Cancer is the second cause of death worldwide, and cases are set to increase to 35 million over the next two decades. Even though we’ve made great strides in research and therapeutic advances, the risk of cancer is still high.

That doesn’t mean we have to just accept that cancer will happen to more of us. There are steps we can take to prevent it and increase our survivorship if we do get it.

It has been proven that lifestyle choices can reduce your risk of cancer. What we eat and how active we are can have a huge impact on the likelihood of getting cancer. By far, things like our weight and our habits are the most modifiable risk factors, and the good news is, they are entirely in our control.

Why has there been a rise in the global cancer burden? How can we reduce our risk? In this episode, I’m joined by the Director of Breast Oncology and Cancer Survivorship at the Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham, Dr. Amy Comander. She shares how we can address the rising global cancer burden by changing our lifestyles.

30-40% of cancers can be prevented by avoiding risk factors and applying good and healthy lifestyle choices to our own lives. -Dr. Amy Comander

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Why your lifestyle choices matter

If certain lifestyle choices increase the risk of cancer, that means our choices can also reduce it. How can we combat the disease by implementing good lifestyle choices?

-The bad news about the genetics (and the good news)

Genetics and hereditary alterations are known factors that increase the risks of cancer. Can lifestyle choices protect those who are predisposed to cancer, and even stop it from transmitting to the next generation?

-This lifestyle change will reduce your risk of cancer

Excess fat cells have been found to be a risk factor for cancer. How do fat cells propagate the development of cancer cells?

Guest Bio

Dr. Amy Comander specializes in the care of women with breast cancer. Dr. Comander is Medical Director of the Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham, where she also serves as Director of Breast Oncology and Cancer Survivorship at the Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham and at Newton Wellesley Hospital. She is director of Lifestyle Medicine at the Mass General Cancer Center, and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her undergraduate degree and a master's degree in Neuroscience at Harvard University. She received her medical degree at Yale University School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine residency training and Hematology-Oncology fellowship training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. She is board-certified in Hematology and Medical Oncology, and she is a Diplomat of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Comander is well-known for her compassionate care and passionate devotion to her patients. She has served as a medical advisor to Oneinforty, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating people of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage about the one-in-forty chance of having inherited a BRCA mutation. She is proud to serve on the board of the Ellie Fund, a non-profit that provides services and support to women diagnosed with breast cancer in Massachusetts. Dr. Comander has a strong interest in improving the quality of life and outcome of cancer survivors through important lifestyle interventions, including physical activity, diet, and mind/body interventions. She promotes healthy lifestyles for both her active treatment patients as well as those in the survivorship phase of care. She has launched PAVING the Path to Wellness, a 12-week lifestyle medicine-based survivorship program for women with breast cancer. Connect with Dr. Comander on LinkedIn.

Go to https://www.aicr.org/cancer-prevention/how-to-prevent-cancer/ to read about the 10 cancer prevention recommendations.

When it comes to metabolic health, high blood sugar isn’t the only cause for concern. If your blood sugar is in between normal and diabetic, you’re prediabetic and at risk for heart attacks and other challenges.

Prediabetes doesn’t have overt symptoms, so it’s really easy for it to be missed. That’s what makes it so dangerous. Unless you’re intentional and vigilant about checking for it, the condition can fly under the radar of your health.

Like diabetes, prediabetes is a reflection of the metabolic condition of your body. Genetics and even ethnicity are risk factors for prediabetes, but the good news is it can be prevented and even reversed once you have it.

What causes prediabetes? Can we stop prediabetes from becoming diabetes? In this episode, I talk about how to combat a condition a lot of people don’t know they have.

One of the problems with prediabetes is that it has no symptoms. Unless you or your healthcare provider go the extra mile to identify it, it can be easily missed. -Dr. Deepa Grandon

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-The dangerous thing about prediabetes

Prediabetes doesn’t have symptoms making it really easy to get missed. Who is at the highest risk of having it? How do you know you need to get screened for it?

-The most powerful ways to correct prediabetes

How do we dial in our diet and exercise in order to combat insulin resistance, inflammation and other metabolic abnormalities?

-How to use fasting to mitigate prediabetes

Intermittent fasting has a plethora of benefits that aid in the prevention or even reversal of prediabetes. What makes it so effective at tackling prediabetes risk factors?

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women worldwide. Yet the general public and even medical practitioners still believe it’s not common in women.

The result: women remain underdiagnosed and undertreated. It’s hardly surprising that 50% of women who have heart attacks weren’t even aware they had risk factors the whole time.

From an anatomical perspective, women are more prone to fatal heart attacks, but that’s not all. Lifestyle choices, mental health, menopause and even pregnancy - all these factors can make you more prone to heart disease.

How do you know you need to be screened for heart disease? What steps can you take to protect your heart? In this episode, I talk about the heart disease crisis women are facing and how we can combat it.

Women are often misdiagnosed and undertreated due to the misconceptions that heart disease is uncommon in women. -Dr. Deepa Grandon

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-The anatomy of heart disease

Women’s heart health is an under-researched and under-treated area. What are the differences between men and women when it comes to heart health?

-Hidden signs of heart disease

Most people are aware of the common signs of heart attacks. Why does heart disease manifest differently in women?

-How to protect your heart

How can we use intentional lifestyle choices to preserve our heart health and mitigate risk factors?