A healthy lifestyle is closely linked to the risk of getting bowel cancer, according to the findings of a major European study today.
The German researchers studied five aspects of healthy lifestyle and found each one separately made a difference to the risk.
These included low weight, low fat around the midriff, regular physical activity, not smoking and drinking alcohol, consuming fruit and vegetables and limiting red and processed meat.
The findings come from a study of nearly 350,000 people in ten European countries, reported in the journal BMC Medicine.
Researchers said that have two kinds of healthy behaviour cut risk by 13% and having all five cut it by 37%.
Researcher Krasimira Aleksandrova, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, said: "These data provide additional incentive to individuals, medical professionals and public health authorities to invest in healthy lifestyle initiatives.
"Each person can contribute a lot to avoid cancer, the more healthy lifestyle changes, the better."
She added: "Estimates based on our study populations suggest that up to 22% of the cases in men and 11% of the cases in women would have been prevented if all five of the healthy lifestyle behaviours had been followed.
"Our results particularly demonstrate the potential for prevention in men who are at a higher risk of bowel cancer than women."
Combined Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Colorectal Cancer:A Large European Cohort Study. BMC Medicine 10 October 2014, 12:168 [abstract]
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