Lifestyle and health

Risk is a measure of the probability that damage to health will occur as a result of a given hazard.

The concept of risk has two elements:

• the probability a hazardous event will occur
• the consequences of that hazardous event.

To be able to understand the risk we need to know many other things:

• over what time period does this occur?
• how does the number accumulated a day affect the overall figure?
• do stress levels, alchol intake, occupation, gender, pollution or other factors have an influence?
• does location have an effect?

cancer is not a single disease and does therefore not have a single cause. some casual factors are out of our individual control for example: age and genetic factors. others are lifestyle factors therefore within our control.

specific lifestyle factors that contribute to cancer include:

• smoking
• diet
• obesity
• physical activity
• sunlight (sunbeds or exposure to sunlight over a prolonged period)

CHD is the largest cause of death in the UK. however, some of these factors are beyond our control such as: genes, age and gender.

there are however some factors that we can control such as:

• smoking
• high blood pressure
• blood cholesterol levels
• obesity
• diet
• physical activity

some of the factors that could reduce the chance of getting both CHD and cancer are:

• giving up or not taking up smoking,
• avoid becoming overweight
• reducing salt intake in the diet
• reducing intake of cholesterol and saturated fats in the diet
• taking regular aerobic exercise
• keeping alcohol consumption within safe limits
• increasing the intake of dietary fibre and antioxidants in the diet.