According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and LiveScience, doing exercise can prevent seven types of cancer. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death. In 2018 there were 17 million new cancer cases and 9.5 million cancer deaths worldwide and these numbers are expected to grow to 27.5 million and 16.3 million respectively by 2040.

But not everything is bad news since 30-50 per cent of all cancer cases are preventable (WHO). Adopting a healthy lifestyle is key to preventing cancer. The WHO addresses tobacco, alcohol use, physical inactivity, dietary factors, obesity and being overweight as avoidable risk factors in order to have a life without cancer. These are factors that depend mostly on one’s will to change habits, but there are others like: infections, environmental pollution, radiation, genetics, etc. Tobacco use is one of the major causes of cancer. It kills approximately six million people each year from cancer and other diseases. But this doesn’t only affect smokers but also passive smokers (people who often breathe in other people's tobacco smoke).

It has been proven that environmental tobacco smoke causes lung cancer in non-smoking adults. It’s because of these reasons that the WHO highly recommends quitting smoking even for those who already developed smoking-related health problems. Beneficial health changes are obtainable within the first 20 minutes of quitting, since the heart’s rate and blood pressure will drop. Also, the long-term benefits are that: the risk of coronary heart disease is about half that of a smoker's after one year; the risk of lung cancer falls to about half that of a smoker after 10 years and the risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker’s after 15 years (Fact Sheet about Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation - WHO).

Apart from quitting smoking, consuming less alcohol could be beneficial. It is not totally necessary to quit drinking as it was for smoking, but it should be done moderately since the risk of cancer increases with the amount of alcohol consumed. Doing regular activity is also really important in order to prevent cancer, and according to LiveScience it is one of the most potent cancer-fighting weapons. Exercise has such importance that researches from many reliable health information sources as Yale School of Public Health, British Medical Journal, and the journal Breast Cancer Research suggest that people who reported at least 20 minutes of physical activities five days a week had much less chances of being diagnosed with cancer.

It is clear then, that changing one’s lifestyle and adding good habits like doing exercise can be very fruitful, not only because it can reduce the risk of many cancers but it will also benefit overall health since it can help weight control, strengthen bones, muscles and improve thinking, learning and also sleeping. As it was said before, even people who already developed smoking-related health problems can benefit from this advice. Having a healthy lifestyle and removing bad habits is crucial for the body and it will certainly make a difference. Start soon and make a change.