I’m glad I responded to the call of duty, though. I found Avoiding Cancer One Day at a Time to be a well-written, conversational and informative discussion. The sibling authors (she’s a medical doctor who devotes herself full-time to researching and speaking about cancer prevention and nutrition; he’s an epidemiologist, research scientist and physical therapist who emphasizes health promotion in his clinical practice) offer practical advice on what individuals can avoid or stop doing to ward off the “Big C.” And their advice isn’t solely of the hard-and-fast “do this, don’t do that” variety; it’s tempered with the instruction to maintain perspective:

Our hope is to provide information to help people enjoy a healthy life and lifestyle and have fun. If we observe someone chain smoking or numbing their mind with martinis because his or her children had nitrate-laden hot dogs for lunch, our point will be lost. If we witness our readers embracing a few points but perhaps disregarding others, our goal will be achieved.

That’s advice I can live with.

Readers are assisted in their quest to pick and choose which advice to follow by an overview of the distribution of causes of cancer; i.e., “five to twenty percent of cancer deaths are due to inherited mutations,” while “80-95 percent are due to an inherited mutation combined with environment.” The environmental factors include tobacco (25-40 percent); diet and obesity (25-30 percent); infection (10-15 percent), ionizing/UV radiation (2-7 percent); occupational (2-8 percent); pollution and environmental chemicals (less than 1 to 5 percent); physical inactivity (1-2 percent) and alcohol (3 percent).

The “Cancer Prevention IQ Pretest” in Chapter 2 is a thought-provoking introduction to the book. Some of the questions are obvious: “Have you had your home tested for radon, knowing that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States and that excess levels are found in one out of fifteen homes?” Others are more of the “What’s that got to do with anything?” variety; for example, “Do you sleep in total darkness?” and “Do you have an active spiritual life?”

As it turns out, sleeping in total darkness is strongly suggested because light -- even from a night light -- suppresses melatonin secretion. Melatonin, a hormone produced by the brain’s pineal gland, decreases the production of estrogen, “possibly explaining why a longer duration of sleep guards against breast cancer.”

Production of melatonin is maximal in total darkness. In one study, completely blind women had a 36 percent decreased risk of developing breast cancer (Kliekene, 2001). This rose to a 70 percent reduction in a later study. Women who work night shifts have a higher incidence of breast cancer (Schernhammer, 2001; Schernhammer, 2006). ... However, studies looking at the association between melatonin and breast cancer have been inconsistent ... others finding no evidence that the level of melatonin is associated with the risk of developing breast cancer. Carefully planned studies need to be completed to confirm the effectiveness of melatonin ... as well as to clarify its role in primary prevention. Yet, we should not wait years for the results of further studies to make adequate sleep in darkness a priority. This is the beauty of primary prevention: we do not have to wait for all of the answers before making lifestyle changes that we often know intuitively are healthy!

Spirituality comes into play when dealing with stress, which has long been believed to have a negative effect on health in general and to be a possible precursor to cancer:

Daily stress results in chronic over-arousal of the sympathetic nervous system, which has been linked to immune suppression as well as dysfunction of the endocrine system. ... Stress has also been linked to alterations in DNA repair and cell death, which have been shown to predispose to cancer. Clinically, stress has been correlated with developing cancer as well ...

Praying, attending religious services, and practicing yoga and meditation may reduce stress, “and thereby improve the effectiveness of the immune system in combating both infection and the development of cancers.”

If Avoiding Cancer One Day at a Time simply repeated facts based on research, readers would be overwhelmed and quickly lose interest. Fortunately, that’s not the case; the book includes charts, graphs, recipes (most of them sound surprisingly tasty) and “practical points” (suggestions) to enhance learning and show the reader how simple it is to make adjustments in their lives. At the back of the book, there are worksheets and appendices and an index that makes it easy to search by topic.

Eldridge and Borgeson have done a fine job of explaining how our bodies function within our environment and what we can do to minimize our chances of getting cancer, and they have managed to do so in a reader-friendly style.

Elizabeth Smoots, M.D., Scripps Newspaper Group, September 2007                      

There's much we can do to prevent cancer. That's because 80 to 95 percent of cancers have an environmental component, according to a brother-and-sister team of co-authors. The cancer deaths of family members, close friends and patients prompted Lynne Eldridge, MD, and David Borgeson, MS, MPT, to write and self-publish a new book that provides practical advice about preventing cancer.

I was impressed with the considerable effort when I recently met Eldridge at my neighborhood bookstore and began reading a copy of "Avoiding Cancer One Day at a Time." Eldridge enthusiastically pointed out that much of what we need to do to prevent cancer comes down to common sense. Here are five of the authors' top lifestyle tips for modifying cancer-causing factors that we encounter in our daily lives.

Learn to manage stress. Chronic stress in our hectic lives can result in overarousal of the nervous system. Blood pressure, pulse, breathing rate, stress hormones, blood sugar, blood clotting and muscle tension all increase in response to prolonged physical or emotional stress. The side effect is a decrease in natural killer cells, a type of white blood cell in your immune system that finds and destroys beginning cancer cells.

What you can do: Take time to relax each day. Calming activities such as talking to friends, reading, writing in a journal, meditating, practicing yoga, praying or attending religious services have been shown to improve the ability of the immune system to ward off cancer.

Get enough sleep. Our bodies produce the hormone melatonin while we sleep. Melatonin decreases the production of estrogen, the female hormone linked to breast cancer, and may be involved in other cancers as well. What you can do: Sleep in total darkness; exposure to any light while you slumber suppresses melatonin secretion.

Maintain a healthy weight. A combination of poor diet and obesity is the second leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S. Studies indicate that obesity accounts for 14 percent of cancer deaths in men and 20 percent in women. At the core of the problem, according to the authors, are "portion distortion" and lack of exercise.

What you can do: Do not eat while watching TV or reading; this sort of unconscious eating often leads to greater consumption. Enjoy frequent, small meals to increase your metabolism. Try eating with your nondominant hand to avoid gulping your food. Do not "supersize" when you eat out. For weight maintenance and cancer prevention, the authors also recommend exercise on five or more days a week—gradually building up to 30 or 45 daily minutes for adults or 60 minutes for children.

Clear the air of smoke. Tobacco use is the No. 1 cause of preventable cancer in the country. Cancers of the lungs, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach and bone marrow are strongly linked to smoking. What you can do: Talk to your doctor about the many stop-smoking aids on the market. Nicotine patches, gum, nose spray or inhalers are available as well as prescription drugs, classes and support groups. Protect yourself and your family from the effects of secondhand smoke.

Use alcohol with care. About 4 percent of U.S. cancers are linked to alcohol. An excess causes vitamin deficiencies and may damage your genetic material. What you can do: Consume no more than two alcoholic drinks per day for men, or one for women. Also make sure you have an adequate intake of the B vitamin folic acid.

If far more money is spent to treat than prevent, and physicians are restricted by managed care--now is the time for us to know more and advocate for our own health. Other money issues concern how our food is produced (what is put on our plants to increase yield and what animals are fed to grow faster). As consumers we will spend whatever is needed to treat illness, but we do not spend time and money to educate ourselves about avoiding the disease in the first place. And yet ... "80-95% of cancers that have a environmental component, only one third are due to smoking." However: "One thousands Americans stop smoking every day--by dying." (Author unknown)

Chapter 2 starts with 25 questions--and now I AM concerned because I answered yes to too many--and my ignorance is showing. You may feel the same when you answer them. The authors left no cancer-causing stone unturned. Through charts, graphs, lists, recipes and action suggestions, you will understand your body and your environment--and how what you eat and drink and do can affect your health. The back of the book has worksheets, very helpful appendices, a carcinogen list, references and index so you can find things easily.

Author Lynne Eldridge, M.D. is a medical doctor who has studied human exposure to pesticide and has practiced family medicine with an emphasis on prevention. David Borgeson has a Masters in epidemiology and is a practicing physical therapist that emphasizes health promotion. The authors have asked us to make many changes in our lives to live longer and cancer free--and some are easy and some will be hard. They do not want us to become overwhelmed and do nothing--just start with what you can change today.

Armchair Interviews says: The contents can--and should frighten you into action and change. Maybe then you will never have to hear the words: You have cancer!