Breast cancer prevention starts with
healthy habits — such as limiting alcohol
and staying physically active.
Understand what you can do to reduce
your breast cancer risk. If you’re concerned about breast
cancer, you might be wondering if there
are steps you can take toward breast
cancer prevention. Some risk factors,
such as family history, can’t be
changed. However, there are lifestyle changes you can make to lower your
risk. What can I do to reduce my
risk of breast cancer? Lifestyle changes have been shown in
studies to decrease bre@st cancer risk
even in high-risk women. The following
are steps you can take to lower your
risk: 1. Keep Weight in Check: It’s easy to tune out because it gets said so often,
but maintaining a healthy weight is an
important goal for everyone. Being
overweight can increase the risk of
many different cancers, including
bre@st cancer, especially after menopause. 2. Be physically active: Physical activity can help you maintain a healthy
weight, which, in turn, helps prevent
bre@st cancer. For most healthy adults,
the Department of Health and Human
Services recommends at least 150
minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous
aerobic activity weekly, plus strength
training at least twice a week. 3. Eat Your Fruits & Vegetables –
and Avoid Too Much Alcohol: A healthy diet can help lower the risk of
breast cancer.Try to eat a lot of fruits
and vegetables and keep alcohol at
moderate levels or lower (a drink a day
or under).While moderate drinking can
be good for the heart in older adults, even low levels of intake can increase
the risk of breast cancer.If you don’t
drink, don’t feel you need to start. If you
drink moderately, there’s likely no
reason to stop. But, if you drink more,
you should cut down or quit. 4. Limit alcohol. The more alcohol you drink, the greater your risk of developing
breast cancer. The general
recommendation — based on research
on the effect of alcohol on breast cancer
risk — is to limit yourself to less than 1
drink per day as even small amounts increase risk. 5. Don’t smoke. Accumulating evidence
suggests a link between
smoking and breast cancer
risk, particularly in
premenopausal women. In
addition, not smoking is one of the best things you can do for
your overall health. 6. Breastfeed, If Possible: Breastfeeding for a total of
one year or more (combined
for all children) lowers the risk
of breast cancer. It also has
great health benefits for the
child. 7. Limit dose and duration of
hormone therapy: Combination hormone therapy for more than three to
five years increases the risk of breast
cancer. If you’re taking hormone therapy
for menopausal symptoms, ask your
doctor about other options. You might be
able to manage your symptoms with nonhormonal therapies and medications.
If you decide that the benefits of short-
term hormone therapy outweigh the
risks, use the lowest dose that works for
you and continue to have your doctor
monitor the length of time you are taking hormones. 8. Avoid exposure to radiation and
environmental pollution: Medical- imaging methods, such as computerized
tomography, use high doses of radiation.
While more studies are needed, some
research suggests a link between breast
cancer and radiation exposure. Reduce
your exposure by having such tests only when absolutely necessary.
