Colon Cancer – Risk Factors
As I said before, nobody knows what causes cancer, but there are a few well-known risk factors. Some of them can be avoided, some of them not. If you have one, more or all the risk factors listed below, that doesn’t mean you will have colon cancer for sure. It only means your risk is bigger than your neighbor who doesn’t have any of the risk factors. Not having any of the risk factors doesn’t protect you 100% from colon cancer.
Why do I tell you about these risk factors then? Because avoiding the ones who can be avoided leads you to a much healthier life and knowing you have a risk factor that can’t be avoided will make you more careful with your own health and life.
These are the risk factors for colon cancer that I know:
1. Factors you cannot change:
Age: 90% of all people diagnosed with colon cancer are 50 or older, the medium age being somewhere around 65 years.
Insulin dependency: If you have insulin-dependent diabetes you should know you are up to 30-35% more likely to develop colon cancer than people who don’t have diabetes.
Where you are living: Studies indicate that the risk of developing colonic cancer is the lowest in countries like Kuwait or India and the highest in US, Canada or Switzerland. I don’t know if moving from US to Kuwait helps, but I doubt it. These results have probably two causes: the environment (food, radiation, and clime) and the medical system (if you have colon cancer it’s more possible to be diagnosed in US than in Kuwait).
Race:It was found a genetic mutation that causes colon cancer in Jewish people of Ashkenazi descent. If you are an Ashkenazi Jew you should tell your doctor about this.
Genetics:There are a few more genes that increase the risk of developing colon cancer. So if your relatives had familial adenomatous polyposis or hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer or just colon cancer, you should pay more attention to this health issue.
Colonic polyps: Colonic polyp is a benign tumor with high risk of getting malignant. Although polyps don’t always become cancer, persons with polyps tend to develop colon cancer more often than those without polyps. The risk of developing colon cancer increases with the number and size of polyps present.
Personal history of cancer: Unfortunately, people who had cancer are more likely to develop a second malignancy. For colon cancer are at higher risk persons with history of uterine, ovarian and breast cancer.
2. Factors you can (and should) change:
Alcohol: Distilled spirits like gin, vodka, and bourbon appear to cause colon cancer.
Diet:A diet rich in cholesterol and animal fats can cause colon cancer, while a diet rich in vegetal fibers has shown a protective effect.
Smoking: Even if it isn’t the first thing you will think about, cigarettes increase the risk of having colon cancer, especially if you already have colon polyps.
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