Cancer: Prevention and Detection

Written By Ben Hagopian

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. While it is scary to get a diagnosis of cancer, there are things you can actively do to minimize your risks of getting cancer:

  • Don’t smoke: we all know smoking is bad for us but it causes many different types of cancer including cancers of the lung, bladder, colon, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, liver, stomach, and many others. If fully quitting smoking is too hard, simply start by reducing your cigarette/vape consumption as a way to begin to improve your health.

  • Optimize your metabolic health. This includes:

    • Maintaining a healthy weight

    • Limiting intake of processed foods and beverages with refined sugars

    • Getting regular exercise. Zone 2 exercise is ideal for metabolic health. 

    • While there are many ways to measure metabolic health, one of our favorites is the DEXA scan.

  • Limit alcohol consumption. The surgeon general came out with a statement recently about the dangerous effects of alcohol on cancer risk. Any alcohol increases risk but we like to limit folks to a max of 1 drink per day on average. A standard drink of alcohol is 12oz beer, 4oz wine and 1.5oz spirits.

  • Get screened regularly for common cancers

    • Mammograms for women 40+

    • Colonoscopies or FIT tests for everyone 45+

    • Pap smears for women 25+

    • Prostate specific antigen testing for men 50+

Ben Hagopian
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