Most people fear getting cancer. Although certain lifestyle changes can reduce cancer risks, some significantly, few take action. An expert explains why this is and what sometimes helps with rethinking.
Cancer scares me, say seven out of ten people in Germany in surveys. This makes cancer the most feared disease in Germany – ahead of Alzheimer’s and stroke. That’s not surprising, because cancer can affect anyone – and yet too little is done about it. Why? “There are many reasons for this,” says Dr. Ursula Will, who is the medical director of the prevention outpatient clinic at the National Cancer Prevention Center, in an interview with ntv.de.
In the health care system, prevention is a generic term for targeted measures and activities to avoid diseases or damage to health, to reduce the risk of the disease or to delay its occurrence, writes the Federal Ministry of Health as an explanation. Prevention is therefore primarily aimed at healthy people. But this target group often lacks awareness of risk factors and the impulse to change things, says Will. “I’m fine, I feel healthy (despite smoking, being overweight, an unhealthy diet, regular alcohol consumption, not enough exercise and so on)” is often an argument that you give yourself, says the preventive medicine specialist.
Unfortunately, this lack of health literacy is widespread. According to the current status of prevention research, “around 40 percent of all newly diagnosed cancers in Germany can be avoided simply by consistently implementing all evidence-based primary prevention measures,” writes the National Decade Against Cancer. The problem: even if you live a very health-conscious lifestyle and try to prevent cancer as much as possible, that is still no guarantee that you won’t get cancer. Because in addition to lifestyle, there are other risk factors, genes and age are essential. Neither factor can be changed directly. In addition, according to the current state of knowledge, one can hardly actively protect oneself against certain types of cancer. These include, for example, childhood cancer, brain tumors, leukemia or lymphoma.
The triggers for all cancers are based on genetic errors in cell division, which the immune system cannot adequately combat. Such damage can be favored by a number of factors. For example, with every year of life that one gets older, the probability of such mistakes also increases. In addition to age and genes, there are also environmental and lifestyle factors. “And everyone can only actively do something about the lifestyle factors and the perception of the early detection offers. They are practically the only parameters that you have,” Will continues.
Some only become aware of this when close relatives or friends in their personal environment contract cancer or even die of cancer. They would then be receptive to behavioral changes, which, however, are not so easy to implement in everyday life. “For many, it’s about changing habits, often even about giving up addictions such as nicotine or alcohol addiction. Such changes are very difficult to implement on your own. Those affected need support and should definitely ask for it,” says Will. “But it’s worth it, because with every small improvement in lifestyle, everyone can directly and immediately reduce their own cancer risk.”
According to the current state of science, we know that there are cancers with a very high, high and some with a less high potential for prevention. This means: For a number of types of cancer, the risk can be significantly reduced through prevention. These include, for example, lung cancer, colon cancer, breast and skin cancer.
Cervical cancer caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) can even be avoided almost 100 percent through prevention. Infection with the carcinogenic virus can be prevented with a high degree of certainty by the HPV vaccination. Regular early detection examinations and having precancerous lesions removed also help to further reduce the risk of cervical cancer. And not smoking can also bring really great preventive successes. 85,000 cancer cases per year alone are attributable to smoking and could be avoided by not smoking.
By the way: Again and again the psyche is mentioned as a risk factor for the development of cancer. However, the so-called “cancer personality” is such a myth, because it is clear: stress, depression or anger do not lead to cancer. However, the mental state often has an influence on how one lives. For example, people who deal with long-term stress with cigarettes, alcohol or sugar products increase their risk of cancer.