You can help to reduce your risk of bowel cancer by:
- Eating a healthy diet, including plenty of vegetables and fruit and only small amounts of animal fat.
- Maintaining a healthy body weight
- Exercising regularly
- Not smoking
- Limiting alcohol
Following this advice does not mean you will never get bowel cancer, but it reduces your risk and has other health benefits too.
Screening is the best way of identifying bowel cancer at an early stage, & when treatment is most likely to be successful.
Talk to your GP about the forms of screening available to you.
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Diet
Eating plenty of vegetables, starchy cereals, especially those containing whole grains and fruits is believed to reduce the risk of bowel cancer. Plenty of fibre in your diet helps to keep your bowels working regularly and provides you with some nutrients too. There is fibre in wholegrain cereals, rice and pasta; wholemeal bread and flour; fruit and vegetables; beans, pulses and lentils and by increasing your intake of these foods is the best way to to increase your fibre in your diet. However many people supplement their diet by taking a dietary fibre supplement. Supplements containing a balanced ratio of insoluble and soluble fibres similar to that found in a normal varied diet are ideal such as Agiofibe. For free samples of Agiofibe please click here.
Reduce the amount of red and processed meat in your diet. There is consistent evidence that eating a lot of red meat (pork, lamb, beef and veal), particularly processed meats (sausages, salami, bacon, ham, corn beef,) increases your risk of bowel cancer.
People who have a high consumption of refined carbohydrates (sugar and flour) have an increased risk of bowel cancer.
Exercise
If you exercise regularly (30 minutes a day), you have a lower risk of developing bowel cancer.
Smoking & Alcohol
People who smoke increase their risk of developing bowel cancer. Regular alcohol consumption is also believed to increase the risk too. |
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