Cancer Prevention Awareness Month

February is National Cancer Prevention Awareness Month: a month for awareness and taking action to reduce your chances of getting cancer. 

According to the American Cancer Society, there was a predicted number of  “1.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed and 609,360 cancer deaths in the United States.” As everyone knows, this sickness is dangerous and could cause the person to die if it’s too late. 

Though all cancers can’t really be prevented, there are some steps people could take to reduce the risk of getting cancer. A lot of this has to do with making and maintaining healthy life choices. These could include having a healthier diet, consisting of eating more vegetables and plant-based foods; setting some time in your day aside for physical activity such as running or working out, keeping away from alcohol consumption and smoking, and wearing sunscreen.

So is there a way to detect cancer early? Yes, this could be done through early diagnosis or getting screened. From the World Health Organization, “Early diagnosis focuses on detecting symptomatic patients as early as possible, while screening consists of testing healthy individuals to identify those having cancers before any symptoms appear.” Since cancers could also be inherited, people should definitely be knowledgable about their family history and if any past relatives have had traces of cancer.