How you can prevent Breast Cancer

[Lisa Newton]

Photo courtesy of eagle102.net

Exercise for yourself and if you have daughters, make sure that your daughters execise, too.

Mothers and fathers, here's another reason to encourage your daughters to be physically active: Girls and young women who exercise regularly between the ages of 12 and 35 have a substantially lower risk of breast cancer before menopause compared to those who are less active.

In the largest and most detailed analysis to date of the effects of exercise on premenopausal breast cancer, the study of nearly 65,000 women found that those who were physically active had a 23 percent lower risk of breast cancer before menopause. In particular, high levels of physical activity from ages 12 to 22 contributed most strongly to the lower breast cancer risk.

"We don't have a lot of prevention strategies for premenopausal breast cancer, but our findings clearly show that physical activity during adolescence and young adulthood can pay off in the long run by reducing a woman's risk of early breast cancer," says lead investigator Graham Colditz, M.D., Dr. P.H., the Niess-Gain Professor and associate director of Prevention and Control at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

The known benefits of exercise just keep growing and growing.

According to a study done by the American College of Sports Medicine, more than half of approximately 2,000 girls surveyed from ages 16 or 17 to 18 or 19 were identified as being sedentary, blaming a lack of time as the biggest reason for not exercising.

Sound familiar? Like parents, like child?

One-fourth of all breast cancers are diagnosed in women before menopause.

The researchers found the age-adjusted incidence rates for invasive breast cancer dropped from 194 cases per 100,000 person-years in the least active women to 136 cases in the most active.

The levels of physical activity reported by the most active women were the equivalent of running 3.25 hours a week or walking 13 hours a week. The benefit of exercise was not linked to a particular sport or intensity but related to total activity.

"You don't have to be a marathon runner to get the risk-reducing benefits of exercise," Colditz adds

One of the best ways to get your girls to exercise is to be a role model. Do you exercise or are you a couch potato?

Leading by example helps those around you, because

After all, it’s about a healthy lifestyle!

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