In 2018, Santé Publique France estimated the number of cancer deaths in France at 157,000. But how can you reduce the risk of developing it? According to researchers from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston, USA, people who follow a Mediterranean lifestyle, marked by a healthy diet, rest, physical activity and a social life had a 28% lower risk of dying from cancer. Their results are published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
The Mediterranean lifestyle would limit the risk of death from all causes by 29%
To arrive at these results, the researchers based themselves on 110,799 people, aged 40 to 75, from the UK Biobank, in the United Kingdom. As part of this study, which analyzes the lifestyle of the participants, the researchers analyzed their eating habits through a questionnaire. In order to know if the participants had habits approaching the Mediterranean lifestyle, they based themselves on the MEDLIFE index. More specifically, three themes were studied:
- the consumption of products from the Mediterranean diet, such as fruits or whole grains,
- adherence to the Mediterranean diet marked by the consumption of fruit, vegetables and a lower salt intake,
- habits such as physical activity, rest, social habits and togetherness.
Researchers call for inspiration from the Mediterranean diet for a healthy lifestyle
The specialists followed the health of the participants for nine years. Researchers recorded 4,247 deaths from all causes, 2,401 cancer-related deaths and 731 deaths from cardiovascular disease. Researchers have found that people “presented a 29% lower risk of all-cause mortality and one 28% lower risk of cancer mortality compared to those with lower MEDLIFE scores”. In their results, the researchers note that “all blocks of the MEDLIFE index were independently associated with a lower risk of death from all causes and cancer, and block 3 (physical activity, rest, social habits and conviviality, note) was associated to lower cardiovascular mortality.
“This study suggests that it is possible for non-Mediterranean populations to adopt the Mediterranean diet using locally available products and adopt the overall Mediterranean lifestyle within their own cultural contexts”explained in a statement Mercedes Sotos Prieto, researcher at the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain and assistant professor of environmental health at Harvard Chan School. The researchers estimate in their conclusions that“adopting a Mediterranean lifestyle adapted to the local characteristics of non-Mediterranean populations may be possible and part of a healthy lifestyle”.
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