By Mandy Kendall

It is an unfortunate fact of life these days that it is likely you at least, know someone who has been affected by cancer in some way.

When cancer affected my family recently I spent time researching the current thoughts on treatments, but equally important, preventative measures for cancer.

Mandy Kendall

I found pretty much everything you can imagine, from the wild to the whacky, but many overriding themes appeared time and time again and are based on basic, common sense, health advice that is well worth repeating.

During my research I found an article written by doctor Joseph Mercola that encompassed most of what the rest of the health and wellness community is recommending. (Whether you agree or disagree with his marketing, his articles are founded and based on fact and science). I usually like to try highlight one aspect of another author’s work in my Qwik-e tip pieces, but Mercola’s article outlines everything I would have wanted to say so I decided to post a summary of the article over the next two weeks.

Mercola on his website says, “It’s important to realize that cancer is for the most part a man-made disease, primarily influenced by lifestyle and toxic environmental exposures. Prevention truly is worth a pound of cure when it comes to cancer, and the following healthy lifestyle strategies can help you avoid ever becoming a cancer statistic.”

His tips are:

1. Avoid sugar and fructose. This is largely due to its relation to insulin resistance. As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, including fruits.

2. Optimize vitamin D. Researchers within this field have estimated that about 30 percent of cancer deaths — which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States — could be prevented each year simply by optimizing the vitamin D levels in the general population

3. Get plenty of natural vitamin A. Your best sources are organic egg yolks, raw butter, raw whole milk, and beef or chicken liver. However, beware of supplementing as there’s some evidence that excessive vitamin A can negate the benefits of vitamin D.

4. Exercise regularly. One of the primary ways exercise lowers your risk for cancer is by reducing elevated insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells. Most important of all is to make sure you include high-intensity, burst-type exercise.

5. Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats. Do this by taking a high-quality krill oil or fish oil and reducing your intake of most processed vegetable oils.

Until next time.

Mandy Kendall operates Health Connective in South Lake Tahoe. If you have any questions, would like some advice, or would like to request some Qwik-e tips on any health and wellbeing topic, please feel free to drop me an email at healthconnective@gmail.com, visit us on Facebook, or keep an eye out on Lake Tahoe News for regular Qwik-e tips on how to make healthy changes one Quick and Easy step at a time.