February is National Cancer Prevention Month

National Cancer Prevention Month is observed every February to raise awareness about reducing cancer risk through healthy lifestyle choices, early detection, and vaccinations, focusing on preventable factors like tobacco, diet, alcohol, and sun exposure, with organizations promoting education and screenings to lower cancer incidence, as up to 50% of cases are preventable. 



Key Focus Areas:

  • Healthy Diet: Emphasizing plant-based foods, whole grains, and limiting processed/red meats, sugary drinks, and salt.
  • Physical Activity: Encouraging regular exercise, like brisk walking, to lower risks for cancers like breast and colon
  • Avoid Tobacco: Highlighting smoking cessation as crucial, as it's the leading preventable cause.
  • Limit Alcohol: Recommending moderation (1 drink/day for women, 2 for men).
  • Sun Protection: Advising against tanning beds and using sunscreen and protective clothing.
  • Vaccinations: Promoting vaccines for HPV and Hepatitis B.
  • Early Detection: Encouraging regular screenings (mammograms, colonoscopies, skin checks) and understanding family history. 

Small Lifestyle Changes that

May Increase Longevity

Combining small changes in diet, exercise and sleep may extend life.


Small changes in diet, exercise and sleep may extend life by a year when put into practice together, while making larger changes could provide more than nine additional years of life, according to a new study.


Combining changes in diet, sleep and exercise also increased “health span,” or the number of years a person may live without major health complaints.


“These findings highlight the importance of considering lifestyle behaviors as a package rather than in isolation,” said lead study author Nick Koemel, a research fellow in physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Syndey’s main campus in Camperdown, Australia. 

Do You Know the Warning Signs of Uterine Cancer?

The majority of new cases will be diagnosed in women over 50


Uterine cancer — also called endometrial cancer because that is the most common type — is one of the few cancers in the U.S. that’s increasing in incidence, growing by about 1 percent each year in white women and by about 2 to 3 percent in women of all other racial and ethnic groups, according to a 2024 report from the American Cancer Society.

Feeling SAD?

How To Beat the Winter Blues

Fighting the winter blues? You aren’t alone.


Many people report feeling sad or depressed during the winter months, and some experience such significant changes in mood and behavior that it affects their quality of life.

February Fun Facts

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