Following my recent article on ‘Study of 51 million people finds the 10 best ways to avoid cancer’ one of our customers asked why ‘quitting smoking’ was not on the list.
Yes, smoking does cause 80% of the cases of lung cancer, it also weakens our immune system and is linked to other diseases such as blood clots (the principle cause of heart attacks and strokes) and clearly should be avoided.
The sole reason it did not appear in the top 10 is only due to mathematical reasons:
Lung cancer is the only type of cancer clearly linked to smoking, though it increases the risk for oral cancers.
90% of life-long smokers do not get lung cancer.
87% of cancers are not lung cancer.
80% of people do not smoke (only 16% of NZ’ers now smoke down from 25%)
So yes, stop smoking (or better still don’t start smoking) to avoid cancer, but do not ignore the other important ways as well.
About the Author
David Coory - Founder of Health House. Author
of Stay Healthy by supplying what’s
lacking in your diet, New Zealand's
top selling health book.