QUESTION: Your advice is always so welcome in our home, for it always rings true.
I know many people write to you to ask about cures for disease, but we think your emphasis on prevention is most important.
Now if you could discuss ways to prevent cancer, you would be doing everyone a service.
ANSWER: If ever I wished I had a simple and complete answer for a question, this would be the one.
The problem is that there are so many cancers, so many causes, that there are no simple answers.
The basic rules of good health are always a fine starting point, and must be emphasized over and over again, for they help prevent illness of all kinds.
Regular physical checkups, exercise and diet are always in order.
And the researchers have given us some specific tips that may be useful.
Foods high in fiber are not merely the latest fad, but help to lower the risk of colon cancer.
Keep the fat content in your diet low to reduce risks of breast, prostate colon and rectal cancer.
Avoid unnecessary X-rays, but be quick to permit those that are important for diagnosis, recommended by your physician.
There are so many risk factors that exist in the workplace that you must become knowledgeable about the materials that you come in contact with, and the safe procedures that must be used in handling them.
Excessive exposure to the harmful rays of the sun may lead to skin cancer, so keep covered or use the appropriate sun screens when out in the open.
The evidence for the harm that smoking does is dramatic, and our new turn to a no smoking society is one that may prevent thousands of needless cases of lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema.
There may be many more such tips, each directed at a specific cancer, but the call for moderation in all things, which I call for here on frequent occasions, must still be amongst the most valuable tips one can offer to prevent cancer, and in fact all disease.
One day, I hope, I will be able to answer your question more directly, but until then, give these tips a try.
The material contained here is "FOR INFORMATION ONLY" and should not replace the counsel and advice of your personal physician.
Promptly consulting your doctor is the best path to a quick and successful resolution of any medical problem.
