COLON CANCER. PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Preventive measures are the measures taken to prevent colon cancer. There are two types of measures: primary and secondary.

The primary preventive measure consists of modifying our lifestyle and the second consists of detecting the illness in its early stages through a simple faecal occult blood test.

PRIMARY PREVENTIVE MEASURE. CHANGING LIFESTYLE.

1. Diet.

• Have a diet rich in fibre, fruit, vegetables, legumes and nuts.
• Ensure that we reduce the ingestion of meats that are red, processed, cured or rich in saturated fats such as sausages, cold meats, etc.
• However, no link has been found between the ingestion of white meats (turkey, chicken) and colon cancer.
• Decrease the ingestion of meats that are fried or cooked directly in fire as much as possible.

2. Maintaining a healthy weight.

This measure is more pertinent for men due to the higher risk that they have of accumulating fat within their waistline, which is in turn, the most dangerous type of fat there is.

3. Stop smoking.

4. Stop or decrease the ingestion of alcohol.

5. Complete physical exercise.

Walking at a fast pace for a minimum of thirty minutes per day.

Changing lifestyle is very important because it not only helps to prevent the emergence of colon cancer, but also helps to improve the quality of life of patients suffering from it and additionally, helps to decrease the recurrence of treated cancer.

SECONDARY PREVENTIVE MEASURE. FAECAL OCULT BLOOD TEST.

The faecal occult blood test is one of the most important tests used to detect colon cancer in its early stages in healthy people without symptoms. This test is conducted by simply taking a faecal sample to find occult blood within them.

It is recommended that this test be conducted in people around the age of fifty. This test will be conducted in ages younger than fifty, in people that have colon pathologies, familial polyposis or a family history of colon cancer (parents, brothers, sisters, etc.).

A colonoscopy will be conducted if the result of the test comes back positive and if the result comes back negative, then the test will be repeated a year or two later.

WARNING

People that present inflammatory colon diseases such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, will need to undertake frequent colonoscopies due to them presenting a higher risk of developing colon cancer. People with irritable colon have the same risk of suffering from colon cancer than the general population therefore, faecal occult blood tests are only conducted as a preventative measure.

Dr. J. Hurtado Martínez

Medical Director of HealthSalus

Preventative Measures against Diabetes.

Diabetes is a condition that is suffered by millions of people worldwide.

It takes place when the pancreas is damaged and results in a decrease of insulin production.

Diabetes harms a number of organs including the heart, kidney, eyes, etc.

There are a number of simple guidelines that, if followed, can help us to reduce the risk of suffering from diabetes such as:

1. Decrease the intake of sugary drinks, white flour, confectionary, sweet pastries, etc. These foods force the pancreas to produce large quantities of insulin, which can lead to it wearing down.

2. Ingesting foods that need less insulin due to how slow their digestion is.

These foods are:

Bread, pasta, rice, oats, quinoa, etc. that are either wholemeal or wholegrain.

3. Foods that are cooked al dente, meaning very firm to the bite, causes them to be digested much slower, allowing the levels of glucose in the blood to increase periodically.

These foods are mainly pasta, rice and vegetables.

4. Eating whole fruit as opposed to drinking it in juice.

Whole fruit takes longer to digest due to the high amount of fibre that it possesses which is not present when it is ingested in the form of juice, however that does not mean that juice cannot be drank once in a while.

5. The same thing happens with vegetables or legumes in cream soups, as the glucose level is higher than if it was cooked, baked, grilled or in a salad.

6. Following a type of diet that resembles the Mediterranean diet as much as possible (which is rich in vegetables, fruits, cereals, legumes, fish, etc.) as it has been shown that the Mediterranean diet decreases the emergence of diabetes by 50%.

7. Do exercise.

Research has shown that doing exercise such as simply walking half an hour to an hour a day at a rapid pace, would have the same effect as insulin thereby, decreasing blood sugar levels with the effect lasting up to 12 hours after completing the exercise.

8. Losing weight, in the case of being overweight.

Just decreasing 5 to 10% of body weight can achieve a significantly reduce the risk of suffering from diabetes. The measurement obtained from the waist would give us more information about the probability of suffering from this condition, as the dangerous fats that can infiltrate the organs and lead to diabetes are gathered there.

9. Distributing food.

By distributing food throughout the day and eating five times per day as opposed to two or three, we make the pancreas work less.

And lastly, I just want to say that people that have close family members that suffer diabetes have to adhere strictly to these guidelines as their risk of suffering from this disease is higher than most.

Dr J. Hurtado Martínez

Medical Director of HealthSalus