A report released by The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has suggested that a vast number of deaths could be prevented with the most basic lifestyle changes. Simply halting activities such as smoking could save as many as 200,000 lives. Without such measures however, the AACR predicts that in the year 2015, 585,000 people will die from some form of the disease.
The report was released earlier this week, it demonstrates that one-third the cancer deaths expected to occur next year will be caused by smoking tobacco. Campaigns to warn people about the dangers of smoking have not been as successful in stopping as many as 800,000 American citizens starting smoking every year. The report states that almost 70 million Americans smoke or use tobacco products on a regular basis.
Another big factor is obesity, according to the AACR report, this will account for another third of the cancer deaths next year, or approximately 200,000 people. There are seven different types of the disease that have been directly linked to being overweight or obese. What is defined as a “healthy bodyweight” of a Body Mass Index (BMI) score of between 18.5 and 24.5 for adults over the age of 20 years old will lower the risk of developing cancer according to the AACR report. Currently in the United States, 72 million citizens are considered to be clinically obese.
