10 Tips for Breast Cancer Prevention
1. Avoid becoming overweight.
Obesity raises the risk of breast cancer after menopause, the time of
life when breast cancer most often occurs. Avoid gaining weight over
time, and try to maintain a body-mass index under 25 (calculators can be
found online).
2. Eat healthy to avoid tipping the scale. Embrace a diet high
in vegetables and fruit and low in sugared drinks, refined
carbohydrates and fatty foods. Eat lean protein such as fish or chicken
breast and eat red meat in moderation, if at all. Eat whole grains.
Choose vegetable oils over animal fats.
3. Keep physically active. Research suggests that increased
physical activity, even when begun later in life, reduces overall
breast-cancer risk by about 10 percent to 30 percent. All it takes is
moderate exercise like a 30-minute walk five days a week to get this
protective effect.
4. Drink little or no alcohol. Alcohol use is associated with
an increased risk of breast cancer. Women should limit intake to no more
than one drink per day, regardless of the type of alcohol.
5. Avoid hormone replacement therapy. Menopausal hormone
therapy increases risk for breast cancer. If you must take hormones to
manage menopausal symptoms, avoid those that contain progesterone and
limit their use to less than three years. “Bioidentical hormones” and
hormonal creams and gels are no safer than prescription hormones and
should also be avoided.
- 6. Consider taking an estrogen-blocking drug.
Women with a family history of breast cancer or who are over age 60
should talk to their doctor about the pros and cons of estrogen-blocking
drugs such as tamoxifen and raloxifene
7. Consider taking the aromatase inhibitor exemestane. The
results of a study released earlier this year showed that the drug
exemestane reduced the risk of breast cancer by 65 percent in high-risk,
postmenopausal women. Talk to your doctor about whether this may
benefit you.
8. Don’t smoke. Research suggests that long-term smoking is associated with increased risk of breast cancer in some women.
9. Breast-feed your babies for as long as possible. Women who breast-feed their babies for at least a year in total have a reduced risk of developing breast cancer later.
10. Get fit and support breast cancer research at the same time.
Regular physical activity is associated with a reduced risk of breast
cancer. Ascend some of the world’s most breathtaking peaks while raising
vital funds for and awareness of breast cancer research by
participating in the Hutchinson Center’s annual
Climb to Fight Breast Cancer.