Take Care of Yourself
- Exercise at least 90 minutes per week.
- Stick to a regular screening program: monthly self-exams, annual clinical exams, mammography as recommended.
- Watch what you eat and drink.
- Think twice about hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
While the causes of breast cancer aren't fully understood, it's been medically proven that certain behaviors and lifestyle choices are associated with better breast health. Incorporate these eight smart steps toward breast cancer prevention into your regular routines--you won't regret it.
Step One
Exercise moderately--at least three times a week, for 30 minutes or more.
Large-scale, long-term studies have found that compared to sedentary women, women who raised their pulse rate up to 100 beats per minute for a total of 90 minutes per week reduced the incidence of breast and pelvic tumors by 35 percent, reports Nile Albright, M.D., of the Advanced Medical Research Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts. Three 30-minute exercise sessions per week are recommended. But time-crunched women take heart: exercise done in 10-minute increments throughout the day is just as beneficial, says Dr. Albright.
Staying active in midlife can help protect a woman's health in profound ways. "The greatest benefit from exercise occurs from age 45 on," says Dr. Albright. "It appears that it gives more of a boost to an immune system that may not be as healthy as it was in its 20s."
 Find the workout that's best for you
Step Two
Eat a low-fat, high-fiber, plant-based diet.
"We have long known that a high-fat diet partially 'paralyzes' or suppresses the immune system," writes Robert Kradjian, M.D., author of Save Yourself From Breast Cancer, (Berkeley, 1994). "Vegetable fats are also immunosuppressive and, by the effect of inhibition, can contribute to the development of cancer."
While eating a low-fat diet appears to play a role in cutting cancer risk, we aren't exactly sure yet how crucial a role diet plays. In the meantime, why not err on the side of caution?
Decades' worth of epidemiological research in various countries has repeatedly shown that those populations of women with low-fat diets have low breast cancer rates, and those populations of women with high-fat diets have high rates of breast cancer. It's also true that data on breast cancer from numerous studies shows that increased dietary fat is associated particularly with increased postmenopausal breast cancer rates.
"We have significant data that show that women who have consumed large amounts of saturated fat have a 50 percent increase in their relative risk of breast cancer as compared with women who consumed low amounts," writes Judith Reichman, M.D., author of, I'm Too Young To Get Old, (Crown Publishing, 1998). "One study showed that for every 77 grams of fat we consume daily, we increase our risk by 35 percent! These and other data seem to indicate that to appreciably lower our risk of breast cancer, we have to lower our fat intake to less than 20 percent of our total food consumption," adds Dr. Reichman.
Follow this sensible eating plan for better health
Step Three
Eat more soy foods and less animal protein.
Women who eat soy-based diets rather than diets based on beef, chicken, and other meats exhibit consistently lower breast cancer rates. Japanese women who eat a plant and soy-protein-based diet (with less than half the fat of the typical American woman's diet), have one-fourth the breast cancer rate of the United States' population. When Japanese women move to Western countries and adopt Western diets, that low rate disappears in one generation.
Soy foods such as soybeans, tofu, tempeh, and soymilk contain phytoestrogens, or plant estrogens, which research suggests may help balance perimenopausal and post-menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes. The role of phytoestrogens in breast cancer prevention, however, is still a topic of debate.
Soy recipes you'll love
Step Four
Don't smoke or drink excessive amounts of alcohol.
Just as smoking ups your lung cancer risk, it also elevates your chances of developing breast cancer. "When we smoke," writes Los Angeles, California ob/gyn Judith Reichman, M.D., "we send known toxins straight to our breasts."
Drinking alcohol also poses dangers. A review of 38 studies came to these conclusions: daily consumption of one alcoholic drink was associated with a 10 to 11 percent increase in breast cancer. This rose to 24 percent with two drinks and 38 percent with three drinks.
Quit smoking with the help of these tips
Step Five
Get annual mammograms after age 40.
"Mammograms can detect cancer about two years before you or your doctor would be able to feel a lump," says Michael O'Reilly, M.D., an Ansonia, Connecticut, ob/gyn and founder of Menopause Online. "Having regular mammograms can reduce your chance of dying from breast cancer by about 17 percent." Remember: "Mammograms are better at detecting early cancers in women over age 50," says Dr. O'Reilly. The National Cancer Institute estimates that for every 10,000 women aged 40 who undergo mammography every year for 10 years, about four lives will be saved. Screening 10,000 women aged 50, however, would save about 37 lives.
Remind every woman you love to get annual mammograms after age 40
Step Six
Perform a breast self-exam every month, at the same time each month.
Doing monthly breast self-exams is vital to a self-nurturing lifestyle. Look for lumps, nipple discharge or bleeding, or sudden changes in breast texture. Should you experience any of these symptoms, schedule an appointment immediately with your physician. Also try to remain as calm as possible. Realize that these symptoms occur in many women who never develop breast cancer.
Understand mammography
Step Seven
If you are at high risk for breast cancer, have clinical breast exams twice a year.
Some women with a family history of breast cancer (and their doctors) recommend going in for clinical breast exams twice a year (or more frequently.) "Clinical breast exams are sometimes done at more frequent intervals," says Michael O'Reilly, M.D., an Ansonia, Connecticut, ob/gyn and founder of Menopause Online. Frequent clinical breast exams can help you closely monitor breast health, besides giving you extra peace of mind.
High-risk women may also want to discuss the pros and cons of using such drugs as tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer. Tamoxifen interferes with the activity of estrogen in breast tissue. Because estrogen promotes growth of breast cancer cells, the drug slows or stops cancer cells that are already present in the breast.
Step Eight
Avoid hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
There is much persuasive medical research showing that taking HRT for five years or more may raise a woman's breast cancer risk by as much as 40 percent. Taking unopposed estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) can up the odds by as much as 10 percent. Take the time to discuss the pros and cons of HRT and ERT, along with potential breast cancer risks, with your physician.
According to Malcolm C. Pike, Ph.D., a professor in the University of Southern California's Department of Preventive Medicine, taking oral contraceptives for ten years or more is only "very slightly protective" for reducing breast cancer risk. Taking the pill, however, does help protect women from ovarian cancer and endometrial (uterine) cancer. Researchers such as Dr. Pike are currently trying to develop oral contraceptives that will more substantially reduce breast cancer risk.
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