A Combined Healthy Lifestyle Score and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in a Large Cohort Study
Pancreatic cancer is one of the nastier cancers that we deal with and, worse, the incidence is on the rise. I remember a personal experience being in the room when an oncologist confirmed pancreatic cancer in a patient. She went on to say that the patient wasn’t a smoker and had no family history, so we really don’t know how she got it. Throttling the oncologist came to mind to save any future families she came across, but I restrained. The problem? This woman’s family was in the room at the time the news was given and the unspoken message was, “This is more a result of chance so the kids have no responsibility to make important lifestyle changes so that this does not happen to them.” The oncologist missed the incredibly valuable opportunity to educate the family and break this one chain of “family history.”
Looking at this study below, we can begin to see that pancreatic cancer is a cancer of lifestyle likes most others. With moderately healthy choices there was a 58% reduction in the risk. 58% with moderate lifestyle changes!! Add in low calorie, high phytonutrient diet, avoidance of aspirin, moving away from diabetes and attention to certain environmental exposures and it’s almost gone. You can understand my frustration w/ the oncologist.