Kill two birds with one stone :
The two intimidating ‘birds’ are cancer and coronary heart
disease.
The ‘stone’ in our hand is a healthy life style and healthy
levels of blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar.
We all know that a healthy life style and optimum blood
pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels are associated with a low likelihood of
coronary heart disease.
Now, studies show that even the probability of cancer is affected
by these measures.
The 4 life style measures are diet, physical exercise, avoidance of
smoking and obesity.
The optimum levels of total cholesterol to have with a
healthy lifestyle are <200 80="" a="" additionally="" and="" are="" blood="" control="" course="" diastolic="" different="" dl.="" dl="" drugs="" f="" fasting="" glucose="" have="" hg="" if="" life="" measures="" mg="" mm="" mmhg="" nbsp="" not="" o:p="" of="" pressure="" resorted="" serum="" set="" slightly="" systolic="" targets="" these="" to="" under="" with="">
Greater the adherence to all these metrics, greater the
benefit, so that if all the parameters are taken care of, cancer chances reduce
by 50%, recent studies show.
Interestingly also, the two drugs known to prevent heart
disease- aspirin and statins- are also now found to have some benefits in
cancer prevention.
In Asian population, studies have found additional benefit
with a normal waist to hip ratio ( ≤
0.9) and increased fruits and vegetables in diet.
Thus, having a healthy lifestyle and ideal readings with
judicious use of medications can not only prevent heart disease. They can do a
profitable “side business” too !
Why not kill two birds with one stone ?
