As mentioned in a previous blog, a significant number of studies highlight the role of environmental pollutants and lifestyle in triggering and enhancing the development of cancer. These are the same factors that increase the risk as well as the incidence of cardiovascular disease as well as other degenerative diseases. I hint on some of these effects in my two part article on degenerative disease mentioned in a previous blog j: "Degenerative Diseases I - Putting the problem in perspective" and "Degenerative Diseases II - Natural Prevention and Treatment". It's worth taking a look at these to put things in perspective.

Here are a few simple things you can do to reduce environmental carcinogens. 

Buy organic whenever possible. Prefer eggs, poultry and meats from free range, organically fed animals. Encourage your local produce growers, even if they are not organic they are generally less chemically laden that your "factory farm" products.

Do a detoxification program at least once a year. As a general rule our ancestors live through detoxification periods at least once a year, in the spring. Spring, the period between winter and summer, was naturally conducive to following a restricted diet. Indeed, it was a period where produce that was harvested the previous summer or fall was almost all gone and the new harvest wasn't mature yet. People would also restrict their diets for religious reasons, as in Lenten fasts, for example. Undergoing a restrictive diet for one or two weeks, twice a year, need to be drastic. For those periods avoid all refined sugars, artificial additives and alcohol. Avoid fast foods and "junk foods" completely. Eat at least 60% of vegetables for lunch and dinner. Try to follow an alkaline diet ( see my list of acid and alkaline foods).

Exercise daily. Apart from its benefits in burning calories and improving cardiovascular health, exercise improves the detoxification, or elimination, of various chemicals by improving the circulation of the lymphatic system and increasing body temperature. Your daily exercise could be as little as doing 10000 steps a day (see http://www.thewalkingsite.com/10000steps.html).