Prevent Cervical Cancer

The prevention of any disease can be primary or secondary. The earlier involves taking action on the determinant conclude of the ailment to prevent it from occurring. The latter involves the early detection of disease, followed by appropriate interventions to prevent its progression.

Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable types of cancer. Because of the Pap smear test, the number of cervical cancer cases has dropped over the past twenty years.
While some cases of cervical cancer cannot be prevented, there are many things a woman can do to reduce her risk of developing cervical cancer.

How to Reduce Your Risk of Cervical Cancer:

regular pap smear to prevent cancer cervix

 1. Get a regular Pap smear. The Pap smear can be the utmost defenses for cervical cancer. The Pap smear can discover cervical changes early before they turn into cancer. Check cervical cancer test guidelines to find out how often you should have a Pap smear, or check with your doctor.

 2. Limit the amount of sexual partners you have. Studies have shown women who have many sexual partners increase their risk for cervical cancer. They also are escalating their risk of developing HPV, a known cause for cervical cancer.

 3. Quit smoking or avoid secondhand smoke. Smoking cigarettes raises your risk of developing many cancers, including cervical cancer. Smoking combined with an HPV infection can actually accelerate cervical dysplasia. Your best bet is to stop the habit.

 4. If you are sexually active, use a condom. Having unprotected sex puts you at risk for HIV and other STD's which can increase your risk factor for developing cervical cancer.

 5. Follow up on abnormal Pap smears. If you have had an abnormal Pap smear, it is essential to follow up with regular Pap smears or colposcopies, whatsoever your doctor has decided for you. If you have been treated for cervical dysplasia, you still need to follow up with Pap smears or colposcopies. Dysplasia can return and when undetected, can turn into cervical cancer.

HPV Vaccine to prevent cervical cancer

 6. Get the HPV vaccine. If you are under 27, you may be eligible to receive the HPV vaccine, which prevents high risk strains of HPV in women. The HPV vaccine, Gardasil, was approved by the FDA to give to young girls as young as 9. The vaccine is most effective when given to young women before they become sexually active.



7. Improve your Nutrition intake:

• Fruits and vegetables

Higher levels of vegetable consumption were associated with a 54% decrease risk of HPV persistence.

•  Vitamin A

There is an evidence to suggest a significant deficiency of retinol can increase chances of cervical dysplasia, independently of HPV 

• Vitamin C

Risk of type-specific, persistent HPV infection was lower among women reporting intake values of vitamin C in the upper quartile compared with those reporting intake in the lowest quartile.

• Vitamin E

good nutrition to prevent cervical cancer

HPV clearance time was significantly shorter among women with the highest compared with the lowest serum levels of tocopherols. Results from this investigation support an association of micronutrients with the rapid clearance of incident oncogenic HPV infection of the uterine cervix.

•  Folic acid

Higher folate status was inversely associated with becoming HPV test-positive. Women with higher folate status were significantly less likely to be repeatedly HPV test-positive and more likely to become test-negative. Studies have shown that lower levels of antioxidants coexisting with low levels of folic acid increases the risk of CIN development. Improving folate status in subjects at risk of getting infected or already infected with high-risk HPV may have a beneficial impact in the prevention of cervical cancer.

• Carotenoids

There is a data suggests that vegetable consumption and circulating lycopene may be protective against HPV persistence