“Right now, there’s no sure way to prevent breast cancer, but we know healthy habits significantly decrease your risk,” Debbie Saslow, the American Cancer Society’s director of breast and gynecologic cancer, recently told AARP The Magazine. Studies indicate that what is true of breast cancer can, in many cases, be successfully applied to other cancers with equally beneficial results.

The advent of Big Data has allowed cancer researchers to sift incredible amounts of patient data through highly sophisticated computer sieves. The result has been the discovery of myriad, often previously unknown, behavioral, health, environmental and genetic commonalities among people who develop the same type of cancer. While scientists continue to grapple with the “hows” and “whys,” it is clear that certain health and lifestyle choices can and with alarming statistical frequency do increase the likelihood of cancer development.

While scientists are still working to bring the mechanisms of cancer risk into focus, recent discoveries, backed by decades of experiential data, strongly indicate that five specific health habits have the potential to significantly decrease cancer risk. Interestingly, all are general health habits that support and strengthen the body’s immune system. Individualized immunotherapy, considered by many researchers to be cancer’s kryptonite, is ushering in what is being heralded as a new age in cancer treatment that is increasing medical focus on risk avoidance and cancer prevention.

5 Ways to Decrease Your Cancer Risk

1. Get at least 6 hours of sleep a night.

2. Lose weight.

3. Eat more vegetables.

4. Drink less alcohol.

5. Get more exercise.

Follow Issels, the alternative cancer treatment center, on social media for how-to tips on decreasing your cancer risk.