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The main cause of cancer development is improper lifestyle
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Reading the news, in which the topic of cancer comes up with alarming regularity, one wants to answer the question in the headline: absolutely everything! Well, almost everything. This is precisely the answer Bernard Stewart, a cancer researcher from Australia, asks us to refrain from.
In an article published in the Lancet Oncology journal, the scientist notes that modern society is so intimidated by the possible (malignant) consequences of contact with household chemicals and the consumption of food not “from one’s own garden” that it can no longer see the forest for the trees. And this, in the opinion of Mr. Stewart, is more dangerous than the phantom carcinogens in everyday life.
According to the scientist, there is absolutely no evidence that consuming certain trace amounts of potentially dangerous chemicals with food or accidentally coming into too close contact with household chemicals actually provokes the development of cancer. However, it is absolutely certain that the main cause of malignant tumors is our unhealthy lifestyle - "bad" habits. In short, "quit smoking! Get on your skis...".
Want to prevent cancer? - Stop smoking. Decisively limit your alcohol intake (if possible, limit yourself to kefir only). Stop gaining weight (if you can't start losing weight). Avoid sunbathing. Mr. Stewart emphasizes that diverting our attention from these simple recommendations and switching it to some miserable (at least for now and in developed countries as a whole) environmental factors that cannot be controlled anyway is dangerous precisely because we lose sight of the main risk factors.
For example, everyone knows that air pollution from industrial emissions and automobile exhausts spoils the environment and can potentially lead to an increase in the number of cancer cases. That's true, but the risk of getting cancer by living next to a metallurgical plant is ten times lower than that of a regular smoker.
And although a small amount of carcinogenic substances can still regularly enter our body, for example, with food or when using household chemicals, there is no evidence that such “contact” can actually cause cancer. Bernard Stewart firmly believes in the lucky star of regulatory government services, which, in the scientist’s opinion, have long established the correct permissible standards for the content of all kinds of chemical and biological contaminants in food and the safety of household chemicals, reasonably anticipating possible problems.
Thus, the Australian scientist emphasizes a simple idea: we should think only about truly proven risk factors and avoid encountering them. Do not scatter your attention on everything at once - you will not protect yourself from everything at once anyway. Focus on the main thing, on your bad habits, get rid of them and live long and happily!