Dr. Paulson talks about lifestyle changes for those with a family history of colon cancer
Taking steps toward a healthier lifestyle is an important choice that pretty much anyone should make.
But it’s a bit different for those at increased risk for colon cancer, such as those who have a family history.
Exercise is an important step, as well as healthy eating.
Dr. Heather Pauslon is a naturopathic doctor. In this video, she details some lifestyle changes for those with a family history of colon cancer.
Video Transcript
Heather Paulson: If you have a family history of colon cancer, there are a couple of lifestyle and diet recommendations that I would suggest you look into.
Those diet and lifestyle recommendations include exercise, so exercising for 20 to 30 minutes a day and two and a half to three hours a week has been shown to reduce risk of colon cancer. Eating a healthy diet which means using things like fish and healthy fats like olive oil, those two foods have been shown to reduce risk of colon cancer very clearly in research studies. I would also recommend that you do get colonoscopies and do the preventative screening that is recommended by your physicians and you may even start those colonoscopies earlier than the recommended 50 years old for the standard American population, so talk to your doctor and make sure you are doing your screenings early enough.
I would also recommend using a probiotic if you have a family history of colon cancer because probiotics have been shown to shift the actual environment of the colon and make it less inflammatory and change the number of colon cells that change into something that looks like cancer. There are things like calcium that have been shown to reduce the risk of colon polyps, so eating a diet that is rich in calcium or may be talking to your doctors about taking a calcium supplement may also be a good fit for reducing your risk of colon cancer.
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