior to it. The hot application magnifies the effects of the cold, the cold magnifies the effects of the hot and so on. Alternating applications acts a pump through the tissues, magnifying the movement of blood and lymph, maximizing the peripheral heart function, de-congesting and acting as an analgesic.

Skin Products cause damage to Kidney: WHO

NEW DELHI: Can't get enough of your new body lotion that makes your skin so much softer? Unfortunately, applying them could be causing your body serious damages. The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning against skin lightening soaps, creams and cosmetics like eye makeup, cleansing products and mascara, saying they could be containing mercury.

The warning is serious, especially for Indians, as WHO said 61% of the dermatological market here consists of skin lightening products. WHO said the serious adverse effects of inorganic mercury, which is a common ingredient found in skin lightening soaps and creams, includes kidney damage, reduction in the skin's resistance to bacterial and fungal infections, anxiety, depression or psychosis and also peripheral neuropathy.

The global health watchdog pointed out that mercury in soaps and creams is eventually discharged into wastewater. The mercury, then, enters environment, where it becomes methylated, and enters the food chain as highly toxic methylmercury in fish. Pregnant women who consume fish containing methylmercury transfer the mercury to their fetuses that can later result in neurological deficits in children.

WHO said skin lightening soaps and creams are commonly used in certain African and Asian nations and dark-skinned populations in Europe and North America. Mercury salts inhibit the formation of melanin, resulting in a lighter skin tone.

"Some manufacturers are no longer using mercury as a preservative in mascara and eye makeup cleansing products as a result of consumer pressure. However, most jurisdictions still allow the sale of makeup products containing mercury compounds. The soaps contain approximately 1%-3% mercury iodide, and the creams are composed of 1%-10% mercury ammonium," WHO said.

It is imperative to check for mercury content on the packaging of the soaps, creams or other cosmetics before getting hooked to them.

WHO added, "The amount or concentration of mercury in a product may be labelled on the packaging or in the ingredient list. Names to look for include mercury, Hg, mercuric iodide, mercurous chloride, ammoniated mercury, amide chloride of mercury, quicksilver, cinnabaris, hydrargyri oxydum rubrum (mercury oxide), mercury iodide. Directions to avoid contact with silver, gold, rubber, aluminum and jewellery may also indicate the presence of mercury. However, companies selling products that contain mercury, do not always list it as an ingredient."

The United States Food and Drug Administration allows mercury compounds in eye area cosmetics at concentrations at or below 65 mg/kg expressed as mercury (approximately 100 mg/kg expressed as phenylmercuric acetate or nitrate). All other cosmetics must contain mercury at a concentration less than 1 mg/kg.

"India too is bringing in laws to regulate the cosmetic industry. We will regulate mercury use in soaps, creams and cosmetics," a health ministry official said.


Published in: The Times of India, June 5th, 2012.
Published in: The Times of India, 5th June 2012