I'm a Doctor and Here's How to Avoid "Deadly" Cancer — Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

​​According to Cancer.org, in 2021, there were "an estimated 1.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed and 608,570 cancer deaths in the United States." While that number is staggering, cancer doesn't have to be the death sentence that it once was.

Eating a nutrient rich diet, taking preventive measures and seeing your doctor annually all help avoid getting cancer.

Steve Vasilev MD, quadruple board certified integrative gynecologic oncologist and medical director of Integrative Gynecologic Oncology at Providence Saint John's Health Center and Professor at Saint John's Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, CA, "Guidelines for cancer screening are developed by expert panels from various organizations, based on scientific evidence and statistics.

The focus is on breast, uterine cervix, colon, prostate and those at high risk for lung cancer?

For example, uterine/endometrial and ovarian cancer have no effective screening tests.

In addition to the risk of missing cancers, the risk of over treatment and complications from such treatment with false positive tests (i.e. the test is positive but there is no cancer present) becomes a problem as well.".

Vasilev explains, "According to the National Cancer Institute, roughly 1/3 of all cancer deaths may be ascribed to our diets and bad lifestyle choices, including lack of exercise.

Mainly you want to avoid the highly processed high fat, high glycemic index (i.e. lots of simple sugars) standard American diet, aptly abbreviated S.A.D.

The diet with the most scientific data in terms of preventing cancer and other diseases is the traditional Mediterranean diet.

In fact, this kind of practice can even increase your risk of cancer.

Richard Reitherman, MD, Ph.D., medical director of breast imaging at MemorialCare Breast Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA says, "The best thing any of us can do to try to prevent cancer or other illnesses is to try to pursue a healthy lifestyle.

Pursuing a normal weight is important to reduce risks for many diseases including cancer, diabetes and heart disease."

While stress is a part of all of our lives, it can have a negative effect on our immune system, making it harder for our bodies to fight against illnesses, including cancer."