Fitness and Health: A Practical Guide to Nutrition, Exercise and Avoiding Disease

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nificant losses of this vitamin occur during sun exposure. I must con-
tinue to emphasize that these same nutrients obtained from high-dose
synthetic and isolated dietary supplements may not offer as much
protection.
There are also several factors to consider about dietary fats and
sunshine. The most prevalent fat in the typical American diet is veg-
etable oil, including soy, corn, peanut and safflower. These oils find
their way into the skin and with sun exposure can cause excessive
free-radical stress — a first step in cancer formation. However, other
fats have protective properties. Citrus-peel oil, for example, contains
limonene, a phytonutrient that has been shown to help prevent and
treat skin cancer. In addition, omega-3 fats offer ultraviolet protection
and can help control inflammation, which may be a trigger to
skin cancer.


Functional Screening Helps Fight Disease
Routine testing for disease is a hallmark of modern medicine,
but falls short of true prevention. By the time you test positive
for a disease such as cancer, you’ve already had it for some
time. Unfortunately, some screening tests may pose additional
serious health risks.
Certainly, finding cancer in its earliest stages can result in a
more successful resolution of the problem. But there are too
many other times when the same type of evaluation results in
more problems, including an increased risk of death. A suspi-
cious growth in the lungs, for example, could ultimately lead to
unnecessary surgery, which may pose more risk of death than
the growth itself, especially if it’s benign, which is the case in
most of these situations.
A hot item of discussion is colonoscopy — a procedure for
detecting colon cancer recommended by many health profes-
sionals, the media and some celebrities. Colonoscopy, like
most other tests, is a valuable evaluation when matched with
an individual’s need. However, the risks that accompany
colonoscopy are significant. Perforation of the colon occurs in

334 • IN FITNESS AND IN HEALTH

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