Bowel cancer need not be deadly a healthy lifestyle and regular tests help cut the risk. It remains the second most deadly form of cancer in Australia, yet bowel cancer is one of the most curable forms of the disease if caught in time, 90 percent of bowel cancers can be successfully treated. Here's how you can protect yourself.
Have a test
If everyone over the age of 50 were screened for bowel cancer every two years, an estimated 30 lives would be saved every week, says Alison Peipers, chair of Cancer Council Australia's National Bowel Cancer Screening Committee.
"National Health Guidelines recommend doing a faecal occult blood test available as a home kit every two years from the age of 50. At the moment, the kits are sent free of charge …show more content…
Obesity also ups your risk. Cancer Council Australia recommends prevention strategies like regular exercise and a healthy diet with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Eat your crusts
Forget about bread crusts making your hair curly; instead, consider eating them to protect yourself from bowel cancer they contain eight times more cancer-inhibiting properties than the rest of the slice.
Researchers in India, who made the discovery, identified pronyl-lysine, an antioxidant in bread crusts that prevents pre-cancerous lesions in the bowel and inhibits cancer. German research into the same antioxidant uncovered that the chewy crusts on sourdough had the highest concentrations of pronyl-lysine.
Go nuts
Brazil nuts, that is. They're a rich source of selenium a mineral also found in some seafood. By tripling our food intake of selenium, we could slash the rates of bowel cancer in Australia by up to 50 per cent, suggests an Australian study.
The recommended daily intake of selenium is 50mcg, about the same amount found in one Brazil nut, but the researchers found that people given 150mcg of the mineral every day for six weeks had a two-fold increase of a powerful cancer-busting antioxidant called GPx-2 in the lower
Have a test
If everyone over the age of 50 were screened for bowel cancer every two years, an estimated 30 lives would be saved every week, says Alison Peipers, chair of Cancer Council Australia's National Bowel Cancer Screening Committee.
"National Health Guidelines recommend doing a faecal occult blood test available as a home kit every two years from the age of 50. At the moment, the kits are sent free of charge …show more content…
Obesity also ups your risk. Cancer Council Australia recommends prevention strategies like regular exercise and a healthy diet with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Eat your crusts
Forget about bread crusts making your hair curly; instead, consider eating them to protect yourself from bowel cancer they contain eight times more cancer-inhibiting properties than the rest of the slice.
Researchers in India, who made the discovery, identified pronyl-lysine, an antioxidant in bread crusts that prevents pre-cancerous lesions in the bowel and inhibits cancer. German research into the same antioxidant uncovered that the chewy crusts on sourdough had the highest concentrations of pronyl-lysine.
Go nuts
Brazil nuts, that is. They're a rich source of selenium a mineral also found in some seafood. By tripling our food intake of selenium, we could slash the rates of bowel cancer in Australia by up to 50 per cent, suggests an Australian study.
The recommended daily intake of selenium is 50mcg, about the same amount found in one Brazil nut, but the researchers found that people given 150mcg of the mineral every day for six weeks had a two-fold increase of a powerful cancer-busting antioxidant called GPx-2 in the lower