Exercise is a key component of a healthy lifestyle.

As a health-care provider, I am distressed at the growing number of younger and younger women being diagnosed with cancer, especially breast cancer. Instead of society using every means at its disposal to help change behaviours and prevent cancer, we simply wait for the problem to surface and then mount expensive, dangerous, painful and often ineffective efforts to treat the disease.

Healthy choices

Recent medical research indicates that a woman's risk of developing cancer is largely under her control. It's all about choices. If you live a lifestyle that promotes cancer, you'll probably get cancer. If you make informed, healthy choices, you are much more likely to avoid the disease.

Amazingly, many people, even some doctors, still don't acknowledge the evidential connection between lifestyle choices and chronic diseases. Some still believe disease is just a matter of chance, or that it's entirely determined by your genes. That's not true. Your level of health is to a great extent under your own control.

Women, in particular, who follow recommended dietary and lifestyle guidelines may significantly reduce their risk of developing and dying from cancer, according to recent research.

Dr. James Cerhan of the Mayo Clinic in the United States reported on research involving almost 30,000 women, aged over 55. Dr. Cerhan's team evaluated these women's risk of cancer based on how many healthy lifestyle habits they practised. These habits were the ones recommended by the American Institute for Cancer Research.

Those women who followed only one or none of the recommended guidelines for diet and lifestyle had a 35 per cent higher risk of developing cancer and a 42 per cent greater risk of dying from cancer than women who adhered to most of the recommendations considered in the study.

Those recommendations developed by the American Association for Cancer Research included:

Maintaining normal body weight and gaining no more than 11 pounds since age 18.

Engaging in moderate exercise daily and vigorous physical activity at least once per week.

Eating five or more servings of vegetable and fruit daily.

Limiting red-meat consumption to fewer than three ounces per day.

Limiting daily consumption of fats and salt.

Limiting alcohol intake to no more than one drink per day.

Not smoking cigarettes.

In short, the research showed that older women may reduce their risk of dying from cancer by almost half by not smoking, controlling body weight, exercising and eating a healthy, balanced diet.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, a noted wellness expert who is director of The Optimal Wellness Center in Chicago and founder of natural health website Mercola.com, suggests that this study just barely scratches the surface.

If they had studied women who do everything right, that is, who avoid processed foods and eat whole foods; who follow a cellular nutrition programme; who avoid cancer-causing ingredients like sodium nitrite, Aspartame and MSG; who avoid artificial harmful chemicals in their personal care products; and take other similar precautions, they'd find the cancer rate approaching ZERO.

Cancer doesn't need to exist at all. It actually should be a rarity except for the fact that most women actually give themselves cancer by making poor choices in life.

So why are we as a society spending so much effort, time and money on treating a problem that is so preventable? Unfortunately, treating cancer is a big lucrative business. Preventing cancer is not.

Ladies, your health is in your hands. A great New Year's resolution would be for you to start your own cancer-prevention lifestyle programme today. Begin with the simple recommendations developed by the American Association for Cancer Research listed in this article.

Email Dr. Anthony Vendryes at vendryes@mac.com, visit the website www.anounceofprevention.org, or listen to 'An Ounce of Prevention' on Power 106FM on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.