Exercise and a healthy diet could protect you from colorectal cancer

The results of a colon cancer risk assessment survey by Cleveland Clinic suggest that living a lifestyle with a healthy diet, more exercise and less smoking decrease the chances of developing colorectal cancer or colon polyps.

Dr. Carol A. Burke and colleagues from Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, created the survey to help provide people with information about how likely they were to develop colorectal cancer, based on lifestyle choices and their family history of suffering from the disease. Over 27,000 people from around the world responded to the survey.

Dr. Burke and David Dornblaser, a co-investigator, presented their results at Digestive Disease Week 2017 in Chicago on May 7.

The survey asks respondents about general factors such as their age, sex, weight, height and ethnicity. It also asks questions to get an idea of how much the respondent smokes, the amount they exercise and what their diet consists of.

It then gives advice on how best to reduce their risk of developing colorectal cancer and polyps, by suggesting lifestyle changes and outlining what age they should start being screened, and how often.

The clinic found that the majority of people who responded to the survey hadn’t undergone screening to check for the disease as often as they should, with only 36% up to date with check-ups according to the guidelines set up by the U.S Preventative Services Task Force.

“Colon cancer is a preventable disease,” said Dr. Burke. “These results emphasise the known modifiable factors that can alter the risk. Colon cancer has had significant decline in the U.S since 1980 when colorectal cancer screening was first introduced, but these results show screening for the disease – and adherence to a healthy lifestyle – appear woefully underutilised.”

In addition, the respondents most likely to adhere to colorectal cancer screenings were white females who had lower exposure to cigarettes, exercised more and had a more plant-centric diet. Those who had a first-degree relative with a history of colorectal cancer and polyps were also more likely to undergo screening than those without.

“Our hope by providing this online assessment is that individuals could take it, print out the results with the call to action and take it to their physicians to start the colorectal cancer screening conversation,” Dr. Burke explained. “In turn, physicians get a better understanding of the demographic of individuals who have decreased participation in colorectal cancer screening: male gender, non-white ethnicity, smoking history, higher BMI, lower intake of plant-based diet, and reduced physical activity level.”

The researchers also hope that by giving physicians a better understanding of which patients may be more at risk of developing the disease, they may be able to target these patients more efficiently and encourage them to undergo screening.

The next stage of the researcher’s work is to determine if their online risk assessment was able to increase patient’s adherence to colorectal cancer screening.

If you want to take the assessment yourself (it only takes around 5 minutes to go through), you can find it at clevelandclinic.org/preventcoloncancer.