When it comes to bowel cancer, there are several key risk factors which can be reduced or avoided completely by making conscious lifestyle choices.

Key steps you can take include:

Reducing your consumption of processed meat: in 2015, the World Health Organisation ranked meats such as bacon, ham and sausages alongside cigarettes as group 1 carcinogens because of their link with bowel cancer.
Maintaining a healthy weight: being overweight or obese is associated with several cancer-related risk factors such as chronic inflammation and metabolic issues.
Reducing your consumption of alcohol (or cutting it out altogether): alcohol has an inflammatory effect on the body – which can put you at increased risk of diseases such as cancer and heart disease – so the less you drink, the better.
Stopping smoking: smokers are more likely to develop polyps (non-cancerous bowel growths) which can turn into cancer if not discovered.
Upping your physical activity levels: being active not only offers benefits for your mental health and energy levels, it can help to reduce your risk of developing cancer by reducing levels of inflammation in the body.
Eating more fibre: upping the amount of fibre in your diet – especially from wholegrain sources – has been shown to play a key role in preventing bowel cancer. Not only will it help you to poo more often – meaning harmful chemicals spend less time in the bowel – but it’s converted into short-chain-fatty-acids in the gut which help to keep cells healthy.

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