Stay weight wiseExcess pounds boost cancer risk, a study in The Lancet shows. Build an exercise habit now to head off trouble: The American Cancer Society (ACS) recommends aiming for 30 minutes of activity five days a week.
When you hit your 45th birthday, make sure you're also doing 45 minutes of strength training twice weekly to minimize metabolic slowdown. "Beginning in our mid-40s, we lose up to a third of a pound of muscle a year and gain it back as fat, and fat burns fewer calories than muscle"
Nibble a bit of chocolate
As if you need an excuse! Researchers have discovered a compound in dark chocolate that fights fast-growing cancers such as colorectal cancer. "It requires the activity of an enzyme called kinase, which causes cancerous cells to die but leaves normal cells alone,"
Practice peace
Take deep belly breaths. You slow and elongate brain waves, bringing on calm.
Watch your favorite comedy. Enjoying a good laugh activates the areas of the brain that govern humor, in turn suppressing the brain's stress regions.
Adopt an uplifting mantra. Try "I love my life!" and repeat it when you're happy. You will train your mind to associate the phrase with being content. Then when you're on edge, chant your mantra and you'll immediately feel at ease.
Bake, don't burn
Grilling poultry and fish until it's charred to a crisp can turn amino acids and other substances in the meat into heterocyclic amines (HCAs), compounds that have been linked to cancer. "HCAs are 10 times more potent than most other environmental carcinogens
Marinate meat before grilling. Soaking chicken breasts in a mixture of cider vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice and spices reduced HCA formation by 92 to 99 percent
Keep the grill temp below 325 degrees, the point at which HCAs begin to form.
Grill meat or fish in punctured aluminum foil to protect against flare-ups.
Flip burgers often—about once a minute. This action keeps meat juices from getting too hot and activating HCA formation.
Avoid needless tests
if your doc orders a nonemergency CT scan (say, to investigate headaches), ask if a radiation-free ultrasound or an MRI can be used instead.
Steal these secrets
Spice things up. In India, where breast cancer rates are about five times lower than in the United States, people cook with an abundance of cancer-fighting spices such as cumin, ginger and turmeric.
Go for whole grains.
West Africans smoke much less than Americans, which may in part explain why their rates of esophageal cancer are about 60 times lower than ours
Cut back on coffee
Ponder the Pill carefully
Research on the link between birth control pills and cancer reveals the contraceptive can be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, women who took the Pill for 15 years cut their risk for ovarian and endometrial cancer by more than half, notes a study from the University of Oxford in England. On the other hand, Pill takers may have a slightly elevated risk for breast and cervical cancer. So what's the bottom line?
"For most healthy women who don't smoke, the benefits of the Pill far exceed the risks," says Polly Marchbanks, Ph.D
Be sunscreen-savvy
Apply sunscreen properly: Put on the amount that would fill a shot glass 30 minutes before heading outdoors, then reapply every two hours or after swimming or major sweating.
Ask about daily aspirin
It's not only for heart disease: One a day reduced estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer risk by 16 percent, NCI research finds.
Take a shot at HPV
More women may soon benefit from Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against the two strains of human papillomavirus that cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.
Is this vaccine popular in India?
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