Practical steps to reduce your risk: bladder cancer

Most men worry about prostate cancer, but few think about bladder cancer—the second most common cancer in middle-aged and elderly men. Reduce your risk: follow the five practical tips below.

• About one in five cases occur after exposure to certain chemicals used to make dyes, paints, textiles and other products, most of which you would have been exposed to 30 to 50 years before the cancer developed.
• There's not much you can do about that now, but there's a surprising amount you can do to prevent bladder cancer from other causes.

• If you smoke, your risk of developing bladder cancer is two-to-four times higher than that of someone who never smoked. In fact, researchers estimate that two-thirds of all cases of bladder cancer are related to smoking.
• The longer you smoke and the more cigarettes you smoke, the greater your risk. Don't try to quit on your own. Studies prove that you're more than twice as likely to be successful if you combine nicotine replacement products like gum or nasal spray with some form of organized support, like a counselling program or a telephone quit-line.

• If you're drinking well water, or even municipal water, with high levels of arsenic, your risk of bladder cancer just went up. Arsenic levels should be less than 10 micrograms per litre.
• Ask your local water-treatment authority for a report on your water quality; it should indicate the amount of arsenic in your water. If you have a well, you may have to pay for a water test by a private company.

• Cruciferous veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, collards and Brussels sprouts are filled with isothiocyanates. These antioxidants inhibit enzymes that make certain chemicals in the body more likely to cause cancer.
• One study found that eating three or more servings a month slashed bladder cancer risk by about 40 percent compared to eating fewer servings.
• Cooking destroys the enzyme needed to produce isothiocyanates, reducing available amounts by 60 to 90 percent. So eat these veggies raw at least some of the time.

• This trace mineral is a powerful antioxidant linked with lower rates of several cancers, including bladder cancer. In your body, selenium comes into direct contact with bladder cells, where it is thought to prevent damage from free radicals (the unstable molecules that wreak havoc on DNA) and reduce levels of cancer-causing toxins.
• In one 12-year study of nearly 26,000 people, those with the lowest blood levels of selenium were more than twice as likely to develop bladder cancer compared to those with the highest levels.
• Selenium is found in numerous foods, including Brazil nuts (the best source by far), whole wheat flour, pearled barley and fish, including tuna. Most people don't need selenium supplements; check with your doctor if you want to take one.

• High levels of saturated fat (found in full-fat dairy products, not to mention fatty meats and cheese) more than doubled the rate of bladder cancer in a large Spanish study.
• Other studies find the overall amount of fat in your diet increases your risk; follow a low-fat diet and your risk drops.