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Breast cancer prevention: Lifestyle choices and more
Breast cancer is a health risk every woman faces. But healthy
lifestyle habits — such as staying physically active, limiting
alcohol and eating right — can offer you some protection
from the disease.
If you're like most women hoping to avoid breast cancer,
you're looking for something you can do — some changes you
can make in your life — that will steer you away from the
disease.
Some things you can't avoid when it comes to breast cancer
risk, such as your age, genetic makeup and environmental
exposures. But other breast cancer risk factors are well
within your control. Employing preventive health measures
can't guarantee that you won't develop breast cancer, but
it's a step in the right direction.
Diet and exercise prevention strategies
Among the easiest things to control are what you eat and
drink and how active you are. Here are some strategies that
may help you decrease your risk of breast cancer:
• Limit alcohol. A strong link exists between alcohol consumption
and breast cancer. The type of alcohol consumed — wine,
beer or mixed drinks — seems to make no difference. To help
protect against breast cancer, limit alcohol to less than
one drink a day or avoid alcohol completely. Some studies
indicate that folic acid — a nutrient found in citrus juices
and green, leafy vegetables — might help reduce the risk
of breast cancer in women who consume moderate amounts of
alcohol.
• Maintain a healthy weight. There's a clear link between
obesity — weighing more than is appropriate for your age
and height — and breast cancer. This is especially true
if you gain the weight later in life, particularly after
menopause. Excess fatty tissue is a source of circulating
estrogen in your body. And breast cancer risk is linked
to how much estrogen you're exposed to during your lifetime.
• Stay physically active. Regular exercise can help you
maintain a healthy weight and, as a consequence, may aid
in lowering your risk of breast cancer. Aim for at least
30 minutes of exercise on most days of the week. If you
haven't been particularly active in the past, start your
exercise program slowly and gradually work up to a greater
intensity. Try to include weight-bearing exercises such
as walking, jogging or aerobics. These have the added benefit
of keeping your bones strong.
• Consider limiting fat in your diet. Results from the Women's
Health Initiative low-fat diet study suggest a slight decrease
in risk of invasive breast cancer for women who eat a low-fat
diet. But the effect is modest at best. However, by reducing
the amount of fat in your diet, you may decrease your risk
of other diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease
and stroke. And a low-fat diet may protect against breast
cancer in another way if it helps you maintain a healthy
weight — another factor in breast cancer risk. For a protective
benefit, limit fat intake to less than 35 percent of your
daily calories and restrict foods high in saturated fat.
• Fitness programs: Ready to get started?
• Fruits: How to select, store and serve these healthy foods
• Vegetables: How to select, store and serve these healthy
foods
• Whole grains: High in nutrition and fiber, yet low in
fat
• Dietary fats: Know which types to choose
Aspirin therapy and hormone therapy: Consult your
doctor
Talk with your doctor about your individual health risks
before trying daily aspirin therapy or deciding on long-term
hormone therapy.
• Ask about aspirin. Taking an aspirin just once a week
may help protect against breast cancer. A study in the "Journal
of the American Medical Association" in May 2004 found
that women who had a history of breast cancer and who took
aspirin once a week for six months or longer were 20 percent
less likely to develop breast cancer than women who didn't
take the drug. Women who took a daily aspirin had an even
greater reduction in risk — 28 percent. Regular use of ibuprofen
(Advil, Motrin, others) also seems to help protect against
breast cancer, but not as effectively as aspirin. On the
contrary, acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) works differently
from aspirin and ibuprofen and has no anti-cancer benefit.
Aspirin and ibuprofen are effective only against breast
cancers that have receptors for the female hormones estrogen
and progesterone, which are known to stimulate tumor growth.
The drugs work by reducing estrogen levels in your body
and breast tissue. They do this by blocking a hormone-like
substance (prostaglandin) that's needed to activate an enzyme
important in the synthesis of estrogen.
However, be sure to talk to your doctor before you start
taking aspirin as a preventive measure. When used for long
periods of time, aspirin can cause serious side effects,
including stomach irritation, bleeding and ulcers; bleeding
in the intestinal and urinary tracts; and hemorrhagic stroke.
In general, you're not a candidate for aspirin therapy if
you have a history of peptic ulcers, liver or kidney disease,
bleeding disorders or gastrointestinal bleeding.
• Discuss discontinuing long-term hormone therapy. Study
results from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) raised
concerns about the use of hormone therapy for symptoms of
menopause. Among other problems, long-term treatment with
estrogen-progestin combinations, such as those found in
the drug Prempro, increased the risk of breast cancer. The
WHI investigators also reported that women taking hormone
therapy while in the study who developed breast cancer had
more aggressive and larger tumors. The women in the study
taking hormone therapy were also found to have more abnormal
mammograms — requiring additional imaging methods, such
as ultrasound — due to the hormones' effects on breast tissue
density.
If you're taking hormone therapy, consider your options
with the advice of your doctor. You may be able to manage
your menopausal symptoms with exercise, dietary changes
or nonhormonal therapies that have been shown to provide
some relief. If none of these are effective, you may decide
that the benefits of short-term hormone therapy outweigh
the risks. In that case, your doctor will likely encourage
you to use the lowest dose of hormone therapy for the shortest
period of time.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
• Hormone replacement therapy: Benefits and alternatives
Pesticides and antibiotics: Be cautious
Both pesticides and antibiotics have been linked to increased
breast cancer risk.
• Avoid exposure to pesticides. The molecular structure
of some pesticides closely resembles that of estrogen. This
means they may attach to receptor sites in your body. Although
studies haven't found a definite link between most pesticides
and breast cancer, researchers have learned that women with
elevated levels of pesticides in their breast tissue have
a greater breast cancer risk.
• Avoid unnecessary antibiotics. Scientists recently found
a link between antibiotic use and breast cancer — the longer
antibiotics were used, the greater the risk of breast cancer.
Researchers caution, however, that other factors, such as
underlying illness or a weakened immune system, rather than
antibiotics themselves, may account for the elevated cancer
risk.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
• Antibiotics: Too much of a good thing
New directions in research
Scientists are continually making new discoveries that may
impact breast cancer prevention. Among the most promising
agents are retinoids and flaxseed.
• Retinoids. Natural or synthetic forms of vitamin A (retinoids)
may have the ability to destroy or inhibit the growth of
cancer cells. Unlike other experimental therapies, retinoids
may be effective in premenopausal women and in those whose
tumors aren't estrogen-positive. Research is ongoing.
• Flaxseed. Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring compounds
that lower circulating estrogens in your body. Flaxseed
is particularly high in one phytoestrogen, lignan, which
appears to inhibit estrogen production and which may have
the ability to stop the growth of breast cancers.
Do what you can
Nothing you do will guarantee your life will be cancer-free.
But if you practice healthy habits and consult your doctor
about extra measures you can take, you will at least reduce
your risk of this potentially fatal disease.
RELATED
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• Chemoprevention: Drugs that can reduce breast cancer risk
• Raloxifene: Less risky breast cancer prevention
• Breast cancer
Centers
• Breast Cancer Center
MayoClinic.com Bookstore
• 'Mayo Clinic Guide to Women's Cancers' (Hardcover)
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Feb 10, 2006
© 1998-2006 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and
Research (MFMER). All rights reserved. A single copy of
these materials may be reprinted for noncommercial personal
use only. "Mayo," "Mayo Clinic," "MayoClinic.com,"
"Mayo Clinic Health Information," "Reliable
information for a healthier life" and the triple-shield
Mayo logo are trademarks of Mayo Foundation for Medical
Education and Research.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-cancer-prevention/WO00091
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