Most Forms of Cancer are Caused by Bad Lifestyle Choices

Most forms of cancer are preventable.

According to a new study published by the University of Stony Brook on Wednesday, cancer doesn’t appear randomly, but bad luck isn’t behind the deadly disease either. It appears that most forms of cancer are caused by bad lifestyle choices.

Previous researches developed the bad luck hypothesis which refers to the fact that cells mutate randomly thus making possible the appearance of tumors. Actually this study comes to prove otherwise. It appears that nine out of ten cancer patients have got the disease because of factors like drinking, smoking, air pollution and prolonged exposure to the sun. So often the patient can’t blame no one but himself and his lifestyle choices.

Cancer is now believed to be a disease that can be prevented. Some researchers believe that making good decisions everyday like eating healthy, exercising regularly, cutting down on drinking and smoking and reducing the amount of time spent in the sun can reduce substantially the risk of ever getting cancer. Not everybody agrees though. Some British researchers say that these changes can prevent only between 70% and 90% of cancer development.

One of the scientists from the University of Stony Brook, Yusuf Hannun declared that there should be fewer cases of cancer if the disease would only be caused by some random mutations. The new study concluded that the risk of skin cancer is caused 86% by the long and unprotected exposure to the sun, while the risk of head and neck cancer is caused 75% by the excess of drinking and smoking. Also, there is a 75% risk that your bad diet would lead to colorectal cancer.

While these common forms of cancer have logical explanations and can be prevented, this cannot be applied to all cancers. Researchers say that the rarest forms of cancer are due to genetic mutations. There will be a program developed by the government named “10,000 Genomes Project” that will study the causes of rare cancers and other rare diseases.

Statistics realized by British researchers show that every year 161,000 people will die of cancer while 330,000 will be diagnosed with the fatal disease.   After finding out the immense number of people diagnosed with the disease and that most forms of cancer are caused by bad lifestyle choices we must take a stand against it. We can’t let some stupid and random habit like smoking take us away from everyone and everything we love.

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