If you aren’t currently working on preventing colorectal cancer from affecting your life or the life of someone you love, you could be in danger. In the media, cancer coverage is almost exclusively confined to breast, lung, or prostate.
Meanwhile, colorectal cancer (cancer of the rectum or colon regions) is cutting a wide swath of destruction through men and women all over the world. No one talks about it and that’s a mistake because it’s claiming a lot more lives than you might imagine.
Estimates for 2017 predict that more than 135,000 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer and more than 50,000 of them will die from the disease.
We should definitely be talking about it. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world – behind heart disease – and you should have no doubt that it’s an epidemic.
The 5 Cancers Diagnosed Most Often in Women
- Breast
- Colorectal
- Lung
- Uterus
- Cervical
The 5 Cancers Diagnosed Most Often in Men
- Prostate
- Colorectal
- Lung
- Skin
- Stomach
Every year, more cancer cases are diagnosed than ever before in human history. The World Health Organization (WHO) expects the statistics to worsen dramatically in the next two decades.
Cancer organizations, oncologists, and pharmaceutical companies use one rebuttal to facts like these and it’s infuriating. “More people are surviving cancer than ever.”
On the surface, that’s true.
However, one thing they don’t seem to question is why so many more people are getting cancer than ever. Every year, one-in-four deaths of men, women, and children are due to cancer.
Now more than ever, we need to question why so many are getting cancer in the first place. We must turn our attention to prevention.
It’s great to survive cancer but better to have never gotten it in the first place.
The risk factors for colorectal cancer are similar to risk factors for many diseases. There’s something in particular I’d like to focus on after you read the list.
Preventing Colorectal Cancer Starts with Knowing Your Risks!
- Age – most cases are diagnosed in men and women over the age of 50.
- Genetics – an immediate family member with colorectal cancer raises your personal risk.
- Health –diabetes, heart disease, or diseases of the digestive system have a higher risk
- Lifestyle – obesity, smoking, alcohol use, and diet raise your risk dramatically
In most medical articles and literature, “lifestyle” habits are grouped together. While obesity, smoking, and alcohol are well-known risk factors, diet is sort of an afterthought.
“Red meat” or “smoked meat” are the two main (sometimes only) foods listed to avoid if you have any hope of preventing colorectal cancer.
That boggles my mind, honestly.
I’ve spoken and written in-depth about the dangers of pro-inflammatory foods. If all you eat daily is red meat or smoked meat, they might be your primary cause for concern.
However, most people eat a wide variety of foods. Depending on where you buy them, how processed they are, and how you prepare them for your dinner table, I can think of dozens of foods that are far more inflammatory than these meats.
This brings me to the age when most cases are diagnosed. It’s only in the last decade that colorectal cancer has really become an issue on the cancer scene. Don’t get me wrong, people got it before but not nearly in the numbers we see today.
The American diet radically changed in the 1980s. That’s when massive quantities of chemicals started replacing real food compounds in our food supply. That’s when the low-fat, sugar-free trends really heated up. When fat (in general) became the villain for everything from heart disease to those last few pounds you wanted to lose.
Fast forward forty years and here we are.
Men and women who are 50 or older right now have had decades of exposure to a diet loaded with an unbelievable amount of simple carbohydrates that convert to pure sugar, fake foods wrapped in plastic that will outlive all of us due to the preservatives they’re soaked in, “diet” foods pumped full of artificial sweeteners we’ve always known were carcinogens, and fast foods drowning in hydrogenated oils that alter your body on the cellular level.
Meanwhile, nutritionally necessary substances (like healthy fats that every cell in your body needs to survive) have been stripped from the diet.
Again…here we are. Sicker than ever with an aging population that’s giving us a glimpse into what the future holds for younger generations if drastic changes aren’t made to our diet. Remember, the generations to come have spent their entire lives eating, drinking, and breathing massive amounts of toxins into their bodies.
I shudder to think what their “risk factors” will look like in 20, 40, or 60 years.
I have no doubt they will sicken younger because it’s already happening. Diseases that were once confined to the aged or those born with genetic abnormalities (arthritis, heart disease, obesity, cancer, and even dementia) now strike those who are thought to be young and healthy. The future depends on stopping toxic overload before it’s too late.
Preventing colorectal cancer starts with diet – as does preventing diabetes, heart disease, all forms of dementia, obesity, autoimmune disease, behavioral disorders, and so much more.
Diet is the beginning (and end) of everything.
It’s the fuel your body uses to conduct every single function inside you – no matter how small or large – and if you keep pumping garbage into it, the machine that you are will break down beyond repair. Then, you’ll be forced to consider “survival rates” and “recurrence statistics” and if there will or won’t be a “secondary” cancer.
Prevention will always be the better option. Prevention starts with diet.
To read more about how what you eat plays a part in every major disease known to mankind, read my book “Diet Wise” right now.