Studies have shown that many of us are scared of things that are unlikely to kill us, whilst we happily engage in behaviours that might. Some people won’t swim in the sea in case they’re attacked by a shark, whereas others will text whilst they’re driving without a second thought. And yet the lifetime risk of dying from a shark attack is over one in three million, while every 17 minutes someone is killed or seriously injured on UK roads. Why do we feel safer in a car?
It’s the same when it comes to our health. A study done by the American Heart Association asked North American women ‘What is the disease you fear the most’? 61% of women said cancer, 9% of women said heart disease. And yet the leading cause of death for these women is heart disease. It explains how the things we see and hear can have a massive influence on our perception of risk and our health behaviours. But what is risky behaviour, and what isn’t? We are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of cancers diagnosed in people in their twenties, thirties and forties. Scientists don’t know exactly why this is happening, but many think it’s to do with our modern lifestyle. A combination of poor diets full of fast food, lack of regular exercise, increasing body weight, alcohol and smoking has had an impact on the global increase in cancers in the young. More research is being done to investigate the role of the gut microbiome in cancer development. Nearly four in every 10 cancer cases in 2015 in the UK are due to these lifestyle factors. The British charity CRUK estimates that all of these cancers could be avoided if we made changes to our lifestyle. Here are the changes that make the biggest difference.
