October — World Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Some lifestyle choices you can make to keep your breast cancer risk low!

October is marked as breast cancer awareness month worldwide every year. This is to spread awareness of breast cancer mainly to prevent it and for early detection to treat it. Now, here are some statistics as per the world health organization, it impacts around 2.1 million women every year and is responsible for the highest number of cancer related deaths among women. It is likely that 6, 27,000 women died of breast cancer in 2018. Such massive being the impact of breast cancer, it is very important to take some steps towards preventing it. Also, screening and early diagnosis of it is very essential to stop the growth of the cancer cells at initial stage itself and thus avoid mastectomy or death due to metastasis or spreading of cancer cells to various other tissues or organs in the body.

Studies and experts support the findings that healthy lifestyle approaches or modifications may help in the prevention of breast cancer risk. Other prevention measure being chemo prevention (hormonal). Chemo prevention means using medication or supplements (natural or synthetic) to prevent or stop cancer from occurring. This is used in either healthy people to prevent cancer or in people with pre-cancerous area to avoid its conversion to malignancy/cancer or in people with history of cancer which was treated earlier, to inhibit new cancer.

This article is mainly giving information on the various lifestyle habits that one can stick to avoid chances of getting breast cancer.

1. Weight Management

Being overweight or obese is associated with increased risk of cancer including breast cancer. Obesity (higher body fat amounts) is related to also various other health hazards such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer (in general) etc. There are a number of studies which reiterate the fact that being overweight is well associated with high risk of breast cancers in post-menopausal women. Obese men also have higher probability of getting breast cancer than the men with normal weights.
Hence it is important to control your weight.

2. Physical Activity

Doing physical activity is always considered healthy and help in avoiding various lifestyle disorders and same is the case with breast cancer. There are various mechanisms proposed as to how exercising or doing regular physical activity reduces risk of breast cancer.

Also it helps in maintaining healthy weight and also help in shedding those extra kilos.

A minimum of 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity is recommended per week to keep fit and healthy.

Doing a combination of moderate intensity cardio vascular activity and weight strengthening exercises should be your aim.

3. Reduction in Alcohol Consumption

Avoidance or reduction in alcohol consumption is recommended to escape the risk of breast cancer. This is because it is believed that alcohol increases the estrogen levels in your body which is supposed to raise the risk of certain cancers including breast cancer.

Contradictory information on alcohol arises from the fact that moderate alcohol intake may reduce the risk of some health condition; while it’s linked to increased danger of certain other diseases or disorders.

For example moderate alcohol consumption i.e. 1–2 drinks or pegs of alcohol for men while only 1 drink or peg for women per day is considered protective against heart diseases but it may be considered injurious as far as certain cancers, liver and kidney diseases are concerned.

As per some studies, for women who are breast cancer survivors, chances of relapse are higher if they have more than 1 to 2 drinks in a week. This is much less than the standard moderate drinking recommendation as given above.

It is best to avoid alcohol if you are at a high risk of breast cancer for e.g.
a. You have had suffered through it earlier

b. You are genetically pre disposed to it

c. You are considerably overweight

d. You have some other conditions such as dense areas in the breast tissue, non-malignant cysts in breasts etc. which are linked to having a high risk of breast cancer.

You can talk to your doctor or dietician to know more or if you have any concerns or query regarding alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk.

4. Healthy Diet

Your diet should be healthy that means it should be balanced with different types of nutrients.

Daily diet should consist of plenty of veggies, around 5 servings of vegetables, 2 servings of fruits, whole grains, low on fatty and processed red meat and moderate on proteins such as beans and legumes, low fat milk and milk products, eggs, fish and lean meat and poultry. Healthy fats should also be included such as those present in nuts and oilseeds, naturally oily fishes, and oils while restricting or avoiding refined sugars and flours.

Avoid foods high in saturated fats which are considered harmful for health if consumed in high amounts, should contain zero or negligible trans-fats which are considered bad for heart health. Avoid artificially preserved foods high on sodium, sugar laden colas and soft drinks and other foods containing added sugars.

Mediterranean diet is very similar to the above diet pattern, which is majorly plant based and thus may have a role to play in avoiding various diseases including cancer and breast cancer. One of the probable causes behind this may be that a plant based diet (rich in colored vegetable and fruits) consist of a good amount of antioxidants which help in fighting cancer and also a decent amount of dietary fiber and has lesser sodium level.

This is not only theoretical but there are some studies which state the importance of such a diet in lowering the chance of acquiring breast cancers.

5. Breastfeeding

Studies indicate that accumulative timeframe of breastfeeding for greater than 2 years, may reduce the risk of breast cancer, a bit. The risk is lowered by 4.3% with each year of breastfeeding.

6. Tobacco- Heavy Smoking

The chances of developing breast cancer raise with regular heavy smoking.

Some other important causes that are believed to be a risk for breast cancer by experts and studies are hormone replacement therapy that women undergo; and being exposed to the pollutants or chemicals in the environment may also increase the possibility of getting breast cancer.

Talk to your doctor for more information.

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References

https://www.breastcancer.org/risk

https://www.oncolink.org/risk-and-prevention/prevention-screening/what-is-chemoprevention

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3708589/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5715522/

https://breast-cancer-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13058-014-0446-2

https://www.oncologynutrition.org/erfc/hot-topics/alcohol-breast-cancer/

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/obesity/obesity-fact-sheet