10 Potential Ways to Decrease the Risk of Cancer

Screening for cancer with a colonoscopy or mammograms is not the same as taking steps to help prevent it. Here are the most agreed upon interventions to decrease the risk of cancer.

UPDATED: July 24th, 2025

Welcome to the Healthy Aging Newsletter, a free publication translating trustworthy medical research into simple habits to age well, free of chronic disease. I’m Dr. Ashori, a family medicine doctor turned health coach. 

This post is intended to help you feel more empowered on your health journey - specifically when it comes to cancer prevention. Importantly, the topic of cancer prevention and cancer screening are often confused. Here, I’ll address it based on the most solid evidence I can find.

Cancer risk increases with age, but that doesn't mean it's out of your hands. Research continues to show that our environment, diet, movement, and sleep all play a role in how the body responds to potential damage over time.

Also, if you choose to do nothing and prefer to enjoy your life, living it to its fullest without the constant worry of whether you are or aren’t doing the right thing, that’s a perfectly acceptable strategy as well. Health is an individual process and each of us have our own priorities.

Cancer Prevention vs. Screening

We screen for a cancer when we check a blood PSA, get a mammogram, colonoscopy, or Pap smear. Screening is meant to catch cancers early so that surgery, chemo/drugs, and/or radiation can be used to help treat it early.

Preventing cancer is a more contentious topic because it’s much tougher to design the right study to show a positive effect. But there is no doubt that certain things in our environment and even diet can have carcinogenic effects.

The goal of this article is to whittle the advice down to what’s truly feasible, plausible, and actionable. Yes, maybe there is a rare mushroom that can help prevent cancer but that signal hasn’t been strong enough in studies for me to go want to take it daily. And I consider any lifestyle change to be an intervention which require some effort and sacrifice, so it’s best if it can have multiple positive effects besides decreasing cancer risk.

Cancer Prevention Strategies Based on Solid Evidence

Let’s start with a few option prevention strategies to set the mood and we’ll move on to other known factors.

1. Avoid Cigarettes & Nicotine Products

The reason I threw this one in is to remind us that one of the best cancer prevention strategies has been just quitting commercially produced tobacco products. Huge win!

2. Consider HPV Vaccine & Condoms

The HPV virus is responsible for a few human cancers, with cervical cancer as one of the most well-known. The HPV vaccine can protect the cervix of young women because of the more exposed transformation zone of the young cervix.

As an important corollary, using condoms or sex at a later age may also help decrease HPV cancer risk, as seen in women before the advent of the quadrivalent vaccine.

3. Consume More Minimally Processed Plant-Based Foods

Fiber and antioxidants help support cellular repair and reduce inflammation. You don’t need to go vegan, just make whole plants the base. And if you can’t do that, cut back on the processed food and keep the high-quality animal based products.

According to the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research (2018):

Eat a diet rich in whole‑grains, vegetables, fruit and beans.

We have strong data to show that a nutritious diet that has a healthy balance of nutrients without excess calories can decrease the risk of cancer. And it’s never about perfection but doing your best with any nutrition plan, focusing on eating what you enjoy but also what protects your health.

4. Move Your Body Regularly

Exercise boosts immune function and improves insulin sensitivity, 2 key systems involved in long-term health. It helps with circulation, allowing the cells to function at their best in clearing early precancerous changes.

Insulin resistance is a common problem in modern societies where stress is high, sedentary lifestyles are the norm, and calorie-dense foods abundant. There are no pills, elixirs, or medications (yet) that can lower your risk of cancers the way exercise can.

5. Aim for Restful, Restorative Sleep

Better sleep = less oxidative stress and more tissue repair. It doesn’t have to be perfect sleep, but it should be restful. Within 30-60 minutes upon waking up, you should feel refreshed. There should be a slight slump mid-day but not a crash. That’s my definition of good quality sleep.

Medications are effective tools for resetting sleep in severe cases but more studies show that for long-term use, they don’t fully replace the restorative aspects of sleep. 75% of sleep troubleshooting is often sleep hygiene.

6. Know Your Environment

Reduce exposure where it makes sense: air pollution, ultraprocessed foods, or harsh chemicals. You don’t need to live in fear, just be aware. If you can’t do anything about air pollution or microplastics, that’s okay, you can still affect your diet, sleep, and mood.

The most well known environmental carcinogens are industrial solvents used in cleaning auto parts and radon. If you can minimize your exposure to this, you’ll drastically lower your risk of cancers.

7. Cut Back on Processed Meats

For every study that shows an increased cancer signal with processed meat consumption, there is one that shows no link at all. Dietary data are tough to interpret which is why this is #7 on the list.

I would never advise someone against processed meats but I would tell them that if they are at increased risk of cancer, cutting back is a good idea, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their quality of life.

8. Cut Back on Alcohol Intake

Yesterday, I had this delicious Deschutes IPA while waiting for my meal to arrive. It was a delightful experience. If someone’s risk of cancer is low, cutting out alcohol may not be very effective. But if you drink a lot of alcohol, have other risk factors found on this list, then it might be worth cutting back.

9. Excess Sun Exposure

Like all great things, the dose makes the poison. If you have light skin and like going out in the mid-day summer sun without any skin protection, your risk of skin cancers are higher. Sun protection is your best friend in this case. Alternatively, you can go out without any protection but it’s best to limit your sun exposure time and brave it earlier or later in the day.

10. Excess Body Weight

Just like processed meats, I can find studies that show no correlation between our body weight and cancer and studies that show the opposite. Just because you carry extra weight it doesn’t mean your risk of cancer is higher - there is a lot more to it. The most important takeaway is that body composition is much more important than BMI and it is a dose-dependent issue.

In Summary of Cancer Prevention

Don’t let anyone scare you into doing something for your health. Screening for cancer has its place and your wonderful primary care doctor hopefully will stay on top of that. But preventing cancer is one step upstream from screening for cancers.

Early detection of the right cancer can save lives. Talk to a doctor you trust about what’s right for your age and family history. The goal isn’t to eliminate risk, but it’s to reduce unnecessary burden on your body so it can do what it was designed to do: heal, repair, and protect.

If you're feeling overwhelmed or unsure where to start, I help clients create realistic, evidence-based plans for aging well, without fear, fads, or fluff.