Contenders for "Most Frightening Disease"
According to a recent poll about women's health perceptions, women are reportedly more frightened of the prospect of getting Alzheimer's disease than of getting cancer. Worse, this focus on one disease is overshadowing the need to take the necessary preventive measures against getting the other.
And I'll bet that any doctor who sits and has a talk with his patients isn't surprised one bit by this news. In my practice, I talk to women—and men—who say the thing they most fear is losing their minds, their memories, and their independence. Doctors should be pursuing what, exactly, they're doing to ward off cancer.
Of 800 women between 18 and 93 years of age who were polled, less than a third of them reported that they're following guidelines that are considered effective against cancer. And only 42 percent of the women polled felt they had any control over getting the disease.
The purpose of this survey was to measure women's perceptions and their actions in the attempt to stave off this deadly disease. One statistic shows that 63 percent of cancers are the result of behaviors we do have control over, such as smoking, diet, or exercise.
And with an estimated 678,000 new cases of cancer in women projected to be diagnosed this year in the U.S., that's over 427,000 women who possibly could have had some measure of control just based on their lifestyle choices alone.
Those surveyed also had interesting sociological perceptions about their ability to control their level of cancer risk. Women who rated themselves as having a higher social status and a supportive social network also were more likely to feel they could do something about their cancer risk, and were therefore more likely to actually do something. Women who rated themselves as being on a lower rung on the social ladder were also the least likely to take any action that would help to lower their risk.
And what the women knew and what they actually did in terms of their health were two different things. While 81 percent reported eating a healthy diet and 73 percent took part in regular exercise, the breakdown of those numbers didn't exactly add up. For instance, only a third ate the recommended two fruits per day or exercised a minimum of 2.5 hours per week, and a dismal 12 percent got their three-per-day servings of vegetables.
Many of us know what we should be doing to retain our health. But there's always room for improvement when it comes to protecting ourselves from disease. Be your own health advocate. You know your habits best. Pick one area to improve on each week. If you're not exercising at all, maybe your goal could be to take a 5-minute walk each day, then to add on five more each week until you build up to 30 to 45 minutes.
If convenience is a factor, consider some of the pre-cut fruits and vegetables many stores now offer. They're already cleaned and ready to go.
Small changes add up, and I'd say it's well worth the concerted effort if they lower your risk of getting cancer—or any other devastating disease.
