As reported on CBS News, March 15, 2007.Diet, Exercise May Lower Colon
Cancer Risk
Some Studies Have Shown Exercise Can Reduce Risk Of Colon Cancer By
Half
View the Colon Cancer Prevention Video from CBS News.
View the Preventing Colon Cancer Video from CBS News.
(CBS) Fifty-nine-year-old John Knudson is a former couch potato. He
laced up his jogging shoes shortly after his first colonoscopy, CBS News
correspondent Kelly Wallace reports.
"When I was in there, my doctor said, 'Wow, you're a regular polyp
farm, aren't you,'" Knudson says.
He decided to participate in an experiment examining the impact of
exercise on colon cancer risk, run by Dr. Anne McTiernan of the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
After volunteers like Knudson exercised at least four hours a week
for a year, McTiernan noticed a difference. Dark, abnormal looking cells
that could become polyps and even colon cancer, turned into more
normal-looking areas.
"We were able to see that the rate of growth of these cells was
reduced with exercise," McTiernan says.
Some studies have shown exercise can reduce the risk of colon cancer
by half.
Susan Tourtillotte is hoping diet can make a difference, too.
She lost her father to colon cancer four years ago. "After it is
over, that's when the most frightening part sets in because then you
start looking into your medical past and seeing the skeletons in the
closet," she says.
Tourtillotte grew up eating red meat; she wants her sons growing up
on fish, fruit and vegetables.
She's enrolled in a colon cancer program run by Dr. Joel Levine of
the Colon Cancer Prevention Program at the University of Connecticut
Health Center.
"Don't eat a whole lot of red meat," Levine says. "Eat dairy
products, but not too much. Get your calcium up at the right level, get
enough sunlight and vitamin D and eat your vegetables."
He says vegetables — like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and
cabbage — may trigger a chemical process that turns on an important gene
which suppresses tumors. More research is necessary to prove a direct
link.
Tourtillotte has all the facts she needs.
"I really feel I am going to set a different course, and I think
that's what my Dad would want," she says.
She'll do anything she can to protect her family.
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